Is Canada The Greatest Country?
Created by: Manmohit Sra
Canada
To be the best at something it means to exceed all others in quality and excellence. Characteristic and factors make things the best. Canada was established as a country on July 1, 1867, and is a diverse and a safe country to succeed and have a great life in. Everyone in the world is welcome to share the nation's prosperity and community. Canada has not had any natural disasters in the last 35 years and is filled with vibrant cities and beautiful structures with a population of 35.7 million. There are a myriad of resources available that helps Canada grow as a nation. The country has over 7 land forms spread across the country and they each have their own unique characteristics. Population growth is both good and bad for a country as it can help create more jobs but can also decrease the economies natural resources quickly due to the population consumption. No country is perfect in any way they will all have something that won’t make them perfect e.g. a bad economy, terrible health system, etc. Is Canada the greatest country to live in?
Growing Population
Canada population has been changing over the past decade drastically. Our population grew by 6 million over the past decade. Our birth rate is 10.28/1000 (2015) and death rate 8.42/1000 (2015) making the population growth rate 0.75 (2015). Looking at the graph below it shows that 16% of Canada population is from the ages 0-14, 26.3% ages 15-34, 27.4% ages 35-54. To find population density you need to divide the number of people living in the country by the amount of area in the country. So the population density is 3.68 per km2, which is really good. Other countries like China have a population density of 147 per km2. However, our growth rate doesn't affect our population as much as the immigration rate does. The majority of the time Canada favors people with good education or have plenty of wealth but, hasn't been welcoming the people from third world countries who are looking for freedom. Canada's economy grows from wealth and education. For example, individuals who have a good education are able to find well-paying jobs which can allow Canada's economy to prosper. Individuals who have wealth are able to expand businesses which enables job growth. This is very important because this targets Canada in building a better foundation with our economy. However, Canada's immigration history is to reunite people's families over a vast distance such as welcoming Syrian refugees. For example, over a month ago the Liberals have promised to bring to bring 25,000 refugees to Canada and over 11,342 Syrian refugees came and 5,888 are still applying. Although this is an outstanding act made by Canada, the government does require over 1.2 billion dollars for the next 6 years and 876.7 million just for 2015-2016 in order to assist these refugee members. This results an influx in the Canadian economy, resulting an increase in taxes in order to cover these additional costs. Population growth is either good or bad for a country weather it is from people migrating to a country or creating new lives day by day.
Number of People Lliving In a Age Group.
Fertility rate years 1926-2011
Immigration rate for all provinces
Landform Regions
The face of Canada is covered by 7 landform regions. The 7 landform regions are The Canadian Shield, Interior Plains, Great Lakes- St Lawrence Lowlands, Hudson Bay Arctic Lowlands, Appalachians Mountains, Innuitian Mountains, and finally the Western Cordillera. Each of these land forms have their own characteristics such as rolling landscapes to flat areas with hills full of rocks, or glacial valleys, etc. However, with these land forms covering all of Canada and some parts of the USA it can be difficult for people to travel around with the climates in winter. Canada is known to have bad weather for example snow storms, or blizzard which can make it very difficult for people to do many things. Winter is really harsh in certain landform regions like the north of the Canadian Shield, Innuitian Mountains and the Arctic Lowland such as farming crops. Furthermore regions located in the south it is easier for them to do things because they don't need to worry about all the things that other regions have to. It is easier for them to farm because most of the time the weather is great and they have great soil. Canada hasn't had a major disaster in a while. The last disaster we had is the 2013 flooding in Alberta which caused $5 billion CAD. Overall Canada is not known for having crucial disasters. Nevertheless people shouldn't be worrying about disaster but they must keep these disasters in mind in case they do occur.
Industries and Natural Reasources
Canada is the second largest country in the world after Russia and has a GDP of $1.8 trillion USD which is $2.5 trillion CAD and is the 15th largest economy in the world. However this doesn't mean we have the 15th best economy. Canada exports are oil, maple syrup, automotive, gems, and electronics. The primary industry's that are in Canada are forestry, mining, oil, farming, and fishing. The oil industry is the biggest industry in Canada. The oil reserve we have is located in Alberta and is the third largest oil reserve in the world behind Saudi Arabia. The oil sand is worth 1.4 trillion dollars and is the second largest deposit in crude in the years 2000-2020. The oil is worth 27.2% of total export which is 128.9 billion dollars. The largest buyer of the oil is the Unites States. The process of extracting oil from the oil sand is harmful to the environment. The extraction process uses a lot of water and once there done using the water it goes into the ponds. Additionally the oil plant pollution is causing cancer. The other industry help are decreasing economy severely but not as much as the oil industry. These industries are helping the economy grow but at a cost of our health and environment.
Sustainability
Urban Sprawl is a major problem to Canada. Cities are growing bigger each day and population is spreading father and farther. Calgary takes the same amount of land as New York City but only has a tenth of the population. With cities expanding this fast we are not leaving space for farmland, animal habitats and with all the industrial building, it create a lot of pollution creating a bad effect on climate. Urban Sprawl causes other problems like destroying forest, bogs, farmland, rivers, lakes, etc.
There are many ways to slow down constructions and have farmland left. The first way is to set boundaries around so there is only so much area that you can take to build houses, buildings, etc. With these boundaries there won't be as much population spreading and leaves farmers with plenty of farmlands. Another reason to slow down construction is to rebuild old buildings and houses to something more useful to the community such as another grocery store, another school, etc. The last reason to slow down from effecting farms is having community's help design things and where to put them so it will be more coordinated.
Urban Sprawl not only have affected farmland, it has also affected animals and their habitats. Animals are forced to leaves their native habitats. Their habitats are replaced with new roads, city centers, ghost station, etc. This results in animals seeking new habitats while most of the time they having a short supply for food. What the government can do is have urban growth restriction so it won't affect the animal's habitats.
With the development of new building and company producing a lot of pollution there are some ways to cut down in pollution. This way there won't be as much global warming affecting the world. You can start off with public transits. A lot of people with cars use personal vehicles because it is more reliable to get to places. Things like public transit are sometimes not reliable. So what the government can do to fix this problem is improving public transits. They can do this by creating electric buses so they won't produce any pollution or they can make public transits more accessible, comfortable, and reliable so people can start using them more. With these improvements this can make it so there are less traffic delays
Every country has many problems similar or not. They are ways to make the country more sustainable. Countries can use these method to benefit them in many ways making cities more prosper without destroying natural habitats or create more pollution. There are many other ways to slow down urban sprawl and solve problems that people are encountering
Conclusion
Bibliography
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