Religion in Canada
Encyclopedia
Religion
in Canada
encompasses a wide range of groups. The preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
references "God", and the monarch carries the title of "Defender of the Faith
". However, Canada has no official religion, and support for religious pluralism
(Freedom of religion in Canada) is an important part of Canada's political culture
. The 2001 Canadian census
reported that 77% of Canadians claim adherence to Christianity
, followed by no religion
at 16%.
With Christianity having once been central and integral to Canadian culture and daily life, it has been recently suggested that Canada has come to enter a post-Christian
or secular
state, where practice of the religion has "moved to the margins of public life", and irreligion
is on the rise.
followed a wide array of mostly animistic religions. See also Native American mythology
. The first Europeans to settle in great numbers in Canada were French
Latin rite Roman Catholics, including a large number of Jesuits dedicated to converting the natives; an effort that eventually proved successful.
The first large Protestant communities were formed in the Maritimes after they were conquered by the British. Unable to convince enough British immigrants to go to the region, the government decided to import continental Protestants from Germany
and Switzerland
to populate the region and counterbalance the Roman Catholic Acadians. This group was known as the Foreign Protestants
. This effort proved successful and today the South Shore
region of Nova Scotia
is still largely Lutheran.
The Quebec Act
of 1774 acknowledged the rights of the Roman Catholic Church throughout Lower Canada
in order to keep the French-Canadians loyal to Britain.
The American Revolution brought about a large influx of Protestants to Canada. United Empire Loyalists
, fleeing the rebellious United States, moved in large numbers to Upper Canada
and the Maritimes. They comprised a mix of Christian groups with a large number of Anglicans, but also many Presbyterians and Methodists.
In the early nineteenth century in the Maritimes and Upper Canada, the Anglican Church held the same official position it did in England. This caused tension within English Canada, as much of the populace was not Anglican. Increasing immigration from Scotland created a very large Presbyterian community and they and other groups demanded equal rights. This was an important cause of the 1837 Rebellion in Upper Canada. With the arrival of responsible government
, the Anglican monopoly was ended.
In Lower Canada, the Roman Catholic Church was officially pre-eminent and had a central role in the colony's culture and politics. Unlike English Canada, French-Canadian nationalism became very closely associated with Roman Catholicism. During this period, the Roman Catholic Church in the region became one of the most reactionary in the world. Known as Ultramontane Catholicism, the church adopted positions condemning all manifestations of liberalism.
In politics, those aligned with the Roman Catholic clergy in Quebec were known as les bleus
(the blues). They formed a curious alliance with the staunchly monarchist and pro-British Anglicans of English Canada (often members of the Orange Order
) to form the basis of the Canadian Conservative Party
. The Reform Party, which later became the Liberal Party
, was largely composed of the anti-clerical French-Canadians, known as les rouges
(the reds) and the non-Anglican Protestant groups. In those times, right before elections, parish priests would give sermons to their flock where they said things like Le ciel est bleu et l'enfer est rouge. This translates as "Heaven/the sky is blue and hell is red".
By the late nineteenth century, Protestant pluralism had taken hold in English Canada. While much of the elite were still Anglican, other groups had become very prominent as well. Toronto
had become home to the world's single largest Methodist community and it became known as the "Methodist Rome". The schools and universities created at this time reflected this pluralism with major centres of learning being established for each faith. One, King's College, later the University of Toronto
, was set up a non-denominational school. The influence of the Orange Order
was strong, especially among Irish Protestant immigrants, and comprised a powerful anti-Catholic force in Ontario politics; its influence faded away after 1920.
The late nineteenth century also saw the beginning of a large shift in Canadian immigration patterns. Large numbers of Irish and Southern European immigrants were creating new Roman Catholic communities in English Canada. The population of the west brought significant Eastern Orthodox immigrants from Eastern Europe
and Mormon
and Pentecostal immigrants from the United States.
and good works. Both factions (apart from the Anglicans) agreed on prohibition, which was demanded by the WCTU.
Domination of Canadian society by Protestant and Roman Catholic elements continued until well into the 20th century, however. Up until the 1960s, most parts of Canada still had extensive Lord's Day
laws that limited what one could do on a Sunday. The English-Canadian elite were still dominated by Protestants, and Jews and Roman Catholics were often excluded. A slow process of liberalization began after the Second World War in English-Canada. Overtly Christian laws were expunged, including those against homosexuality
. Policies favouring Christian immigration were also abolished.
The most overwhelming change occurred in the Quiet Revolution
Quebec in the 1960s. In 1950, the province was one of the most traditional Roman Catholic areas in the world. Church attendance rates were high, and the school system was largely controlled by the church. In the 1960s, the Catholic Church lost most of its influence in Quebec, and religiosity declined sharply. While the majority of Québécois are still professed Latin rite Roman Catholics, rates of church attendance are today extremely low, in fact, they are the lowest of any region in North America today. Common law
relationships, abortion
, and support for same-sex marriage
are more common in Quebec than in the rest of Canada.
English Canada also underwent secularization. The United Church of Canada
, the country's largest Protestant denomination, became one of the most liberal major Protestant churches in the world. It is committed to gay rights including marriage and ordination, and to the ordination of women. The United Church has seen its membership decline substantially since the 1990s, and other mainline churches have seen similar declines, while overall church attendance has increased in the 2000s.
In addition, a strong current of evangelical Protestantism exists outside of Quebec. The largest groups are found in the Atlantic Provinces and Western Canada
, particularly in Alberta
, southern Manitoba
and the southern interior and Fraser Valley region of British Columbia
, also known as the "Canadian Bible Belt". There is also a significant evangelical population in southern Ontario
. In these areas, particularly outside the Greater Toronto Area, the culture is more conservative, somewhat more in line with that of the Midwestern and southern United States, and same-sex marriage, abortion, and common-law relationships are less popular. This movement has grown considerably in the past few years (primarily in those areas listed above) due to strong influences on public policy and stark divides, not unlike those in the United States, although the overall proportion of evangelicals in Canada remains considerably lower and the polarization much less intense. There are very few evangelicals in Quebec and in the largest urban areas, which are generally secular, although there are several congregations above 1000 in most large cities.
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/themes/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2001&PID=55822&APATH=3&GID=431515&METH=1&PTYPE=55440&THEME=56&FOCUS=0&AID=0&PLACENAME=0&PROVINCE=0&SEARCH=0&GC=99&GK=NA&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=&FL=0&RL=0&FREE=0
http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/demo30c-eng.htm
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/analytic/companion/rel/contents.cfm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/can_rel1.htm
72% of the Canadian population list Roman Catholicism or Protestantism
as a religion. The Roman Catholic Church in Canada is by far the country's largest single denomination. Those who listed no religion account for 16% of total respondents. In British Columbia, however, 35% of respondents reported no religion—more than any single denomination and more than all Protestants combined.
The majority of Canadian Christians attend church
infrequently. Cross-national surveys of religiosity rates such as the Pew Global Attitudes Project indicate that, on average, Canadian Christians are less observant than those of the United States
but are still more overtly religious than their counterparts in Western Europe. In 2002, 30% of Canadians reported to Pew researchers that religion was "very important" to them. A 2005 Gallup poll showed that 28% of Canadians consider religion to be "very important" (55% of Americans and 19% of Britons say the same). Regional differences within Canada exist, however, with British Columbia
and Quebec
reporting especially low metrics of traditional religious observance, as well as a significant urban-rural divide, while Alberta
and rural Ontario
saw high rates of religious attendance. The rates for weekly church attendance are contested, with estimates running as low as 11% as per the latest Ipsos-Reid poll and as high as 25% as per Christianity Today
magazine. This American magazine reported that three polls conducted by Focus on the Family
, Time Canada and the Vanier Institute of the Family showed church attendance increasing for the first time in a generation, with weekly attendance at 25 per cent. This number is similar to the statistics reported by premier Canadian sociologist of religion, Prof. Reginald Bibby
of the University of Lethbridge
, who has been studying Canadian religious patterns since 1975. Although lower than in the US, which has reported weekly church attendance at about 40% since the Second World War, weekly church attendance rates are higher than those in Northern Europe.
