No two nations are built the same way or from the same materials. Canada is the product of many varied and distinctive accomplishments, from the CBC to medicare, free trade and, most recently, the Inuit territory called Nunavut.
Compared with other countries, Canada has been exceptionally fortunate to avoid catastrophes, natural and manmade. But we have not escaped entirely, and no account of the century would be complete without mention of some of our dark times.
Canada is a country with no military ambitions. Yet war has played a large part in our evolution as an independent nation. We won recognition and respect in two world wars, and peacekeeping gives us a distinctive role in the world.
A significant part of the story of Canada in the 20th century has involved the struggle for rights and fair treatment for such diverse groups as women, workers, aboriginals, gays, immigrants and the poor.
Your cover story “The tax dodgers” (June 14) is incomplete in reporting only on ordinary citizens. The real tax dodgers are the huge corporations. If they plan well, they can roll their tax deferrals over and over so they never have to pay. The numbers of millionaires and of children in poverty are both increasing in Canada: in 1973, the income of the richest 10 per cent of families with children under 18 was 21 times that of the poorest; by 1996, it was 314 times as much.
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