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Technology is the manipulation of the physical world to achieve human goals. The
Technologies affect and are affected by the society that uses them. In
depending on the type of water being travelled. Later, technology facilitated the
railroads and new forms of shelter. Today, Canada remains at the forefront of
and energy.
The technologies Indigenous peoples used to adapt to the regions of Canada, from the
Great Lakes to the Arctic, depended greatly on geographical conditions and local
and cedar canoes, and the snowshoe; shelters such as the, and igloo; and a variety of
hunting and fishing technologies. These technologies did not remain static over time.
Instead, they grew in range and sophistication allowing more and more successful
the making of shelter and clothing, as well as engaging in trade and conflict.
diffused in Canada came from other places; only a small number actually originated
in Canada.
While the Vikings, sailing on sophisticated ships called knarrs, travelled to North
America in the Middle Ages, Europeans from France, the British Isles and elsewhere
began to explore and settle on the continent at the very end of the 15th century. They
brought with them an inventory of tools and the know-how to use them. However, the
technologies as fishing and trading outposts, agricultural settlements, roads and towns
were established. In addition, Europeans had to adjust to using these tools in a new
cultural setting.
Agricultural technology, more than any other, is profoundly affected by local conditions
of weather, soil, water and pests, as well as land tenure systems. Acadian farmers built
A major technical problem facing all settlers was shelter. Western European timber-
frame construction, familiar to most colonists, was first used and adapted by the
Habitants and Acadians. Loyalists, settling in the Maritimes and in Upper Canada, built
houses of logs fastened together at the corners, making use of the abundant timber
resource.
Not all work was done by hand. The first water-powered grist mill in North America
Transportation, over huge distances and difficult terrain, posed enormous challenges.
The birchbark canoe long used by Indigenous peoples, and adopted by French fur
traders, linked the North American interior to the wider world. The Hudson’s Bay
Company developed the York boat for the journey inland from Hudson Bay.
Shipbuilding began in 17th-century New France with carpenters learning the skills of
shipbuilding in the Maritime colonies. Construction of roads over the long distances
between settlements was expensive, difficult and slow. By the end of the pioneer period
some arterial roads were completed. Cedar logs were used to cover swampy stretches
of road and gravel surfaces were laid where traffic was heaviest. In the 1840s,
Canadians experimented with plank roads, using cheap forest products, but the
winter ice and spring thaw left them in shambles. Only urban roads were paved,
usually with crude cobblestones. Of greater importance was the coming of the
railway, beginning with the Champlain and St Lawrence Railroad, also financed
connected by the Grand Trunk Railway, while the St Lawrence and Atlantic
Railroad joined Montréal with Portland, Maine. Railway technology also had an
During this period, political as well as economic forces promoted the growth of
processing. The introduction of rolling mills, which processed hard western wheat more
quickly, radically changed flour milling. By the 1860s, Atlantic fishing technology had
railways increased the fresh-fish market. On the Pacific coast, gillnetting harvested
investigated and offered solutions to many of the technical problems associated with
domestically rather than exporting them to the United States. While the Fraser, Cariboo
and Yukon gold rushes were dramatic, the discovery of base metal deposits had more
lasting technical implications. Metallurgical techniques were often the final key to
Canals were recognized as efficient carriers of bulk cargo, and as shipping increased on
the Great lakes improvements were needed. In Nova Scotia, the long-awaited
Shubenacadie Canal, connecting the Bay of Fundy and Dartmouth, was opened in 1861.
Canada to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Construction of first of the Canadian
Pacific Railway and then two other transcontinental lines through the difficult rock and
muskeg of the Canadian Shield, across the prairies and through the Rockies, became
companion to the railways starting in the 1850s. Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone
appeared in the 1870s and, by the 1880s and 1890s, exchanges were common in most
large cities. The first exchange in Canada was installed in 1878 in Hamilton and it had
Also, Steam engines not only transformed transportation, but when applied to
industry and agriculture, gave a much more flexible power source. Electrical
power, electric lighting and electric motors for machinery gave even more
arrived hard on the heels of the first as new industries based on chemistry and
In spite of the First and Second World Wars and the Great Depression, the first half of
prosperity. With the advent of the internal combustion engine, Canadians became
second only to Americans in their use of the automobile, while bush flying helped open
the Canadian North. Radio was a new medium not just of communication, but also
entertainment. The Canadian Standards Association, which originated during the First
World War, played a major role not just in aiding uniformity of technical practices in
and US goods.
Farming increasingly became a blend of tradition with new mechanical skills. Canada’s
rail system continued to expand with the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway
(Ontario Northland) constructed from 1903 to 1931 and extending from to James Bay,
Ontario.
Niagara Falls was followed by ambitious projects there and elsewhere. Ontario
1917 to 1921) was the largest engineering project since the completion of the
Panama Canal.
Canada emerged from the as a middle power and continues to rank among the strongest
of the world’s economies. Canada has remained at the forefront of technology as a user
The first was the St Lawrence Seaway, a joint Canada-US transportation and
by water from the interior of the continent to the Atlantic Ocean. Second, the
cars over passenger rail as Canadians' preferred mode of travel. In addition, Toronto’s
first subway line opened in 1954, followed by in 1966. Buses and Light Rail Transit
developed at the University of Waterloo and widely used in computer education in the
1970s and 1980s. In addition, Canadian James Gosling invented the JAVA
Blackberry smartphone and, along with IBM Canada, is also among the top 10 biggest
Despite not fostering innovation as well as some countries around the world, 84% of
Canada are relatively new start-ups, there is potential for significant revenue growth
Accenture Consulting, a global professional services and consulting firm, reports that
Canada’s tech sector is outperforming the rest of Canada’s economic sectors. Growing
faster than any other sector on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) since the start of
Stable Thesis, a theory asserting that the export of natural resources, or stables, from
Canada to more advanced economies has a pervasive impact on the economy as well as
on the social and political systems. The thesis was formulated in the 1920s by economic
historians Harold A. Innis and W.A. Mackintosh. Agreeing that Canada had been born
with staple economy, they differed insofar as Mackintosh saw a continuing evolution
toward a mature industrialized economy based on staple production, whereas Innis saw
hinterland. Contemporary proponents of this thesis argue that Innis’s version more
accurately describes the Canadian situation to the present. The thesis may be the most
References
Mel Watkins (2006). Retrieved from Staple Thesis | The Canadian Encyclopedia:
<https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/staple-thesis>