Our country is unique among nations. The Canadian cultural experiment has attempted to forge a national culture based...not on the erasure of all remaining facets of difference, but on coexistence and co-operation, on consensus and multiplicity.

—The Ties That Bind, The Report of the
Standing Committee on Culture
and Communications, 1992

Canada is one of the most geographically vast and culturally diverse countries in the world. Its enormous land mass is home to numerous Aboriginal and Inuit peoples, the descendents of early European settlers, and new Canadians from all over the world. The unique contribution of English and French settlers has created a strong tradition of bilingualism, and our major centres, like Toronto and Vancouver, are among the most ethnically diverse cities in the world.

Policy makers have traditionally worried that Canada's small and heterogeneous population (currently 31 million) is not large enough to profitably support distinct Canadian cultural productions—especially when most Canadians live within a few hundred kilometers of the Canada-U.S. border and have easy access to ubiquitous American cultural products. The predominance of the French language in Quebec insulates its cultural industries somewhat from the influence of the U.S., but its population represents a small marketplace. The same is true, to an even greater extent, for Aboriginal, Inuit and ethnic cultural enterprises.

This section provides a comprehensive overview of the government and industry initiatives undertaken to protect and promote Canadian culture in the interest of Canadians, and to ensure a domestic, as well as an international, market for Canadian cultural products.