Donald C. MacDonald
Donald Cameron MacDonald, was a long time Canadian politician and political party leader and had been referred to as the "Best premier Ontario never had." He represented the provincial riding of York South in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1955 to 1982. From 1953 to 1970 he was the leader of the social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and its successor, the Ontario New Democratic Party. MacDonald was born in Cranbrook, British Columbia, moved with his family to Tullochgorum, Quebec in 1923 and earned a bachelor's and master's degree from Queen's University, he supported the Conservative Party of Canada in his youth, but became a democratic socialist after witnessing the social problems of the Great Depression. He worked for several years as a teacher and journalist, was employed by the Montreal Gazette in the mid-1930s. MacDonald joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1942, served in Canada during World War II as secretary of a top-secret intelligence committee, the main responsibility of, to transmit enemy submarine positions to the Royal Canadian Air Force.
He became editor of Canadian Digest, a magazine published by the military that provided a cross section of articles from Canadian periodicals and newspapers, was the host of Serviceman's Forum, a regular series of broadcasts on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that were aired by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Members of the military and civilian experts discussed issues of concern in these broadcasts. MacDonald joined the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation while serving in Ottawa, Ontario in 1942. In 1946, he travelled the country as a party organizer, he was a candidate in the August 1953 federal election for the British Columbia riding of Kootenay East, finished a strong third against Liberal Jim Byrne with 28% of the vote. He was persuaded to run for the Ontario CCF leadership in the same year, defeated Fred Young and Andrew Brewin for the position. MacDonald took over the party in the middle of the Cold War and at the height of McCarthyism, when socialism was viewed with suspicion.
The CCF had won power in Ontario ten years earlier, winning 34 seats in the 1943 provincial election, but by the time MacDonald became leader it held only two seats in the legislature. MacDonald was himself without a seat until the 1955 provincial election, when he defeated Progressive Conservative incumbent William Beech by 1,426 votes in York South, his victory increased the CCF's legislative standing to three seats, MacDonald became known as one of the most vocal members of the legislature. He fought for issues such as prison reform and universal public healthcare, emphasised pragmatism over doctrinaire socialism as he tried to appeal to voters as a moderate reformer; some Toronto newspapers described him as the de facto opposition leader against Leslie Frost's Progressive Conservative government. His pursuit of the Northern Ontario Natural Gas scandal led to the resignation of three members of Frost's cabinet. MacDonald rebuilt the party during his tenure as leader, provided it with a benevolent public face.
The CCF grew to five seats in the 1959 provincial election. Following the founding of the federal New Democratic Party in 1961, he was acclaimed as the first leader of the Ontario NDP in October 1961; the new party won seven seats in the 1963 election, MacDonald expressed disappointment that a larger breakthrough did not occur. As the province's population became more urban and as social issues came to the forefront of political discussion, the NDP had a major breakthrough in the 1967 election rising from seven seats to 20; this new success led to increasing pressure for new leadership, as the party was seen as a potential victor and many activists felt a younger leader was needed to catch the mood of the times. Jim Renwick lost. In 1970, Stephen Lewis was able to marshall support among the Steelworkers union with which his family had strong links. MacDonald decided not to seek re-election as leader. At the leadership convention that fall, Stephen Lewis defeated Walter Pitman and succeeded MacDonald as Ontario NDP leader.
MacDonald was neutral in the 1970 leadership contest, but tacitly favoured Pitman. In his autobiography, MacDonald notes that he was skeptical about the younger Lewis's leadership abilities, believed that his election "fitted conveniently into the Tory plans" for the next election; the Progressive Conservative government was able to rally business support by depicting Lewis as dangerously left-wing, the NDP did not gain seats in the 1971 election. MacDonald has argued that the party's breakthrough under Lewis in the 1975 election was made possible by Lewis's decision to moderate his more strident views. At the federal level, MacDonald attended the 1971 NDP Federal Leadership Convention and ran for party president; the 1960s youth-quake was moving into federal politics, a group of New Left academics and activists called The Waffle presented the fiercest opposition to MacDonald and other "establishment" members. He was up against Carol Gudmundson — of the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Waffle — in the battle for the party presidency.
