Canadian History Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Canadian History Paper - Essay Example But the problem remains: Canada cannot realize its full political and economic promise with a foreign monarch as its head of state, one whose presence is a constant reminder of the nation’s colonial past. As such, Canada should sever its ties to the constitutional monarchy. In March 2002, Prince Charles visited Mexico City to promote trade between Mexico and Great Britain. As often happens when a member of the royal family embarks on a diplomatic visit to the Americas, Canada’s economic position in the international community is marginalized by what can best be described as an awkward, hierarchical relationship. Charles’ mission to Mexico offers a case in point: Mexico and Canada are trading partners under terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and yet according to Canada’s constitutional ties to Name 2 the British throne, the Prince of Wales was there ostensibly as proxy for Canada’s legal head of state, Queen Elizabeth II. In the market place of international commerce, sovereignty and prestige are important to engendering and maintaining confidence among a nation’s business partners. ... When Britain sought membership in the European Economic Community in 1961, Canada, through no fault of its own, found itself in an awkward and potentially damaging situation with the United States. The U.S. complained that Britain’s move into the EEC would pull Canada into a preferential European agreement, which â€Å"would threaten American trading interests by†¦linking Britain and its current and former colonies into the large European market† (Buckner, 109). The constitutional monarchy has also placed undue pressure on Canada’s domestic political scene. Quebec’s lingering separatist movement has for decades drawn on the country’s ties to Britain, the very symbol of imperial/colonialist domination, for political ammunition. The queen’s 1964 visit to Quebec, one of her most disastrous forays into North America, exacerbated anti-union sentiment in Quebec. She was booed in Quebec City, and Rene Levesque, Quebec’s minister of Natur al Resources, boycotted the banquet celebrating the royal visit (Buckner, 89). Worse still, civil unrest followed marked by acts of violence involving protesters and the provincial police, whose actions made martyrs of the separatists. Name 3 Canada’s increasing ethnic diversity has, in recent years, called into question whether a constitutional monarchy is an appropriate institution for a democratic, pluralistic society. It is difficult to imagine that a constitutional monarchy could ever be a unifying factor in a country where citizens of English ancestry are now in the minority (Leuprecht, 68). The continued presence of the Queen (and her successor) affirms a â€Å"symbolic executive (who) would seem to be limited not only for those in Quebec but for the many

Varying European and Native Motives and the Collision of Cultures in Essay

Varying European and Native Motives and the Collision of Cultures in North America - Essay Example Through the clashing of these interests and motives, a collision of cultures sprung up in North America, resulting in the multicultural society that is North America. The conflicting motives began at the initial stages of European invasion of North America. In 1666, George Alsop asserted that poor Europeans should come to America as indentured servants bound by legal contracts that reflected debts or purchase obligation. On the contrary, Gottlieb Mittelberger was of the opinion that poor Europeans should not come to America as indentured servants. This thus paper explores the influence that the natives’ and the Europeans’ motives had on the collision of cultures in North America (Dudley & Chalberg, 1996). The Motives The clashing of the natives’ and the colonists’ interests and motives has been described by historians and political scientists as a major factor in the current collision of cultures in North America. In fact, the collision of cultures has per meated various aspects of peoples’ lives in North America including food, religion, law, political dispensation and art such as music and literature (Henretta & Brody, 2009). Importantly, it is noteworthy that the collision of cultures occurred as the largely diversified immigrants came from all corners of the world. The motives of the natives and the Europeans were equally diverse. While some of these immigrants came for economic reasons, others came for religious and political motives such as to colonize the Americas. Consequently, there had to be struggles among the natives and the Europeans who formed the bulk of the immigrants coming into North America. These collisions of cultures took different forms ranging from ethnic, religious, economic, and political dimensions. Importantly, it should be noted that the conflicting interests did not only pit native North Americans and the European immigrants against each other but there were also conflicts with African slaves in No rth America and the other nations with vested interests in North America (Henretta & Brody, 2009). Fortunately, the efforts made by all the stakeholders to reduce the cultural, political, religious, and economic conflicts of interests have made North America the multicultural society it is today. The European Colonization of North America The European colonization of North America and the enslavement of West Africans presented a collision of the three cultures that had been developing and existing at different lines since time immemorial. Central to the collision of these cultures were the various individual and collective/national ambitions and impulses of the European colonists and North American Natives. Among the goals targeted by the colonizers of the New World for which their ambitions were burning included long-standing demographic changes, religious expansion, international rivalries and economic gains. At the forefront in the efforts for religious changes were the Protestan t Reformists who wanted to spread their religion to the New World. The collision of cultures in North America thus not only yielded biological exchanges but also new religious dispensations that re-defined both the Old and New Worlds (Henretta & Brody, 2009). The attitudes of the immigrating colonizers towards the Native Americans and the African slaves were thus shaped by their