Which characteristic or characteristics of a nation do you think are the most important to
the country of canada?
What makes Canada what Canada is? What is the biggest influence and the true
characteristic of Canada? Every country has different characteristics, for example India is
shaped by their religious hindu culture or Switzerland by their geographic position in the
alps. Hence Canada has their own characteristics too.
First of all I claim that one of the most important and biggest characteristics of Canada is
their culture, moreover their “multi”culture. The canadian society is build on immigrants
and different cultures, asians, hispanics, europeans, natives. This does not mean every
canadian is an immigrant. Far from it! Only about 16% of todayʼs citizens are born out of
Canada. Nor this mean everyone is welcome. It is a privilege and not a right to immigrate
to Canada. However if this whole multiculturalism wouldnʼt exist Canada would have a
different reputation in the world and just wouldnʼt be what Canada is.
My other point is that the geography and the relationship to the land is another main
characteristic of Canada. It is the second largest country after Russia, has coastlines in the
north, east and west, tons of lakes as well as the Rocky Mountains and the Coast
Mountains. And all this makes Canadians what they are …. or how the Molson Canadian
commercial says: “This land is unlike then any other, we have more square feet of
awesomeness then any other nation on earth….we know we have the best backyard in the
world and we get out there every chance we get!”
Lots of people are connected to the nature, the lakes, the mountains and every year tons
of tourist visit Canada to see those nature highlights. Nature highlights like the 39 National
Parks founded by the government that protect the nature, environment and animals.
Additionally there is the huge diversity of countrysides with lakes, streams, mountains,
hills, prairies… All those items shape Canada, their citizens, bring tourists into the country,
make it famous in the world or makes people want to immigrate to
National sovereignty
What role do you think Canada should take in regards to pursuing its national interests?
-northwest passage:
-not all countries agree with canadian interests
-canadian or international water?
-get the government to support the northwest passage
-Government is trying to build stations in between the passage so that everybody
everybody sees it belongs to Canada
-Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan:
-opposing forces/support of people
-is the National interest peacemaking or peacemaking
-is Canada forced to go there due to the NATO
-Peacekeeping:
-if Canada is joining a organization like UN they are sacrificed the own interests
-Canada has to supply soldiers/money/support but gives support back/
reputation/trades
Should Canada only pursue their own national interests or should they give international
interests and problems majority? The government is trying to satisfy both interests,
national and international. However not every Citizen agrees with it due to the fact that
they think it is not the right thing to do or the citizens agree with it but Canada has to play a
important role in the world. Hence they have to watch out and try not to have conflicts with
other countries! But what is the right thing to do?
One Example for those issues is the fight over the Northwest Passage. It is used by
countries like the US and russia to ship goods from the east side to the west side of north
america. Canada claims that the water, where all those goods get shipped through is
canadian territory as well as the goods should be taxed. Nevertheless other countries
pursue that the Northwest Passage is in international water. Now what could Canada do to
support their own statement without upsetting other countries? If they upset other
countries Canada might lose important trading partners. Thus the canadian government is
building little islands in the middle of the Passage so that other countries might recognize
that they are still in canadian property.
In my opinion that is the right thing to do, owing to the fact that the water is still in canadian
territory so they should get taxes.
Another point and example of national interests are the canadian troops in afghanistan.
They were send in there after 9/11 to prevent the growth of terrorism. That was almost ten
years ago and in this time several hundred canadian soldiers died. Even though they are
only there as peacekeepers. However this role of peacekeeping turns more and more into
a role of peacemaking, its only a slight difference but has major impact. Peacemaking is
forcing one of the involved parties to stop aiming and attacking at the other one. This
peacemaking can lead to an own war between the one involved party and the
peacemakers….in this case Canada!
So Canadas announcement is to pull out their troops within the next few years and i think
that is a good idea. Nevertheless Canada belongs to the NATO and due to given
circumstances the canadian government is forced to leave their troops in afghanistan
otherwise they might get kicked out of the NATO or lose their status as helping partner as
well as lose trading and security partners.
To what extend should we embrace nationalism?
Nationalism is the believe in one ownʼs country and nation. It is the pride of the National
Anthem, the national flag, it can influence peopleʼs decisions.
On the one hand people say nationalism is a good thing, it is nothing bad to be proud of
your country and it leads to a well established society.
The other side says nationalism is a bad thing due to the fact that it brings your country
into trouble and will lead to ultranationalism and even genocide.
During the winter olympics every country was proud of their team, supported the athletes
or watched it. This is quiet a good example for nationalism. It is good as long as people
keep the pride in a certain extend. If it ends up in making fun of other nations and
pretending that the own country is better then all the other countries the principe of
nationalism leads to super nationalism.
The evolution of nationalism to ultranationalism to genocide, has happened before, maybe
due to a lack of education, a crisis or a bad leadership. One example for that is the
ultranationalism of Nazi-Germany. Adolf Hitler used the great depression of Germany after
the world war 1 to his advantage. He build the national pride so far that people who were
different, like jewish, homosexual, handicapped, etc… got abused, offended and killed.
Now the question is can a huge genocide like this, like the holocaust, happen again? The
answer is YES, it did happen again in a modern society in Rwanda