With the help of the union delegations, the party's establishment, MacDonald was victorious on April 23, 1971 and became the president during the same convention that saw Tommy Douglas pass the leadership torch on to David Lewis. He got 885 votes to Gudmundson's 565, started the trend that day that saw Waffle candidates getting defeate
HIV/AIDS in Africa
HIV/AIDS is a major public health concern and cause of death in many parts of Africa. Although the continent is home to about 15.2 percent of the world's population, more than two-thirds of the total infected worldwide – some 35 million people – were Africans, of whom 15 million have died. Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounted for an estimated 69 percent of all people living with HIV and 70 percent of all AIDS deaths in 2011. In the countries of sub-Saharan Africa most affected, AIDS has raised death rates and lowered life expectancy among adults between the ages of 20 and 49 by about twenty years. Furthermore, the life expectancy in many parts of Africa is declining as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic with life-expectancy in some countries reaching as low as thirty-four years. Countries in North Africa and the Horn of Africa have lower prevalence rates, as their populations engage in fewer high-risk cultural patterns that have been implicated in the virus' spread in Sub-Saharan Africa. Southern Africa is the worst affected region on the continent.
As of 2011, HIV has infected at least 10 percent of the population in Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini and Zimbabwe. In response, a number of initiatives have been launched in various parts of the continent to educate the public on HIV/AIDS. Among these are combination prevention programmes, considered to be the most effective initiative, such as the abstinence, be faithful, use a condom campaign and the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation's outreach programs. According to a 2013 special report issued by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, the number of HIV positive people in Africa receiving anti-retroviral treatment in 2012 was over seven times the number receiving treatment in 2005, "with nearly 1 million added in the last year alone"; the number of AIDS-related deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2011 was 33 percent less than the number in 2005. The number of new HIV infections in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2011 was 25 percent less than the number in 2001. In an article entitled "The Impact of HIV & AIDS in Africa", the charitable organization AVERT wrote: HIV... has caused immense human suffering in the continent.
The most obvious effect... has been illness and death, but the impact... has... not been confined to the health sector. In sub-Saharan Africa, people with HIV-related diseases occupy more than half of all hospital beds.... Arge numbers of healthcare professionals are being directly affected.... Botswana, for example, lost 17% of its healthcare workforce due to AIDS between 1999 and 2005.... The toll of HIV and AIDS on households can be severe.... T is the poorest sectors of society that are most vulnerable.... In many cases... AIDS causes the household to dissolve, as parents die and children are sent to relatives for care and upbringing.... Much happens before this dissolution takes place: AIDS strips families of their assets and income earners, further impoverishing the poor.... The... epidemic adds to food insecurity in many areas, as agricultural work is neglected or abandoned due to household illness.... Invariably, the burden of coping rests with women. Upon a family member becoming ill, the role of women as carers, income-earners and housekeepers is stepped up.
They are forced to step into roles outside their homes as well.... Older people are heavily affected by the epidemic, it is hard to overemphasise the trauma and hardship that children... are forced to bear.... As parents and family members become ill, children take on more responsibility to earn an income, produce food, care for family members.... Ore children have been orphaned by AIDS in Africa than anywhere else. Many children are now raised by their extended families and some are left on their own in child-headed households.... HIV and AIDS are having a devastating effect on the inadequate supply of teachers in African countries.... The illness or death of teachers is devastating in rural areas where schools depend on one or two teachers.... N Tanzania for example... in 2006 it was estimated that around 45,000 additional teachers were needed to make up for those who had died or left work because of HIV.... AIDS damages businesses by squeezing productivity, adding costs, diverting productive resources, depleting skills....
