主に英語圏、仏語圏、先住民から成る移民の国カナダは、さまざまな民族・人種で構成されています。二言語併用政策、多文化主義、連邦制を布き、多様性を尊重する公正な社会を具現する施策を講じることで、独自の文化形成に成功しています。氷河期にこの地に先住民が定住を始めたところから今日に至るまでの歴史、英国との歴史的関係性や隣接する米国との近年の関係、地理的条件、人為的気候変化に環境政策まで、北米大陸の北半を占めるカナダを鳥瞰します。
　　

• Draws on history, politics, and literature to introduce the identities and realities of modern Canada
• Explores how Canada maintains national diversity through bilingualism, multiculturalism, and federalism
• Discusses the ongoing reconciliation with Canada's Indigenous peoples
• Considers Canada's historical relationship to Great Britain, and its ongoing relationship with the United States

   
Canada is not one nation, but three: English Canada, Quebec, and First Nations. Yet as a country Canada is very successful, in part because it maintains national diversity through bilingualism, multiculturalism, and federalism. Alongside this contemporary openness Canada also has its own history to contend with; with a legacy of broken treaties and residential schools for its Indigenous peoples, making reconciliation between Canada and First Nations an ongoing journey, not a destination.
    
Drawing on history, politics, and literature, this Very Short Introduction starts at the end of the last ice age, when the melting of the ice sheets opened the northern half of North America to Indigenous peoples, and covers up to today's anthropogenic climate change, and Canada's climate politics. Donald Wright emphasizes Canada's complexity and diversity as well as its different identities and its commitment to rights, and explores its historical relationship to Great Britain, and its ongoing relationship with the United States. Finally, he examines Canada's northern realities and its northern identities.