The Influence of American Culture in the 1950s and 1960s in Canada

Since the country’s conception in 1867, Canada has lived in the shadow of it’s southerly neighbour, the United States of America. Through the years, what started out as a country with very distinct culture has morphed and become Americanized. Historically speaking, American influence has had a great economical impact on Canada. Speaking about the Americanization of Canada, Pierre Trudeau, former Prime Minister of Canada, has said, “Americans should never underestimate the constant pressure on Canada which the mere presence of the United states has produced…” This pressure has changed the way Canadians live and conduct business. This pressure has Americanized the Canadian economy. American culture has a very far reaching effect on Canada with many trickle down effects. Americanization of the Canadian economy has lead to the American control of the Canada’s corporate structure, Canadian dependence on American capital, turned the Canadian economy into a mirror image of the American economy, and has led to loss of

Canada has grown and matured a lot throughout the past years and has developed a great independent country and nation since she separated from Britain in 1867. For Canada today, she has changed drastically due to what she endured and experienced in the past years. First of all, Canada proved themselves to be autonomous due to their contributions to World War 1 and World War 2 as an independent country. Secondly, Canada has proved themselves to be accepting due to their actions towards the minority groups and creating a just society. Lastly, Canada has proven itself to be dependable due to her role during the cold war as a middle power. Therefore, Canada’s past has shaped her identity as a middle power because she has matured and grown as a

As time goes on, some countries become more relevant in the global sphere while others start to fade away. Canada is a country that only becomes more relevant as time goes on. Since being granted full sovereignty, Canada has had a growing role as a major world player. Much of their international growth has to do with its close ties to the United States and the United Kingdom. However, the country has also undergone huge change and refocusing on a domestic level. With influence from both Europe and the United States, Canada has a very unique system of governing. This paper will focus on a few major areas of Canada. It will look into the history of Canada, the structure of its government, its politics, and many of the major issues it faces today.

Furthermore, Canada remaining under the archaic British North America Act and not drafting its own constitution meant that the composition of the nation and the government was in the hands of the British Parliament, which denies the Canadians the luxury of dictating the structure and make-up of their own country. Now, one may say that Canada weakened its economic ties with Britain and was therefore no longer economically dependent on them, but the fact of the matter is that all we did was shift our dependence onto another nation, the United States. By 1926, America’s yearly investment in the Canadian economy had risen up to $3400 million (as opposed to $2000 million in 1920) mainly in the exporting of Canadian resources to the United States. In addition to that, American companies built “branch plants”, which were made to avoid having to pay trade tariffs, making this a pretty one-sided trade

Today Canada and the United States are major trading partners, allies, and two neighboring countries with a long history of cooperation with each other. But is it possible for Canada to protect its independence and culture living next door to the country so powerful and rich as the United States. Since the Canadian confederation, Canada started developing relations with the U.S. As the years passed by, Canada began to relay on the United States in the national defense. Many Canadians think that the military, political and economical dependence would not make a difference to their daily life. But today more then even Canadian culture is affected by the American influence. Media, American artists,

Ever since the 1950’s more of the American culture has been known to influence Canadian ways of living through the media.

Former prime minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, believed greatly in what he thought Canada was to become. “The nineteenth century was the century of the United States. I think that we can claim that is it Canada that shall fill the twentieth century. “ was said by Laurier and his words passed almost without notice at the time. However, it did not take long before his words had somehow been transformed into the most famous phrase in Canadian history, “The twentieth century belongs to Canada.” His words showed great confidence and pride in the actions that Canada was supposedly to take to fulfill his vision. He believed that Canada would fill the century, not in size or military might but in progress, growth, and quality of life. Ultimately, he

Canadian history has been profoundly shaped by numerous events. The fifteenth Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau remains one of the greatest citizens to define the nation’s identity. During his fifteen years in the position, he makes multiple decisions and contributions of great importance towards the growth and prosperity of Canadian society. As a result of his ambitions and efforts, widespread popularity known as “Trudeaumania” begins as a phenomenon that had existed like no other before his time (Gwyn 14). “He touched the dreams of an entire generation of Canadians” and his fame will continue for future Canadian generations, as his accomplishments positively affected the country, leaving an enduring legacy that propels a still-flourishing Canadian ideal of peace and perseverance (Gzowski Peter and more 50). Further to his overall popularity amongst Canadian citizens, Pierre Trudeau is a defining figure in Canada’s rich history, as he unites Quebec with the rest of Canada, he is responsible for the passing of both the Constitution Act in 1982 and the Multicultural Act in 1971.

