Royal Bank LetterPublished by Royal Bank of Canada

Canada in the WorldThough it has less than 1 per cent of the world’spopulation, Canada has carved out a wonderfulplace for itself in many fields of activity. Here, a lookat our international eminence and the achievementsthat contributed to it -- and at how admirableCanada appears in the eyes of people elsewhere...

In the depths of the valleys which the Canadianeconomy has been doomed to visit from time to time,satirists used to ridicule Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s predic-tion that the 20th century would belong to Canada.Now, it seems, our great seventh prime minister mayhave been right after all.

Who says so? No less an authority than the UnitedNations. According to the UN, Canada has becomethe world leader in providing its people with the thingsthat really matter in life.

In August, 1995, it was announced that Canadahad for the third time topped the UN Human Develop-ment Index. Out of 186 member nations ranked onhow they stand in social advancement, Canada camefirst, immediately ahead of Switzerland and Japan. TheHDI is a basket of statistics which determines the ex-tent to which people in a country have a high standardof living, are educated and knowledgeable, and leadlives that are long and healthy. The UN’s unbiasedcounting of our blessings showed that Canadians ingeneral enjoy the best quality of life in all of humanity.

Another objective study by the World Bank lastyear concluded that, while per capita income in Canadaranks 16th in the world, it actually has the world’ssecond-richest society after Australia. The bank addedup investments in human and physical assets in 192countries to arrive at its comprehensive comparisonsof national wealth.

Though the good life is more than a matter of money,money is nice to have, and the majority of Canadianshave plenty of it by international standards. The aver-age personal annual income in this country is at least

four times higher than the comparable figure world-wide.

In spite of all the economic slumps that have causedso much human distress, Canada has proved a societyof rising expectations that has fulfilled its promise tomillions. Since 1920, the average Canadian’s incomein real constant dollars has doubled, redoubled, andmore than redoubled again.

As a result, Canadians today possess material goodsbeyond the imagining of ordinary people in developingcountries. They have one of the world’s highest ratesof ownership of houses -- usually good, big, well-furnished houses. The same applies to motor vehicles,recreational equipment, and home appliances. This is acountry in which 98 per cent of households have col-our television sets, 79 per cent have microwave ovens,23 per cent have computers, and 52 per cent have gasbarbecues.

Those barbecue owners can buy good Canadianbeef any time they please without being overly worriedabout the price of it. Compared to people even in thedeveloped countries of Europe, most Canadians canafford to eat very well -- and clothe themselves well,too.

Generally good living conditions help to accountfor the fact that Canadians are uncommonly healthy.According to the World Bank, only the Japanese livelonger on average, while Canada has the world’s sec-ond lowest infant mortality rate. (Four other countriesshare the first.)

UN statistics show that Canada’s wealth is moreevenly distributed than in all but five other countries.

Although no amount of effort has ever been able toeliminate poverty, the near-million Canadian families thatnow live below the poverty line are greatly outnumberedby families with annual incomes of $70,000 Cdn. ormore. In a country where 42 per cent of married womenwork outside the home, the average family in Canadahas an income of over $52,000 Cdn. a year.

Canada is near the top of the list of nations in thepercentage of national income spent on socially-desir-able endeavours such as health care and education. Infact, more money is spent on learning in this countrythan anywhere but Finland and Switzerland.

It says something about social mobility in Canadathat it has the highest percentage of post-secondary gradu-ates of all industrial countries. According to the Organi-zation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 41per cent of Canadians between the ages of 25 and 64have college diplomas or university degrees.

Conquering thechallenges of

climate, terrainand distance

In their preoccupation with the present debt crisisand other problems whichhave brought high unem-ployment and painful spend-ing cuts, Canadians rarelygive a thought to what anextraordinary job has beendone in building theireconomy over the long term.

Having begun its life as a nation 129 years ago withlittle industry or capital of its own, Canada has growninto the world’s seventh largest economy.

It shares membership in the Group of Seven strong-est economic powers with the United States, Japan, Ger-many, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy. With closeto 30 million inhabitants, Canada is the world’s 29thmost populous country, a little smaller than Colombiaand a little larger than Morocco. Yet it is in an eliteeconomic league with the historical giants of Europethat have twice its population, at least.

Much of its economic eminence is owed to geogra-phy. It borders on the richest market in the world in theUnited States, which buys 80 per cent of its exportsunder a free trade pact. A spill-over of American know-how in management and technology has helped to give itan industrial economy as modern as any. It is among theworld’s most active trading nations, with a solid ex-changeable currency. Canadians are thus able to travelinternationally in enormous numbers. As consumers, theyhave access to a vast choice of imported products fromvirtually everywhere on earth.

Canada’s size as the planet’s largest land mass afterRussia was once considered a handicap by men over-awed by its unimaginable reaches and daunting winter

weather. But that very vastness was turned to advan-tage by Canadians as they steadily learned to over-come the harsh challenges of climate and terrain.

