On the 1st of July this year, Canada celebrated its 150th birthday.
Now, we told you all about this in a previous video where we also showed you some of the
keys as to why Canada is one of the most admired countries in the world.
However, even though this country has turned 150 in perfect shape, Canada is also facing
problems: They face social, political, and economic threats that could be considered…
well, pretty serious indeed.
As you probably already know, unfortunately nothing is perfect.
So, in a previous video, whose link I´ll leave at the end of this video as well as
in the description below, we looked on the bright side of things, and Canada ended up
looking pretty darn wonderful…
But in this video we are going to discuss the main problems and threats that are affecting
Canada.
And the first of them has a lot to do with this 150th anniversary…
A BIRTHDAY SOMEHOW ARTIFICIAL?
Not all Canadians, not even close, celebrated this 150th birthday.
We can find several different reasons why, but in order to explain them we should first
tell you about what happened 150 years ago.
So let’s take a look back in time, back to 1867.
On the first of July of that year, the territory was still part of the British Empire.
But it was on this day that the first “British North America Act” was signed.
The “British North America Act of 1867 was a law that united the three colonial provinces
of New Brunswick, New Scotland and Canada - which was divided up into Ontario and Quebec
that very same day - into the Confederation of Canada.
On top of these four provinces, which still kept quite a lot of autonomy, a federal government
was organized to give them some cohesion.
And above this government, there were still the British authorities.
In fact, to this day, Canada is still a monarchy and Queen Elizabeth II is still the head of
state.
Also, and although it might sound surprising, Canada didn’t have total independence from
the UK until very recently - 1982.
Yep, that’s right, up until 1982, any constitutional modification required the approval of the
British parliament…
So, as you can see, that law in 1867 didn’t result in a completely independent country.
But, dear viewers, this is not the end of it.
There are more reasons why many Canadians dislike this day.
The most important of all is that, when the settlers arrived, Canada wasn't an empty land...
THE FIRST NATIONS, THE INUITS AND THE MÉTIS.
Around 1.5 million inhabitants had nothing to celebrate last July… and those inhabitants
were the natives of Canada.
“It’s a celebration of the worst 150 years of indigenous peoples’ lives.”
Pam Palmater, a lawyer and university professor.
But don’t think of this as only a historical problem.
The recognition and integration of these peoples continues, to this day, to be a national problem.
In fact, the government of Justin Trudeau has made it a priority.
Consider what the Prime Minister had to say on the 21st of June this year:
“No relationship is more important to Canada than the relationship with Indigenous Peoples.”
Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada.
But…
now you might be wondering, who are these groups?
And what has happened to them over the last 150 years?
(According to the Canadian Constitution there are three large groups: the First Nations
made of more than 600 native communities; the Inuits: the people of the Arctic; and
the Metis: the result of mixing natives and the new settlers).
So Canada was not this empty land when the settlers arrived...
It is actually estimated that there were around 500,000 people from these native communities
who signed agreements with the British and French authorities.
They even participated in the battles that protected the independence of Canada.
“Canada would be American today if not for the Indian allies who fought for the Crown”.
Peter Russell, a historian.
Oh yes, the US really did try to invade Canada more than once…
Well, the problem is that, despite being the first people in this land, and despite the
fact that they participated and contributed to the independence of the country, the natives
suffered clear cultural persecution.
Yes, as a result of that obsession some have to create homogeneous national identities
Canada went through a period of persecuting the natives…
For years, these people suffered the occupation of their territories and were sent away to
reservations, which sometimes didn’t even have the basic conditions that would guarantee
their survival.
Furthermore, both their languages and religious and cultural rituals were sometimes forbidden.
This persecution reached such a point that the authorities set up a system of residences
and boarding schools for the children of native families.
The government took children from their families and sent them to schools where they would
receive an education which was fully “western” so they would lose all aspects of their cultural
identity.
Tens of thousands of children were educated in this way…
And these schools continued until the 1970s and the consequences still have to be dealt
with today: poverty rates were much higher than average, there are many broken families,
depression is rampant, and alcoholism and suicide rates are higher than average…
These are the consequences of this sort of persecution.
Along with these, racism and exclusion were also very normal…
So, in 2008, the Prime Minister at the time, Stephen Harper, apologized to these peoples
for the atrocities and established the Truth and Reconciliation Commision.
They have also paid hundreds of millions of dollars in reparations...
But money can’t fix all these problems.
Even today Canada is still looking for the best way to move on from the dark period of
its history.
