Integration and Identity in Canada: The Importance of Multicultural Common Spaces (Essay‪)‬

INTRODUCTION If there is a single defining characteristic of Canada, it must be space or, rather, the enormity of space. Its land area (10 million km) is second only to Russia, while its population is a mere 32 million, which yields a density of 3.2 people per square kilometre. Compare this with Afghanistan, a country of 30 million people and a density of 46 persons per square km, or the United States, that has almost the same land area as Canada, but with ten times as many people. Thus, the immediate task for Canada was to construct a single nation-state in a sparsely populated territory that fronts on three oceans.