 |
Our Services |  |
| Immigrating to Canada | ||
| Questions & Answers | ||
| Info Canada | ||
| Ask Us Directly | ||
 |
Assessment |  |
| Towards the New Millenium | ||
|
Postwar Developments
Canada played an active role in the United Nations from the time of the organization's inception after the war (see United Nations). King retired in favor of Louis St. Laurent in 1948, after having held office for a longer period than any other prime minister in Canada's history (see Saint Laurent). In 1949 Newfoundland joined the Confederation as the tenth province. In the same year Canada became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. When the United Nations took action to defend South Korea from invasion by North Korea, Canada contributed units from all three branches of its armed forces. During the hostilities (1950-53) approximately 27,000 Canadians saw service in the Far East. The appointment of the first native-born Canadian as governor-general occurred when the Rt. Hon. Vincent Massey was sworn into office in 1952. Massey had been chairman of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences. The St. Lawrence Seaway was opened in 1959. It was formally dedicated by Queen Elizabeth II and President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States. On Feb. 15, 1965, Canada raised a red and white maple-leaf flag. It was adopted by Parliament in December 1964 and was Canada's first official national flag.  The year 1967 marked the 100th anniversary of the British North America Act, which had been proclaimed on July 1, 1867, and established the basis for the modern state of Canada. A giant birthday party on Parliament Hill in Ottawa was attended by Queen Elizabeth II. A highlight of the year was the Universal and International Exhibition, known as Expo '67, held in Montreal. Also to mark the centennial, Winnipeg, Man., was host to the fifth Pan-American Games, and the Order of Canada was instituted to reward Canadians for outstanding merit and service. In 1982 the British North America Act was replaced by a new constitution for the government of Canada. Queen Elizabeth visited Parliament Hill to proclaim the document. This completed the transfer of constitutional powers from Great Britain to Canada. Beginning in the 1960s Quebec was the center of militant agitation to separate it from Canada and establish a French-speaking nation. In 1969 French and English were both declared the official languages of Canada. In 1970 terrorist acts by alleged separatists were climaxed by the kidnapping and murder of Quebec's minister of labor and immigration, Pierre Laporte. The federal government sent in troops and temporarily suspended civil liberties. In 1974 French became the official language of the province. A party pledged to Quebec separatism won the 1976 provincial election and passed several measures to strengthen the movement. Under a controversial law adopted in 1977, education in English-language schools was greatly restricted. The charter also changed English place-names and imposed French as the language of business, court judgments, laws, government regulations, and public institutions. Although the separatist party retained power, a referendum to make the province an independent country was rejected by the Quebec voters in 1980. The Quebec government opposed the 1982 constitution, which included a provision for freedom of language in education, and unsuccessfully sought a veto over constitutional change. In 1984 the Supreme Court ruled against Quebec's schooling restrictions. In 1987 the Meech Lake constitutional accord recognized Quebec as a "distinct society" and transferred extensive new powers to all the provinces. Quebec promised that it would accept the 1982 constitution if the accord was approved by all the rest of the provinces. The House of Commons ratified the Meech Lake accord on June 22, 1988, but the accord died on June 23, 1990, after Newfoundland and Manitoba withheld their support. A new set of constitutional proposals hammered out by a parliamentary committee was agreed upon in 1992. They called for decentralization of federal powers, an elected Senate, and special recognition of Quebec as a distinct society. In a referendum held in October 1992, Canadians decisively turned down the constitutional changes. Quebec voters narrowly rejected secession from Canada in a 1995 referendum. The long period of Liberal domination in Parliament ended in 1957. The St. Laurent government was replaced when the Progressive Conservatives (called Conservatives before 1942) took office under the prime ministership of John G. Diefenbaker. In the 1962 elections the Progressive Conservatives lost their control of Parliament, but no other party was able to win a majority. Diefenbaker, as leader of the largest minority party, formed a weak coalition