The second largest country in the world, Canada, a sovereign and independent nation is a federal parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy of the British Commonwealth. In 1775 England invaded Canada, and in 1867 Canada became a self governing dominion maintaining it’s ties to the British Crown, but in 1982 severed their colonial ties and repatriated it’s constitution.
However, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is Queen of Canada and Head of State, but has no political say in the governing of Canada’s Ten provinces and three territories, though a Governor General is appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the Prime Minister who is the Head of State to represent Her Majesty in a mainly ceremonial position as Commander in Chief. Canada has three branches of government that govern together: the executive, legislative and judicial branches.
The executive branch (also called the Government) is the decision-making branch, made up of the Monarch (represented by the Governor General), the Prime Minister, and the Cabinet. The legislative branch is the law-making branch, made up of the appointed Senate and the elected House of Commons. The judicial branch is a series of independent courts that interpret the laws passed by the other two branches. One of which is the Canada Supreme Court, consisting of a Chief Justice and eight judges.
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An Industrial and Urban economy, Canada’s economic banking and industrial resources (several government owned entities in transportation, and power) is it’s main source of capital. Ranking third in the world in proved oil reserves behind Venezuela and Saudi Arabia and is the world’s seventh-largest oil producer, it is also one of the largest suppliers of agricultural products in the world, and it is also a world leader in hydroelectric power with Quebec, Ontario, and Saskatchewan all using vast amounts of hydroelectric energy. Lululemon Athlectica, Inc, Blackberry Limited and Bombardier are three of the top ten TNC’s.
Though Canada is a progressive country, it is not with out it’s acts of racism and gender discrimination issues. Canada’s strong economy, up 3% for 2017, has not made it’s way to the socio economic disenfranchised Aboriginal communities who through racism, live on the edge of Canadian society and very much like their Native American counter parts in the US and Aborigines in Australia are marginalized and often treated as discarded waste.
‘By almost every measurable indicator, the Aboriginal population in Canada is treated worse and lives with more hardship than the African-American population in the US. All these facts tell us one thing: Canada has a race problem, too’ (Gilmore 2015). In a 2011 study conduced by the CityLab/African Nova Scotian Affairs ‘Unemployment amongst African Nova Scotians is 14.5% and African Canadians at 12.9% and a prevalence of low income: 34.8% African Nova Scotians compared to 14.5% of white Nova Scotians’. Canadians should not think too highly of themselves that blatant racism is not wrecking havoc on society as it is playing out, in it’s sister country to the south.
As Stacy Kong reported in her on-line news article If It Feels Like Racism In Canada Is Getting Worse, That’s Because It Is” (2018) ‘Police-reported hate crimes have steadily risen over the past few years, from 1,167 incidents in 2013 to 1,409 in 2016 (stats for 2017 won’t be released until later this year). They’re also getting more violent; according to the same Statistics Canada report, in 2016, “the number of violent hate crimes rose 16% from the previous year (from 487 to 563 violent incidents), driven by increases in common assault, criminal harassment and uttering threats.”
‘During Justin Trudeau’s campaign for Prime Minister he proclaimed himself a feminist and once appointed into office created a cabinet consisting of equal male and female ministers. However, women earn only 74 cents to every dollar a man earns, which is not exactly equality. For Indigenous and women of color and women with disabilities it is even more unjust with earnings of 67 cents for every dollar.’ (Racco 2017). According to Maryam Monsef, Minister for the Status of Women, “We are fundamentally protected against discrimination under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is unique to Canada. For the first time, the 2017 budget includes gender recognition which influences how we tax programs and policies.’ (Racco 2017) .
Future entrepreneurs and small business owners can find economic and employment success in Canada, rated number two in the world, followed by the US. According to Peter Jotsy, Centre for Innovation Studies interviewed in 2015 on CBC News, ‘Alberta has the highest number of early-stage entrepreneurs, while Quebec excels in entrepreneurs who create new business lines
within an existing company'(2015). A challenge new small business owners may face is knowledge of the industry and appropriate financing or the small business that is not scalable in positioning itself to sell on the global market. Typically, post graduate individuals fare better especially with technological and innovative degrees or backgrounds, which is seen as another area of opportunity especially in the area of Sustainability. ‘The weak areas in Canada’s entrepreneurial sector are financing and creating opportunities for transformative innovation, as there are often delays in accepting new technologies’ (Jotsy 2015).
Pierre Cleroux, V.P. Research and Chief Economist says ‘it is important to note Europe’s expected economic growth of 2.2% in 2018 will play an integral role for the entrepreneurial export sector due to the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA)’. However, the monkey wrench could be the US administrations pulling from NAFTA and increasing Trade Tariffs on Canada.
