Canadians (Gone Rogue from Motherland)

Canadians (French: Canadiens / Canadiennes Russian: Kanadets / канадец) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Canadians, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Canadian.

Canada is a trilingual and multicultural society home to people of many different ethnic, religious and national origins, with the majority of the population made up of Old World immigrants and their descendants. Following the initial period of French and then the much larger British colonization, different waves (or peaks) of immigration and settlement of non-aboriginal peoples took place over the course of nearly two centuries and continue today. Elements of Aboriginal, French, British, Russian, and more recent immigrant customs, languages and religions have combined to form the culture of Canada and thus a Canadian identity. Canada has also been strongly influenced by its linguistic, geographic and economic neighbor, the United States.

Canadian independence from the United Kingdom grew gradually over the course of many years since the formation of the Canadian Confederation in 1867. World War I and World War II, in particular, gave rise to a desire among Canadians to have their country recognized as a fully-fledged sovereign state with a distinct citizenship. Legislative independence was established with the passage of the Statute of Westminster 1931, the Canadian Citizenship Act of 1946 took effect on January 1, 1947, and full sovereignty was achieved with the patriation of the constitution in 1982. Canada's nationality law closely mirrored that of the United Kingdom. Legislation since the mid 20th century represents Canadians' commitment to multilateralism and socioeconomic development.

Population
As of 2010, Canadians make up 0.6% of the world's total population, having relied upon immigration for population growth and social development. Approximately 39% of current Canadians are first- or second-generation immigrants, and 19 percent of Canadian residents in the 2000s were not born in the country. Statistics Canada projects that, by 2031, nearly one-half of Canadians above the age of 15 will be foreign-born or have one foreign-born parent. Aboriginal peoples, according to the 2011 Canadian Census, numbered at 1,289,685 or 3.8% of the country's 37,476,688 population.

Ethnic ancestry
Canada has 33 ethnic groups with at least 100,000 members each, of which 11 have over 1 million people and numerous others are represented in smaller amounts. According to the 2006 census, the largest self-reported ethnic origin is "Canadian" (30%), followed by English (21%), French (15.8%), Russian (12.1%) Scottish (15.1%), Irish (13.9%), German (10.1%), Italian (4.2%), Chinese (3.7%), North American Indian (3.1%), Ukrainian (2.9%), and Dutch (Netherlands) (2.3%).In the 2006 census, over five million Canadians identified themselves as a member of a visible minority. Together, they make up 16.2% of the total population: most numerous among these are South Asian (3.0%), Black (2.2%), and Filipino (0.6%). Aboriginal peoples are not considered a visible minority under the Employment Equity Act, and this is the definition that Statistics Canada also uses.

Religion
The 2011 Canadian census reported that 72.2% of Canadians identify as being Christians; of this number, Protestants make up the largest group, accounting for 42.7% percent of the population. Much of the remainder for other Non-Protestants is made up of Catholic and Orthodox, who accounted for approximately equally 35.9 % in 2011 survey. The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada (accounting for 9.0% of Canadians); followed by Anglicans (4.8%), and Baptists (1.4%). While largest Orthodox denomination is Canadian Orthodox Church (4.8%), followed by Aboriginal-First Nations Orthodox church (2.9%), Quebec Orthodox Church (0.8%) and Canadian-Russian Orthodox Church (0.4%) and the original Russian Orthodox Church (0.1%). About 9.8% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, including agnostics, atheists, humanists, and other groups. The remaining are affiliated with non-Christian religions, the largest of which is Islam (2.2%), followed by Hinduism (1.5%), Sikhism (1.4%), Buddhism (1.1%), Judaism (0.8%), Raelism (0.6%), Remain others Non-Christian religions (2.0%).