Perhaps the most prominent symbol of Canada, the maple leaf has been a de facto symbol since the 1700s.
The culture of Canada embodies the artistic , culinary , literary , humour , musical , political and social elements that are representative of Canadians. Throughout Canada's history, its culture has been influenced firstly by its indigenous cultures , and later by European culture and traditions, mostly by the British and French .[ 1] Over time, elements of the cultures of Canada's immigrant populations have become incorporated to form a Canadian cultural mosaic .[ 1] [ 2] Certain segments of Canada's population have, to varying extents, also been influenced by American culture due to shared language (in English-speaking Canada), significant media penetration , and geographic proximity.[ 3] [ 4]
Canada is often characterized as being "very progressive , diverse , and multicultural ".[ 5] Canada's federal government has often been described as the instigator of multicultural ideology because of its public emphasis on the social importance of immigration .[ 6] Canada's culture draws from its broad range of constituent nationalities, and policies that promote a just society are constitutionally protected.[ 7] Canadian policies—such as abortion , euthanasia , same-sex marriage , and cannabis ; an emphasis on cultural diversity ; large-scale immigration ; abolishing capital punishment ; publicly funded health care ; higher and more progressive taxation ; efforts to eliminate poverty ; and strict gun control are social indicators of the country's political and cultural values .[ 8] [ 9] [ 10] Canadians identify with the country's institutions of health care, military peacekeeping , the national park system , and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms .[ 11] [ 12]
The Canadian government has influenced culture with programs, laws and institutions. It has created crown corporations to promote Canadian culture through media, such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and promotes many events which it considers to promote Canadian traditions. It has also tried to protect Canadian culture by setting legal minimums on Canadian content in many media using bodies like the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).[ 13]
^ a b Loue, Sana; Sajatovic, Martha (2011). Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health . Springer. p. 337. ISBN 978-1-4419-5655-2 .
^ Magocsi, Paul R.; Multicultural History Society of Ontario (1999). Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples . University of Toronto Press. pp. 1186–1187. ISBN 978-0-8020-2938-6 .
^ Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (1999). Economic and cultural transition towards a learning city: the case of Jena . OECD Publishing. p. 48. ISBN 978-92-64-17015-5 .
^ Ricks, Christopher; Michaels, Leonard (1990). The State of the language . University of California Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-520-05906-1 .
^ Anne-Marie Mooney Cotter (2011). Culture clash: an international legal perspective on ethnic discrimination . Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 176. ISBN 978-1-4094-1936-5 .
^ Johnson, Azeezat; Joseph-Salisbury, Remi; Kamunge, Beth (2018). The Fire Now: Anti-Racist Scholarship in Times of Explicit Racial Violence . Zed Books. p. 148. ISBN 978-1-78699-382-3 .
^ Petty, Sheila; Sherbert, Garry; Gérin, Annie (2006). Canadian Cultural Poesis: Essays on Canadian Culture . Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. p. 348. ISBN 978-0-88920-486-7 .
^ Hollifield, James; Martin, Philip L.; Orrenius, Pia (2014). Controlling Immigration: A Global Perspective, Third Edition . Stanford University Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-8047-8735-2 .
^ Bricker, Darrell; Wright, John; Ipsos-Reid (Firm) (2005). What Canadians think- about almost- everything . Doubleday Canada. pp. 8–20. ISBN 978-0-385-65985-7 .
^ "Examples of Charter-related cases – Canada's System of Justice" . Department of Justice – Government of Canada. 2018. Archived from the original on October 31, 2019. Retrieved May 19, 2019 .
^ The Environics Institute (2010). "Focus Canada (Final Report)" (PDF) . Queen's University. p. 4 (PDF page 8). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 4, 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2015 .
^ "Exploring Canadian values" (PDF) . Nanos Research. October 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 5, 2017. Retrieved February 1, 2017 .
^ National Film Board of Canada (2005). "Mandate of the National Film Board" . Archived from the original on April 21, 2006. Retrieved March 15, 2006 .