Credit Management December 2019

COUNTRY FOCUS
There’s more to
Canada than ice
hockey and Mounties.
Part One: Canada
Great Expectations
ASK a passenger on the
Clapham omnibus what
Canada is known for and
it’s highly likely that the
response will include
maple syrup, the Mounties,
ice hockey, Niagara Falls and possibly,
astronaut Chris Hadfield.
They might also say that Canada is
big, and they’d not be wrong; Canada
is certainly very large. To put its size
into context, at 9.09m sq. km Canada is
around 37.6 times the size of the UK which
occupies just 241,590 sq. km. Its immense
size and small population of around 37.6
million makes the country very sparsely
populated, especially when compared to
the UK’s 66.4 million people.
With a strong cultural heritage that
involves not just indigenous peoples but
also the Norse, English and French, Canada
considers itself to be very multicultural…
and polite. Indeed, search the web on the
topic and the references returned will
keep a reader busy for hours.
POLITICAL SETUP
Canada is a parliamentary democracy with
a strong line taken from the British form
of government with the Queen as Head of
State. Federal government is concerned
with national and international matters,
but 10 provincial governments and three
northern territories control local affairs.
Drilling down, municipal corporations
govern land use and local issues. On top
of that is the right of indigenous peoples
to be consulted on matters of relevance to
them.
In terms of demographics, Canadian
population growth shows how statistics
can be used to prove almost anything; the
percentages seem large, but the actual
numbers are relatively small. Between
1951 and 1961, the population grew by
30 percent to 18.2 million, and over the
next ten years that figure rose by a further
20 percent to 21.9 million. But between
and 1971 and 1981, and 1981 to 1991,
growth slowed to 13 percent per decade
to give populations of 24.8 million and 28
million respectively. Since 1991 Canada’s
population has risen by just 25 percent to
the current estimate of 37.6 million.
According to the 2016 census, 38.2
percent of the population lives in Ontario,
23.2 percent in Quebec, 13.2 percent in
British Columbia, 11.5 percent in Alberta
and the other 14 percent or so are spread
between the other nine provinces and
territories. The largest city is Toronto with
2.7 million which is followed by Montreal
(1.7 million) and Calgary (1.2 million).
The population has a life expectancy
up from 73 years (1970-1975) to 81.8 years
(2010-2015). But where the statistics get
interesting is in the age bandings – in 2016,
the under 14s comprised just 16.6 percent
of the population, those aged 15-64 years
made up 66.5 percent of the nation,
while those 65 or older were similar in
number to the under 14s – 16.9 percent
of the population. Without going into the
minutiae, and ignoring those 70 or older,
the 15 age bandings are very evenly filled.
For those wanting to trade with
Canada, given the earlier note about the
multicultural makeup of the country,
it would be wise to have staff with more
than English as their mother tongue; it’s
thought that while English is officially
spoken by 58.7 percent of people, French is
spoken (officially too) by 22 percent of the
population, Punjabi by 1.4 percent, Italian
by 1.3 percent, Spanish by 1.3 percent,
German by 1.3 percent, Cantonese by 1.2
percent, Tagalog by 1.2 percent and Arabic
by 1.1 percent.
ECONOMICALLY VIABLE
As for Canada’s economy, the CIA’s World
Factbook says that Canada is rather like
the US with its market-oriented economic
system, pattern of production, and high
living standards.
Since 1945 Canada has seen impressive
growth in manufacturing, mining, and
service sectors which has transformed
the nation from a largely rural economy
into one that’s primarily industrial and
urban. It’s now a large oil and natural
gas producer with most of the crude oil
production derived from oil sands in the
western provinces, especially Alberta.
The Recognised Standard / www.cicm.com / December 2019 / PAGE 34