Canada is a
countryIn geography, a country is a geographical region. The term is often applied to a political division or the territory of a state, or to a smaller, or former, political division of a geographical region...
occupying most of northern
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
, extending from the
Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
in the east to the
Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
in the west and northward into the
Arctic OceanThe Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest, and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions.
The International Hydrographic Organization recognizes it as an ocean, although some...
. It is the world's second largest
country by total area and its common border with the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to the south and northwest is the world's longest.
The land occupied by Canada was inhabited for millennia by various groups of
Aboriginal peopleAboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors Indian and Eskimo are falling into disuse. Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are the earliest archaeological sites of human habitation in Canada. The Paleo-Indian Clovis, Plano cultures and Pre-Dorset...
. Beginning in the late 15th century,
BritishBritish colonization of the Americas began in the late 16th century and reached its peak when colonies had been established throughout the Americas and a protectorate had been established over the Kingdom of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean...
and
FrenchThe French colonization of the Americas began in the 16th century, and continued in the following centuries as France established a colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere. France founded colonies in much of eastern North America, on a number of Caribbean islands, and in South America...
expeditions explored, and later settled along, the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of
its colonies in North AmericaNew France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period extending from the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River, by Jacques Cartier in 1534, to the cession of New France to Spain and Britain in 1763...
in 1763 after the
Seven Years' WarThe Seven Years' War lasted between 1754 and 1763 and involved all of the major European powers of the period. The war pitted Prussia and Britain and a coalition of smaller German states against an alliance consisting of Austria, France, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony...
. In 1867, with the union of three
British North AmericaBritish North America consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783....
n colonies through
ConfederationCanadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed, officially beginning on July 1, 1867, with the new provinces of Ontario and Quebec along with two other British colonies, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which also became provinces.-Usage:Canada is a...
, Canada was formed as a
federalFederalism is political philosophy in which a group of members are bound together with a governing representative head. The term federalism is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent...
dominionA dominion, often Dominion, refers to one of a group of semi-autonomous polities that were nominally under British sovereignty, constituting the British Empire and British Commonwealth, from the late 19th century. They included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the...
of four provinces. This began an
accretion of provinces and territoriesCanada became an independent nation in 1867 when three provinces of British North America were united to form the new nation. One of these colonies split into two new provinces, three other provinces joined later, and three new provinces were carved from the large interior of the country that was...
and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom. This widening autonomy was highlighted by the
Statute of WestminsterThe Statute of Westminster 1931 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which established a status of legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the British Empire and the United Kingdom, with a few residual exceptions...
of 1931 and culminated in the
Canada ActThe Canada Act 1982 is an Act of Parliament passed by the British Parliament that ended all remaining dependence of Canada on the United Kingdom, by a process known as "patriation"...
of 1982, which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the
British parliamentThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
.
A
federationA federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...
comprising
ten provinces and three territoriesThe provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second largest country. The major difference between a Canadian province and a territory is that provinces are jurisdictions that receive their power and authority directly from the Constitution Act, 1867, whereas territories...
, Canada is a
parliamentary democracyA parliamentary system is a system of government where in the ministers of the executive branch are drawn from the legislature, and are accountable to that body, such that the executive and legislative branches are intertwined...
and a
constitutional monarchyA constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a written , unwritten or blended constitution...
, with
Queen Elizabeth IIElizabeth II is the queen regnant of sixteen independent states known informally as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,...
as its
head of stateHead of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state...
. It is a bilingual and
multiculturalMulticulturalism is the acceptance of multiple ethnic cultures, for practical reasons and/or for the sake of diversity and applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g. schools, businesses, neighborhoods, cities or nations...
country, with both
EnglishCanadian English is the variety of English used in Canada. More than 26 million Canadians have some knowledge of English . Approximately 17 million speak English as their native language. Outside Quebec, 76% of Canadians speak English natively...
and
FrenchCanadian French is an umbrella term for the varieties of the French language used in Canada. French is the mother tongue of about seven million Canadians and is one of the country's two official languages, along with English....
as official languages both at the federal level and in the province of
New BrunswickNew Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only constitutionally bilingual province in the confederation. The provincial capital is Fredericton...
. One of the world's
highly developed countriesThe term developed country is used to describe countries that have a high level of development according to some criteria. Which criteria, and which countries are classified as being developed, is a contentious issue and there is fierce debate about this. Economic criteria have tended to dominate...
, Canada has a diversified economy that is reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon trade—particularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. It is a member of the
G8The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for governments of the six richest countries in the world: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1976, Canada joined the group...
, G-20,
NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
, OECD, WTO,
Commonwealth of NationsThe Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values...
, Francophonie, OAS,
APECAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is a forum for 21 Pacific Rim countries to cooperate on regional trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation. APEC's objective is to enhance economic growth and prosperity in the region and to strengthen the Asia-Pacific community...
, and
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
.
Etymology
The name
Canada comes from a
St. Lawrence IroquoianThe St. Lawrence Iroquoians lived, until the late 16th century, along the shores of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec and Ontario, Canada, and in New York State, United States. What little is known of the St...
word,
kanata, meaning "village" or "settlement". In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day
Quebec CityQuébec , is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in the province – after Montreal, about to the southwest...
region used the word to direct French explorer
Jacques CartierJacques Cartier was a French explorer who claimed what is now Canada for France. He was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big settlements he saw...
towards the village of
StadaconaStadacona was a 16th century St. Lawrence Iroquoian village near present-day Quebec City.French explorer and navigator Jacques Cartier, travelling and charting the Saint Lawrence River, reached it on 7 September 1535. With the aid of two Aboriginals from Stadacona, he was able to travel to...
. Cartier later used the word
Canada to refer not only to that particular village, but also the entire area subject to
DonnaconaChief Donnacona was the chief of Stadacona, a St. Lawrence Iroquoian village located at the present site of Quebec City, Canada. In 1534 when French explorer Jacques Cartier first arrived at Gaspé Bay , he seized two natives, Dom Agaya and Taignoagny, and took them to France...
(the chief at Stadacona); by 1545, European books and maps had begun referring to this region as
Canada.
From the early 17th century onwards, that part of
New FranceNew France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period extending from the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River, by Jacques Cartier in 1534, to the cession of New France to Spain and Britain in 1763...
that lay along the
Saint Lawrence RiverThe Saint Lawrence River is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage of the Great Lakes Basin...
and the northern shores of the
Great LakesThe Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth. They are sometimes referred to as the "Third...
was named
Canada, an area that was later split into two British colonies,
Upper CanadaThe Province of Upper Canada was a British colony located in what is now the southern portion of the Province of Ontario in Canada. Upper Canada officially existed from 26 December 1791 to 10 February 1841 and generally comprised present-day Southern Ontario...
and
Lower CanadaThe Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
, until their re-unification as the
Province of CanadaThe Province of Canada or the United Province of Canada was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham in the Report on the Affairs of British North America following the Rebellions of 1837.The Province of...
in 1841. Upon
ConfederationCanadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed, officially beginning on July 1, 1867, with the new provinces of Ontario and Quebec along with two other British colonies, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which also became provinces.-Usage:Canada is a...
in 1867, the name
Canada was adopted as the legal name for the new country, and
DominionA dominion, often Dominion, refers to one of a group of semi-autonomous polities that were nominally under British sovereignty, constituting the British Empire and British Commonwealth, from the late 19th century. They included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the...
was conferred as the country's title; combined, the term
Dominion of Canada was in common usage until the 1950s. Thereafter, as Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used simply
Canada on state documents and treaties, a change that was reflected in the renaming of the national holiday from
Dominion DayDominion Day is or was a commemoration day of the granting of national status in various Commonwealth countries.-Canada:Dominion Day was the original Anglophone name of the holiday that commemorated the formation of the Dominion of Canada on 1 July 1867...
to
Canada DayCanada Day , formerly Dominion Day , is Canada's national day, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the 1 July 1867 enactment of the British North America Act, which united Canada as a single country, which was in turn composed of four provinces...
in 1982.