As the impact of the epidemic on households grows more severe, market demand for products and services can fall.... In many countries of sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS is erasing decades of progress in extending life expectancy.... The biggest increase in deaths... has been among adults aged between 49 years. This group now accounts for 60% of all deaths in sub-Saharan Africa.... AIDS is hitting adults in their most economically productive years and removing the people who could be responding to the crisis.... As access to treatment is expanded throughout the continent, millions of lives are being extended and hope is being given to people who had none. Though, the majority of people in need of treatment are still not receiving it, campaigns to prevent new infections... are lacking in many areas. The earliest known cases of human HIV infection have been linked to western equatorial Africa in southeast Cameroon where groups of the central common chimpanzee live. "Phylogenetic analyses... revealed that all HIV-1 strains known to infect humans, including HIV-1 groups M, N, O, were related to just one of these SIVcpz lineages: that found in P. t. troglodytes [Pan troglodytes troglodytes i.e. the centr
Michael Cassidy (Canadian politician)
Michael Morris Cassidy is a Canadian politician. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1971 to 1984, in the House of Commons of Canada from 1984 to 1988. Cassidy was the leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party from 1978 to 1982, he was born in Victoria, British Columbia, was educated at the University of Trinity College in the University of Toronto and the London School of Economics. He worked as a journalist before entering political life, was bureau chief of the Financial Times in Ottawa for a period, his parents were Beatrice Pearce and Harry Cassidy, a founding member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, a one time candidate for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party and dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Toronto. Cassidy was elected as an Ottawa alderman in January 1970; the following year, he was elected to the Ontario legislature for Ottawa Centre in the 1971 provincial election. Cassidy defeated Progressive Conservative candidate Garry Guzzo, who served in the legislature from 1995 to 2003, by 182 votes.
He did not resign from his council seat, held both positions until the provincial government banned concurrent tenure in 1972. Cassidy was re-elected with an increased majority in the 1975 election, in which the NDP under Stephen Lewis reduced the Conservatives to a minority government and became the official opposition in the legislature; the NDP fell back to third place, behind the Liberal Party, in the 1977 provincial election, Lewis resigned as leader the following year. Cassidy entered the contest to succeed him and defeated Ian Deans and Michael Breaugh in February 1978, he had a difficult job following Lewis, a charismatic and dynamic figure. Cassidy, by comparison, had a rather dry personality, he was the most left-wing of the three leadership candidates, was not trusted by the party establishment. Cassidy's policy advisor in the leadership campaign was James Laxer, a former leader of The Waffle NDP faction which had separated from the party in 1974; some members of the NDP caucus considered his election as a serious mistake, encouraged him to resign before contesting an election.
Cassidy ignored this advice, remained as leader. The NDP fared poorly in the 1981 election, falling from 33 seats to 21, their decline allowed the Progressive Conservatives to regain a majority government, while the Liberals neither gained nor lost seats. Cassidy faced a difficult re-election in Ottawa Centre, defeated Progressive Conservative candidate David Small by only 599 votes, he stepped down as leader after the campaign, was replaced in 1982 by Bob Rae. Donald C. MacDonald, another former NDP leader, would described Cassidy's leadership as "an unhappy interlude for both him and the party". Cassidy resigned as Member of Provincial Parliament in 1984 to enter national politics, he campaigned for the federal New Democratic Party in the 1984 election, defeated Progressive Conservative candidate Dan Chilcott by 54 votes to win the Ottawa Centre riding. He was defeated in the 1988 election. Cassidy was appointed to the board of directors of Ontario Hydro in the early 1990s, during Bob Rae's tenure as premier.
He was fired without notice on January 10, 1996 by the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris, but was reinstated by a court order on January 19. Cassidy opposed the Harris government's plan to restructure and privatize the crown corporation, remained a director until 1997. In 2005, Cassidy has become involved in a battle to protect Tay River and the surrounding area from exploitation by multinational developers, he published an essay on the controversy in October 2005. Cassidy has operated the Ottawa-based Ginger Group Consultants firm, providing lobbying, strategic planning and public relations work for labour organizations and related groups, he was elected to Council in the Township of Lanark Highlands in 2003 but was defeated in 2006. Ontario Legislative Assembly parliamentary history Michael Cassidy – Parliament of Canada biography
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It stands on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of southern Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec; as of 2016, Ottawa had a city population of 964,743 and a metropolitan population of 1,323,783 making it the fourth-largest city and the fifth-largest CMA in Canada. Founded in 1826 as Bytown, incorporated as Ottawa in 1855, the city has evolved into the political centre of Canada, its original boundaries were expanded through numerous annexations and were replaced by a new city incorporation and amalgamation in 2001 which increased its land area. The city name "Ottawa" was chosen in reference to the Ottawa River, the name of, derived from the Algonquin Odawa, meaning "to trade". Ottawa has the most educated population among Canadian cities and is home to a number of post-secondary and cultural institutions, including the National Arts Centre, the National Gallery, numerous national museums. Ottawa has the highest standard of living in low unemployment.
