Canada

Canada occupies an area of 10 million square kilometres and the population is about 30 000 000 inhabitants. The capital city is Ottawa and its population is about 1 million. The main ethnic groups are white – they are mainly British and French and then Indians and Eskimos – they are called Innuits. The density in Canada is only 2,6 people to 1 sq km which means that 89 per cent of the land has no permanent population. Most Canadians live in large urban centres located within 300 km of the southern border – in Toronto – about 4 million inhabitants, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, Hamilton, Winnipeg or Quebec.

Canada occupies the whole of the northern part of North American – expect Alaska – and it is the 2nd largest country in the world after Russia. There are many big islands, which belong to Canada – for example Newfoundland, Vancouver or Prince Edward Island. Canada neighbours with the continental USA on the south and with Alaska on the north-west. The big part of the southern border is made by Great Lakes Region.

In the Great Lake Region you can find many lakes – for example Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. There are famous Niagara Falls between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. We can find also other big and beautiful lakes e.g. Great Bear Lake, Great Slave Lake or Lake Winnipeg.

Canada has large mountain areas – the Rocky Mountains, the Mackenzie Mountains and the Melville Hills. The highest mountain is Mt.Logan in the Alaska Region and it is 6 050 metres high.

The longest river is the Mackenzie and it flows from the Rocky Mountains into the Arctic Ocean, other big rivers are Yukon, the Columbia – they flow into the Pacific Ocean and the River St.Lawrence – it flows into the Atlantic.

The climate varies from Arctic climate in the cold wild tundra with winter temperatures as low as minus 50 °C to moderate climate in the east and west with the great beautiful forests. The central plains form the prairie, which has favourable climate to farming.

The original inhabitants came to Canada some 20 000 years ago from the Asia across the nowadays Bering Strait. The first Europeans there were Vikings who discovered Newfoundland more than a thousand years ago. During the Age of Discoveries (15th and 16th century) some navigators landed on the Canadian coast. Since the 16^th century large territories were occupied by the French but France lost this country in frequent wars with England during the 17th, 18th and 19th century. When the USA was founded in 1776 Canada remained British colony. It became a British dominion in 1867.

Canada is an independent federal parliamentary country, member of the Commonwealth, with Queen Elizabeth II as the head of state. She is represented by the Governor-General. The country’s supreme body is two chambers Federal Parliament. The leading figure is the Prime Minister who is the head of the Cabinet. Official languages are both English and French.

Canada is divided into 10 provinces and 2 territories. The biggest province is Quebec (with its capital Quebec), others are Newfoundland (St.John), Prince Edward Island (Charlottetown), Nova Scotia (Halifax), New Brunswick (Fredericton), Manitoba (Winnipeg), Ontario (Toronto), Saskatchewan (Regina), Alberta (Edmonton) and British Columbia (Victoria). And two territories are Yukon (Whitehorse) and Northwest Territories (Yellowknife) and they are very thinly inhabited by mainly native people – the density here is only 1 person in 65 sq km!

Canada has its own national flag since 1964. The red stripes on the right and left symbolise Canada’s position between the two oceans, a maple leaf has been used as Canada’s national symbol because Canada is a land of forests. Red colour symbolises the blood of the Canadians died in the WW II, white represents the snow of the Canadian North. The Canadian anthem is called Oh, Canada.

Canada belongs to the G-7 counties and has mainly coal, oil and natural gas but is also rich in gold, uranium and other metals ores. Almost half the land area is covered by forests and especially the provinces of Ontario and Newfoundland have large paper mills, furniture and wood industry. There is also highly developed hydroelectric, iron and steel industry. Although only about 7 per cent of the land is suitable for farming, agriculture is the world’s fifth largest producer of the wheat. Other agricultural items are live-stock production, fish, leather, oats, fruit and vegetable, tabacoo etc. Valid currency is Canadian dollar. Canada´s national sport is ice-hockey – it was invented there and then figure skating and curling.