Blog 7 - Country Focus Canada

    Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean,covering 9.98 million square kilometers (3.85 million square miles), making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Its southern border with the United States,stretching 8,891 kilometers (5,525 mi), is the world's longest bi-national land border. Canada's capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy in the Westminster tradition, with a monarch and a prime minister who serves as the chair of the Cabinet and head of government.The country is a realm within the Commonwealth of Nations, a member of the Francophonie and officially bilingual at the federal level. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, and education. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries.

    Canada's long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture.A developed country, Canada has the seventeenth-highest nominal per-capita income globally as well as the thirteenth-highest ranking in the Human Development Index. Its advanced economy is the tenth-largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Canada is part of several major international and intergovernmental institutions or groupings including the United Nations, NATO, the G7, the Group of Ten, the G20, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. 

        Canada’s HDI value for 2018 is 0.922— which put the country in the very high human development category—positioning it at 13 out of 189 countries and territories.Between 1990 and 2018, Canada’s HDI value increased from 0.850 to 0.922, an increase of 8.5 percent. Table A reviews Canada’s progress in each of the HDI indicators. Between 1990 and 2018, Canada’s life expectancy at birth increased by 5.0 years, mean years of schooling increased by 3.0 years and expected years of schooling decreased by 0.6 years. Canada’s GNI per capita increased by about 43.5 percent

between 1990 and 2018. 

    While assessing progress relative to other countries, Human development progress, as measured by the HDI, is useful for comparison between two or more countries. For instance, during the period between 1990 and 2018 Canada, Norway and United States experienced different degrees of progress toward increasing their HDIs .

    Canada’s 2018 HDI of 0.922 is above the average of 0.892 for countries in the very high human development group and above the average of 0.895 for countries in OECD. From OECD, countries which are close to Canada in 2018 HDI rank and to some extent in population size are Australia and United States, which have HDIs ranked 6 and 15 respectively (Human Development Report,2019). 

    Unfortunately, in 2019, Canada has fallen three places down the global rankings for gender equality, its first dip since 2017.With a self-proclaimed feminist prime minister and a gender-balanced cabinet, a person could be forgiven for thinking Canada was on the upswing. But on Tuesday, the annual World Economic Forum Gender Parity Report revealed Canada fell from 16th place to 19th — just below Switzerland, South Africa and Denmark. Developing and deploying one-half of the world’s available talent has a huge bearing on the growth, competitiveness and future-readiness of economies and businesses worldwide. Gender parity has a fundamental bearing on whether economies and societies thrive.The 2019 report presents a mixed picture. Overall, the quest for equality has improved, with the report stating it will take 99.5 years to achieve gender parity worldwide, down from 108 years in the 2018 index. Greater political representation for women has contributed to this, but overall, the political arena remains the worst-performing dimension.The report suggests none of us will see gender parity in our lifetimes, and it’s unlikely our children will either.

   Despite the drop in the overall ranking, Canada tied with a number of countries — including Australia, France, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand — for first place in educational attainment.

The report said 25 countries have mostly closed the gender gap in education at 96.1 per cent. Healthcare was also close to parity at 95.7 per cent (Bensadoun, Emerald, 2019). 

   The gender wage gap is perhaps the broadest of issues that need addressing, especially since its repercussions are felt across various ages and social demographics.Especially among Indigenous and racialized women and women with disabilities, who earn even less — 67 cents for every dollar, says Maryam Monsef, Minister for the Status of Women."We know that women who are seniors are at higher rates of poverty because their pensions are lower and they live longer, so they have to stretch their money out for a longer period of time,”says Jessica Mustachi, Ontario coordinator of Campaign 2000, a national educational movement to end child poverty. She points to the wage gap as also impacting women’s ability to enter the housing market, which is made even direr when a woman is in a violent situation and can’t afford to distance herself from an abuser because she can’t pay rent.

“Inequality will impact the violence rates and particular groups of people [i.e. those in a low-income situation] will be impacted by that,” she says (Gender equality in Canada: Where do we stand today? 2018). Below are several gaps to illustrate this inequality. 

    The effects of gender-based violence are far reaching. A survey conducted by the Canadian Women’s Foundation in May found that four out of five Canadians believe the next generation of women is likely or more likely to experience sexual assault, and 49 per cent of respondents feared

 that the country will not make more progress in the area of gender equality.There could be a number of things happening to result in this,” Senior says. “It could be influenced by what’s happening in the United States, or it could be what’s happening in our own society. We still have judges in Canada who say outrageous things like you should keep your knees together to avoid being raped. It is perhaps a realization that we’ve taken things for granted in Canada.” *****Graph 13

   So how can Canada effect more change? With more women graduating from higher learning institutions, the hope is that they’ll begin to populate the decision-making roles that can truly influence gender parity. We need to have more women on boards and heading up corporations,” Senior says. “This is also a huge opportunity for Canada to take the lead globally on issues of gender equality. Our prime minister has declared himself a feminist and now he needs to back it up with action through public policy and resources to address these issues.” It’s also an opportunity for the country to put more women in political positions.“If you know a woman who would make a terrific representative for your community or municipality, ask her to run,” Monsef says. “And then ask her 14 more times, because that’s how long it could take to convince her she has what is needed.” (Gender equality in Canada: Where do we stand today? 2018)

References:

Human Development Report, 2019.Inequalities in Human Development in the 21st Century. Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/CAN.pdf

Bensadoun, Emerald, 2019.Mind the gap: Canada falls 3 spots in global gender parity rankings to 19th place. retrieved from https://globalnews.ca/news/6306965/canada-gender-parity-report/

Gender equality in Canada: Where do we stand today? 2018. Retrieved from https://globalnews.ca/news/3574060/gender-equality-in-canada-where-do-we-stand-today/