With the draining of the Champlain Sea around ten thousand years ago, the Ottawa Valley became habitable. Local populations used the area for wild edible harvesting, fishing, trade and camps for over 6500 years; the Ottawa river valley has archaeological sites with arrow heads and stone tools. Three major rivers meet within Ottawa, making it an important trade and travel area for thousands of years; the Algonquins called the Ottawa River Kichi Sibi or Kichissippi meaning "Great River" or "Grand River". Étienne Brûlé regarded as the first European to travel up the Ottawa River, passed by Ottawa in 1610 on his way to the Great Lakes. Three years Samuel de Champlain wrote about the waterfalls in the area and about his encounters with the Algonquins, using the Ottawa River for centuries. Many missionaries would follow the early traders; the first maps of the area used the word Ottawa, derived from the Algonquin word adawe, to name the river. Philemon Wright, a New Englander, created the first settlement in the area on 7 March 1800 on the north side of the river, across from the present day city of Ottawa in Hull.
He, with five other families and twenty-five labourers, set about to create an agricultural community called Wrightsville. Wright pioneered the Ottawa Valley timber trade by transporting timber by river from the Ottawa Valley to Quebec City. Bytown, Ottawa's original name, was founded as a community in 1826 when hundreds of land speculators were attracted to the south side of the river when news spread that British authorities were constructing the northerly end of the Rideau Canal military project at that location; the following year, the town was named after British military engineer Colonel John By, responsible for the entire Rideau Waterway construction project. The canal's military purpose was to provide a secure route between Montreal and Kingston on Lake Ontario, bypassing a vulnerable stretch of the St. Lawrence River bordering the state of New York that had left re-supply ships bound for southwestern Ontario exposed to enemy fire during the War of 1812. Colonel By set up military barracks on the site of today's Parliament Hill.
He laid out the streets of the town and created two distinct neighbourhoods named "Upper Town" west of the canal and "Lower Town" east of the canal. Similar to its Upper Canada and Lower Canada namesakes "Upper Town" was predominantly English speaking and Protestant whereas "Lower Town" was predominantly French and Catholic. Bytown's population grew to 1,000 as the Rideau Canal was being completed in 1832. Bytown encountered some impassioned and violent times in her early pioneer period that included Irish labour unrest that attributed to the Shiners' War from 1835 to 1845 and political dissension evident from the 1849 Stony Monday Riot. In 1855 Bytown was incorporated as a city. William Pittman Lett was installed as the first city clerk guiding it through 36 years of development. On New Year's Eve 1857, Queen Victoria, as a symbolic and political gesture, was presented with the responsibility of selecting a location for the permanent capital of the Province of Canada. In reality, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald had assigned this selection process to the Executive Branch of the Government, as previous attempts to arrive at a consensus had ended in deadlock.
The "Queen's choice" turned out to be the small frontier town of Ottawa for two main reasons: Firstly, Ottawa's isolated location in a back country surrounded by dense forest far from the Canada–US border and situated on a cliff face would make it more defensible from attack. Secondly, Ottawa was midway between Toronto and Kingston and Montreal and Quebec City. Additionally, despite Ottawa's regional isolation it had seasonal water transportation access to Montreal over the Ottawa River and to Kingston via the Rideau Waterway. By 1854 it had a modern all season Bytown and Prescott Railway that carried passengers and supplies the 82-kilometres to Prescott on the Saint Lawrence River and beyond. Ottawa's small size, it was thought, would make it less prone to rampaging politically motivated mobs, as had happened in the previous Canadian capitals; the government owned the land that would become Parliament Hill which they thought would be an ideal location for the Parliament Buildings. Ottawa was th
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney is a Canadian politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993. His tenure as prime minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U. S. Free Trade Agreement and the Goods and Services Tax, the rejection of constitutional reforms such as the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Accord. Prior to his political career, he was a prominent businessman in Montreal. Mulroney was born on March 20, 1939, in Baie-Comeau, Quebec, a remote and isolated town in the eastern part of the province, he is the son of Irish Canadian Catholic parents, Mary Irene and Benedict Martin Mulroney, a paper mill electrician. As there was no English-language Catholic high school in Baie-Comeau, Mulroney completed his high school education at a Roman Catholic boarding school in Chatham, New Brunswick, operated by St. Thomas University. Benedict Mulroney worked overtime and ran a repair business to earn extra money for his children's education, he encouraged his oldest son to attend university.