History
Aboriginal CanadianAboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors Indian and Eskimo are falling into disuse. Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are the earliest archaeological sites of human habitation in Canada. The Paleo-Indian Clovis, Plano cultures and Pre-Dorset...
traditions maintain that the indigenous people have resided on their lands since the beginning of time, while archaeological studies support a human presence in the northern
YukonYukon , or The Yukon, is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River, Yukon meaning "Great River" in Gwich’in....
from 26,500 years ago, and in southern
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
from 9,500 years ago.
European colonization
Europeans first arrivedThe start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492, although there was at least one earlier colonization effort...
when the
VikingA Viking is one of the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far...
s settled briefly at
L'Anse aux MeadowsL'Anse aux Meadows is an archaeological site on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Discovered in 1960, it is the only known site of a Norse village in North America outside of Greenland...
around AD 1000; following the failure of that colony, there was no further attempt at North American exploration until 1497, when
John CabotGiovanni Caboto known in English as John Cabot, was a Venetian navigator and explorer whose 1497 'discovery' of North America is commonly held to be the first European voyage to the continent since Norseman Leif Ericson's landing in c.1003. The Canadian and United Kingdom government's official...
explored Canada's Atlantic coast for
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, followed by
Jacques CartierJacques Cartier was a French explorer who claimed what is now Canada for France. He was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big settlements he saw...
in 1534 for
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
.
French explorer
Samuel de ChamplainSamuel de Champlain, , , "The Father of New France", was a French navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat and chronicler...
arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at
Port RoyalPort Royal is a small rural community in the western part of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is located on the north shore of the Annapolis Basin, a sub-basin of the Bay of Fundy, near the town of Annapolis Royal...
in 1605 and
Quebec CityQuébec , is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in the province – after Montreal, about to the southwest...
in 1608. Among
French colonistsThe French colonization of the Americas began in the 16th century, and continued in the following centuries as France established a colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere. France founded colonies in much of eastern North America, on a number of Caribbean islands, and in South America...
of New France,
Canadiens extensively settled the
Saint Lawrence RiverThe Saint Lawrence River is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage of the Great Lakes Basin...
valley, Acadians settled the present-day
MaritimesThe Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island....
, while
French fur tradersA coureur des bois was an individual who engaged in the fur trade without permission from the French authorities. The coureurs des bois, mostly of French descent, operated during the late 17th century and early 18th century in eastern North America, particularly in New France...
and
Catholic missionariesRené Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de LaSalle was a French explorer. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico...
explored the Great Lakes,
Hudson BayHudson Bay is a large body of water in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana. A smaller offshoot of the bay,...
, and the Mississippi watershed to
LouisianaLouisiana or French Louisiana was the name of an administrative district of New France. Under French control from 1682-1763 and 1800-03, the area was named in honor of Louis XIV of France, by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle...
. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the
fur tradeThe fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur.-Russian fur trade:Before the colonization of the Americas, Russia was a major supplier of fur-pelts to Western Europe and parts of Asia. Fur was a major Russian export as trade developed in the early Middle...
.
The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the
Thirteen ColoniesThe Thirteen Colonies were part of what became known as British America, a name that was used by Great Britain until the Treaty of Paris recognized the independence of the original thirteen United States of America in 1783...
to the south. A series of four
Intercolonial WarsThe French and Indian Wars is a name used in the United States for a series of conflicts in North America that represented the actions there that accompanied the European dynastic wars. In Quebec, the wars are generally referred to as the Intercolonial Wars...
erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is a Canadian province located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. Its capital, Halifax, is a major economic centre of the region. Nova Scotia is the second-smallest province in Canada with an area of...
came under British rule with the
Treaty of UtrechtThe Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, comprises a series of individual peace treaties, rather than a single document, signed in the Dutch city of Utrecht in March and April 1713. The treaties among several European states, including France, Spain, Great Britain,...
(1713); the
Treaty of Paris (1763)The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on February 10, 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the Seven Years' War. The treaty marked the beginning of an extensive period of British dominance...
ceded Canada and most of
New FranceNew France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period extending from the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River, by Jacques Cartier in 1534, to the cession of New France to Spain and Britain in 1763...
to
BritainThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
following the
Seven Years' WarThe French and Indian War, also known as the War of the Conquest or referred as part of the larger conflict known as the Seven Years' War, was a war fought in North America between 1754 and 1763...
.
The
Royal Proclamation (1763)The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued October 7, 1763, by King George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed
Cape Breton IslandCape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the French word "Breton", referring to Brittany.Cape Breton Island is part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada...
to Nova Scotia. In 1769, St. John's Island (now
Prince Edward IslandPrince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the
Quebec ActThe Quebec Act of 1774 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain setting procedures of governance in the Province of Quebec...
of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and
Ohio ValleyThe Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. It is approximately 981 miles long and is located in the eastern United States....
and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the
American RevolutionThe American Revolution is the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America at first rejected the governance of the Parliament of Great Britain, and later the British monarchy itself, to become the sovereign United States of...
.
The
Treaty of Paris (1783)The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ratified by the Congress of the Confederation on January 14, 1784 and by the King of Great Britain on April 9, 1784 , formally ended the American Revolutionary War between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United States of America, which had...
recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada.
New BrunswickNew Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only constitutionally bilingual province in the confederation. The provincial capital is Fredericton...
was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the
MaritimesThe Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island....
. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the
Constitutional Act of 1791The Constitutional Act of 1791 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain The Constitutional Act of 1791 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain The Constitutional Act of 1791 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (1791 (31 Geo. 3) C A P. XXXI., long title An Act to repeal certain...
divided the province into French-speaking
Lower CanadaThe Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
and English-speaking
Upper CanadaThe Province of Upper Canada was a British colony located in what is now the southern portion of the Province of Ontario in Canada. Upper Canada officially existed from 26 December 1791 to 10 February 1841 and generally comprised present-day Southern Ontario...
, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly.
Canada (Upper and Lower) was the main front in the
War of 1812The War of 1812, between the United States of America and the British Empire , lasted from 1812 to 1815. It was fought chiefly on the Atlantic Ocean and on the land, coasts and waterways of North America.There were several immediate stated causes for the U.S...
between the United States and the British Empire. The defence of Canada contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
. The
timber industryLogging is the process in which certain trees are cut down for forest management and timber.In forestry the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard. In common usage...
surpassed the fur trade in importance in the early nineteenth century.
The desire for
responsible governmentResponsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability which is the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy...
resulted in the aborted
Rebellions of 1837The Rebellions of 1837 were a pair of Canadian armed uprisings that occurred in 1837 and 1838 in response to frustrations in political reform. A key shared goal was the allowance of responsible government.-Rebellions:...
. The Durham Report subsequently recommended responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The
Act of Union 1840The Act of Union passed in July 1840 and proclaimed February 10, 1841, abolished the legislatures of Lower Canada and Upper Canada and established a new political entity, the Province of Canada to replace them...
merged
The CanadasThe Canadas is the collective name for Upper Canada and Lower Canada, two British colonies in Canada. They were both created by the Constitutional Act of 1791 and abolished in 1841 with the union of Upper and Lower Canada....
into a
United Province of CanadaThe Province of Canada or the United Province of Canada was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham in the Report on the Affairs of British North America following the Rebellions of 1837.The Province of...
. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849.
The signing of the
Oregon TreatyThe Oregon Treaty, is a treaty between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United States that was signed on June 15, 1846, in Washington, D.C. The treaty brought an end to the Oregon boundary dispute by settling competing American and British claims to the Oregon Country, which...
by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the
Oregon boundary disputeThe Oregon boundary dispute, or the Oregon Question, arose as a result of competing British and American claims to the Pacific Northwest of North America in the first half of the 19th century. Both the United Kingdom and the United States had territorial and commercial aspirations in the region...
, extending the border westward along the
49th parallelThe 49th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 49 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane.The parallel forms part of the United States-Canadian Border from British Columbia to Manitoba on the Canadian side and from Washington to Minnesota on the U.S. side, or from the Strait of...
and paving the way for British colonies on
Vancouver Island (1849)See main article Vancouver IslandVancouver Island , was a crown colony of British North America from 1849 to 1866, after which it was united with British Columbia. The united colony joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871...
and in
British Columbia (1858)The Colony of British Columbia was a crown colony in British North America from 1858 until 1871. At its creation, it physically constituted approximately half the present day Canadian province of British Columbia, since it did not include the Colony of Vancouver Island, the vast and still...
. Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim
Rupert's LandRupert's Land, also sometimes called "Prince Rupert's Land", was a territory in British North America, consisting of the Hudson Bay drainage basin, that was owned by the Hudson's Bay Company for 200 years from 1670 to 1870. The area once known as Rupert's Land is now mainly a part of Canada, but a...
and the
ArcticThe Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Greenland , Russia, the United States , Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.The word Arctic comes from the Greek αρκτικός , "near...
region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians' moving to
New EnglandNew England is a region of the United States. It is located at the northeastern corner of the US, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the state of New York, consisting of the modern U.S...
.
Canadian Confederation
Following several constitutional conferences, the
Constitution Act, 1867The Constitution Act, 1867 , constitutes a major part of Canada's Constitution...
brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867, with four provinces:
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
,
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
,
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is a Canadian province located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. Its capital, Halifax, is a major economic centre of the region. Nova Scotia is the second-smallest province in Canada with an area of...
, and
New BrunswickNew Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only constitutionally bilingual province in the confederation. The provincial capital is Fredericton...
. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the
North-Western TerritoryThe North-Western Territory was a region of British North America until 1870. Named for where it lay in relation to Rupert's Land, the territory at its greatest extent covered what is now Yukon, mainland Northwest Territories, northwestern mainland Nunavut, northwestern Saskatchewan, northern...
to form the
Northwest TerritoriesThe Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada....
, where
the Métis'The Métis peoples of Canada are descended of marriages of Cree, Ojibway, Algonquin, Saulteaux, Menominee, Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, and other First Nations to Europeans, mainly French. Along with the First Nations and Inuit, the Métis are one of the three officially recognized Aboriginal peoples in Canada...
grievances ignited the
Red River RebellionThe Red River Rebellion or Red River Resistance are names given to the events surrounding the actions of a provisional government established by Métis leader Louis Riel in 1869 at the Red River Settlement in what is now the Canadian province of Manitoba....
and the creation of the province of
ManitobaManitoba is a prairie province in Canada and has an area of . Manitoba is bordered by the provinces of Ontario to the east and Saskatchewan to the west, the territory of Nunavut to the north, and the U.S. states of North Dakota and Minnesota to the south...
in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had
united in 1866The United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia was the name informally given to the de facto amalgamation of the two crown colonies from 1866 until their incorporation into the Canadian Confederation in 1871.- Background :...
) and the colony of
Prince Edward IslandPrince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
joined the Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively.
Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of Canada is the primary Minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government of Canada. The office is not outlined in any of the documents that constitute the written portion of the constitution of Canada; executive authority is formally vested in the...
John A. Macdonald'sSir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , was the first Prime Minister of Canada and the dominant figure of Canadian Confederation. Macdonald's tenure in office spanned 18 years, making him the second longest serving Prime Minister of Canada. He is the only Canadian Prime Minister to win...
ConservativeThe Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...
government established a
national policyThe National Policy was a Canadian economic program introduced by John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party in 1876 and put into action in 1879. It called for high tariffs on imported manufactured items to protect the manufacturing industry...
of
tariffA tariff is a duty imposed on goods when they are moved across a political boundary.-History:...
s to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the
Canadian Pacific RailwayThe Canadian Pacific Railway , known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a Canadian Class I railway operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited. Its rail network stretches from Vancouver to Montreal, and also serves major cities in the United States such as Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York City...
), opened the prairies to settlement with the
Dominion Lands ActThe Dominion Lands Act was an 1872 Canadian law that aimed to encourage the settlement of Canada's prairie provinces. It was closely based on the United States Homestead Act, setting the parameters within which western land could be settled and its natural resources developed...
, and established the
North-West Mounted PoliceThe Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal, provincial and municipal policing body...
to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the
Klondike Gold RushThe Klondike Gold Rush, sometimes referred to as the Yukon Gold Rush or Alaska Gold Rush, was a frenzy of gold rush immigration to and for gold prospecting, along the Klondike River near Dawson City, Yukon, Canada after gold was discovered there in the late 19th century...
in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government created the
YukonYukon , or The Yukon, is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River, Yukon meaning "Great River" in Gwich’in....
territory. Under
LiberalThe Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is a major political party in Canada. The party sits between the centre-left and centre of the Canadian political spectrum. The party currently forms the Official Opposition in the Parliament of Canada since the 2006 federal election...
Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of Canada is the primary Minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government of Canada. The office is not outlined in any of the documents that constitute the written portion of the constitution of Canada; executive authority is formally vested in the...
Wilfrid LaurierSir Wilfrid Laurier, GCMG, PC, KC, baptized Henri-Charles-Wilfrid Laurier was the seventh Prime Minister of Canada from July 11, 1896, to October 5, 1911....
, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and
AlbertaAlberta is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1, 1905.Alberta is located in western Canada, bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S. state of Montana to the south....
and
SaskatchewanSaskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of and a population of 1,023,810 , mostly living in the southern half of the province. Of these, 233,923 live in the province's largest city, Saskatoon, while 194,971 live in the provincial capital, Regina...
became provinces in 1905.
Canada automatically entered
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front, who later became part of the
Canadian CorpsFor other uses of Canadian Corps, see Canadian Corps The Canadian Corps was a World War I corps formed from the Canadian Expeditionary Force in September 1915 after the arrival of the 2nd Canadian Division in France. The corps was expanded by the addition of the 3rd Canadian Division in December...
. The Corps played a substantial role in the
Battle of Vimy RidgeThe Battle of Vimy Ridge was a military engagement fought as part of the Battle of Arras, in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France, during the First World War. The main combatants were the Canadian Corps against three divisions of the German Sixth Army...
and other major battles of the war. The
Conscription Crisis of 1917The Conscription Crisis of 1917 was a political and military crisis in Canada during World War I.-Background:Officially, Canada entered World War I at 20:45 on 4 August 1914. This came automatically as a result of Britain declaring war on Germany. Colonel Sam Hughes was the Canadian Minister of...
erupted when conservative Prime Minister
Robert BordenSir Robert Laird Borden PC GCMG KC was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served as the eighth Prime Minister of Canada from October 10, 1911, to July 10, 1920, and was the third Nova Scotian to hold this office...
brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the
League of NationsThe League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
independently of Britain; in 1931, the
Statute of WestminsterThe Statute of Westminster 1931 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which established a status of legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the British Empire and the United Kingdom, with a few residual exceptions...
affirmed Canada's independence.