As well as the large churches — Roman Catholic, United, and Anglican, which together count more than half of the Canadian population as nominal adherents — Canada also has many smaller Christian groups, including Orthodox Christianity
. The Egyptian
population in Ontario
and Quebec
(Greater Toronto in particular) has seen a large influx of the Coptic Orthodox population in just a few decades. The relatively large Ukrainian
population of Manitoba
and Saskatchewan
has produced many followers of the Ukrainian Catholic
and Ukrainian Orthodox Church
es, while southern Manitoba has been settled largely by Mennonites. The concentration of these smaller groups often varies greatly across the country. Baptists are especially numerous in the Maritimes. The Maritimes, prairie provinces, and southwestern Ontario
have significant numbers of Lutherans. Southwest Ontario
has seen large numbers of German and Russian immigrants, including many Mennonites and Hutterites, as well as a significant contingent of Dutch Reformed. Alberta
has seen considerable immigration from the American plains, creating a significant Mormon
minority in that province. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims 178,102 members (74,377 of that is in Alberta) as of year-end 2007. And according to the Jehovah witness year report there are 111,963 active members (members who actively preach) in Canada.
, Vancouver
, and Montreal
, where minority groups and new immigrants who make up the growth in most religious groups congregate. Two significant trends become clear when we examine the current religious landscape closely. One is the loss of ‘secularized’ Canadians as active and regular participants in the churches and denominations they grew up in, which were overwhelmingly Christian
, while these churches remain a part of Canadians cultural identity. The other is the increasing presence of ethnically diverse immigration within the religious makeup of the country.
As Mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics have experienced drastic losses over the past 30 years, others have been expanding rapidly: overall by 144% in ‘Eastern’ religions during the 1981-1991 decade. Considering Canada’s increasing reliance on immigration to bolster a low birth rate, the situation is only likely to continue to diversify. This increased influx of ethnic immigrants not only affects the types of religions represented in the Canadian context but also the increasingly multicultural and multilingual makeup of individual Christian denominations. From Chinese
Anglican or Korean
United Church communities, to the Lutheran focus on providing much needed services to immigrants new to the Canadian context and English language
, immigration is making changes.
For some protestant denomination
s, adapting to a new secular context has meant adjusting to their non-institutional roles in society by increasingly focusing on social justice
. However the pull between conservative religious members and the more radical among the church members is complicated by the numbers of immigrant communities who may desire a church that fulfills a more ‘institutionally complete’ role as a buffer in this new country over the current tension filled debates over same-sex marriage
, ordination
of women and homosexuals, or the role of women in the church. This of course will depend on the background of the immigrant population, as in the Hong Kong
context where ordination
of Florence Li Tim Oi happened long before women’s ordination was ever raised on the Canadian Anglican church level.
As well a multicultural focus on the churches part may include non-Christian elements (such as the inclusion of a Buddhist priest in one incident) which are unwelcome to the transplanted religious community. Serving the needs and desires of different aspects of the Canadian and newly Canadian populations makes a difficult balancing act for the various mainline churches which are starved for money and active parishioners in a time where 16% of Canadians identify as non-religious and up to two-thirds of those who do identify with a denomination use the church only for it’s life-cycle rituals governing birth, marriage, and death. The church retains that hold in their parishioner’s lives but not the commitment of time and energy necessary to support an aging institution.
A loud portion of the evangelical and sectarian protestant groups proclaim their growth as well but as Roger O’Tool notes they make up 7% of the Canadian population and seem to gain most of their growth from a higher birthrate. What is significant is the higher participation of their members in contrast to Mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics. This high commitment would seem to translate into the kind of political power evangelicals in the United States
enjoy but despite Canada
’s historically Christian
background as Lori Beaman notes neatly “...[forming] the backdrop for social process” explicit religiosity appears to have not effectively moved the government towards legal discrimination against gay marriage. Much as many Roman Catholics in Quebec
ignore the Church’s stance on birth control
, abortion
, or premarital sex
, the churches do not dictate much of the daily lives of regular Canadians.
Christianity remains a social justice
and community force within Canada
but its cultural loss of active and engaged participants has not been supplanted by the gains in immigrant numbers, thus Canada’s religious landscape has become increasingly diverse.
The Muslim community in Canada is almost as old as the nation itself. Four years after Canada's founding in 1867, the 1871 Canadian Census found 13 Muslims among the population. The first Canadian mosque
was constructed in Edmonton in 1938, when there were approximately 700 Muslims in the country. This building is now part of the museum at Fort Edmonton Park
. The years after World War II
saw a small increase in the Muslim population. However, Muslims were still a distinct minority. It was only with the removal of European immigration preferences in the late 1960s that Muslims began to arrive in significant numbers.
According to Canada's 2001 census
, there were 579,740 Muslim
s in Canada
, just under 2% of the population. In 2006, the Muslim population was estimated to be 0.8 million or about 2.6%. In 2010, the Pew Research Center estimates there were about 0.9 million Muslims in Canada.http://features.pewforum.org/muslim-population/?sort=Pop2010 About 65% were Sunni, while 15% were Shia. Some Muslims are non-practicing.
In 2007, the CBC
introduced a popular television sitcom called Little Mosque on the Prairie
, a contemporary reflection and critical commentary on attitudes towards Islam
in Canada. In 2008, the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper
, visited the Baitun Nur Mosque, the largest mosque in Canada for its inaugural session with the Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
.
The earliest documentation of Jews in Canada are British Army records from the French and Indian War
from 1754. In 1760, General Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst
attacked and won Montreal
for the British. In his regiment there were several Jews, including four among his officer corps, most notably Lieutenant Aaron Hart
who is considered the father of Canadian Jewry. In 1807, Ezekiel Hart was elected to the legislature of Lower Canada
, becoming the first Jew in the British Empire
to hold an official position. Hart was sworn in on a Hebrew Bible
as opposed to a Christian Bible. The next day an objection was raised that Hart had not taken the oath in the manner required for sitting in the assembly — an oath of abjuration, which would have required Hart to swear "on the true faith of a Christian". Hart was expelled from the assembly, only to be re-elected two more times. In 1768, the first synagogue in Canada was built in Montreal, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal
. In 1832, partly because of the work of Ezekiel Hart, a law was passed that guaranteed Jews the same political rights and freedoms as Christians.
The Jewish population saw a growth during the 1880s due to the pogroms of Russia
and growing anti-Semitism
. Between the years of 1880 and 1930 the Jewish population grew to 155,000. In 1872, Henry Nathan, Jr.
became the first Jewish Member of Parliament
, representing the Victoria, BC area in the newly created House of Commons
. The First World War halted the flow of immigrants into Canada, and after the War there was a change in Canada's immigration policy to limit the immigration of people from "non-preferred nations", i.e., those not from the United Kingdom or otherwise White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
nations. In June 1939 Canada and the United States were the last hope for 907 Jewish refugees aboard the steamship SS St. Louis
which had been denied to land in Havana although the passengers had entry visas. The Canadian government ignored the protests of Canadian Jewish organizations. King said the crisis was not a "Canadian problem" and Blair added in a letter to O.D. Skelton, Undersecretary of State for External Affairs, dated June 16, 1939, "No country could open its doors wide enough to take in the hundreds of thousands of Jewish people who want to leave Europe: the line must be drawn somewhere." The ship finally had to return to Germany. During the Second World War almost twenty thousand Canadian Jews volunteered to fight overseas. Nearly 40,000 Holocaust survivors moved to Canada in the late 1940s to rebuild their lives.
