Canada's early history was dominated by rivalry between France and Britain. In 1497, John Cabot reached Newfoundland and claimed for Britain a large portion of the Atlantic seaboard. Cabot was followed by the French explorer Jacques Cartier who landed on the Gaspe Peninsula in 1534 and claimed it for France.

While the British settled along the coast, the French pushed rapidly into the interior, and for more than a century Canada was a French colony. The flounder and settler of French Canada was Samuel de Champlain, who founded Quebec City in 1608 and established a number of other settlements along the Bay of Fundy and the shores of the St. Lawrence River. Explorers, traders, and missionaries, including Marquette. Joliet, and La Salle, extended French influence in "New France."

Following the early years of settlement, French and English pioneers engaged in the highly competitive fur trade. Canada's political shape began to emerge from the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec, where the British defeated the French in 1759 and took over the French colonies in North America. The memory of that event still has a strong emotional appeal for French Canadians. Although New France came under British control, it was permitted to retain its religion and civil code. Today, by means of the Meech Lake Constitutional Accord (subject to provincial ratification), Canada continues its quest to develop a constitutional formula that will satisfy the aspirations of French-speaking Quebec.

During the American Revolution, French and British colonists in Canada rebuffed the overtures of American leaders and chose British rule over independence in association with the United States. A U.S. raid on Quebec was unsuccessful. In the War of 1812, U.S.-British rivalry in North America again resulted in the invasion of Canada.

Several events accelerated the union of the British colonies in Canada into a new nation.

First, the political uprisings of 1837 in both English Upper Canada and French Lower Canada led to the creation of local governments and to greater citizen participation in government.

Second, at the end of the American Civil War, it was feared that the United States might turn against British North America.

Finally, the expansion of the American West and the slower settlement of the Canadian West encouraged the development of a Canadian transcontinental railroad and the perception among eastern Canadian political leaders that a Canadian federation from the Atlantic to the Pacific had to be achieved if western Canada was to avoid absorption by the United States.

The British North America Act of 1867 created the new nation of Canada, comprising four provinces-Ontario Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. It provided for a federal union and for a parliamentary system of government. Six other provinces eventually entered the confederation; the last was Newfoundland in 1949.

Political Conditions

The three national parties in Canada are the Progressive Conservatives, the Liberals, and the New Democratic Party (NDP), a Social Democratic party formed in 1961. Since 1921, either the Liberal or the Conservative Party has controlled the Canadian Government. Both are broadbased parties of the center that attempt to win support from all groups and regions of the country. In federal elections, the Liberals had relied in the past on strong support from Quebec. However, in the 1984 and 1988 federal elections, the Progressive Conservatives took the large majority of seats in that province. The Conservatives traditionally have been strong in the western provinces. Heavily populated Ontario shifts between the two parties and often plays a decisive role in elections.

The Progressive Conservative Party won 169 seats in the House of Commons in the November 21, 1988 election and again formed a majority government with representation from every region in the nation. The Liberal Party, the official opposition, won 83 seats; the NDP, 43.

Quebec's status remains a serious political issue in Canada. In 1980, the Parti Quebecois sought, through a referendum, a mandate from the people of Quebec to negotiate a new status, "sovereignty-association," involving political independence with continued economic association with the rest of Canada.

Source: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, June 1989.