The
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the
Co-operative Commonwealth FederationThe Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was a Canadian political party founded in 1932 in Calgary, Alberta, by a number of socialist, farm, co-operative and labour groups, and the League for Social Reconstruction...
(CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan enacted many measures of a
welfare stateThere are two main interpretations of the idea of a welfare state:* A model in which the state assumes primary responsibility for the welfare of its citizens...
as pioneered by
Tommy DouglasThomas Clement "Tommy" Douglas, PC, CC, SOM was a Scottish-born Baptist minister who became a prominent Canadian social democratic politician....
in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada
declared war on GermanyThe military history of Canada during the Second World War began with a declaration of war on Germany on September 10, 1939 and encompassed major campaigns in Italy and Northern Europe. Canada was active in defending the shipping lanes in the North Atlantic and the Canadian Merchant Navy completed...
independently during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
under Liberal Prime Minister
William Lyon Mackenzie KingWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was a Canadian lawyer, economist, university professor, civil servant, journalist, fisherman, waiter, teacher and politician. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921, to June 28, 1926; September 25, 1926, to August 6, 1930;...
, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939.
Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942
Dieppe RaidThe Dieppe Raid, also known as The Battle of Dieppe, Operation Rutter or later on Operation Jubilee, during the Second World War, was an Allied attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe on the northern coast of France on 19 August 1942. The assault began at 5:00 AM in the morning and by 9:00 AM...
in France, the
Allied invasion of ItalyThe Allied invasion of Italy, was the Allied landing on mainland Italy on September 3, 1943, by General Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group during World War II. The operation followed the successful invasion of Sicily during the Italian Campaign...
, the
D-DayD-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
landings, the
Battle of NormandyOperation Overlord was the code name for the invasion of western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation began on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy Landings when an airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault...
, and the
Battle of the ScheldtThe Battle of the Scheldt was a series of military operations of the First Canadian Army, led by Lieutenant General Guy Simonds. The battle took place in northern Belgium and southwestern Netherlands during World War II from October 2, 1944 to November 8, 1944By September, 1944, it had become...
in 1944. Canada is credited by the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
for having provided asylum and protection for its
monarchyThe person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch. It was a common form of government in the world during the ancient and medieval times. A Monarchy is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an individual, who is the head of state, often for life or...
during the war after the country was occupied, and for its leadership and major contribution to the liberation of Netherlands from
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military
materielMateriel is a term used in English to refer to the equipment and supplies in military and commercial supply chain management....
for Canada, Britain, China, and the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
. Despite another
Conscription CrisisThe Conscription Crisis of 1944 was a political and military crisis following the introduction of forced military service in Canada during World War II...
in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1945, during the war, Canada became one of the founding members of the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
.
This growth, combined with the policies of successive Liberal governments, led to the emergence of a new
Canadian identityCanadian identity refers to the set of characteristics and symbols that many Canadians regard as expressing their unique place and role in the world....
, marked by the adoption of the current
Maple Leaf FlagThe National Flag of Canada, also known as the Maple Leaf, and , is a red flag with a white square in its centre, featuring a stylized 11-pointed red maple leaf. Its adoption in 1965 marked the first time a national flag had been officially adopted in Canada to replace the Union Flag...
in 1965, the implementation of
official bilingualismOfficial bilingualism refers to the policy adopted by some states of recognizing two languages as official and producing all official documents, and handling all correspondence and official dealings, including Court procedure, in the two said languages....
(
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
and
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
) in 1969, and official multiculturalism in 1971.
Socially democraticSocial democracy is a political ideology of the political left and centre-left on the classic political spectrum. Social democracy emerged in the late 19th century from the socialist movement and continues to exert influence worldwide....
programmes were also founded, such as
universal health careMedicare is the unofficial name for Canada's publicly funded universal health insurance system. The formal terminology for the insurance system is provided by the Canada Health Act and the health insurance legislation of the individual provinces and territories.Under the terms of the Canada Health...
, the
Canada Pension PlanThe Canada Pension Plan is a contributory, earnings-related social insurance program. It forms one of the two major components of Canada's public retirement income system, the other component being Old Age Security...
, and
Canada Student LoansStudent loans in Canada help post-secondary students pay for their education in Canada. The federal government funds the Canada Student Loan Program and the provinces may fund their own programs or run in parallel with the CSLP...
, though provincial governments, particularly Quebec and Alberta, opposed many of these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, another series of constitutional conferences resulted in the
patriationPatriation is a non-legal term used in Canada to describe a process of constitutional change also known as "homecoming" of the constitution. The term is based upon the word repatriation, since critics of the use of the word "repatriation" pointed out that the constitution could not "return" to...
of Canada's constitution from the United Kingdom, concurrent with the creation of the
Charter of Rights and FreedomsThe Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...
.
At the same time, Quebec was undergoing profound social and economic changes through the
Quiet RevolutionThe Quiet Revolution was the 1960s period of intense change in Quebec, Canada, characterized by the rapid and effective secularization of society, the creation of a welfare state and a re-alignment of politics into federalist and separatist factions.The provincial government took over the fields...
, giving birth to a
nationalist-1534–1774:Canada was first a French colony. Jacques Cartier claimed it for France in 1534, and permanent French settlement began in 1608. It was part of New France, which constituted all French colonies in North America. Up until 1760, "Canadien" nationalism had developed itself free of all...
movement in the province and the more radical
Front de libération du QuébecThe Front de Libération du Québec , commonly known as the FLQ, was a left-wing nationalist and socialist revolutionary group in Quebec, Canada, with at least two terrorist cells. It was responsible for more than 200 bombings, including the bombing of the Montreal Stock Exchange in 1969 and the...
(FLQ), whose actions ignited the
October CrisisThe October Crisis was a series of events triggered by two kidnappings of government officials by members of the Front de libération du Québec during October 1970 in the province of Quebec...
in 1970. A decade later, an unsuccessful
referendumA referendum , ballot question, or plebiscite is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal...
on
sovereignty-associationThe Quebec sovereignty movement refers to the history and present status of multiple, multi-lateral political movements aimed at attaining statehood for the Canadian province of Quebec. Supporters of the movement advocate a variety of proposals...
was held in 1980, after which
attempts at constitutional amendmentThe Meech Lake Accord was a set of failed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the provincial premiers, including Premier of Quebec Robert Bourassa. It was intended to persuade the government of the Province of Quebec to endorse the 1982...
failed in 1989. A second referendum followed in 1995, in which sovereignty was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the
Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeal in the Canadian justice system...
ruled that
unilateral secessionReference re Secession of Quebec, [1998] 2 S.C.R. 217 was an opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada regarding the legality, under both Canadian and international law, of a unilateral secession of Quebec from Canada....
by a province would be unconstitutional, and the
Clarity ActThe Clarity Act is legislation passed by the Parliament of Canada that established the conditions under which the Government of Canada would enter into negotiations that might lead to secession following such a vote by one of the provinces...
was passed by parliament, outlining the terms of a negotiated departure from Confederation.