Today the Canadian Jewish community is the sixth largest in the world and practices in both of the official languages of Canada. There is an increase in the number of people that use Hebrew, other than religious ceremonies, while there is a decline in the Yiddish language. Most of Canada's Jews live in Ontario
and Quebec
, with Toronto
having the largest Jewish population centre. Recently, anti-Semitism has been a growing concern in Canada. In 2009, anti-Semitic incidents jumped a fivefold, with over 113 incidents, and some reports listing 479 in Toronto alone.
community in Canada
. As of the 2001 count, 300,346 Canadians identified their religion as Buddhist (about 1% of the population).
Buddhism has been practiced in Canada for more than a century and in recent years has grown dramatically. Buddhism arrived in Canada with the arrival of Chinese laborers in the territories during the 19th century. Modern Buddhism in Canada traces to Japanese immigration during the late 19th century. The first Japanese Buddhist temple in Canada was built at the Ishikawa Hotel in Vancouver in 1905. Over time, the Japanese Jōdo Shinshū
branch of Buddhism became the prevalent form of Buddhism in Canada and established the largest Buddhist organization in Canada.
The Buddhist Population in Canada according to the 2001 Census.
. Sikhs have been in Canada since at least 1887. One of the first Sikh soldiers arrived in Canada following Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
.
The Sikh Population in Canada according to the 2001 Census.
or the Toronto Secular Alliance.
Christmas
and Easter
are nationwide holidays, and while Jews, Muslims, and other groups are allowed to take their holy days off work they do not share the same official recognition . The French version of "O Canada
", the official national anthem, contains a Catholic reference to "carrying the cross". In some parts of the country Sunday shopping
is still banned, but this is steadily becoming less common. There was an ongoing battle in the late 20th century to have religious garb accepted throughout Canadian society, mostly focused on Sikh
turban
s. Eventually the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
, the Royal Canadian Legion
, and other groups accepted members wearing turbans.
Canada is a Commonwealth realm
in which the head of state
is shared with 15 other countries, including the United Kingdom
. The UK's succession laws forbid Roman Catholics and their spouses from occupying the throne, and the reigning monarch is also ex officio Supreme Governor of the Church of England
, but Canada is not bound by these laws. Within Canada, the Queen's title include the phrases "By the Grace of God" and "Defender of the Faith
."
While the Canadian government's official ties to Christianity are few, it more overtly recognizes the existence of God
and even the supremacy of God. Both the preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
and the national anthem in both languages refer to God.
In 1957, Parliament declared Thanksgiving
"a day of general thanksgiving to almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.", stating that God is almighty and that Canada is blessed.
Some religious schools are government-funded. See Section Twenty-nine of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
.
A 2010 80-question mail-in survey of 420 Canadians by Carleton University Survey Centre and the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies found 30% agreed with the statement "I know God really exists and I have no doubts", 20% acknowledged they "have doubts" but "feel that I do believe in God", 10% answered they believe in God "sometimes", 20% said they don't believe in a "personal God" but "do believe in a higher power", 12% adopted the classic agnostic position and said they "don't know whether there is a God and don't believe there is a way to find out", and 7% said no god exists. Slightly more than half believed in heaven, while less than a third believed in hell, with 53.5% saying they believed in life after death. About 27% said they believe in reincarnation, and 50% expressed belief in religious miracles.
In 2011, a survey conducted by Ipsos-Reid
shows that 47% believed religion do more harm in the world than good. While 64% believed that religion provides more questions than answers.
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
encompasses a wide range of groups. The preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the introductory sentence to the Constitution of Canada's Charter of Rights and Constitution Act, 1982...
references "God", and the monarch carries the title of "Defender of the Faith
Fidei defensor
Fidei defensor is a Latin title which translates to Defender of the Faith in English and Défenseur de la Foi in French...
". However, Canada has no official religion, and support for religious pluralism
Religious pluralism
Religious pluralism is a loosely defined expression concerning acceptance of various religions, and is used in a number of related ways:* As the name of the worldview according to which one's religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth, and thus that at least some truths and true values...
(Freedom of religion in Canada) is an important part of Canada's political culture
Political culture of Canada
Canadian political culture is in some ways part of a greater North American and European political culture, which emphasizes constitutional law, freedom of religion, personal liberty, and regional autonomy; these ideas stemming in various degrees from the British common law and French civil law...
. The 2001 Canadian census
Canada 2001 Census
The Canada 2001 Census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day was May 15, 2001. On that day, Statistics Canada attempted to count every person in Canada. The total population count of Canada was 30,007,094. This was a 4% increase over 1996 Census of 28,846,761. In...
reported that 77% of Canadians claim adherence to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, followed by no religion
Irreligion
Irreligion is defined as an absence of religion or an indifference towards religion. Sometimes it may also be defined more narrowly as hostility towards religion. When characterized as hostility to religion, it includes antitheism, anticlericalism and antireligion. When characterized as...
at 16%.
With Christianity having once been central and integral to Canadian culture and daily life, it has been recently suggested that Canada has come to enter a post-Christian
Postchristianity
Postchristianity is the decline of Christianity, particularly in Europe and Australia, in the 20th century, considered in terms of postmodernism...
or secular
Secularity
Secularity is the state of being separate from religion.For instance, eating and bathing may be regarded as examples of secular activities, because there may not be anything inherently religious about them...
state, where practice of the religion has "moved to the margins of public life", and irreligion
Irreligion
Irreligion is defined as an absence of religion or an indifference towards religion. Sometimes it may also be defined more narrowly as hostility towards religion. When characterized as hostility to religion, it includes antitheism, anticlericalism and antireligion. When characterized as...
is on the rise.
to 1800
Before the arrival of Europeans, the First NationsFirst Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
followed a wide array of mostly animistic religions. See also Native American mythology
Native American mythology
Native American mythology is the body of traditional narratives associated with Native American religion from a mythographical perspective. Native American belief systems include many sacred narratives. Such spiritual stories are deeply based in Nature and are rich with the symbolism of seasons,...
. The first Europeans to settle in great numbers in Canada were French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Latin rite Roman Catholics, including a large number of Jesuits dedicated to converting the natives; an effort that eventually proved successful.
The first large Protestant communities were formed in the Maritimes after they were conquered by the British. Unable to convince enough British immigrants to go to the region, the government decided to import continental Protestants from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
to populate the region and counterbalance the Roman Catholic Acadians. This group was known as the Foreign Protestants
Foreign Protestants
The "Foreign Protestants" were a group of immigrants to Nova Scotia in the mid-18th century and the ethnonymical basis behind the name "New Brunswick", as well as support behind naming "Prince Edward Island" for a representative of the Braunschweiger dynasty....
. This effort proved successful and today the South Shore
South Shore (Nova Scotia)
The South Shore is a region of Nova Scotia, Canada. Although it has no formal identity and is variously defined by geographic, county and other political boundaries, it is generally understood as the Atlantic coast running southwest from Halifax Harbour to the end of Shelburne County...
region of Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
is still largely Lutheran.
The Quebec Act
Quebec Act
The Quebec Act of 1774 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain setting procedures of governance in the Province of Quebec...
of 1774 acknowledged the rights of the Roman Catholic Church throughout Lower Canada
Lower Canada
The Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
in order to keep the French-Canadians loyal to Britain.
The American Revolution brought about a large influx of Protestants to Canada. United Empire Loyalists
United Empire Loyalists
The name United Empire Loyalists is an honorific given after the fact to those American Loyalists who resettled in British North America and other British Colonies as an act of fealty to King George III after the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War and prior to the Treaty of Paris...
, fleeing the rebellious United States, moved in large numbers to Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
and the Maritimes. They comprised a mix of Christian groups with a large number of Anglicans, but also many Presbyterians and Methodists.
