Dr. Allen H. Merriam
Professor of Communication (Ret.)
Missouri Southern State University
In 2009, Missouri Southern State University’s annual themed semester focused on Canada. Now, 15 years later, the country is revisited, an indication of its importance both globally and to the United States.
Canada belongs to a group of nations sometimes labeled WEIRD: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic. With the world’s 15th highest Gross Domestic Product, it ranks among the top fifteen countries in the production of motor vehicles, beef, pork, corn, and wheat. Canada possesses the fourth largest crude oil reserves (after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Iran). (2024 World Almanac)
Canada represents the biggest export market for 33 states, including Missouri. Some 194 Canadian-owned companies operated in Missouri as of 2022. Liberty Utilities Central Region, based in Joplin, provides electric, natural gas, and water services in a dozen Midwestern states and to more than 250,000 customers in Missouri. (Consulate General in Chicago). Liberty is a subsidiary of Algonquin Power and Utilities, a $17 billion corporation headquartered in Oakville, Ontario. (algonguinpower.com)
Canada’s government functions as both a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth. King Charles III reigns as Head of State, represented by Mary Simon, the country’s first indigenous Governor-General. Abortion, same-sex marriage, and recreational marijuana are legal nationwide.
With 3.85 million square miles, Canada occupies the world’s second biggest total area (after Russia). It is divided into 10 provinces and three territories: Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, created in 1999 as a homeland for the Inuit. Canada spans six time zones!
This vast area is connected by a remarkable 30,000-mile network of railroads. But safety concerns persist. On July 6, 2013, a 72-car freight train carrying 7.7 million liters of crude oil derailed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, sparking a fireball which killed 47 people and destroyed dozens of homes. (bbc.com)
As in many parts of the Americas, the historic influx of Europeans into what is now Canada proved disastrous for the Aboriginal inhabitants. Between the 1870s and 1990s an estimated 150,000 indigenous children were forced into residential schools – ostensibly to promote assimilation. But the policy degenerated into physical, psychological, and sexual abuse amounting to what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called “cultural genocide.” (oneyoungworld.com). Thousands of children died with many buried in unmarked graves. On July 25, 2022, Pope Francis visited Maskwacis, Alberta, and apologized for the actions of Christians which he admitted were “catastrophic” for indigenous cultures. (ncreporter.com)
Acknowledging those intercultural crimes, Parliament designated Sept. 30 as an annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The holiday is popularly known as “Orange Shirt Day,” a reference to the experience of First Nation activist Phyllis Webstad. In 1973, the six-year-old’s new orange shirt was forcibly confiscated on her first day at the St. Joseph Mission Residential School near Williams Lake, British Columbia. Orange shirts now symbolize solidarity with the victims and survivors of residential school abuse and affirm that “Every Child Matters.” (orangeshirtday.org)
As its population nears 40 million, much of Canada’s growth stems from immigration. Many recent newcomers have come from Asia as well as Mexico. Given an aging population and low birth rate, the government plans on welcoming about 500,000 immigrants per year from 2024 to 2026. (canadavisa.com)
Canada should hold special interest for citizens of the United States. We not only share a 5,525-mile border; Canada is also our biggest trading partner, provides the most crude oil imports, and sends the largest number of international visitors each year. The countries cooperate on strategic defense, as through NORAD, and share a legacy of British and French colonialism. This friendship finds expression in the idyllic 2,339-acre International Peace Garden straddling the North Dakota-Manitoba border.
And, just maybe, the United States could learn something from its northern neighbor. Consider these stark contrasts:
Many Canadians have significantly impacted life in the United States, including hockey stars Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe, media guru Marshall McLuhan, filmmakers James Cameron and Norman Jewison, newscaster Peter Jennings, basketball inventor James Naismith, Vaudeville entertainer Eva Tanguay, humorist Stephen Leacock, bandleader Guy Lombardo, singer Paul Anka, evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, clergyman John Sutherland Bonnell, baseball slugger Joey Votto, physician William Osler, actors Michael J. Fox and William Shatner, and university presidents Shirley Tilghman (Princeton) and Ronald Daniels (Johns Hopkins).
Not surprisingly, the first non-United States astronaut to journey near the moon will be a Canadian. Jeremy Hansen, a fighter pilot from Ontario, has been selected for NASA’s Artemis II lunar mission, named after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology.
High among Canada’s cultural heroes stands Terry Fox. Diagnosed with osteosarcoma (bone cancer) as a teenager, he received a prosthesis to replace his amputated right leg. In 1980, he embarked on a cross-continental run – dubbed a “Marathon of Hope” – to raise awareness and money for cancer research. But after 143 days he was forced to stop because the cancer had spread to his lungs. Terry died in 1981 at the age of 22, a symbol of courage and determination. Subsequent “Marathons” have raised over $850 million for cancer research.
Viola Desmond (1914-1965), pictured on the $10 bill, is called the “Canadian Rosa Parks” for refusing to give up her seat in 1946 in a “Whites Only” section of a Nova Scotia theater, thereby triggering a civil rights movement.
Toronto and Vancouver will join cities in Mexico and the United States in hosting 48 teams for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, the largest soccer extravaganza to date. Canada has hosted four Commonwealth Games, three Pan American Games, two Winter Olympics, and the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. The Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series in 1992 and 1993.
Teams from Canada have won ice hockey’s Stanley Cup 41 times since 1927. Wayne Gretzky, who played for the Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s, still holds the records for the most goals and assists by any professional hockey player.
Climate change is affecting the weather. In 2016, a fearsome wildfire near Fort McMurray, Alberta, displaced about 88,000 people. In 2023, hundreds of wildfires scorched tens of millions of acres and impaired air quality throughout much of North America. The northern-most spot in the Western Hemisphere to ever record 100 degrees Fahrenheit occurred on July 8, 2023, at Norman Wells, Northwest Territories – just 90 miles from the Arctic Circle!
Canada features 22 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. (whc.unesco.org). Natural wonders range from Niagara Falls to the Rocky Mountains. Architectural treasures include Toronto’s iconic 1,815-foot CN Tower and the strikingly modern Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba, designed by the noted architect, Antoine Predock, who was born in Lebanon, Missouri, and died in 2024 at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The Canada Semester invites us to learn more.