After various
peacekeepingPeacekeeping, as defined by the United Nations, is "a way to help countries torn by conflict create conditions for sustainable peace." It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking....
missions between the 1950s and 1990s, Canada engaged in the
NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
-led
Afghan WarThe War in Afghanistan is an ongoing coalition conflict which began on October 7, 2001, as the British military participated in the US military's Operation Enduring Freedom that was launched in response to the September 11 attacks...
in 2001, though Canada subsequently refused to participate in the
2003 invasion of IraqThe 2003 invasion of Iraq, was led by the United States, backed by British forces and smaller contingents from Australia, Denmark, Poland and Spain. Four countries participated with troops during the initial invasion phase, which lasted from March 20 to May 1...
. At home, following various legal battles, as well as some violent confrontations at
OkaThe Oka Crisis was a land dispute between the Mohawk nation and the town of Oka, Quebec which began on July 11, 1990, and lasted until September 26, 1990...
,
IpperwashThe Ipperwash Crisis was an Indigenous land dispute that occurred in Ipperwash Provincial Park, Ontario in 1995. Several members of the Stoney Point Ojibway band occupied the park in order to assert their claim to nearby land which had been expropriated from them during WW2...
, and
Gustafsen LakeThe Gustafsen Lake Standoff was an indigenous land dispute involving the Secwepemc Nation in British Columbia, Canada which began on June 15, 1995, and lasted until September 17, 1995.-The Standoff begins:...
, in 1999 Canada recognized
InuitInuit is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, and Alaska...
self-government with the creation of
NunavutNunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999 via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
territoryThe provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second largest country. The major difference between a Canadian province and a territory is that provinces are jurisdictions that receive their power and authority directly from the Constitution Act, 1867, whereas territories...
, settled
Nisga'aThe Nisga'a Final Agreement is a treaty settled between the Nisa'a, the government of British Columbia, and the Government of Canada. As part of the settlement in the Nass River valley nearly 2,000 square kilometres of land was officially recognized as Nisa'a, and a 300,000 cubic decameter water...
claims in British Columbia, and in 2008, the prime minister apologised for the creation of
residential schoolsFounded in the 19th century, the Canadian Indian residential school system was intended to force the assimilation of Canadian Aboriginal and First Nations people into European-Canadian society...
by previous governments.
Government and politics
Canada has a parliamentary government with strong democratic traditions.
ParliamentThe Parliament of Canada is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa. Formally, the body consists of the Canadian monarch represented by her Governor General the Senate, and the House of Commons, each element having its own officers and...
is made up of
the CrownThe Crown is a corporation sole that in certain countries of the Commonwealth of Nations, as well as in any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof, represents the legal embodiment of executive government...
, an elected House of Commons, and an appointed Senate.
Each
Member of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of...
in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in an electoral district or riding. General elections must be called by the
prime ministerThe Prime Minister of Canada is the primary Minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government of Canada. The office is not outlined in any of the documents that constitute the written portion of the constitution of Canada; executive authority is formally vested in the...
within five years of the previous election, or may be triggered by the government's losing a confidence vote in the House.
Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the prime minister and formally appointed by the
governor generalThe Governor General of Canada is the viceregal representative in the federal jurisdiction of the Canadian monarch and head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, who is equally shared with 15 other sovereign nations in a form of personal union, but resides predominantly in her oldest realm,...
and serve until age 75. Four parties had representatives elected to the federal parliament in the 2008 elections: the
Conservative Party of CanadaThe Conservative Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Tories, is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. The party is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
(governing party), the
Liberal Party of CanadaThe Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is a major political party in Canada. The party sits between the centre-left and centre of the Canadian political spectrum. The party currently forms the Official Opposition in the Parliament of Canada since the 2006 federal election...
(Official Opposition), the
New Democratic PartyThe New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a social democratic political party in Canada. In the Canadian House of Commons, it holds a centre-left position in the Canadian political spectrum. The leader of the federal NDP is Jack Layton...
(NDP), and the
Bloc QuébécoisThe Bloc Québécois is a federal political party in Canada that defines itself as devoted to both the protection of Quebec's interests on a federal level as well as the promotion of its sovereignty...
. The list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial.
Canada's federalist structureCanadian federalism is one of the three pillars of the constitutional order, along with responsible government and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms....
divides government responsibilities between the federal government and the ten
provincesThe provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second largest country. The major difference between a Canadian province and a territory is that provinces are jurisdictions that receive their power and authority directly from the Constitution Act, 1867, whereas territories...
.
UnicameralUnicameralism is the practice of having only one legislative or parliamentary chamber. Many countries with unicameral legislatures are often small and homogeneous unitary states and consider an upper house or second chamber unnecessary.-Concept:...
provincial legislatures operate in parliamentary fashion similar to the
House of CommonsThe House of Commons is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate.
The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament .
Members are elected by simple...
. Canada's three
territoriesThe provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second largest country. The major difference between a Canadian province and a territory is that provinces are jurisdictions that receive their power and authority directly from the Constitution Act, 1867, whereas territories...
also have legislatures, but with fewer constitutional responsibilities than the provinces and with some structural differences (for example, the
Legislative Assembly of NunavutThe Legislative Assembly of Nunavut is located in Iqaluit, and is the territory's parliament.The Assembly was opened by Queen Elizabeth II, as Queen of Canada, on 7 October 2002, during her Golden Jubilee tour of Canada...
has no parties and operates on consensus).
Canada is also a
constitutional monarchyA constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a written , unwritten or blended constitution...
, with
The CrownThe Crown is a corporation sole that in certain countries of the Commonwealth of Nations, as well as in any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof, represents the legal embodiment of executive government...
acting as a symbolic or ceremonial executive.
The Crown consists of Queen Elizabeth II (legal head of state) and her appointed viceroys, the governor general (acting head of state), and provincial lieutenant-governors, who perform most of the monarch's ceremonial roles.
The political executive consists of the prime minister (head of government) and the
CabinetThe Cabinet of Canada is a body of ministers of the Crown that, within the tenets of the Westminster system, forms, along with the Canadian monarch, the government of Canada...
and carries out the day-to-day decisions of government. The Cabinet is made up of ministers usually selected from the House of Commons and headed by the prime minister,
who is normally the leader of the party that holds the confidence of the House of Commons.
The
Prime Minister's OfficeIn Canada, the Office of the Prime Minister , located in the Langevin Block, on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, is one of the most powerful parts of the government. It is made up of the Prime Minister and his or her top political staff, who are charged with advising the Prime Minister on decisions,...
(PMO) is one of the most powerful institutions in government, initiating most legislation for parliamentary approval and selecting, besides other Cabinet members, senators, federal court judges, heads of Crown corporations and government agencies, and the governor general. The Crown formally approves parliamentary legislation and the prime minister's appointments.
The leader of the party with the second most seats usually becomes the
leader of the oppositionIn Canada, Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition , commonly known as the Official Opposition, is usually the largest parliamentary opposition party in the House of Commons or a provincial legislative assembly that is not in government either on its own or as part of a governing coalition...
and is part of an adversarial parliamentary system that keeps the government in check.
Michaëlle JeanMichaëlle Jean is the current Governor General of Canada. She was appointed as such by Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, on the recommendation of then Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, to replace Adrienne Clarkson as vicereine...
has served as governor general since September 27, 2005;
Stephen HarperStephen Joseph Harper, PC, MP is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada, and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became Prime Minister after his party won a minority government in the January 2006 federal election...
, leader of the
Conservative PartyThe Conservative Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Tories, is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. The party is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
, has been prime minister since February 6, 2006; and
Michael IgnatieffMichael Grant Ignatieff is the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition in Canada. Widely known for his work as an historian and author, Ignatieff held senior academic posts at the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the...