19th century
While Anglicans consolidated their hold on the upper classes, workingmen and farmers responded to the Methodist revivals, often sponsored by visiting preachers from America. Typical was Rev. James Caughey, an American sent by the Wesleyan Methodist Church from the 1840s through 1864. He brought in the converts by the score, most notably in the revivals in Canada West 1851-53. His technique combined restrained emotionalism with a clear call for personal commitment, coupled with followup action to organize support from converts. It was a time when the Holiness Movement caught fire, with the revitalized interest of men and women in Christian perfection. Caughey successfully bridged the gap between the style of earlier camp meetings and the needs of more sophisticated Methodist congregations in the emerging cities.In the early nineteenth century in the Maritimes and Upper Canada, the Anglican Church held the same official position it did in England. This caused tension within English Canada, as much of the populace was not Anglican. Increasing immigration from Scotland created a very large Presbyterian community and they and other groups demanded equal rights. This was an important cause of the 1837 Rebellion in Upper Canada. With the arrival of responsible government
Responsible government
Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability which is the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy...
, the Anglican monopoly was ended.
In Lower Canada, the Roman Catholic Church was officially pre-eminent and had a central role in the colony's culture and politics. Unlike English Canada, French-Canadian nationalism became very closely associated with Roman Catholicism. During this period, the Roman Catholic Church in the region became one of the most reactionary in the world. Known as Ultramontane Catholicism, the church adopted positions condemning all manifestations of liberalism.
In politics, those aligned with the Roman Catholic clergy in Quebec were known as les bleus
Parti bleu
The Parti bleu was a moderate political group in Quebec, Canada that emerged in 1854. It was based on the moderate reformist views of Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, and was a rival to the radical Parti rouge....
(the blues). They formed a curious alliance with the staunchly monarchist and pro-British Anglicans of English Canada (often members of the Orange Order
Orange Institution
The Orange Institution is a Protestant fraternal organisation based mainly in Northern Ireland and Scotland, though it has lodges throughout the Commonwealth and United States. The Institution was founded in 1796 near the village of Loughgall in County Armagh, Ireland...
) to form the basis of the Canadian Conservative Party
Conservative Party of Canada (historical)
The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...
. The Reform Party, which later became the Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
, was largely composed of the anti-clerical French-Canadians, known as les rouges
Parti rouge
The Parti rouge was formed in the Province of Quebec, around 1848 by radical French-Canadians inspired by the ideas of Louis-Joseph Papineau, the Institut canadien de Montréal, and the reformist movement led by the Parti patriote of the 1830s.The party was a successor to the Parti patriote...
(the reds) and the non-Anglican Protestant groups. In those times, right before elections, parish priests would give sermons to their flock where they said things like Le ciel est bleu et l'enfer est rouge. This translates as "Heaven/the sky is blue and hell is red".
By the late nineteenth century, Protestant pluralism had taken hold in English Canada. While much of the elite were still Anglican, other groups had become very prominent as well. Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
had become home to the world's single largest Methodist community and it became known as the "Methodist Rome". The schools and universities created at this time reflected this pluralism with major centres of learning being established for each faith. One, King's College, later the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, was set up a non-denominational school. The influence of the Orange Order
Orange Institution
The Orange Institution is a Protestant fraternal organisation based mainly in Northern Ireland and Scotland, though it has lodges throughout the Commonwealth and United States. The Institution was founded in 1796 near the village of Loughgall in County Armagh, Ireland...
was strong, especially among Irish Protestant immigrants, and comprised a powerful anti-Catholic force in Ontario politics; its influence faded away after 1920.
The late nineteenth century also saw the beginning of a large shift in Canadian immigration patterns. Large numbers of Irish and Southern European immigrants were creating new Roman Catholic communities in English Canada. The population of the west brought significant Eastern Orthodox immigrants from Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
and Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
and Pentecostal immigrants from the United States.
20th century
In 1919-20 Canada's five major Protestant denominations (Anglican, Baptist, Congregational, Methodist, and Presbyterian) cooperatively undertook the "Forward Movement." The goal was to raise funds and to strengthen Christian spirituality in Canada. The movement invoked Anglophone nationalism by linking donations with the Victory Loan campaigns of the First World War I, and stressed the need for funds to Canadianize immigrants. Centered in Ontario, the campaign was a clear financial success, raising over $11 million. However the campaign exposed deep divided among Protestants, with the traditional evangelists speaking of a personal relationship with God and the more liberal denominations emphasizing the Social GospelSocial Gospel
The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the early 20th century United States and Canada...
and good works. Both factions (apart from the Anglicans) agreed on prohibition, which was demanded by the WCTU.
Domination of Canadian society by Protestant and Roman Catholic elements continued until well into the 20th century, however. Up until the 1960s, most parts of Canada still had extensive Lord's Day
Blue law
A blue law is a type of law, typically found in the United States and, formerly, in Canada, designed to enforce religious standards, particularly the observance of Sunday as a day of worship or rest, and a restriction on Sunday shopping...
laws that limited what one could do on a Sunday. The English-Canadian elite were still dominated by Protestants, and Jews and Roman Catholics were often excluded. A slow process of liberalization began after the Second World War in English-Canada. Overtly Christian laws were expunged, including those against homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
. Policies favouring Christian immigration were also abolished.
The most overwhelming change occurred in the Quiet Revolution
Quiet Revolution
The Quiet Revolution was the 1960s period of intense change in Quebec, Canada, characterized by the rapid and effective secularization of society, the creation of a welfare state and a re-alignment of politics into federalist and separatist factions...
Quebec in the 1960s. In 1950, the province was one of the most traditional Roman Catholic areas in the world. Church attendance rates were high, and the school system was largely controlled by the church. In the 1960s, the Catholic Church lost most of its influence in Quebec, and religiosity declined sharply. While the majority of Québécois are still professed Latin rite Roman Catholics, rates of church attendance are today extremely low, in fact, they are the lowest of any region in North America today. Common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
relationships, abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, and support for same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
are more common in Quebec than in the rest of Canada.
English Canada also underwent secularization. The United Church of Canada
United Church of Canada
The United Church of Canada is a Protestant Christian denomination in Canada. It is the largest Protestant church and, after the Roman Catholic Church, the second-largest Christian church in Canada...
, the country's largest Protestant denomination, became one of the most liberal major Protestant churches in the world. It is committed to gay rights including marriage and ordination, and to the ordination of women. The United Church has seen its membership decline substantially since the 1990s, and other mainline churches have seen similar declines, while overall church attendance has increased in the 2000s.
In addition, a strong current of evangelical Protestantism exists outside of Quebec. The largest groups are found in the Atlantic Provinces and Western Canada
Western Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and commonly as the West, is a region of Canada that includes the four provinces west of the province of Ontario.- Provinces :...
, particularly in Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, southern Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
and the southern interior and Fraser Valley region of British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, also known as the "Canadian Bible Belt". There is also a significant evangelical population in southern Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. In these areas, particularly outside the Greater Toronto Area, the culture is more conservative, somewhat more in line with that of the Midwestern and southern United States, and same-sex marriage, abortion, and common-law relationships are less popular. This movement has grown considerably in the past few years (primarily in those areas listed above) due to strong influences on public policy and stark divides, not unlike those in the United States, although the overall proportion of evangelicals in Canada remains considerably lower and the polarization much less intense. There are very few evangelicals in Quebec and in the largest urban areas, which are generally secular, although there are several congregations above 1000 in most large cities.
Census results
In the Canada 2001 CensusCanada 2001 Census
The Canada 2001 Census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day was May 15, 2001. On that day, Statistics Canada attempted to count every person in Canada. The total population count of Canada was 30,007,094. This was a 4% increase over 1996 Census of 28,846,761. In...