Mulroney would tell stories about newspaper publisher Robert R. McCormick, whose company had founded Baie-Comeau. Mulroney would sing Irish songs for McCormick, the publisher would slip him $50, he grew up speaking French fluently. On May 26, 1973, he married Mila Pivnički, the daughter of a Serbian doctor, Dimitrije Mita Pivnički, from Sarajevo; the Mulroneys have four children: Caroline, Benedict and Nicolas. His only daughter Caroline unsuccessfully ran for the 2018 Ontario PC leadership race and represents the party in York-Simcoe. Caroline is the Attorney General of Ontario. Ben is the host of CTV morning show Your Morning, while Mark and Nicolas both work in financial industry in Toronto. Mulroney is the grandfather of Lewis H. Lapham III, twins Pierce Lapham and Elizabeth Theodora Lapham, Miranda Brooke Lapham from daughter, Caroline; the twins served as page boys and train bearers at the wedding of Meghan Markle with Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex on 19 May 2018, which their parents attended, their sister was one of the bridesmaids.
Mulroney entered St. Francis Xavier University in the fall of 1955 as a 16-year-old freshman, his political life began when he was recruited to the campus Progressive Conservative group by Lowell Murray and others, early in his first year. Murray would become a close friend and adviser, appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1979. Other important, lasting friendships made there by Mulroney included Gerald Doucet, Fred Doucet, Sam Wakim, Patrick MacAdam. Mulroney enthusiastically embraced political organization, assisted the local PC candidate in his successful 1956 Nova Scotia provincial election campaign. Mulroney attended the 1956 leadership convention in Ottawa. While undecided, Mulroney was captivated by John Diefenbaker's powerful oratory and easy approachability. Mulroney joined the "Youth for Diefenbaker" committee, led by Ted Rogers, a future scion of Canadian business. Mulroney received telephone calls from him. Mulroney won several public speaking contests at St. Francis Xavier University, was a star member of the school's debating team, never lost an interuniversity debate.
He was very active in campus politics, serving with distinction in several Model Parliaments, was campus prime minister in a Maritimes-wide Model Parliament in 1958. Mulroney assisted with the 1958 national election campaign at the local level in Nova Scotia. After graduating from St. Francis Xavier with a degree in political science in 1959, Mulroney at first pursued a law degree from Dalhousie Law School in Halifax, it was around this time that Mulroney cultivated friendships with the Tory premier of Nova Scotia, Robert Stanfield, his chief adviser Dalton Camp. In his role as an'advance man', Mulroney assisted with Stanfield's successful 1960 re-election campaign. Mulroney neglected his studies fell ill during the winter term, was hospitalized, despite getting extensions for several courses because of his illness, left his program at Dalhousie after the first year, he applied to Université Laval in Quebec City, restarted first-year law there the next year. In Quebec City, Mulroney befriended future Quebec Premier Daniel Johnson, Sr, frequented the provincial legislature, making connections with politicians and journalists.
At Laval, Mulroney built a network of friends, including Lucien Bouchard, Bernard Roy, Michel Cogger, Michael Meighen, Jean Bazin, that would play a prominent role in Canadian politics for years to come. During this time, Mulroney was still involved in the Conservative youth wing and was acquainted with the President of the Student Federation, Joe Clark. Mulroney secured a plum temporary appointment in Ottawa during the summer of 1962, as the executive assistant to Alvin Hamilton, minister of agriculture. A federal election was called, Prime Minister Diefenbaker appointed Hamilton as the acting prime minister for the rest of the campaign. Hamilton took Mulroney with him on the campaign trail, where the young organizer gained valuable experience. After graduating from Laval in 1964, Mulroney joined the Montreal law firm now known as Norton Rose Fulbright, which at the
Tommy Douglas
Thomas Clement Douglas was a Canadian politician who served as Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 and Leader of the New Democratic Party from 1961 to 1971. A Baptist minister, he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in 1935 as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, he left federal politics to become Leader of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the seventh Premier of Saskatchewan. His cabinet was the first social democrat government in North America and it introduced the continent's first single-payer, universal health care program. After setting up Saskatchewan's medicare program, Douglas stepped down and ran to lead the newly formed federal New Democratic Party, the successor party of the national CCF, he was elected as its first federal leader in 1961. Although Douglas never led the party to government, through much of his tenure the party held the balance of power in the House of Commons, he was noted as being the main opposition to the imposition of the War Measures Act during the 1970 October Crisis.
