No.  I personally don't even want Canada to be considered a Christian nation.  How exclusive.  How arrogant.

 I think that we need to remember that in many large cities Canadians are not necessarily people with Christian, European backgrounds.  I would like to think that Canada is a diverse country where Christianity is one of many faiths. I would like to think we are tolerant and inclusive and eager to learn about one another.

And I also think we need to remember that the true Canadians, the First Nations, were not Christians until we Europeans arrived and gave them no choice about which faith to practice.  Nothing like good Christian behaviour....let's abduct their children, fracture their families, abuse the kids and essentially practice cultural genocide.  

No, I don't want to be considered a Christian nation.  

To return to the original question.  I do not know what the majority think.  I cannot presume to know.  I can only speak for myself.

No. Canada is only a Christian country in the sense that we share many Christians Values and beliefs.

Just as Irshad Manji says that Canada is more Islamic than  Islamic: countires that use Sharia because we have a society that more closely resembles the ideals of the Koran.

Christians help create this, but Canada belongs to no single faith.

What defines a "Christian nation"?

Christianity had a formative influence on our culture. Most of our statutory holidays are the major Christian festivals. To that extent, Canadian culture can be said to be a Christian culture. But churchgoing Christians are a steadily shrinking minority.

Interesting question.

Frist of all.....are you asking in a poll..what would the majority of canadians say...i have no idea....i'm going to guess..."yes"....but, to be honest, i think it would be regional.

now, then the next question that i personally want to ask is can a nation be Christian.

ie...is the question a valid one, or does it just feed into a cultural bias, and misunderstanding of faith..

i ask this question, as the comment came up that we need to ensure the Canadian flag is in the church sanctuary on rememberance day.  it bothered me...i thought about it.

I wondered why..if a Canadian flag would be present, why there also wouldn't be flags of many other countries.......what are we remembering?   The lives lost,...if so, it wasn't just canadians who fell.

anyhow, off topic..but...it reminded me of my concerns when "faith group" and  "political organization structure" are mixed.

I read recently that the majority of Canadians see themselves as Christians.  I suppose that demographically, Canada is therefore a Christian nation, although the state itself is offcially neutral.

Canada overall tries to accept the diversity of others and is accepting . Jesus would approve---------does that make us a "Christian" nation? Probably.

Bearing in mind that Christianity is a word that Jesus never used. I believe it was his life and teachings we are to emulate and not encapsulate a word that would set us apart from others.

In the 2001 Census 77% of Canadians identified themselves as Christian (in a variety of forms) - Statistics Canada

For another interesting view, a 2003 Gallop poll reported 37% of Canadians answered that religion was "not very important" in their lives compared to Americans where the percentage was 17%.  Gallup

We may be a country with a majority of Christians but I do not think the majority view this country as a "Christian nation".

LB

Canada is the only country in the world that knows how to live without an identity.
     Marshall McLuhan

No.

Thank you for your answers. I think about Christmas and how it is a Canadian Holiday. I think about Easter that is a Canadian Holiday. So it seems to me that the Government plays into this to make us believe that canada is a Christian nation.

Hi LB:

We are not an ethnically or religiously homogenous nation. We are pluralistic.

The spiritual culture of Canada's First Nations was earth-centered, and in parts of Canada still is. It would be great if our national identity were modeled after that of our First Nations.

I think that this will change over the next fifty years or so.  I predict that national religious holidays will disappear and that workers will be given a number of days per year to take as religious holidays of their choice.  So if someone were Christian they could take off Christmas and Easter, while a Jew or Muslim or whatever could choose other days.  An atheist such as myself would simply use those two days as holidays.

Guys, Christmas is also celebrated by some Muslims, as they recognize Jesus as a prophet so have no problems celebrating such a holiday.

in addition, my Hindu friends in India also are quite happy to take Christmas off (or work to cover for us), just as my Christian friends are quite happy to take Divali off (or work to cover for the Hindus). 

 There is no such thing as a "Christian nation." As Jesus himself said, "My Kingdom is not of this world." 

They'd be wrong, would they? Hardly....

Most of those "principles" were already in place long before Christianity. Don't make the mistake of thinking Christianity changed much of the way people conducted their daily lives or the way they treated each other. The Christianisation of Europe was more a political change than anything else, and really didn't change much for the average person, until it ushered in the dark ages, of course.

As far as founding... well a good measure would be laws. Our laws are not very much founded on Christian "principles". Of the 10C's, for instance, only 2 of the 10 appear in our laws, and those 2 are not exclusive to Judeo-Chritianity. Not a good arguement for exclusivity.