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/themes/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2001&PID=55822&APATH=3&GID=431515&METH=1&PTYPE=55440&THEME=56&FOCUS=0&AID=0&PLACENAME=0&PROVINCE=0&SEARCH=0&GC=99&GK=NA&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=&FL=0&RL=0&FREE=0
http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/demo30c-eng.htm
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/analytic/companion/rel/contents.cfm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/can_rel1.htm
72% of the Canadian population list Roman Catholicism or Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
as a religion. The Roman Catholic Church in Canada is by far the country's largest single denomination. Those who listed no religion account for 16% of total respondents. In British Columbia, however, 35% of respondents reported no religion—more than any single denomination and more than all Protestants combined.
| 1991 | 2001 | % change (in numbers) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | ||
| Total Population | 26,944,040 | 29,639,035 | |||
| Christian | 22,503,360 | 83 | 22,851,825 | 77 | |
| - Roman Catholic | 12,203,625 | 45.2 | 12,793,125 | 43.2 | +4.8 |
| - Total Protestant | 9,427,675 | 34.9 | 8,654,845 | 29.2 | |
| - United Church of Canada United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada is a Protestant Christian denomination in Canada. It is the largest Protestant church and, after the Roman Catholic Church, the second-largest Christian church in Canada... |
3,093,120 | 11.5 | 2,839,125 | 9.6 | -8.2 |
| - Anglican Church of Canada Anglican Church of Canada The Anglican Church of Canada is the Province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French name is l'Église Anglicane du Canada. The ACC is the third largest church in Canada after the Roman Catholic Church and the United Church of Canada, consisting of 800,000 registered members... |
2,188,110 | 8.1 | 2,035,495 | 6.9 | -7.0 |
| - Baptist Baptists in Canada -Statistics and changes:According to the Canada 2001 Census, the number of people in Canada who identify themselves as Baptist is 729,470, about 2.5% of the population, an increase of about 10% in the 10 years since the 1991 census .... |
663,360 | 2.5 | 729,470 | 2.5 | +10.0 |
| - Lutheran Lutheranism Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation... |
636,205 | 2.4 | 606,590 | 2.0 | -4.7 |
| - Protestant, not included elsewhere2 | 628,945 | 2.3 | 549,205 | 1.9 | |
| - Presbyterian Presbyterianism Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,... |
636,295 | 2.4 | 409,830 | 1.4 | -35.6 |
| - Christian Orthodox Eastern Orthodox Church The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,... |
387,395 | 1.4 | 495,245 | 1.7 | +27.8 |
| - Christian, not included elsewhere1 | 353,040 | 1.3 | 780,450 | 2.6 | +121.1 |
| No Religious Affiliation | 3,397,000 | 12.6 | 4,900,095 | 16.5 | +44.2 |
| Other | 1,093,690 | 4.1 | 1,887,115 | 6.4 | +72.5 |
| - Muslim Islam Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~... |
253,265 | 0.9 | 579,645 | 2.0 | |
| - Jewish Judaism Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people... |
318,185 | 1.2 | 329,990 | 1.1 | |
| - Buddhist Buddhism Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th... |
163,415 | 0.6 | 300,345 | 1.0 | +83.8 |
| - Hindu Hinduism Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions... |
157,010 | 0.6 | 297,200 | 1.0 | +89.3 |
| - Sikh Sikhism Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region, by Guru Nanak Dev and continued to progress with ten successive Sikh Gurus . It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world and one of the fastest-growing... |
147,440 | 0.5 | 278,415 | 0.9 | +88.8 |
| 1 Includes persons who report “Christian”, and those who report “Apostolic”, “Born-again Christian” and “Evangelical”. 2 Includes persons who report only “Protestant”. * For comparability purposes, 1991 data are presented according to 2001 boundaries. |
|||||
| Province/territory Provinces and territories of Canada The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories... | Christians | Non-religious | Muslims | Jews Jews The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation... | Buddhists | Hindus | Sikhs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Alberta |
2,099,435 | 694,840 | 49,040 | 11,085 | 33,410 | 15,965 | 23,470 |
 British Columbia |
2,124,615 | 1,388,300 | 56,220 | 21,230 | 85,540 | 31,500 | 135,310 |
 Manitoba |
859,055 | 205,865 | 5,095 | 13,040 | 5,745 | 3,835 | 5,485 |
 New Brunswick |
657,880 | 57,665 | 1,275 | 670 | 545 | 475 | 90 |
 Newfoundland and Labrador |
493,480 | 12,865 | 630 | 140 | 185 | 405 | 135 |
 Northwest Territories |
29,645 | 6,600 | 180 | 25 | 155 | 65 | 45 |
 Nova Scotia |
780,535 | 106,405 | 3,545 | 2,120 | 1,730 | 1,235 | 270 |
 Nunavut |
24,855 | 1,655 | 30 | 0 | 15 | 10 | 0 |
 Ontario |
8,413,495 | 1,841,290 | 352,530 | 190,795 | 128,320 | 217,555 | 104,785 |
 Prince Edward Island |
123,795 | 8,950 | 195 | 55 | 140 | 30 | 0 |
 Quebec |
6,432,430 | 413,190 | 108,620 | 89,915 | 41,380 | 24,525 | 8,225 |
 Saskatchewan |
795,935 | 151,455 | 2,230 | 865 | 3,050 | 1,585 | 500 |
 Yukon |
16,660 | 11,015 | 60 | 35 | 130 | 10 | 100 |
Christianity in Canada
Church service
In Christianity, a church service is a term used to describe a formalized period of communal worship, often but not exclusively occurring on Sunday, or Saturday in the case of those churches practicing seventh-day Sabbatarianism. The church service is the gathering together of Christians to be...
infrequently. Cross-national surveys of religiosity rates such as the Pew Global Attitudes Project indicate that, on average, Canadian Christians are less observant than those of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
but are still more overtly religious than their counterparts in Western Europe. In 2002, 30% of Canadians reported to Pew researchers that religion was "very important" to them. A 2005 Gallup poll showed that 28% of Canadians consider religion to be "very important" (55% of Americans and 19% of Britons say the same). Regional differences within Canada exist, however, with British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
and Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
reporting especially low metrics of traditional religious observance, as well as a significant urban-rural divide, while Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
and rural Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
saw high rates of religious attendance. The rates for weekly church attendance are contested, with estimates running as low as 11% as per the latest Ipsos-Reid poll and as high as 25% as per Christianity Today
Christianity Today
Christianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 140,000 and readership of 290,000...
magazine. This American magazine reported that three polls conducted by Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family
Focus on the Family is an American evangelical Christian tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1977 by psychologist James Dobson, and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s...
, Time Canada and the Vanier Institute of the Family showed church attendance increasing for the first time in a generation, with weekly attendance at 25 per cent. This number is similar to the statistics reported by premier Canadian sociologist of religion, Prof. Reginald Bibby
Reginald Bibby
Reginald Wayne Bibby, OC is a Canadian sociologist. He holds the Board of Governors Research Chair in the Department of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge....
of the University of Lethbridge
University of Lethbridge
The University of Lethbridge is a publicly-funded comprehensive academic and research university, founded in the liberal education tradition, located in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, with two other urban campuses in Calgary and Edmonton. The main building sits among the coulees on the west side of...
, who has been studying Canadian religious patterns since 1975. Although lower than in the US, which has reported weekly church attendance at about 40% since the Second World War, weekly church attendance rates are higher than those in Northern Europe.
As well as the large churches — Roman Catholic, United, and Anglican, which together count more than half of the Canadian population as nominal adherents — Canada also has many smaller Christian groups, including Orthodox Christianity
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...
