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Canada has one of the world’s best highway systems; good roads are essential to a country of such wide spaces, scattered people, and geographic barriers. The increasing use of these roads, however, coupled with reduced government expenditures, has led to a deterioration in their quality. The national highway system in Canada carries about a third of all road traffic in the country. The Trans-Canada Highway, completed in 1962, stretches from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, to Victoria, British Columbia. In 2003 there were 561 registered passenger vehicles for every 1,000 Canadians, compared with 433 in Japan, 439 in Britain, and 482 in the United States.
Canada’s largest airline, Air Canada, maintains a broad network of domestic and international routes. Air travel is particularly important in the far north because the widely scattered communities of the region are not connected by road or rail and water transport is limited to the brief summer periods. The busiest airports in Canada are Lester B. Pearson International in Toronto, Vancouver International, Trudeau and Mirabel in Montréal, and Calgary International.
Canada’s variety of seasons and scenic attractions draws large numbers of tourists from around the world. There are many festivals, including spring blossom festivals in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia and the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, the Ottawa Festival of Spring, and the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede. The Niagara Grape and Wine Festival and color tours in central Ontario and the Laurentian Mountains of Québec are autumn attractions. Cosmopolitan cities such as Vancouver, Montréal, and Toronto draw millions of visitors annually to their many cultural attractions. Visitors are also drawn to Canadian wilderness areas. In the winter the abundant snowfall supports a number of world-class skiing centers, especially in the Canadian Cordillera region. Many terrestrial and marine areas have been preserved in their natural state as national parks, and each of the provinces and territories also has set aside land as provincial or territorial parks. Tens of thousands of Canadian businesses cater to tourists. More than two-thirds of tourist revenues come from Canadians themselves. The vast majority of foreign tourists come from the neighboring United States. U.S. visitors made up about 75 percent of all foreign tourists in Canada in the early 21st century.
Canada is a federation governed under a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy. Governmental powers in Canada are divided between the central or federal government and the provincial and territorial governments. Territories have less autonomy from the federal government than provinces have. Canada is governed under the constitution of 1982, which gathered the previous constitutional acts into a single framework and added a charter of rights and freedoms. It also provided for what Canadians call “patriation”—giving the Canadian government total authority over its own constitution. Previously, the British North America Act of 1867 and subsequent laws had given the British government some authority over Canada’s constitution. With the exception of electoral officers, all Canadian citizens over the age of 18 are eligible to vote. All eligible voters except those currently serving time in correctional facilities are eligible to run in elections. Voters must be resident in the riding (electoral district) where they cast their ballot. Voter turnout for national elections is generally high, with 70 percent or more of eligible voters participating. Queen Elizabeth II, the monarch of Britain, is recognized as the queen of Canada. The queen is represented in Canada by the governor-general, whose powers are largely ceremonial. The chief executive is the prime minister, who is answerable to a legislature. The Canadian Parliament is answerable to the citizens at elections that are held, at most, five years apart. Judges are appointed by the federal and provincial governments. Traditionally there were two dominant Canadian national political parties, the Liberal Party and the Progressive Conservative Party. They stood for the liberal and conservative sides, respectively, of political thought, although their positions varied widely. Each had a counterpart in the provincial governments, but these were loosely connected and differed with the national party on major issues. The two parties were of comparable strength, with one forming the government and the other the official opposition in Parliament, until 1993. In that year the Progressive Conservatives were defeated so resoundingly that their future was in doubt. A sectional party, the Bloc Québécois of Québec, won the second highest number of seats in Parliament and became the official opposition. In 1997 they were replaced in that role by another sectional party, the conservative Reform Party (later folded into a new party called the Canadian Alliance), based mainly in the western provinces. In 2003 the Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance merged to form the Conservative Party. Since World War II the federal government has greatly increased the social services—such as subsidized medical care, pensions, and family allowances—that it provides its citizens. The provincial governments have generally cooperated, but not without fear that the traditional powers exercised by the provinces are being eroded. That fear is especially great in Québec, where it is compounded by fear of domination by the English-speaking majority of the country. In foreign policy, Canada was allied with the non-Communist powers during the period of world tension called the Cold War and contributed troops to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an alliance formed to counter the threat of Communist aggression. However, Canada has not aspired to be a major military power. A strong supporter of the United Nations, it devotes its military largely to providing peacekeeping forces for that body in hot spots around the world.
Under the British North America Act of 1867, the central government had considerable power over the provinces. However, amendments to the act and changes brought by practical experience have increased the scope of authority of the provincial governments. Considerable tension continues to exist between Ottawa and the provincial governments concerning the proper allocation of power. The most important current constitutional issue is the status of Québec, which seeks more autonomy. When the constitution was patriated in 1982, the Québec premier refused to sign it because he did not think the terms were fair to Québec. Subsequent attempts to induce Québec to ratify the constitution, in 1990 and 1992, foundered because of opposition from other provinces. This impasse has fueled the Québec separatist movement, and in 1995 a referendum that could have led to Québec independence very nearly passed, receiving 49.4 percent of the vote. See also Constitution of Canada; French Canadian Nationalism.
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