government. In February 1963 his government fell on the issue of Canada's failure to execute its 1958 commitments to accept nuclear weapons from the United States for the joint defense of North America. In general elections on April 8 the Liberals won more seats than any other party, and Liberal leader Lester B. Pearson was named prime minister of Canada in 1963 at the head of another minority government . In 1968 the Liberals chose Pierre Elliott Trudeau to succeed him. In the general elections in June, Trudeau won, with the Liberals taking a majority. This was the first election to use the electoral constituency boundaries of 1965. In the October 1972 elections Trudeau's Liberals won but failed to gain a majority. They were able to stay in power with New Democratic support, but in May 1974 Trudeau's government fell. The Liberals won a new majority in the July parliamentary elections. Economic issues brought about the Liberals' defeat five years later. The Progressive Conservatives, led by Joe Clark, formed a minority government that fell after only six months. Although Trudeau resigned his party leadership in November 1979, he was again named prime minister in 1980. Trudeau resigned once again in 1984 and was succeeded by John Turner on June 30. On July 9, Turner called for dissolving Parliament and holding a new election. He retained ministers from the Trudeau Cabinet and appointed Trudeau supporters to the Senate, courts, and diplomatic posts. Dissatisfaction with this continuation of Trudeau's influence led to victory in the September election for the Progressive Conservatives, under the leadership of Brian Mulroney. Mulroney sought to improve relations with the United States. In October 1987 Canada and the United States reached agreement on a trade pact to eliminate all bilateral tariffs over a ten-year period beginning Jan. 1, 1989. The two countries signed a Great Lakes water-quality agreement in November. Both countries agreed to track and clean up sources of pollution. In January 1988 abortion was legalized in Canada. Victories by Mulroney and his Conservative party in the November 1988 elections guaranteed passage of the free-trade agreement. The socialist New Democratic party chose Audrey McLaughlin, the member of Parliament from the Yukon, as its leader in 1989--the first woman to head a major Canadian political party. While the international political climate became more conservative, the party began to dominate Canadian leadership in the early 1990s. New Democrats were elected premiers of the provinces of Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia. With his popularity slumping, Mulroney resigned in February 1993. He was succeeded by Kim Campbell, who became the first female prime minister in Canadian history. Campbell and the Conservatives were annihilated in the October 1993 elections, retaining only two seats in the House of Commons. The Liberal party won 177 seats to take control of the government, and Jean Chretien became prime minister. A series of protests by native peoples swept across Canada in 1990. On March 11 a Mohawk group set up a blockade to stop the town of Oka, Que., from expanding a golf course on 55 acres (22 hectares) they claimed as ancestral territory. On July 11 a force of 100 Quebec police officers attacked the blockade, setting off a gun battle in which one police officer was killed. The Mohawks held the blockade for 11 weeks, finally surrendering to the Army in September. Another group of Indians blockaded the Mercier Bridge, one of the four main bridges into Montreal. In other disputes over land claims, different Indian groups set up several blockades of the rail lines in Ontario and in British Columbia, disrupting freight and passenger service. In southwestern Ontario five hydro transmission towers were toppled in September. A Canadian National Railway bridge was destroyed by fire. Other native peoples blocked roads and highways to draw attention to their concerns. A group of Peigan Indians defended a diversion of the Oldman River which they had built to protest the construction of a dam that they said would destroy their lands. On May 4, 1992, voters in the Northwest Territories authorized the partition of their huge area into two separate territories, one to become a self-governing homeland for Inuit, or Eskimos. The eastern portion, covering 772,260 square miles (2,000,144 square kilometers), was inhabited by about 17,500 Inuit. The new territory was to be called Nunavut, meaning Our Land. Although the plebiscite was not binding on the Canadian government, the agreement was expected to be ratified and to go into effect by 1999. Later in the year the government agreed that Indians and Inuit have the right of self-government. |
Tel.:
604-617-1261 | Fax: 604-251-1386 | email: visa@cansine.com.cnvisa@cansine.com.cn