Although only about 5 per cent of Canada’s landis considered arable, such is its huge totality thatagriculture has proved a great boon to its interna-tional bank balance. On the boundless prairies, whichcontain some 80 per cent of Canada’s agriculturalland, farmers have used Canadian-developed meth-ods to place themselves among the world’s largestexporters of grain and oil seeds. Under the westernsoil is a treasury of oil, gas, sulphur and potash. Thevalleys of the far western mountains yield huge ton-nages of coal for export to Asia. The rugged ex-panses of the Canadian Shield hold a bonanza ofminerals, forest products, and economical hydro-elec-tric power for Canadian industry.

The task of coping with difficult conditions hascreated a corps of specialists in transportation, com-munications and civil engineering who now exercisetheir skills on consulting assignments the world over.Canadians are no longer hewers of wood and draw-ers of water. Canada’s exports include a high per-centage of sophisticated products such as aircraftand telecommunications equipment which vie withthe best manufactured anywhere.

In recent years, more and more of the nation’senergies have been flowing into high technology; it isestimated that between 1986 and 1993, Canadianhigh-tech production increased by 16 per cent, com-pared with 1.3 per cent for conventional businesses.Canada has become a big player in the computerrevolution. In the past decade, its software industryhas been growing at an estimated 25 per cent a year.

Canada’s disproportionate stature in the globaleconomy is matched by its stature in high-profileareas such as sports and entertainment. It is one ofthe few young countries to have invented an interna-tional sport, ice hockey. A Canadian working in theU. S., Dr. James Naismith, invented basketball. Ininternational competition, Canadians have collectedan astonishing 68 Olympic gold medals since 1920,plus numerous non-Olympic world championships.

Entertainers and musicians from Canada havegained fame on stages, movie and television screenseverywhere. Giving the lie to the popular impressionthat Canadians are congenitally dull, Canada has pro-duced an inordinate number of internationally-knowncomedians and literary satirists. Canadian-born visualartists like Alfred Pellan and Jean-Paul Riopelle havetaken the artistic circles of Paris by storm.

Canada has been an overachieving player in the

big leagues of many other fields. It is one of the fewnations to produce a whisky that is appreciated aroundthe world. It is also one of the few to have a policeforce of world renown, the Royal Canadian MountedPolice, popularly known as the Mounties. Americansmight not know much about their big quiet nationalneighbour, but they do consume large quantities ofCanadian bacon and Canadian beer.

Canadians have gained distinction in such speciali-ties as marine navigation, fitting for a nation with thelongest sea coast on earth, bounded as it is by threeoceans. In 1898, Nova Scotia’s Joshua Slocum be-came the first man to sail alone around the world. In1909, Captain Joseph-Elzear Bernier of L’Islet, Que.,discovered several Arctic Islands and claimed the Arc-tic Archipelago for Canada. In 1944 the little RCMPpatrol ship St. Roch under Captain Henry Larsen be-came the first vessel to cross the top of the world viathe North West Passage from east to west and west toeast.

Giving the worlda formula fornon-violentliberation

Canadians are mostly unaware of how many thingswere invented in their country. Canada is the home ofthe first practical marine engine, the ocean-going steam-ship, the automatic fog horn, the oil well, the subma-rine cable, the paint roller, and the plug-in radio. Ca-nadian inventions such as Abraham Gesner’s kero-sene, Reginald Fessenden’s radio voice transmission,

and Armand Bombardier’ssnowmobile have found ap-plications literally frompole to pole.

The global system oftime zones was devised bythe Canadian engineer SirSanford Fleming. The best-

known of many Canadian achievements in medical andpharmaceutical research was the discovery by FrederickBanting and Charles Best of insulin. Before this pairdid their historic work in the 1920s, diabetes was asure killer. Banting was awarded a Nobel Prize for hispart in the discovery, the first of four such awardsCanadians have won in science.

Canadians have proved as innovative in politicalscience as they have been in the laboratory. Their maincontribution to world politics was called responsiblegovernment, the work of the joint leaders of the prov-ince of Canada in the 1840s, Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hyppolite LaFontaine, and of the Nova Scotian politi-cians J. B. Uniacke and Joseph Howe. They foughtlong and hard to establish a system whereby the Brit-ish governors of their colonies were bound to accedeto the democratic will of elected assemblies, while de-

fence and foreign affairs remained under British au-thority. The formula set the pattern for the non-violentdevolution of power to the people in colonies through-out the British Empire. As the Empire’s first self-gov-erning dominion, Canada went on to serve as a modelfor the gradual achievement of independence amongformer British colonies everywhere.

Not a greatpower, but a

power for good

The Canadian Confederation gave rise to Canada’sfirst multinational company, the Canadian Pacific Rail-

way, which linked thecountry a mari usque admare, as its motto goes, inone of the greatest engi-neering feats in history. Inlater years, CP ships andairplanes "spanned theglobe," carrying the name

of Canada to points as far apart as Buenos Aires andManila. Today, Canadian multinational companies arecommon, competing forcefully with rivals from coun-tries with much longer-established economies.

Canada’s present place in international political af-fairs is far greater than anyone would expect from acountry with such a relatively small population. It hascarved out a special niche on the world scene not bybeing a great power, but by being a good power. It hasgained rare international prestige by reversing the trendof centuries. Instead of aggrandizing itself by makingwar, it has done soby striving for peace.