. The Egyptian
Egyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
population in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
and Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
(Greater Toronto in particular) has seen a large influx of the Coptic Orthodox population in just a few decades. The relatively large Ukrainian
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
population of Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
and Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
has produced many followers of the Ukrainian Catholic
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , Ukrainska Hreko-Katolytska Tserkva), is the largest Eastern Rite Catholic sui juris particular church in full communion with the Holy See, and is directly subject to the Pope...
and Ukrainian Orthodox Church
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada is an Eastern Orthodox Church in Canada, primarily serving Ukrainian Canadians. Its former name was the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada ...
es, while southern Manitoba has been settled largely by Mennonites. The concentration of these smaller groups often varies greatly across the country. Baptists are especially numerous in the Maritimes. The Maritimes, prairie provinces, and southwestern Ontario
Southwestern Ontario
Southwestern Ontario is a subregion of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario, centred on the city of London. It extends north to south from the Bruce Peninsula on Lake Huron to the Lake Erie shoreline, and east to south-west roughly from Guelph to Windsor. The region had a population...
have significant numbers of Lutherans. Southwest Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
has seen large numbers of German and Russian immigrants, including many Mennonites and Hutterites, as well as a significant contingent of Dutch Reformed. Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
has seen considerable immigration from the American plains, creating a significant Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
minority in that province. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims 178,102 members (74,377 of that is in Alberta) as of year-end 2007. And according to the Jehovah witness year report there are 111,963 active members (members who actively preach) in Canada.
Christianity and Immigration
Canada as a nation is becoming increasingly religiously diverse, especially in large urban centers such as TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, and Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, where minority groups and new immigrants who make up the growth in most religious groups congregate. Two significant trends become clear when we examine the current religious landscape closely. One is the loss of ‘secularized’ Canadians as active and regular participants in the churches and denominations they grew up in, which were overwhelmingly Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
, while these churches remain a part of Canadians cultural identity. The other is the increasing presence of ethnically diverse immigration within the religious makeup of the country.
As Mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics have experienced drastic losses over the past 30 years, others have been expanding rapidly: overall by 144% in ‘Eastern’ religions during the 1981-1991 decade. Considering Canada’s increasing reliance on immigration to bolster a low birth rate, the situation is only likely to continue to diversify. This increased influx of ethnic immigrants not only affects the types of religions represented in the Canadian context but also the increasingly multicultural and multilingual makeup of individual Christian denominations. From Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
Anglican or Korean
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
United Church communities, to the Lutheran focus on providing much needed services to immigrants new to the Canadian context and English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, immigration is making changes.
For some protestant denomination
Christian denomination
A Christian denomination is an identifiable religious body under a common name, structure, and doctrine within Christianity. In the Orthodox tradition, Churches are divided often along ethnic and linguistic lines, into separate churches and traditions. Technically, divisions between one group and...
s, adapting to a new secular context has meant adjusting to their non-institutional roles in society by increasingly focusing on social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
. However the pull between conservative religious members and the more radical among the church members is complicated by the numbers of immigrant communities who may desire a church that fulfills a more ‘institutionally complete’ role as a buffer in this new country over the current tension filled debates over same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
, ordination
Ordination
In general religious use, ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart as clergy to perform various religious rites and ceremonies. The process and ceremonies of ordination itself varies by religion and denomination. One who is in preparation for, or who is...
of women and homosexuals, or the role of women in the church. This of course will depend on the background of the immigrant population, as in the Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
context where ordination
Ordination
In general religious use, ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart as clergy to perform various religious rites and ceremonies. The process and ceremonies of ordination itself varies by religion and denomination. One who is in preparation for, or who is...
of Florence Li Tim Oi happened long before women’s ordination was ever raised on the Canadian Anglican church level.
As well a multicultural focus on the churches part may include non-Christian elements (such as the inclusion of a Buddhist priest in one incident) which are unwelcome to the transplanted religious community. Serving the needs and desires of different aspects of the Canadian and newly Canadian populations makes a difficult balancing act for the various mainline churches which are starved for money and active parishioners in a time where 16% of Canadians identify as non-religious and up to two-thirds of those who do identify with a denomination use the church only for it’s life-cycle rituals governing birth, marriage, and death. The church retains that hold in their parishioner’s lives but not the commitment of time and energy necessary to support an aging institution.
A loud portion of the evangelical and sectarian protestant groups proclaim their growth as well but as Roger O’Tool notes they make up 7% of the Canadian population and seem to gain most of their growth from a higher birthrate. What is significant is the higher participation of their members in contrast to Mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics. This high commitment would seem to translate into the kind of political power evangelicals in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
enjoy but despite Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
’s historically Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
background as Lori Beaman notes neatly “...[forming] the backdrop for social process” explicit religiosity appears to have not effectively moved the government towards legal discrimination against gay marriage. Much as many Roman Catholics in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
ignore the Church’s stance on birth control
Birth control
Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
, abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, or premarital sex
Premarital sex
Premarital sex is sexual activity, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex, practiced by persons who are unmarried. Although it has always been practiced, in the West it has increased in prevalence since the mid-1950s...
, the churches do not dictate much of the daily lives of regular Canadians.
Christianity remains a social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
and community force within Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
but its cultural loss of active and engaged participants has not been supplanted by the gains in immigrant numbers, thus Canada’s religious landscape has become increasingly diverse.
| Province/Territory | Christians |
|---|---|
| Newfoundland and Labrador |
97.1% |
| Nunavut |
93.2% |
| Prince Edward Island |
92.8% |
| New Brunswick |
91.4% |
| Quebec |
90.2% |
| Nova Scotia |
86.9% |
| Saskatchewan |
82.6% |
| Northwest Territories |
79.9% |
| Manitoba |
77.8% |
 Canada |
77.1% |
| Ontario |
74.5% |
| Alberta |
71.3% |
| Yukon |
58.4% |
| British Columbia |
54.9% |
Islam in Canada
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
was constructed in Edmonton in 1938, when there were approximately 700 Muslims in the country. This building is now part of the museum at Fort Edmonton Park
Fort Edmonton Park
Fort Edmonton Park is an attraction in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Named for the first enduring European post in the area of modern-day Edmonton, the park is the largest living history museum in Canada by area...
. The years after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
saw a small increase in the Muslim population. However, Muslims were still a distinct minority. It was only with the removal of European immigration preferences in the late 1960s that Muslims began to arrive in significant numbers.
According to Canada's 2001 census
Canada 2001 Census
The Canada 2001 Census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day was May 15, 2001. On that day, Statistics Canada attempted to count every person in Canada. The total population count of Canada was 30,007,094. This was a 4% increase over 1996 Census of 28,846,761. In...
, there were 579,740 Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, just under 2% of the population. In 2006, the Muslim population was estimated to be 0.8 million or about 2.6%. In 2010, the Pew Research Center estimates there were about 0.9 million Muslims in Canada.http://features.pewforum.org/muslim-population/?sort=Pop2010 About 65% were Sunni, while 15% were Shia. Some Muslims are non-practicing.
In 2007, the CBC
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
introduced a popular television sitcom called Little Mosque on the Prairie
Little Mosque on the Prairie
Little Mosque on the Prairie is a Canadian sitcom on CBC, created by Zarqa Nawaz and produced by WestWind Pictures. It is filmed in Toronto, Ontario and Indian Head, Saskatchewan...
, a contemporary reflection and critical commentary on attitudes towards Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
in Canada. In 2008, the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
, visited the Baitun Nur Mosque, the largest mosque in Canada for its inaugural session with the Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...