He resigned as leader the next year, but remained as a Member of Parliament until 1979. Douglas was awarded many honourary degrees, a foundation was named for him and his political mentor Major James Coldwell in 1971. In 1981, he was invested into the Order of Canada, he became a member of Canada's Privy Council in 1984, two years before his death. In 2004, a CBC Television program named Tommy Douglas "The Greatest Canadian", based on a Canada-wide, viewer-supported survey. Thomas Clement Douglas was born in 1904 in Camelon, Scotland, the son of Annie and Thomas Douglas, an iron moulder who fought in the Boer War. In 1910, his family immigrated to Canada. Shortly before he left Scotland, Douglas injured his right knee. Osteomyelitis set in and he underwent a number of operations in Scotland in an attempt to cure the condition. In Winnipeg, the osteomyelitis flared up again, Douglas was sent to hospital. Doctors there told his parents. A well-known orthopedic surgeon took an interest in his case and agreed to treat the boy for free if his parents would allow medical students to observe.
After several operations, Douglas's leg was saved. This experience convinced him. Many years Douglas told an interviewer: "I felt that no boy should have to depend either for his leg or his life upon the ability of his parents to raise enough money to bring a first-class surgeon to his bedside."During World War I, the family returned to Glasgow in Scotland. They returned to Winnipeg in time for Douglas to witness the Winnipeg general strike. From a rooftop vantage point on Main Street, he witnessed the police charging the strikers with clubs and guns, a streetcar being overturned and set on fire, he witnessed the RCMP shoot and kill one of the workers. This incident influenced Douglas in life by cementing his commitment to protect fundamental freedoms in a Bill of Rights when he was Premier of Saskatchewan. In 1920, at the age of 15, Douglas began an amateur career in boxing at the One Big Union gym in Winnipeg. Weighing 135 pounds, Douglas fought in 1922 for the Lightweight Championship of Manitoba, won the title after a six-round fight.
Douglas sustained a broken nose, a loss of some teeth, a strained hand and thumb. Douglas held the title the following year. In 1930, Douglas married a music student at Brandon College, they had one daughter, actress Shirley Douglas, they adopted a second daughter, who became a nurse. His grandson is son of daughter Shirley and actor Donald Sutherland. Douglas started elementary school in Winnipeg, he completed his elementary education after returning to Glasgow. He worked as a soap boy in a barber shop, rubbing lather into tough whiskers dropped out of high school at 13 after landing a job in a cork factory; the owner offered to pay Douglas's way through night school so that he could learn Portuguese and Spanish, languages that would enable him to become a cork buyer. However, the family returned to Winnipeg when the war ended and Douglas entered the printing trades, he served a five-year apprenticeship and worked as a Linotype operator acquiring his journeyman's papers, but decided to return to school to pursue his ambition to become an ordained minister.
In 1924, the 19-year-old Douglas enrolled at Brandon College, a Baptist school affiliated with McMaster University, to finish high school and study theology. During his six years at the college, he was influenced by the Social Gospel movement, which combined Christian principles with social reform. Liberal-minded professors at Brandon encouraged students to question their fundamentalist religious beliefs. Christianity, they suggested, was just as concerned with the pursuit of social justice as it was with the struggle for individual salvation. Douglas studied Greek philosophy, he came first in his class during his first three years competed for gold medals in his last three with a newly arrived student named Stanley Knowles. Both became ministers of religion and prominent left-wing politicians. Douglas was active in extracurricular activities. Among other things, he became a champion debater, wrote for the school newspaper and participated in student government winning election as Senior Stick, or president of the student body, in his final year.