I suspect that the real motive of the Canadian government was not to protect Canadian culture in this dispute with the US. But rather, it seemed to concern more with political and economic factors. As appeared in the article, the Canadian government finally gave in and went on to settle the dispute (The Levin Institute, [1]). To me, that seems somewhat irrational to suddenly give up on one’s culture like they did, when the US threated to retaliate with trade barriers. As a speculation, I believe the dispute was motived by political and economic concerns. The Canadian government was attempting to defend the local media from a total domination by foreign media since it implies that Canadian businesses will be paying foreign corporations to have their products and services advertised on a magazine, even when local magazines have the capacity to provide the same type of service. Simply put, the concern seems to be related to the higher outflows of capital.

For many decades, writers and authors have accused the American influence on Canada as one of the reasons why Canada is losing its heritage, with one major aspect being the game of hockey. The institutionalization of American Culture began to take root in Canada during the late 1920’s and 1930s as technological advances, specifically the invention of the radio, allowed Canadians to enjoy American entertainment. American stations were much more reliable than Canadian ones, causing American sporting stations such as NBC and CBS to become extremely popular in Canada (Gruneau et al, 1993). As Canada was becoming intertwined with the United States (U.S.), it was becoming less of a satellite of Britain, which made it tremendously difficult for Canada’s elite to protect British ideals such as self-improvement and participating in sport for the game’s sake. (Gruneau et al, 1993). In the early 1940’s, after the great depression forced many franchises to dismantle, the National Hockey League (NHL) was left with six teams, which made up the famous “original six.” At this time, America had a strong influence on the game, as four of the original six teams were based in the United States, and all of the players in league were paid in American dollars (Gruneau et al, 1993). By the early 1960’s, televised sports were emerging in North America, and NHL players were becoming mainstream stars. Inspired by this, along with the threat of the NHL losing its television contract to the Western

If Canada wants to protect their national identity, they must all embrace each other’s cultures, instead of creating multiple broadcasts that preach one view or culture. Without state governed media, the dominance of US products in Canada would diminish its identity as a nation, fail to serve the public interest and create less profits causing more advertising and less content in the media. Government regulated media proves to be more favourable and beneficial than policies based off of self-regulated solutions when addressing Canada’s media industries and cultural

As the 20th century comes to an end, Canada is a transcontinental nation whose interests and representatives span the face of the globe and extend into every sphere of human behaviour. However this was not always the case. When the four colonies of British North America united to create Canada on July 1, 1867, the new country's future was by no means secure. Canada was a small country, with unsettled borders, vast empty spaces, and a large powerful neighbour, the United States. Confronting these challenges was difficult for the young country. Though Canada was independent in domestic matters, Britain retained control over its foreign policy. Over the next fifty or so years, Canada's leaders and its

Canadian and American cultural views were different which was proved because one is multicultural and the other is not. Canada was known as “mosaic” which means immigrants from any ethnic group were accepted here and were allowed to practice their religion. Therefore, they have a double identity ,meaning they are their ethnic group before a Canadian citizen as in Japanese-Canadian, Asian Canadian and so on . Whereas ,American culture was known as the “melting pot “, where they accept other cultures however they encouraged their citizens to give up their original culture ( Wells ,10 and 11 ). Canadian’s usually describe themselves as “NOT AMERICAN“(Wells,35) . Many Americans view Canada as a positive nation and as a better environment to live in then the United States . A legal sectary from Gastonia ,North Carolina said “Canada’s such a terrific place, I’d move there tomorrow if I could” (Wells, 35). This proves that Americans want to come to Canada since it is a safer environment due to it’s unique culture. Canadians are recognized as more modest, less aggressive and more down to earth then their southern neighbors (Wells,35).

One of the major reasons that Canada needs public broadcasters to enhance democracy is because Canadians are heavily influenced by the media. One of the arguments against this notion is that Canada as a nation has been able to retain democracy before the introduction of media, according to Attallah (2008) there is no need for public broadcasting because democracy was able to thrive prior to the introduction of media (p.1). Attallah, however, has neglected the fact that the Canadian society like every other active society is forever evolving and changing. As we move into an era where the media plays a major role, it is imperative that our way of thinking about the society evolves as well. This means that though the nation was able to thrive without public broadcasting 2000 years ago, this is not the case now.

Having lived in Canada when I was 8 before the US-Canada magazine dispute occurred, I found myself thoroughly engrossed in Canadian culture. It seemed a perfect culture, built to protect domestic interests and despite the potential division between countries, created a safe environment where people were unafraid to leave doors unlocked, due to almost no crime. The peaceful and respectful nature of most Canadians isn’t just a fluke, the country was designed this way, and one of the primary influencers of this strategy is the media. Watching the news in Canada, the focus is positive, the message is positive, there is no forced fear of sense of doom as we see here in the US. Life is about being sustainable, not so much a struggle to the top of the food chain, but working together, instead of separating and segregating groups. That is except the region of French Quebec; however, Quebec is like a whole new country in itself.