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the canada act and free trade agreements before canada could establish free trade they determined that they needed to sever their ties with britain on april 17 1982 the canada act also known as the constitution act was signed this gave canada complete control over her constitution prime minister trudeau initiated the act that included the charter of rights and freedoms previously mentioned the queen still has some political power over canada but our country has full sovereignty or control over its realm all provinces except quebec were in favour of this quebec felt that they would lose their individuality and become just another province then in 1984 brian mulroney became the prime minister in order to strike an agreement to please quebec the meech lake accord was developed the accord recognized quebec as a distinct society however other minority groups such as native groups in particular argued their rights were being ignored if quebec was being treated as a distinct society why weren t they in particular a cree indian named elijah harper who was a member of the provincial legislature of manitoba debated to stop passage of the meech lake accord it was never passed brian mulroney free trade the idea of free trade was initiated so that goods could travel between countries without taxes in the 1980 s canadian prime minister brian mulroney proposed the free trade agreement with the united states the free trade agreement was finally worked out in 1988 canada and the united states included mexico in the trade and formed the north american free trade agreement nafta it became law in january 1994 and many business people supported the idea however some people disagreed with it because workers in mexico are often not unionized and can be paid a lot less to work this

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would cause many businesses to move to mexico and still produce their products much cheaper also some american companies operate factories in canada because the american dollar is stronger and it is cheaper to pay labour in canada these factories are known as branch plants canadian women in politics canada has witnessed women s growth throughout the 20th century women at first were limited to their lives forced to work menial jobs and have no say women have since earned the right to vote and work at jobs as equals with men women have become highly involved in politics notably canada has had three female governor generals and one female prime minister of canada.

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jeanne sauvé of prud homme saskatchewan was elected liberal mp from montreal in 1972 and became the first woman cabinet member from quebec 1972 minister science and technology 1974 environment portfolio;1975 minister of communications she also opened the first daycare on parliament hill in 1980 trudeau appointed her as the first woman speaker of the house of commons in the spring of 1984 prime minister trudeau announced her appointment as governor general the first woman to hold the office she was sworn in on may 14 1984 completing her term of office in 1990 mme sauvé s concern for youth and peace were two of the three central themes of her mandate ­ the third was national unity she died january 1993 adrienne clarkson held this post from october 7 1999 to september 27 2005 she was the first chinese canadian and second woman to hold this position the first being jeanne sauvé born in hong kong but raised in ontario clarkson s ancestry is from taishan guangdong china since her father was a british subject he was a part of a prisoner-of-war exchange with the japanese imperial forces her family subsequently came to canada using the special circumstances clause in the chinese immigration act of 1923 that allowed chinese into canada during the second world war in 1942 she was involved in bringing canadians together honouring famous canadians and promoting canada through film art and literature.

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michaëlle jean born september 6 1957 in port-au-prince haiti succeeded adrienne clarkson and became the 27th governor general of canada on september 27 2005 jean is canada s first black governor general the second person without either a political or military background after adrienne clarkson the second person from a visible minority and again after clarkson foreign-born like clarkson she is also the first govenor general to be born during the reign of queen elizabeth ii as governor general jean is the queen s viceregal representative the expression of the crown in canada canada s de facto head of state and commander-in-chief of its armed forces the right honourable avril douglas kim campbell from british columbia was the prime minister of canada from november 4 1993 she remains only female head of a national date she was also the second history to sit at the table of the now g8 leaders the eight most countries in the world after british margaret thatcher phaedra port alberni nineteenth june 25 to north america s government to woman in group of seven industrialized prime minister go to assignment 8 in your student workbook.

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