But now, let’s step forward to the present day and look at the relationship between Canada
and the US, or more aptly, Canada and Trump…
THE BREAK-UP THREAT
Canada is very dependent on its relationship with the US.
They are so dependent that we could almost say the Canadians would be unable to live
without their Southern neighbour.
Indeed, almost 70% of Canadian trade is bound for the United States.
Further, the industrial sector of both countries is strongly interconnected.
So, this is a special relationship.
And this is something Justin Trudeau knows.
Indeed, he said so in his campaign, and as soon as he reached power he concentrated his
international affairs into improving Canada’s relationship with the United States.
And truth be told, the relationship he built with Obama was great.
But, now Trump is in office and is pursuing a policy of protectionism…
And what did the Canadian government do?
Well, they set up a sort of “war room” - an office dedicated to following all the
movements of the new administration in Washington...
At first, the strategy of Trudeau and his people was buttering up the American government,
and it looked like it worked.
The Canadian Prime Minister even started a friendship with Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter.
“Justin Trudeau Brings Ivanka Trump to Broadway Show on Welcoming Outsiders” New York Times.
And you can imagine…
this opened the door to all sort of wild rumours and speculation.
The thing is, they got on well, and both led a seminar on women in business that Donald
Trump himself mentioned in a speech to Congress: “With the help of Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau, we have formed a council with our neighbours in Canada to help ensure that women
entrepreneurs have access to the networks, markets and capital they need to start a business
and live out their financial dreams”.
Donald Trump.
Well, it all seemed to work well… but wait just a second!
Because all of a sudden Trump attacked and accused Canada rather unexpectedly of unfair
competition...
something he also did with Mexico.
It would be dangerous for Canada to suffer a restriction on trade relations with the
US so the government in Ottawa decided to start the so-called “doughnut strategy,”
consisting of influencing all institutions around the White House - which would be considered
being in the hole of the doughnut.
But the question now becomes, will they achieve their goal?
Only time will say.
The first challenge is to renegotiate NAFTA as Trump has demanded…
Now, next up we need to consider the another potential crisis that could threaten Canadian
prosperity...
THE REAL-ESTATE BUBBLE
The prices in Canada’s housing market have skyrocketed.
They have increased 76% and so have the loans that banks are providing.
Indeed, family debt in Canada is now among the highest in the world.
Have a look at this chart to see the increase in Canadian real-estate prices:
And then there is family debt:
As you might imagine, this has set off all sorts of economic alarms.
Many analysts foresee the popping of the Canadian real-estate bubble, along with all the consequences
that would have on the economy.
And, look, almost 7% of the country's employment belongs to the construction sector and thanks
to this mortgage boom three Canadian banks are now in the 20 top banks worldwide.
In fact, the market value of the Royal Bank of Canada is higher than that of any in the
Euro zone.
As everyone knows, the consequences of the
real-estate bubble bursting would be pretty dire, so doing something about this has become
another priority of the Canadian government.
The government is trying to stimulate other sectors, while cooling down the real-estate
market.
Maybe, the intention to increase the arrival of immigrants by a 50% every year has a lot
to do with this.
More immigrants means more demand for real estate.
But other experts disagree and state that Canadian banks were not affected by the 2008
crisis, and that they are quite a bit more solid than other international banks.
And also, the economy in Canada is doing quite well and is gaining strength after some pretty
mediocre years.
Anyway, time will tell, but this is a risk the government is going to have to look out
for.
Alright, so let’s now move onto the matter of public services.
THE WAITING LISTS
In Canada, health is a public service which is managed and financed by the government…
with the citizens taxes, of course.
The system is considered to be one of the best in the world, however…
they have recently had to deal with some serious problems.
The most important of all are waiting lists.
According to the Fraser Institute the average time to see a specialist is 18 weeks… that’s
more than 4 months!
And the demographic ageing and the increase of life expectancy has made it more difficult
for the system to cope.
This has all resulted in tens of thousands of Canadians moving to the US to receive medical
attention and, lately, it is even popular to take out medical insurance in the US.
Anyway, these are the main challenges and threats to the government of Justin Trudeau.
Like we said earlier…
not everything can be sunshine, lollipops and rainbows.
But, you know what, the overall result of the Canadian cocktail looks pretty good!
So, now it is your turn!
What do you think of Canada and their systems?
Let us know in the comments below.
Also don’t forget to subscribe to our channel for brand new videos every Monday and Thursday.
Also, don’t forget to check out our friends at the Reconsider Media Podcast - they provided
the vocals in this episode that were not mine!
And as always, thanks for watching!