English Canada

English Canada is a term referring to one of the following:

  1. English-speaking Canadians, as opposed to French-speaking Canadians. It is employed when comparing English- and French-language literature, media, or art. The 20% of Canadians whose native language is neither English nor French are generally lumped into one of the two groups according to their knowledge and usage of the official languages.
  2. The Canadian provinces that have an anglophone majority. This excludes only the francophone province of Quebec. Consequently, usage is usually in the context of geopolitical discussions involving Quebec. Among supporters of the two-nations theory, English-Canada is one of two founding nations, the other being French-Canada or Quebec. In avoidance of the two-nations theory, English-Canada is often referred to as the "ROC" (Rest of Canada).
  3. English Canadian, in some historical contexts, refers to Canadians who have origins in England (in contrast to Scottish Canadians, Irish Canadians etc.).

According to the 2006 Census of Canada, the population of English-speaking Canadians is between 17,882,775 and 24,423,375 while the population of the ROC is 23,805,130.

Estimates of Canadians with English origins is estimated to be about six million; a precise number is difficult to estimate for several reasons. Another 6.7 million people reported their ethnicity as simply "Canadian" without further specification, which would include those with an admixture of multiple ethnicities, particularly those long present in Canada (e.g. French, Irish, English, and Scottish), making it possible that the number is much higher than the nearly 6 million who reported as having English origins. On the other hand, historically, there have also been numerous Canadians who have hidden their true ancestry for different political reasons to join the dominant English group; e.g. Overt discrimination against Irish or other immigrants, such as the reported German origin population, which dropped by nearly half after the First World War with a commensurate rise in reports of English origins.

Famous quotes containing the words english and/or canada:

    “Men must speak English who can write Sanskrit; they must speak a modern language who write, perchance, an ancient and universal one.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “Though the words Canada East on the map stretch over many rivers and lakes and unexplored wildernesses, the actual Canada, which might be the colored portion of the map, is but a little clearing on the banks of the river, which one of those syllables would more than cover.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)