How Canada became a country of two official languages...
Back in Canada's early days incoming ships did not consider Canada's native population to be the rightful owners of this land. So the first ships to land in Canada claimed the land as rightfully theirs to own. The English were the first people to lay claim to Canada, but they found this land to be a cold, and inhospitable country. The land was officially theirs on paper but they were not all that interested in colonizing Canada.
Canada did not seem to have much to offer up to the English, it was just so gosh awful cold and barren, that it really did not seem to be a location that any of the English would want to relocate to.
So along came the French who figured that Canada was free for the taking, and so decided to place a stake into this new land, by moving their french speaking population onto it.
Not too long after this occupation by the French, England got a funny little notion that a certain furry Canadian critter with a big flat tail that lived within those backwoods was something that they could use. The Canadian Beaver had a thick fur coat which could be designed into really super duper nice warm hats for the English elite to wear on those cold British evenings. The Brits wanted those fur hats, which meant that the English now had a heightened interest in re-staking their claim to Canada, and they were willing to fight for their rightful claim on Canada.
After a few years of squabbling and shooting at each other, France starting thinking that Canada really was not worth having such a great big fight over, so the French gave up. France signed over to England the rights to all of the lands belonging to Canada, as well as the rights to Canada's furry little Beaver inhabitants, and that ended that debate.
What remained on Canadian soil was a large population of French speaking Canadians who did not want to, or were unable to, leave Canada. There were in fact more French speaking Canadians, then there were English speaking ones, and these French Canadians had absolutely no desire to let go off their traditional language. Which of course made enforcing English as the official language of Canada just a wee smidge difficult.
The remaining French population within Canada continued to speak french, and the newly arriving British population, spoke English. Canada was now a country with two official languages, Canadian French, and Canadian English.
Ah but this is not where the story ends, it turns out that when the English allowed the French to maintain their language and distinct cultural heritage, that they opened up a whole tasty jar of multiculturalism for everyone to enjoy. Canada now became a nation of tolerance and acceptability toward it's incoming immigrants.
Canadian immigrants are accepted into the mainstream but respectfully allowed to maintain a large degree of their heritage, language, and culture. Canada has two official languages, but these are largely influenced by the many distinct cultural communities that now reside within this multi-cultural country.
The furry little creature who started this whole scenario wound up becoming one of Canada's most recognized national symbols. The thick coated, big toothed, flat tailed beaver now proudly graces Canada's five cent coin.
Eh, it's a Canadian thing.