Canada is possibly the only country to have peace,along with order and good government, as its guidingconstitutional principle. It is certainly the only countrywhose best-known landmark is named the Peace Tower.Fittingly enough, it is also the only country in thecontinental Americas to have achieved nationhood with-out a revolution. Despite the rebellions in 1837-38 inUpper and Lower Canada and in 1885 in the NorthWest, the most outstanding feature of domestic Cana-dian history is its tranquillity.

Canada was a partner with Great Britain and theU. S. in the development of the atomic bomb duringWorld War II, building one of only three reactors inexistence. A distinctively Canada method of producingnuclear energy later evolved. But Canadian govern-ments have consistently chosen to reserve their nuclearfacilities and expertise for peaceful purposes. Whilescientists in other countries were developing atombombs, Canadian scientists were developing the cobaltbomb, used to treat cancer with nuclear radiation.

As Canadians who travel abroad are well aware,they belong to what is probably the world’s most re-spected nationality. Canadians have won their superla-

tive reputation at the cost of much blood and treasurefreely given in fighting for the right. In their harrowingefforts to liberate the victims of aggression in WorldWar I, Canadians became known as the finest troopson the Western Front. In World War II, Canada wasthe chief ally of Great Britain during the period up to1942 when Britain stood alone against Hitler’s victori-ous forces. With a population of barely 14 million,Canada played a pivotal role in winning the war inEurope and on the Atlantic Ocean. Together, the twoworld wars took 110,000 Canadian lives.

The leastimperfect nation

in the wholeimperfect world

Canadians have been in the front line of keeping thepeace in the tempestuous post-World War II era. ACanadian diplomat, Lester B. Pearson, conceived thesystem of sending international forces to trouble-spotsunder the United Nations flag. Canadian troops of bothofficial language groups are famed for their prowessin the delicate art of coming between warring parties.In the cause of peace, they regularly risk death, injury,

and disease.Canada’s popularity hasbeen reinforced by the fi-nancial and technical aid itgives to developing coun-tries. It donates a higherproportion of its gross na-tional product to interna-

tional aid than many other developed countries withlarger economies. Cargo planes bearing the maple leafemblem and carrying relief supplies are a familiar sightin places struck by disaster. Privately-funded Cana-dian organizations also do excellent humanitarian work.

Canada’s voice in world affairs is amplified by itsposition as a senior member of the Commonwealthand the Francophonie, the association of French-speak-ing nations; Quebec and New Brunswick are also mem-bers of the latter. Canada is an influential member ofthe North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Organiza-tion of American States, and the OECD.

It is known for taking in refugees, a practice whichruns deep in its history. Loyalists fleeing the AmericanRevolution were followed by runaway slaves, mem-bers of persecuted Russian pacifist sects, and the vic-tims of anti-Semitism in Europe. More recently, refu-gees from war and oppression in Asia, Africa andLatin America have arrived to take up hopeful newlives.

The refugees have added their numbers to the hun-dreds of thousands of less desperate immigrants whocome every year to what many of them see as the

closest thing to the Promised Land. From colonial times,Canada has provided new homes for the landless andthe hungry of older societies. The prairie provincesbloomed because of mass immigration. The great eco-nomic boom after World War II was partly fuelled bythe energy and entrepreneurship of people uprootedfrom their European homes.

In recent years, immigrants have become the mostvocally patriotic of Canadian citizens. Unlike born Ca-nadians, they are not inclined to take for granted thegood things of life, Canadian-style. To some, it is apleasure simply to be in a place where things work:where buses run on schedule, where telephone callsinvariably go through, where the roads usually arewide and smooth, the streets are clean, and hot watertaps invariably spout hot water. It is a relief not tohave to be on constant guard against infectious disease-- or against violence on the streets.

Newcomers are often amazed to see middle-classCanadians doing things that only the upper class wouldhave the money to do in their native lands, like takingforeign winter vacations or going golfing or skiingwhenever they fancy. People in this country who owncottages enjoy a privilege granted to only a fortunatehandful on other continents. To have a pleasure boatand a pretty body of water to float it on would seem aluxury to ordinary people in almost any other country.People from crowded nations cannot get over the ac-cessibility of Canada’s natural environment, in all itsmagnificence.

As impressive as these blessings are, however, theydo not get down to the heart of what makes Canadasuch an enviable place to live in. Its greatest advan-tages cannot be seen or tasted or felt. They lie inthings like civility, in the relative absence of classdistinctions, in a reliable justice system, and in highstandards of public morality which prevent corruptionfrom preying on the poor and powerless. They lie inequality, in individual liberty, in freedom of expres-sion, in the prospect of living and raising families inan atmosphere in which people of different religiousand racial origins can live together without strife.

All that being said, it must also be said in a typi-cally self-effacing way that Canada is no utopia. Itstill has its inequities, its injustices, its internal ten-sions, its prejudice. It faces serious economic and po-litical problems, and its very future as a united nationnow seems to be hanging in the balance. It is anythingbut perfect; it is merely, by objective criteria, the leastimperfect country on earth.