.
| Province/Territory | Muslims |
|---|---|
| Ontario |
3.1% |
| Canada |
1.9% |
| Alberta |
1.6% |
| Quebec |
1.5% |
| British Columbia |
1.4% |
| Manitoba |
0.4% |
| Northwest Territories |
0.4% |
| Nova Scotia |
0.3% |
| Saskatchewan |
0.2% |
| Yukon |
0.2% |
| New Brunswick |
0.1% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador |
0.1% |
| Nunavut |
0.1% |
| Prince Edward Island |
0.1% |
Judaism in Canada
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
from 1754. In 1760, General Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst
Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst
Field Marshal Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst KCB served as an officer in the British Army and as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces.Amherst is best known as one of the victors of the French and Indian War, when he conquered Louisbourg, Quebec City and...
attacked and won Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
for the British. In his regiment there were several Jews, including four among his officer corps, most notably Lieutenant Aaron Hart
Aaron Hart (businessman)
Aaron Philip Hart was a businessman in Lower Canada and one of the first Jews to settle in the colony. He is considered the father of Canadian Jewry...
who is considered the father of Canadian Jewry. In 1807, Ezekiel Hart was elected to the legislature of Lower Canada
Lower Canada
The Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
, becoming the first Jew in the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
to hold an official position. Hart was sworn in on a Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
as opposed to a Christian Bible. The next day an objection was raised that Hart had not taken the oath in the manner required for sitting in the assembly — an oath of abjuration, which would have required Hart to swear "on the true faith of a Christian". Hart was expelled from the assembly, only to be re-elected two more times. In 1768, the first synagogue in Canada was built in Montreal, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal
Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal
The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal also known as Shearith Israel is a Montreal synagogue, located on St. Kevin Street in Snowdon, which is the oldest Jewish congregation in Canada. The Congregation traces its history back to 1760 and was formally established in 1768...
. In 1832, partly because of the work of Ezekiel Hart, a law was passed that guaranteed Jews the same political rights and freedoms as Christians.
The Jewish population saw a growth during the 1880s due to the pogroms of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and growing anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
. Between the years of 1880 and 1930 the Jewish population grew to 155,000. In 1872, Henry Nathan, Jr.
Henry Nathan, Jr.
Henry Nathan, Jr. was the first Jewish Canadian to be elected to the House of Commons. Born in London, England, Nathan was one of two MPs elected to represent the British Columbia riding of Victoria in the Canadian general election of 1872...
became the first Jewish Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, representing the Victoria, BC area in the newly created House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
. The First World War halted the flow of immigrants into Canada, and after the War there was a change in Canada's immigration policy to limit the immigration of people from "non-preferred nations", i.e., those not from the United Kingdom or otherwise White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP is an informal term, often derogatory or disparaging, for a closed group of high-status Americans mostly of British Protestant ancestry. The group supposedly wields disproportionate financial and social power. When it appears in writing, it is usually used to...
nations. In June 1939 Canada and the United States were the last hope for 907 Jewish refugees aboard the steamship SS St. Louis
SS St. Louis
The MS St. Louis was a German ocean liner most notable for a single voyage in 1939, in which her captain, Gustav Schröder, tried to find homes for 937 German Jewish refugees after they were denied entry to Cuba. The event was the subject of a 1974 book, Voyage of the Damned, by Gordon Thomas and...
which had been denied to land in Havana although the passengers had entry visas. The Canadian government ignored the protests of Canadian Jewish organizations. King said the crisis was not a "Canadian problem" and Blair added in a letter to O.D. Skelton, Undersecretary of State for External Affairs, dated June 16, 1939, "No country could open its doors wide enough to take in the hundreds of thousands of Jewish people who want to leave Europe: the line must be drawn somewhere." The ship finally had to return to Germany. During the Second World War almost twenty thousand Canadian Jews volunteered to fight overseas. Nearly 40,000 Holocaust survivors moved to Canada in the late 1940s to rebuild their lives.
Today the Canadian Jewish community is the sixth largest in the world and practices in both of the official languages of Canada. There is an increase in the number of people that use Hebrew, other than religious ceremonies, while there is a decline in the Yiddish language. Most of Canada's Jews live in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
and Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, with Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
having the largest Jewish population centre. Recently, anti-Semitism has been a growing concern in Canada. In 2009, anti-Semitic incidents jumped a fivefold, with over 113 incidents, and some reports listing 479 in Toronto alone.
| Province/Territory | Jews |
|---|---|
| Ontario |
1.7% |
| Quebec |
1.3% |
| Manitoba |
1.2% |
| Canada |
1.1% |
| British Columbia |
0.5% |
| Alberta |
0.4% |
| Nova Scotia |
0.2% |
| Yukon |
0.1% |
| New Brunswick |
0.09% |
| Saskatchewan |
0.09% |
| Northwest Territories |
0.07% |
| Prince Edward Island |
0.04% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador |
0.03% |
| Nunavut |
0.0% |
Buddhism in Canada
There is a small, rapidly growing BuddhistBuddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
community in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. As of the 2001 count, 300,346 Canadians identified their religion as Buddhist (about 1% of the population).
Buddhism has been practiced in Canada for more than a century and in recent years has grown dramatically. Buddhism arrived in Canada with the arrival of Chinese laborers in the territories during the 19th century. Modern Buddhism in Canada traces to Japanese immigration during the late 19th century. The first Japanese Buddhist temple in Canada was built at the Ishikawa Hotel in Vancouver in 1905. Over time, the Japanese Jōdo Shinshū
Jodo Shinshu
, also known as Shin Buddhism, is a school of Pure Land Buddhism. It was founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran. Today, Shin Buddhism is considered the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan.-Shinran :...
branch of Buddhism became the prevalent form of Buddhism in Canada and established the largest Buddhist organization in Canada.
The Buddhist Population in Canada according to the 2001 Census.
| Province Provinces and territories of Canada The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories... |
Buddhists |
|---|---|
| Ontario |
128,321 |
| British Columbia |
85,540 |
| Quebec |
41,380 |
| Alberta |
33,410 |
| Manitoba |
5,745 |
| Saskatchewan |
3,050 |
| Nova Scotia |
1,730 |
| New Brunswick |
545 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador |
185 |
| Northwest Territories |
155 |
| Prince Edward Island |
140 |
| Yukon |
130 |
| Nunavut |
15 |
| Canada |
300,346 |
Sikhism in Canada
Canadian Sikhs are the largest religious group among Indo-Canadians. According to the 2001 census there are 278,410 Sikhs in CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Sikhs have been in Canada since at least 1887. One of the first Sikh soldiers arrived in Canada following Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
Diamond Jubilee
A Diamond Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 60th anniversary in the case of a person or a 75th anniversary in the case of an event.- Thailand :...
.
The Sikh Population in Canada according to the 2001 Census.
| Province Provinces and territories of Canada The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories... |
Sikhs |
|---|---|
 British ColumbiaBritish Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858... |
135,310 |
 OntarioOntario Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.... |
108,785 |
 AlbertaAlberta Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces... |
23,470 |
 QuebecQuebec Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level.... |
8,225 |
 ManitobaManitoba Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other... |
5,485 |
 SaskatchewanSaskatchewan Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota.... |
500 |
 Nova ScotiaNova Scotia Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the... |
270 |
 Newfoundland and LabradorNewfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400... |
135 |
 YukonYukon Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in.... |
100 |
 New BrunswickNew Brunswick New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area... |
90 |
 Northwest TerritoriesNorthwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south... |
45 |
 Prince Edward IslandPrince Edward Island Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population... |
1 |
 NunavutNunavut Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993... |
0 |
 Canada |
278,410 |
Irreligion in Canada
Irreligious Canadians include atheists, agnostics, and humanists. The surveys may also include those who are spiritual, deists, and pantheists. In 1991, they made up 12.3 percent which, according to the 2001 census, increased to 16.2 percent. Some non-religious Canadians have formed associations, such as the Humanist Association of CanadaHumanist Association of Canada
Humanist Canada is a national not-for-profit charitable organization promoting the separation of religion from public policy and fostering the development of reason, compassion and critical thinking for all Canadians through secular education and community support...
or the Toronto Secular Alliance.
| Province/Territory | Irreligious |
|---|---|
| Yukon |
37.4% |
| British Columbia |
35.1% |
| Alberta |
23.1% |
| Manitoba |
18.3% |
| Northwest Territories |
17.4% |
| Canada |
16.2% |
| Ontario |
16.1% |
| Saskatchewan |
15.4% |
| Nova Scotia |
11.6% |
| New Brunswick |
7.8% |
| Prince Edward Island |
6.5% |
| Nunavut |
6.0% |
| Quebec |
5.6% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador |
2.5% |
Age and religion
According to the 2001 census, the major religions in Canada have the following median age. Canada has a median age of 37.3.- Presbyterian 46.1
- United Church 44.1
- Anglican 43.8
- Lutheran 43.3
- Jewish 41.5
- Greek Orthodox 40.7
- Baptist 39.3
- Buddhist 38.0
- Roman Catholic 37.8
- Pentecostal 33.5
- No Religion 31.9
- Hindu 30.2
- Sikh 29.7
- Muslim 28.1
Government and religion
Canada today has no official church, and the government is officially committed to religious pluralism. In some fields Christian influence remains.Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
and Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
are nationwide holidays, and while Jews, Muslims, and other groups are allowed to take their holy days off work they do not share the same official recognition . The French version of "O Canada
O Canada
It has been noted that the opening theme of "O Canada" bears a strong resemblance to the "Marsch der Priester" , from the opera Die Zauberflöte , composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and that Lavallée's melody was inspired by Mozart's tune...
