Canada in the 24th Century

Demographics

Population: 28,243,000 Urban: 76%, Rural: 24% Literacy: 100% College Education: 98% Life Expectancy: 93.0 male, 97.6 female. Largest Cities: Toronto (2,850,000), Montreal (2,760,000), Vancouver (2,367,000)

Economics

Industrial Capacity: 2 Rudell Units Agricultural Output: 106%, net exporter of grain. Mineral Output: 104%, net exporter of metals and radioactives. Power Production: 80%, net importer of power, Solar: 50% Atomic: 45% Mineral: 5%. Principal Trading Partners: America, Great Britain, France, Japan.

Transportation

Surface Transportation: An extensive road network and standard rail net crisscross the country, reaching up into the rich oil fields of the Northwest Territories. Airfilm lines have been established between Montreal and Toronto and between Toronto and Ottawa. Individual aircraft and all-terrain vehicles are commonplace in remote Canada.

Interface Transportation

Toronto and Ottawa have space plane service to orbit. Edmonton has the nation's catapult monopoly, and Vancouver is the launch site of the Canadian national shuttle system, established in 2249.

History

A close ally of America through the 20th century, Canada avoided much of the destruction of the Third World War and capitalized on its survival through the 21st century. It built up its own industrial base while America faltered, and then established itself for a time as the leader of North America, at least until America managed to get back on its feet around 2100. A national effort began in the 22nd century to make Canada the higher education center of the world. A tremendous effort was put into motion at that time to attract great thinkers to Canada to teach, to build facilities which would draw students from around the world, and to build a worldwide reputation for superb education and positive results. Canada correctly recognized the economic potential in being a leader in education. Other nations eventually began sending students, as a matter of national policy, to Canada, not wanting to be left behind in the thinking of the age. By the end of the century Canada had achieved its goal and remains the uncontested master of higher education on Earth. Canada's Northwest Territories yielded a tremendous find of petrochemicals in the 22nd century, turning the area into something of a boomtown. Cities were erected, and wells and pipelines built. However, as the worldwide need for oil products declined over the next century, the area has cut back production drastically, and the entire area remains something of an embarrassment to the Canadian people. A latecomer to the interstellar space race, Canada didn't even launch its first stutterwarp-capable ship until 2190. It established an outpost on DM+19 5116 and DM+15 4733 and established its first colony world, Doris, in the DM+20 5046 system in 2273. That area of space has, in fact become known as the Canadian Finger. The colonization of Doris is a national imperative, according to the government. With the help of the frontier spirit which still lives in Western Canada, the migration effort to Doris has been quite successful. The Canadians have also established an enclave on the Sung homeworld.

24th Century Canada

As the champions of advanced education and so-called liberal thinking, the Canadians have obtained themselves a unique and interesting national character. Canadians, for the most part, view themselves and their state as the main proponents of world peace and ecological safety. Canada is one of the greatest supporters of the North American Research League, of which members and administrators have close ties to the universities and government of Canada. Canada's level of actual employment is rather high for the industrial nations of Earth, with remarkably few people on public welfare. The timber industry is the chief employer in the West, oil drilling and refining in the North (though this has dwindled greatly from its heyday), agriculture in the Midlands, and education and government in the populous southern portions of Quebec and Ontario. So much of the population is productive, in fact, that standard measures of Canada's economic health belie its strength. Doris is a center of pride for the Canadian people. Presently, its population is very small and is based on families transferred on the company level to the new industrial branches being started there. The government hopes to encourage another wave of settlers to arrive at Doris in the next couple of years, Tremendous incentives are offered to families which emigrate and to companies which encourage employees to transfer to Doris.