Our legal system is based to a great degree on English Common Law, which is derived from Brehon law, with Saxon influence, and is pre-Christian.

AS far as the question in the OP goes....

I don't hear the term, Christian nation applied much to Canada by Canadians. At least not nearly as much as you hear it down south. I doubt many Canadians think it's a Christian nation, either in history or currently, nor do I think the average Canadian wants it to be. The Church has a history of really screwing things up when it trades spirituality for political power, and I think Canadians get that.

A few points:  Europe is very much a product of Judaeo-Christian philosophy (among other things).  Christendom had an enormous impact.  Second, the Christianization of Europe was largely a process of ordinary people coming to Christianity willingly for a number of reasons, from the basic appeal of its philosophy of inclusion to the sophistication of "Romanism."  Christianity did not "usher in" the Dark Ages.  There were "national conversions" based on the whims of the monarch, but Christianity spread initially in a much more grass roots way. The term "Dark Ages" was used to describe the period after the fall of Rome and before the later Medieval era, but it is also a term that is used less and less by historians.

I make this argument not as a Christian - in fact, I am an atheist - but as someone who tries to know history.  I studied history in university and continue to do so, mainly as a hobby now.  There are a lot of good sources to which one could refer but I think the most recent and best is "The Rise of Western Christendom," by Peter Brown of Princeton University.  There is a new second edition which has significant changes over the first.

Indeed

He is the fulfillment of what the law could never do.

Law is established in a world of corruption, for our protection.

Jesus, or Whoever they called Him at the time, is established in a world of corruption, for our enlightenment.

Bolt

Pinga mentioned that she thinks that the answer would be regional.  I think she is right.  I can't speak for others, but it seems to me that most people in this region if asked "Do you think Canada is a Christian country?" would answer "yes".    They may quickly follow up with a statement that they personally don't go to church, but many of them probably identify as Christian and think that most others do too. 

I think that many church goers would also want to qualify - what do you mean by Christian nation?  

For myself, I don't think of Canada as being a Christian nation.   I think of it as a country that has been greatly influenced by Christianity and that has a fairly large number of Christians - but it also has people from many other religions, an increasing number of people who are indifferent to religion, and self-identified atheists.   Many of the recognized holidays in this country were developed as Christian holidays but they have been secularized to the point that many people do not think of them as Christian. 

I  Believe Canada is a Christian nation. I also Believe the majority of canadians think so. I do not believe all Canadiians think it is. But if you ask those who moved here I would think most would say Canada is Christian . But to be a Canadian you do have to be a Christian. We have many good  Canadians who are not Christians.Airclean33

 Canada is definitely a Christian nation. That doesn't mean everyone is Christian, and that doesn't mean that Canadians WANT everyone to be Christian - absolutely not, however, as someone mentioned, all of our statutory holidays are Christian, and even the majority of stores use Christian holidays as marketing schemes. The anthem mentions a 'god', which the religious non-Christian people I know just equate with their deity, although we know it was meant to refer to the Christian god initially. And then on top of that, our royal anthem is blatantly "God Save The Queen" and therefore doesn't need much explanation.

As someone said before, new Canadians think Canada is a Christian nation. As someone who doesn't follow Christianity, I would have to agree - Christianity is everywhere, we are just oblivious to it 95% of the time, whereas one of my best friends who's Muslim can pick up instances easily. Do I believe Canada WANTS to be a "Christian nation"? Not anymore, no. We have become accustomed to the ideal that Canada is a very multicultural country - and it really is - but that doesn't mean we don't give Christianity a special place in our country. It's not like Eid al-fitr is a statutory holiday or anything, right?

Well let's try this.

Christian: of Christ; his teachings; or the religion that bears his name; believing in Christ

Nation :a group of people occupying the same country;united under the same government and usually speaking the same language; a people, a race or a tribe.

Dictionary of canadian English - the Senior Dictionary

Certainly less than 50% of my friends and family identify as Christian (although it would have been closer to 100% 2 or 3 generations or so ago).  I find it a secular nation with people practising many different faiths and no faiths at all...cms

But cjms, do the majority of canadians believe canada is Christian, do you think?

I would say that Canada is populated largely by materially obsessed secularists. Then there are minorities practising numerous faiths. I would go further and suggest that maybe a significant number of Canadian churchgoers also are fully signed up as materially obsessed secularists.

I doubt it...cms