", the official national anthem, contains a Catholic reference to "carrying the cross". In some parts of the country Sunday shopping
Sunday shopping
Sunday shopping refers to the ability of retailers to operate stores on Sunday, a day that Christian tradition typically recognizes as the Sabbath, a "day of rest". Rules governing shopping hours, such as Sunday shopping, vary around the world but some European nations continue to ban Sunday shopping...
is still banned, but this is steadily becoming less common. There was an ongoing battle in the late 20th century to have religious garb accepted throughout Canadian society, mostly focused on Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
turban
Turban
In English, Turban refers to several types of headwear popularly worn in the Middle East, North Africa, Punjab, Jamaica and Southwest Asia. A commonly used synonym is Pagri, the Indian word for turban.-Styles:...
s. Eventually the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
, the Royal Canadian Legion
Royal Canadian Legion
The Royal Canadian Legion is a non-profit Canadian ex-service organization founded in 1925, with more than 400,000 members worldwide. Membership includes people who have served as current and former military, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, provincial and municipal police, direct relatives of...
, and other groups accepted members wearing turbans.
Canada is a Commonwealth realm
Commonwealth Realm
A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state within the Commonwealth of Nations that has Elizabeth II as its monarch and head of state. The sixteen current realms have a combined land area of 18.8 million km² , and a population of 134 million, of which all, except about two million, live in the six...
in which the head of state
Head of State
A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...
is shared with 15 other countries, including the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The UK's succession laws forbid Roman Catholics and their spouses from occupying the throne, and the reigning monarch is also ex officio Supreme Governor of the Church of England
Supreme Governor of the Church of England
The Supreme Governor of the Church of England is a title held by the British monarchs which signifies their titular leadership over the Church of England. Although the monarch's authority over the Church of England is not strong, the position is still very relevant to the church and is mostly...
, but Canada is not bound by these laws. Within Canada, the Queen's title include the phrases "By the Grace of God" and "Defender of the Faith
Fidei defensor
Fidei defensor is a Latin title which translates to Defender of the Faith in English and Défenseur de la Foi in French...
."
While the Canadian government's official ties to Christianity are few, it more overtly recognizes the existence of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
and even the supremacy of God. Both the preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the introductory sentence to the Constitution of Canada's Charter of Rights and Constitution Act, 1982...
and the national anthem in both languages refer to God.
In 1957, Parliament declared Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving (Canada)
Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day , occurring on the second Monday in October , is an annual Canadian holiday to give thanks at the close of the harvest season....
"a day of general thanksgiving to almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.", stating that God is almighty and that Canada is blessed.
Some religious schools are government-funded. See Section Twenty-nine of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Section Twenty-nine of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Section Twenty-nine of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the section of Charter that most specifically addresses rights regarding denominational schools and separate schools...
.
Medium growth projection for 2006 and 2031
| 2006 | 2031 | % change (in numbers) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | ||
| Total Population | 32,522,000 | 42,078,000 | |||
| Christian | 24,340,000 | 74.8 | 27,285,000 | 64.8 | |
| - Roman Catholic | 13,830,000 | 42.5 | 15,389,000 | 36.6 | +11.3 |
| - Total Protestant | 8,970,000 | 27.6 | 8,973,000 | 21.3 | |
| - Christian Orthodox Eastern Orthodox Church The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,... |
566,000 | 1.7 | 978,000 | 2.3 | +72.8 |
| - Christian, not included elsewhere1 | 974,000 | 3.0 | 1,944,000 | 4.6 | +99.6 |
| No Religious Affiliation | 5,680,000 | 17.5 | 8,780,000 | 20.9 | +54.6 |
| Other | 2,501,000 | 7.7 | 6,013,000 | 14.3 | +140.4 |
| - Muslim Islam Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~... |
884,000 | 2.7 | 2,870,000 | 6.8 | |
| - Jewish Judaism Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people... |
348,000 | 1.1 | 421,000 | 1.0 | |
| - Buddhist Buddhism Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th... |
358,000 | 1.1 | 607,000 | 1.4 | +69.6 |
| - Hindu Hinduism Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions... |
406,000 | 1.2 | 1,024,000 | 2.4 | +152.2 |
| - Sikh Sikhism Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region, by Guru Nanak Dev and continued to progress with ten successive Sikh Gurus . It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world and one of the fastest-growing... |
384,000 | 1.2 | 906,000 | 2.2 | +135.9 |
| - Other | 122,000 | 0.4 | 185,000 | 0.4 | +51.6 |
| 1 Includes persons who report “Christian”, “Apostolic”, “Born-again Christian” and “Evangelical”. Note: 2006 data has been projected from 2001 |
|||||
Other surveys
A 2008 Canadian Press Harris-Decima telephone survey of just over 1,000 Canadians found 23% were willing to state they do not believe in any god.A 2010 80-question mail-in survey of 420 Canadians by Carleton University Survey Centre and the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies found 30% agreed with the statement "I know God really exists and I have no doubts", 20% acknowledged they "have doubts" but "feel that I do believe in God", 10% answered they believe in God "sometimes", 20% said they don't believe in a "personal God" but "do believe in a higher power", 12% adopted the classic agnostic position and said they "don't know whether there is a God and don't believe there is a way to find out", and 7% said no god exists. Slightly more than half believed in heaven, while less than a third believed in hell, with 53.5% saying they believed in life after death. About 27% said they believe in reincarnation, and 50% expressed belief in religious miracles.
In 2011, a survey conducted by Ipsos-Reid
Ipsos-Reid
Ipsos Reid is a research company based in Canada and is the Canadian arm of the global Ipsos Group. Founded in Winnipeg in 1979, the company expanded across the country and became part of the Ipsos Group in 2000....
shows that 47% believed religion do more harm in the world than good. While 64% believed that religion provides more questions than answers.
See also
- Religion in North AmericaReligion in North AmericaReligion in North America spans the period of Native American dwelling, European settlement, and the present day. Its various faiths have been a major influence on art, culture, philosophy and law....
Further reading
}} }} }} }}- Fay, Terence J. A History of Canadian Catholics. (2002). 392 pp., ISBN 978-0-7735-2313-5. }}
- Murphy, Terrence, and Roberto Perin, eds. A Concise History of Christianity in Canada (1996). }}
- Swyripa, Frances. Storied Landscapes: Ethno-Religious Identity and the Canadian Prairies (University of Manitoba Press, 2010) 296 pp. ISBN 978-0-88755-720-0 }}
External links
- CBC Digital Archives - Religion in the Classroom
- Canada religious census 2001
- Canadian Church Reading Room, with extensive links to on-line resources on Christianity in Canada (Tyndale Seminary)
- Canada’s Demo-Religious Revolution: 2017