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Canada CultureWiki

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Due to its colonial past, Canadian culture has historically been heavily influenced by English, French, Irish and Scottish cultures and traditions. In more modern times, Canadian culture is now greatly influenced by American culture, due to the proximity and the migration of people, ideas, and capital.

Many American movies, authors, TV shows, and musicians are equally popular in Canada (and vice versa), many have been successful worldwide. Most cultural products of these types are now increasingly marketed toward a unified "North American" market, and not specifically a Canadian or American one.

Amidst this large American cultural presence, which has prompted some fears of a "cultural takeover", a more robust and distinct Canadian culture with unique characteristics has developed in recent years due to a focus by the federal government on programs, laws and institutions to support culture and the arts, including the CBC, the National Film Board of Canada, and the CRTC.

Many Canadian citizens see Canadian culture as based on the policy of multiculturalism, while others see it as based on a predominantly British and French core, with American and new immigrant influences and modifications.

Heritage

It has been said that Canadian culture rests solely in the effort to distinguish itself from its southern neighbour, the United States. However, others argue that while the two countries share some aspects of a common cultural heritage, there is also a separately identifiable Canadian culture. They point to what they view as a greater integration of their Native culture; the retention of traditions descended from those of French settlers; and a notable infusion of Celtic settlers in later phases of the country's history.

One matter of contention in the effort to study Canadian culture rests in the fact of Canada's bilingualism; there is little reason to question the distinct identities of the English- and French-speaking peoples of Canada. However, John Ralston Saul conjectures that Gabrielle Roy is better known in anglophone Canada than in France, and more French-Canadians know of Margaret Laurence and Atom Egoyan than Americans.