Douglas financed his education at Brandon College by conducting Sunday services at several rural churches for 15 dollars a week. A shortage of ordained clergy forced smaller congregations to rely on studen
Canadians
Canadians are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, several of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Canadian. Canada is a multilingual and multicultural society home to people of many different ethnic and national origins, with the majority of the population made up of Old World immigrants and their descendants. Following the initial period of French and the much larger British colonization, different waves of immigration and settlement of non-indigenous peoples took place over the course of nearly two centuries and continue today. Elements of Indigenous, French and more recent immigrant customs and religions have combined to form the culture of Canada, thus a Canadian identity. Canada has been influenced by its linguistic and economic neighbour—the United States. Canadian independence from the United Kingdom grew over the course of many years since the formation of the Canadian Confederation in 1867.
World War I and World War II in particular, gave rise to a desire among Canadians to have their country recognized as a fully-fledged sovereign state with a distinct citizenship. Legislative independence was established with the passage of the Statute of Westminster 1931, the Canadian Citizenship Act of 1946 took effect on January 1, 1947, full sovereignty was achieved with the patriation of the constitution in 1982. Canada's nationality law mirrored that of the United Kingdom. Legislation since the mid-20th century represents Canadians' commitment to multilateralism and socioeconomic development; as of 2010, Canadians make up only 0.5% of the world's total population, having relied upon immigration for population growth and social development. 41% of current Canadians are first- or second-generation immigrants, 20% of Canadian residents in the 2000s were not born in the country. Statistics Canada projects that, by 2031, nearly one-half of Canadians above the age of 15 will be foreign-born or have one foreign-born parent.
Indigenous peoples, according to the 2011 Canadian Census, numbered at 1,400,685 or 4.3% of the country's 33,476,688 population. While the first contact with Europeans and indigenous peoples in Canada had occurred a century or more before, the first group of permanent settlers were the French, who founded the New France settlements, in present-day Quebec and Ontario. 100 Irish-born families would settle the Saint Lawrence Valley by 1700, assimilating into the Canadien population and culture. During the 18th and 19th century; this arrival of newcomers led to the creation of the Métis, an ethnic group of mixed European and First Nations parentage. The British conquest of New France was preceded by a small number of Germans and Swedes who settled alongside the Scottish in Port Royal, Nova Scotia, while some Irish immigrated to the Colony of Newfoundland. In the wake of the British Conquest of 1760 and the Expulsion of the Acadians, many families from the British colonies in New England moved over into Nova Scotia and other colonies in Canada, where the British made farmland available to British settlers on easy terms.
More settlers arrived during and after the American Revolutionary War, when 60,000 United Empire Loyalists fled to British North America, a large portion of whom settled in New Brunswick. After the War of 1812, British and Irish immigration was encouraged throughout Rupert's Land, Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Between 1815 and 1850, some 800,000 immigrants came to the colonies of British North America from the British Isles as part of the Great Migration of Canada; these new arrivals included some Gaelic-speaking Highland Scots displaced by the Highland Clearances to Nova Scotia. The Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s increased the pace of Irish immigration to Prince Edward Island and the Province of Canada, with over 35,000 distressed individuals landing in Toronto in 1847 and 1848. Descendants of Francophone and Anglophone northern Europeans who arrived in the 17th, 18th, 19th centuries are referred to as Old Stock Canadians. Beginning in the late 1850s, the immigration of Chinese into the Colony of Vancouver Island and Colony of British Columbia peaked with the onset of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush.
The Chinese Immigration Act placed a head tax on all Chinese immigrants, in hopes of discouraging Chinese immigration after completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The population of Canada has risen, doubling every 40 years, since the establishment of the Canadian Confederation in 1867. In the mid-to-late 19th century, Canada had a policy of assisting immigrants from Europe, including an estimated 100,000 unwanted "Home Children" from Britain. Block settlement communities were established throughout western Canada between the late 19th and early 20th centuries; some were planned and others were spontaneously created by the settlers themselves. Canada was now receiving a large number of European immigrants, predominantly Italians, Scandinavians, Dutch and Ukrainians. Legislative restrictions on immigration that had favoured British and other European immigrants were a
