A real melting pot
A country built by successive waves of immigration, it is not surprising that the population is so diverse and varied. It has been shaped by its ethnic groups, which represent several languages, several communities and members, and hold a heritage for each of them. The country's multiculturalism, Canada's wealth, is unique in the world. Aboriginal peoples have been present on the land for thousands of years, which led to the arrival of the first European settlers from the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Ukraine, etc. The country's multicultural makeup is unique in the world. More populated in the east, western Canada is home to 32% of the country's population, a figure that has been growing steadily in recent years. Population density has increased by 6.5% in Vancouver from 2011 to 2016 and by 14.6% in Calgary. The population is 4.7 million in British Columbia, half of which live in the Vancouver metropolitan area alone, and 1.3 million in Calgary based on 2019 population data. The densities of Alberta and British Columbia are higher than the national average (6.4 and 5 inhabitants/km2 , respectively), while those of the Yukon and Northwest Territories are among the lowest (0.1 and 0.04 inhabitants/km2 , respectively, the equivalent of one person every 15 and 30 km2 ). The vast majority of cities were built on the north shore of the Canada-U.S. border, and 81.41% of the population will reside around major urban centres in 2018. As a result, the distribution is uneven across this immense territory. There are densely populated areas and virtually uninhabited areas.
Western Canada is increasingly attracting young people between the ages of 20 and 40, a labour force that benefits the development of the western provinces and territories and makes the territory more and more attractive. More than 250 different ethnic origins were reported in the latest 2016 census. Canada's immigrant population represents 20.6% of the total population, the highest proportion in the G7 (formerly G8) countries. Vancouver is the second most immigrant-receiving city in Canada, after Toronto. Immigrants account for 57% of its total population. Calgary has the fourth largest number of immigrants (29% of its total population), a number that has been steadily increasing over the past decade. Asia (including the Middle East) is the main source of immigrants to Canada, especially to British Columbia.
In 2016, the official languages (English and French) are spoken by 98% of the population, although 63.7% of the Canadian population speaks only English at home, while 20% speaks only French. The other languages spoken represent 1.9% of the population. In the western provinces, French is the mother tongue of less than 3% of the population, and 4.6% in the Yukon.
Compared to Eastern Canada, where there is a large Francophone population, Western Canada is predominantly Anglophone, with only 23% Francophones. The provinces of Western Canada are Anglophone even though many infrastructures also speak French. The federal government has proclaimed itself bilingual since 1969, so Park Canada, airports and signage are in both languages.A significant Asian minority
The largest minority is the Chinese population (27%) with 600,000 immigrants settled in Vancouver, including 100,000 millionaires who arrived in the last two decades! The main consequence is of course the real estate boom with a massive rise in prices as well as towers under construction in every corner of the city. Two thirds of the buyers in some suburbs are Chinese. Houses worth several million dollars are sold in less than ten days. While the first Chinese to arrive 160 years ago were workers living in poverty, the new migrants are less and less interested in their roots and are even fleeing the dying neighbourhood of Chinatown. Large groups from China are also settling in Burnaby and Richmond.
The second visible minority in Vancouver is the South Asian population (Indian, Punjabis and Pakistani) with 540,000 immigrants. The Main Street neighbourhood is home to a sizeable community from these areas, where you will find all the signs of this thriving culture.
In Vancouver, the inflation of real estate prices is a real problem, due to the massive arrival of Chinese millionaires, ready to pay a high price for buying a house. This has uncomfortable consequences for young Vancouverites, even for those in an excellent situation (a couple of doctors for example) who can no longer afford to buy a property and have to choose to live on the outskirts or to rent. What's more, many of these structures also serve as Airbnb and are often uninhabited in low season. As a result, the Bank of Canada and the Liberal government are working to put in place fairly radical measures such as a high tax for owners who would not rent their property, in order to avoid this real estate bubble. Vancouver is said to have become the Asian capital. Chinese is the third most spoken language after English and French in Canada.The indigenous population
According to data from the latest 2016 census, 1.4 million people in Canada identify themselves as Aboriginal, or 2% of the population, a relatively small percentage compared to other communities. Three major groups of Aboriginal people have been formalized since the Constitution Act, 1982: First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Their way of life was mainly based on hunting, fishing, and the exploitation of wood for the construction of objects and means of transportation. However, this cliché of the Aboriginal living in an igloo and hunting is now being challenged by the modern world, which has brought "Algecos", snowmobiles and unfortunately also alcohol. The Northwest Territories has 11 official languages, including English and French. 55% of the Aboriginal population lives in Western Canada. June 21 is celebrated as National Aboriginal Day. In the Prairies and on the West Coast, colonization was later than on the east, but also more rapid: in the 1870s, the Amerindians were forced to cede their territories by treaties granting them reserves as compensation. Young people had a strong identity problem, increasingly denying both the Christian religion brought by the whites and the traditional way of life more or less maintained by their parents. British Columbia is home to 198 First Nations, about one-third of all First Nations in Canada. The best known of these are the Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth (or Nootka) and Salish. The Coast Salish (Coast Salish) are the Aboriginal group in the Vancouver area around the Salish Sea (which includes Puget Sound and the Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca). They shared Vancouver Island with the Nootka, Kwakwaka'wakw (or Kwakiutl) and Ditidaht.
In terms of Aboriginal languages, British Columbia is home to more different Aboriginal cultures than any other region in Canada. Seven of the eleven language families spoken are confined to the province. Because there was no written language, there is little evidence of the ancient languages.
Very present and increasingly protected, Aboriginal culture lives on through the poetic names of many national parks and sites. It also remains present thanks to legends that its heirs have passed on to new generations. Amerindian culture and native art are an integral part of the country's history, a history with a heavy past that the government is now striving to consider and revalorize. From totem poles to lithographs, the art of the natives is inescapable. The dialects, however, have no written trace: generations of "first nations" passed on their knowledge and respect for nature orally. The younger generations work to record and describe the traditions of their ancestors. The subject is still very delicate, but the Canadian government is slowly opening a dialogue in order to improve harmony, exchanges and agreements with Aboriginal peoples. In 2015, Canada, through its Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, officially asks for the forgiveness of the Aboriginal people on the subject of the assimilation residential schools in which more than 150,000 Amerindian children were allegedly abused throughout the first half of the 20th century.A division of peoples, subject to controversy
A cleavage persists between the Amerindians and the Whites, accentuated by mutual ignorance. The Amerindians paid no taxes, but enjoyed the same social benefits as the whites, and even other special advantages. They do not have to comply with any federal or provincial hunting and fishing regulations, and set their own limits on the amount of fish they can take. These rights allow them to preserve a way of life that is no longer specifically traditional. However, the current Indian use of nature maintains a certain balance in the management of natural resources, and is intended only for subsistence purposes. But even if the Amerindians are not responsible for the decline in the numbers of certain animal species, can a wildlife protection policy be effective without their participation?
The impact of the Amerindians on the environment is nothing compared to the destruction inflicted by the whites in the name of Canada's economic development. In fact, it is impossible to preserve Amerindian culture without protecting the nature to which it is inherent: the construction of very large dams to produce electricity not only caused the flooding of entire regions but also erased the history of their first inhabitants, a history written on every portage trail and every trace of camp. Today's Canada is trying harder than in the past to care for its minorities, but cooperation remains difficult. Aboriginal issues are the responsibility of both the federal and provincial governments, and powers are not always well divided between them.
Since they began to unite, the political demands of Canada's Native people have been increasingly listened to. Their future depends largely on how they gradually take control of their affairs: "If we surrender, we are dead," wrote Harold Cardinal, an Alberta Cree Indian.
