As I write this in 2021 there are still many shortwave broadcasters throughout the world, but not near as many as there were in the mid to late twentieth century.
In those days almost every country had a shortwave broadcasting service intended to send its own particular message to neighbouring and overseas listeners.
Canada had Radio Canada International, with transmitters at Sackville, New Brunswick. That service broadcast in several languages and was reputed to be
one that was a favourite among overseas listeners.   More well-known services at the height of the Cold War era included the Voice of America, Radio Moscow
and Radio Peking.   Shortwave was not popular within Canada and the USA, as far as listeners are concerned.  In these countries this was more of a hobbyist pastime, as it was for me, with more interest in what I could pick up rather than actually listening to what was being said.  So for me, I was thrilled to listen to Radio Prague from behind the Iron Curtain, and equally to listen to Radio New Zealand.  It didnt matter to me what were the political ideology behind the transmissions.   But for those in what might be called oppressed countries the shortwave radio was one of their only sources of news from the rest of the world. 

Shortwave has and is used for internal broadcasting as well, especially in larger countries.  The CBC previously broadcast a Northern Service to areas without local transmitters, and as well there were a few regional shortwave broadcasters.  The CBC had shortwave relays of its domestic stations for the benefit of seafarers, and private stations operated in Calgary, Halifax and Toronto. I well recall on my arrival in Halifax listening to CHNS on 960 on the AM band and hearing the station ID, "CHNS and shortwave CHNX"
Today many of the shortwave services of the past are gone, as we are in the era of world-wide internet, with much less incentive for the expensive international services. I have not listened to shortwave broadcasting in many years, and to be truthful I only dabbled in it during my radio monitoring decades.  Radio Canada International has been gone for at least twenty years, but you can still hear quite a lot on the shortwave bands, so they say!   

Here are my shortwave QSL's.  Back in the Cold War I received cards from China, the USSR, and other communist countries, and I am sure that was a sensation at our local small-town post office!    As with other radio services, I look at my small collection and wish I had done a lot more.   Note on the Swiss card they are pointing out that they mentioned me by name on one of their broadcasts.  I missed hearing it, but how cool is that!!