, leader of the
Liberal Party of CanadaThe Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is a major political party in Canada. The party sits between the centre-left and centre of the Canadian political spectrum. The party currently forms the Official Opposition in the Parliament of Canada since the 2006 federal election...
, has been Leader of the Opposition since December 10, 2008.
Law
The constitutionThe Constitution of Canada is the supreme law in Canada; the country's constitution is an amalgamation of codified acts and uncodified traditions and conventions...
is the supreme law of the country, and consists of written text and unwritten conventions. The
Constitution Act, 1867The Constitution Act, 1867 , constitutes a major part of Canada's Constitution...
(known as the
British North America (BNA) ActThe British North America Acts 1867–1975 are the original names of a series of Acts at the core of the constitution of Canada. They were enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the Parliament of Canada. In Canada, some of the Acts were amended or repealed by the Constitution Act,...
prior to 1982), affirmed governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments; the
Statute of Westminster, 1931The Statute of Westminster 1931 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which established a status of legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the British Empire and the United Kingdom, with a few residual exceptions...
, granted full autonomy; and the
Constitution Act, 1982The Constitution Act, 1982 is a part of the Constitution of Canada. The Act was introduced as part of Canada's process of "patriating" the constitution, introducing several amendments to the British North America Act, 1867, and changing the latter's name in Canada to the Constitution Act, 1867...
, added the
Canadian Charter of Rights and FreedomsThe Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...
, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms that usually cannot be overridden by any level of government—though a
notwithstanding clauseSection Thirty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is part of the Constitution of Canada. It is commonly known as the notwithstanding clause , or as the override power, and it allows Parliament or provincial legislatures to override certain portions of the Charter.-Text:The...
allows the federal parliament and provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter for a period of five years—and added a constitutional amending formula.
Canada's
judiciaryThe judiciary is the system of courts which interprets and applies the law in the name of the sovereign or state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes...
plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The
Supreme Court of CanadaThe Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeal in the Canadian justice system...
is the highest court and final arbiter and has been led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice
Beverley McLachlinBeverley McLachlin, PC is the Chief Justice of Canada, the first woman to hold that position.-Early life:Born Beverley Gietz in Pincher Creek, Alberta, the eldest child of Ernest Gietz and Eleanora Kruschell, she received a BA and a MA degree in philosophy and an LL.B degree Beverley McLachlin, PC...
, P.C. since 2000. Its nine members are appointed by the
governor generalThe Governor General of Canada is the viceregal representative in the federal jurisdiction of the Canadian monarch and head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, who is equally shared with 15 other sovereign nations in a form of personal union, but resides predominantly in her oldest realm,...
on the advice of the Prime Minister and Minister of Justice. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed after consultation with nongovernmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet also appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments.
Common lawCommon law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through legislative statutes or executive action, and to corresponding legal systems that rely on precedential case law....
prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where
civil lawCivil law is a legal system inspired by Roman law, the primary feature of which is that laws are written into a collection, codified, and not determined, as in common law, by judges. The principle of civil law is to provide all citizens with an accessible and written collection of the laws which...
predominates.
Criminal lawThe criminal law of Canada is under the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government. The power to enact criminal law is derived from section 91 of the Constitution Act, 1867...
is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal
Royal Canadian Mounted PoliceThe Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal, provincial and municipal policing body...
.
Foreign relations and military
Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended
borderBorders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, states or subnational administrative divisions. They may foster the setting up of buffer zones...
, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partner. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
and declining to participate in the
Iraq WarThe Iraq War, also known as the Occupation of Iraq or Operation Iraqi Freedom, is an ongoing military campaign which began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force led by troops from the United States and the United Kingdom.Prior to the war, the governments of the United...
. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the
Commonwealth of NationsThe Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values...
and the Francophonie. Canada is noted for having a strong and positive relationship with the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
(which Canada helped liberate during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
), and the Dutch government traditionally gives tulips, a symbol of the Netherlands, to Canada each year in remembrance of Canada's contribution to its liberation.
Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 65,000 regular and 25,000 reserve personnel. The unified
Canadian ForcesThe Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...
(CF) comprise the
armyLand Force Command , often also called the Canadian Army, is responsible for army operations within the Canadian Forces.The current size of Land Force Command is 19,500 regular soldiers and 16,000 reserve soldiers, for a total of around 35,500 soldiers.LFC maintains regular forces units at bases...
,
navyCanadian Forces Maritime Command , also known as the Canadian Navy, is the maritime force of the Canadian Forces. While equal in rank and position, The Chief of the Maritime Staff takes precedence over the Chiefs of the Land and Air Staffs following the tradition of the Royal Navy.MARCOM is the...
, and
air forceCanadian Forces Air Command , also known as the Canadian Air Force, is the air force element of the Canadian Forces. AIRCOM is the descendant of the Royal Canadian Air Force , which was Canada's air force from its foundation in 1924 until February 1, 1968...
.
Strong attachment to the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
and Commonwealth in
English CanadaEnglish Canada is a term used to describe one of the following:# English Canadians, a term usually meaning English-speaking Canadians, as opposed to French-speaking Canadian. It is employed when comparing English- and French-language literature, media, or art...
led to major participation in British military efforts in the
Second Boer WarThe Second Boer War , commonly referred to as The Boer War and also known as the South African War , the Anglo-Boer War and in Afrikaans as the Anglo-Boereoorlog or Tweede Vryheidsoorlog , or the Engelse oorlog was fought...
, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for
multilateralismMultilateralism is a term in international relations that refers to multiple countries working in concert on a given issue.Most international organizations, such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization are multilateral in nature...
, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada was a founding member of the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
in 1945 and of
NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
in 1949. During the
Cold WarCanada played a middle power, and an occasionally important, role in the Cold War. Throughout the US/Soviet rivalry, Canada was normally on the side of the United States and the West...
, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the
Korean WarThe Korean War is a war that started between North Korea and South Korea on 25 June 1950 and paused with an armistice signed 27 July, 1953...
and founded the
North American Aerospace Defense CommandNorth American Aerospace Defense Command is a joint organization of Canada and the United States that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and defense for the two countries. It was founded on May 12, 1958 as a joint command between the governments of Canada and the United States, as the...
(NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union.
Canada played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts during the 20th Century. During the
Suez CrisisThe Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, was a military attack on Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel beginning on 29 October 1956....
of 1956, then-future Prime Minister
Lester B. PearsonLester Bowles "Mike" Pearson, PC, OM, CC, OBE was a Canadian statesman, diplomat and politician who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis...
eased tensions by proposing the inception of the
United Nations Peacekeeping ForcePeacekeeping, as defined by the United Nations, is "a way to help countries torn by conflict create conditions for sustainable peace." It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking....
. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989, and has since maintained forces in international missions in
RwandaThe Republic of Rwanda is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa, bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Home to approaching 10 million people, Rwanda supports the densest population in continental Africa, most of whom...
, the former
YugoslaviaYugoslavia is a term that describes three political entities that existed successively on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century.The first country to be known by this...
, and elsewhere. The number of Canadian military personnel participating in peacekeeping missions has decreased greatly in the 21st Century. As of June 30, 2006, 133 Canadians served on United Nations peacekeeping missions worldwide, including 55 Canadian military personnel, compared with 1149 military personnel as of August 31, 1991 and 1044 military personnel as of December 31, 1996.
Canada joined the
Organization of American StatesThe Organization of American States is an international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States. Its members are the thirty-five independent states of the Americas with two countries suspended...
(OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in
WindsorWindsor is the southernmost major city in Canada and lies in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, although administratively separated from the county government. Windsor is located south of Detroit, is separated...
,
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
, in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in
Quebec CityQuébec , is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in the province – after Montreal, about to the southwest...
in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to
Pacific RimThe Pacific Rim refers to the countries and cities located around the edge of the Pacific Ocean. There are many economic centers around the Pacific Rim, such as Auckland, Busan, Brisbane, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Lima, Los Angeles, Manila, Melbourne, Panama City, Portland, San Diego, San...
economies through membership in the
Asia-Pacific Economic CooperationAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is a forum for 21 Pacific Rim countries to cooperate on regional trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation. APEC's objective is to enhance economic growth and prosperity in the region and to strengthen the Asia-Pacific community...
forum (APEC).
Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
as part of the
U.S. stabilization forceThe War in Afghanistan is an ongoing coalition conflict which began on October 7, 2001, as the British military participated in the US military's Operation Enduring Freedom that was launched in response to the September 11 attacks...
and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded
International Security Assistance ForceInternational Security Assistance Force is a NATO-led security and development mission in Afghanistan established by the United Nations Security Council on 20 December 2001 as envisaged by the Bonn Agreement.- Overview :...
. Canada has committed to withdraw from
Kandahar ProvinceKandahar or Qandahar is one of the largest of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is located in southern Afghanistan, between Helmand, Oruzgan and Zabul provinces. Its capital is the city of Kandahar, which is located on the Arghandab River. The province has a population of nearly...
by 2011, by which time it will have spent an estimated total of $11.3 billion on the mission.
Canada and the U.S. continue to integrate state and provincial agencies to strengthen security along the
Canada-United States borderThe Canada – United States border, officially known as the International Boundary, is the longest non-militarized border in the world...
through the
Western Hemisphere Travel InitiativeThe Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative requires all travelers to show a valid passport or other WHTI-compliant document when traveling to the United States from areas within the Western Hemisphere. The purpose, according to the U.S. Department of State and U.S...
. Canada's
Disaster Assistance Response TeamThe Disaster Assistance Response Team is a rapidly deployable team of 200 Canadian Forces personnel to provide assistance to disaster-affected regions for up to 40 days....
(DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in recent years; the two-hundred-member team has been deployed in relief operations after the
2004 Indian Ocean earthquakeThe 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
in South Asia,
Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest hurricane, as well as one of the five deadliest, in the history of the United States...
in 2005, and the
Kashmir earthquakeThe 2005 Kashmir Earthquake was a major earthquake centered in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and in North West Frontier Province near the city of Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. It occurred at 08:52:37 Pakistan Standard Time on 8 October, 2005...
in October 2005.
In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in
Arctic watersUnder international law, no country currently owns the North Pole or the region of the Arctic Ocean surrounding it. The five surrounding Arctic states, Russia, the United States , Canada, Norway and Denmark , are limited to a economic zone around their coasts.Upon ratification of the United...
was challenged following a
Russian expeditionArktika 2007 was a 2007 expedition in which Russia performed the first ever crewed descent to the ocean bottom at the North Pole, as part of research related to the 2001 Russian territorial claim, one of many territorial claims in the Arctic, made possible, in part, because of Arctic shrinkage...
that planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the
North PoleThe North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets the Earth's surface...
. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925.
There have historically been and remain
multiple border disputes with the USA. There are individual disputes with Denmark over
Hans IslandHans Island is a small, uninhabited barren knoll measuring , located in the centre of the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait—the strait that separates Ellesmere Island from northern Greenland and connects Baffin Bay with the Lincoln Sea...
and with France over the maritime boundaries of
Saint-Pierre and MiquelonThe Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a group of small French islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, the main islands being Saint Pierre and Miquelon, south of the Canadian province of Newfoundland & Labrador...
.
Provinces and territories
Canada is a
federationA federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...
composed of ten
provinceA province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Roman provinces:The word is attested in English since c.1330, deriving from Old French province , which comes from the Latin word provincia, which referred to the sphere of activity which a...
s and three territories; in turn, these may be
grouped into regions.
Western CanadaWestern Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and commonly as the West, is a region of Canada generally including all parts of Canada west of the province of Ontario. The West is considered by many to be a cultural region with an identity separate from that of the rest of Canada...
consists of
British ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . In 1871, it became the sixth province of Canada.The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the 15th largest metropolitan region in Canada...
and the three
Prairie provincesThe Canadian Prairies is a region of Canada, specifically in Western Canada, which may correspond to several different definitions, natural or political. Notably, the Prairie provinces or simply the Prairies comprise the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, as they are much covered by...
(
AlbertaAlberta is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1, 1905.Alberta is located in western Canada, bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S. state of Montana to the south....
,
SaskatchewanSaskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of and a population of 1,023,810 , mostly living in the southern half of the province. Of these, 233,923 live in the province's largest city, Saskatoon, while 194,971 live in the provincial capital, Regina...
, and
ManitobaManitoba is a prairie province in Canada and has an area of . Manitoba is bordered by the provinces of Ontario to the east and Saskatchewan to the west, the territory of Nunavut to the north, and the U.S. states of North Dakota and Minnesota to the south...
).
Central CanadaCentral Canada is a region consisting of Canada's two largest and most populous provinces: Ontario and Quebec. Due to their high populations, Ontario and Quebec have traditionally held a significant amount of political power in Canada, leading to some amount of resentment from other regions of the...
consists of
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
and
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
.
Atlantic CanadaAtlantic Canada, also known as the Atlantic provinces, is the region of Canada comprising four provinces located on the Atlantic coast: the three Maritime provinces – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island – and Newfoundland and Labrador...
consists of the three
Maritime provincesThe Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island....
(
New BrunswickNew Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only constitutionally bilingual province in the confederation. The provincial capital is Fredericton...
,
Prince Edward IslandPrince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
, and
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is a Canadian province located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. Its capital, Halifax, is a major economic centre of the region. Nova Scotia is the second-smallest province in Canada with an area of...
), along with
Newfoundland and LabradorNewfoundland and Labrador is a province of Canada on the country's Atlantic coast in northeastern North America. This easternmost Canadian province comprises two main parts: the island of Newfoundland off the country's eastern coast, and Labrador on the mainland to the northwest of the island.A...
.
Eastern CanadaEastern Canada is generally considered to be the region of Canada east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces:* New Brunswick* Newfoundland and Labrador* Nova Scotia* Ontario* Prince Edward Island* Quebec...
refers to Central Canada and Atlantic Canada together. Three territories (
YukonYukon , or The Yukon, is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River, Yukon meaning "Great River" in Gwich’in....
,
Northwest TerritoriesThe Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada....
, and
NunavutNunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999 via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
) make up
Northern CanadaNorthern Canada, colloquially the North, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut...
. Provinces have
more autonomyCanadian federalism is one of the three pillars of the constitutional order, along with responsible government and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms....
than territories. Each has its own
provincial or territorial symbols.
The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as
health careHealth care in Canada is delivered through a publicly-funded health care system, which is mostly free at the point of use and has most services provided by private entities. It is guided by the provisions of the Canada Health Act....
,
educationEducation in Canada is provided, funded and overseen by federal, provincial, and local governments. Education is within provincial jurisdiction and the curriculum is overseen by the province. Education in Canada is generally divided into Elementary , followed by Secondary and Post Secondary...
, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the
Canada Health ActThe Canada Health Act is a piece of Canadian federal legislation, adopted in 1984, which specifies the conditions and criteria with which the provincial and territorial health insurance programs must conform in order to receive federal transfer payments under the Canada Health Transfer...
; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice.
Equalization paymentsEqualization payments are cash payments made in some federal systems of government from the federal government to state or provincial governments with the objective of offsetting differences in available revenue or in the cost of providing services.-Canada:...
are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces.
Geography and climate
Canada occupies a major northern portion of
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
, sharing land borders with the
contiguous United StatesThe term contiguous United States refers to the 48 U.S. states located on the North American continent south of the border with Canada, plus the District of Columbia....
to the south and the
U.S. stateA U.S. state is any one of 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government . Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile...
of
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
to the northwest, stretching from the
Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
in the east to the
Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
in the west; to the north lies the
Arctic OceanThe Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest, and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions.
The International Hydrographic Organization recognizes it as an ocean, although some...
. By total area (including its waters), Canada is the second largest country in the world—after Russia—and largest on the
continentA continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criterion, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents – they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...
. By land area, it ranks second.
Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60°W and 141°W
longitudeLongitude , identified by the Greek letter lambda , is the geographic coordinate most commonly used in cartography and global navigation for east-west measurement...
, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada (and the world) is
Canadian Forces Station (CFS) AlertCanadian Forces Station Alert, also CFS Alert, is a Canadian Forces signals intelligence intercept facility located in Alert, Nunavut on the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island, at ....
on the northern tip of
Ellesmere IslandEllesmere Island is part of the Qikiqtaaluk Region of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. Lying within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago it is considered part of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, with Cape Columbia being the most northerly point of land in Canada. It comprises an area of , making it the...
—latitude 82.5°N—just 817 kilometres (450
nautical mileThe nautical mile is a unit of length corresponding approximately to one minute of arc of latitude along any meridian....
s, 508 miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres (151,000 miles).
The
population densityPopulation density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans. It is a key term used in geography....
, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the
Quebec City-Windsor CorridorThe Quebec City–Windsor Corridor is the most densely-populated and heavily-industrialised region of Canada. With over 17 million people , it contained 56.8% of the Canadian population and three of the four largest metropolitan areas in the country...
, (Southern
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
–
Southern OntarioSouthern Ontario is the portion of the Canadian province of Ontario lying south of the French River and Algonquin Park. Depending on the inclusion of the Parry Sound and Muskoka districts, its surface area would cover between 14-15% of the province. It is the southernmost region of Canada.Southern...
) along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast.
To the north of this region is the broad
Canadian ShieldThe Canadian Shield — also called the Laurentian Plateau, or Bouclier Canadien — is a massive geological shield covered by a thin layer of soil that forms the nucleus of the North American or Laurentia craton...
, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age—thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has much of the world's fresh water.
In eastern Canada, most people live in large urban centres on the flat
Saint Lawrence LowlandsThe St. Lawrence Lowlands is an ecoregion of the Mixedwood Plains, a physiographic region of Canada and the United States. It is sometimes named the "Great Lakes/St...
. The
Saint Lawrence RiverThe Saint Lawrence River is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage of the Great Lakes Basin...
widens into the world's largest
estuaryAn estuary is a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries are thus subject to both marine influences, such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water; and riverine influences, such as flows of...
before flowing into the
Gulf of Saint LawrenceThe Gulf of Saint Lawrence , the world's largest estuary, is the outlet of North America's Great Lakes via the Saint Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. It is a semi–enclosed sea, covering an area of about 236 000 km2 and containing 35000 km3 of water...
. The gulf is bounded by Newfoundland to the north and the
MaritimesThe Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island....
to the south. The Maritimes protrude eastward along the
Appalachian MountainThe Appalachian Mountains , often called the Appalachians, are a vast system of mountains in eastern North America. Definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians...
range, from northern
New EnglandNew England is a region of the United States. It is located at the northeastern corner of the US, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the state of New York, consisting of the modern U.S...
and the
Gaspé PeninsulaThe Gaspésie or also Gaspé Peninsula or the Gaspé is a peninsula constituting part of the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, in Quebec, Canada...
of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the
Bay of FundyThe Bay of Fundy is a bay on the Atlantic coast of North America, on the northeast end of the Gulf of Maine between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine...
, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and
Hudson BayHudson Bay is a large body of water in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana. A smaller offshoot of the bay,...
dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat
Canadian PrairiesThe Canadian Prairies is a region of Canada, specifically in Western Canada, which may correspond to several different definitions, natural or political. Notably, the Prairie provinces or simply the Prairies comprise the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, as they are much covered by...
spread toward the
Rocky MountainsThe Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in Canada, to New Mexico, in the United States. The range's highest peak is Mount Elbert in Colorado at above sea level...
, which separate them from British Columbia.
In northwestern Canada, the
Mackenzie RiverThe Mackenzie River originates in Great Slave Lake, in the Northwest Territories, and flows north into the Arctic Ocean. It is the longest river in Canada at and, together with its headstreams the Peace and the Finlay, the second longest river in North America at in length. The Mackenzie and...
flows from the
Great Slave LakeGreat Slave Lake is the second-largest lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada , the deepest lake in North America at , and the ninth-largest lake in the world. It is long and wide. It covers an area of in the southern part of the territory. Its volume is...
to the
Arctic OceanThe Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest, and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions.
The International Hydrographic Organization recognizes it as an ocean, although some...
. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the
South Nahanni RiverThe South Nahanni River is the centrepiece of Nahanni National Park Reserve, located roughly 500 kilometres west of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is one of the hardest rivers to go canoing in...
, which is home to
Virginia FallsVirginia Falls is a waterfall in Nahanni National Park Reserve, Northwest Territories, Canada. It has a total drop of 96 meters , making it about twice the height of Niagara Falls. The rock in the center of the falls is called Mason's Rock, named after Bill Mason, the famous Canadian canoeist,...
, a waterfall about twice as high as
Niagara FallsThe Niagara Falls are voluminous waterfalls on the Niagara River, straddling the international border between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York...
.
Northern CanadianNorthern Canada, colloquially the North, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut...
vegetation tapers from
coniferousThe conifers, division Pinophyta, also known as division Coniferophyta or Coniferae, are one of 13 or 14 division level taxa within the Kingdom Plantae. Pinophytes are gymnosperms. They are cone-bearing seed plants with vascular tissue; all extant conifers are woody plants, the great majority...
forests to
tundraIn physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes from Kildin Sami tūndâr, which means "uplands, treeless mountain tract." There are two types of tundra: Arctic tundra and alpine tundra...
to the Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast
archipelagoThe Canadian Arctic Archipelago, also known as just the Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago north of the Canadian mainland in the Arctic...
containing some of the
world's largest islands.
Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces, which experience a
continental climateContinental climate is a climate that is characterized by winter temperatures cold enough to support a fixed period of snow cover each year, and relatively moderate precipitation occurring mostly in summer, although east coast areas may show an even distribution of precipitation.Regions containing...
, where daily average temperatures are near −15 °
CCelsius is a temperature scale that is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death...
(5 °
FFahrenheit is the temperature scale proposed in 1724 by, and named after, the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit . Today, the scale has been replaced by the Celsius scale in most countries; it is still in use for non-scientific purposes in the United States and a few other nations, such as...
) but can drop below −40 °C (−40 °F) with severe
wind chillWind chill is the apparent temperature felt on exposed skin due to wind. The degree of this phenomenon depends on both air temperature and wind speed. The wind chill temperature is always lower than the air temperature for values where the wind chill formula is valid...
s. In noncoastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception; it enjoys a temperate climate, with a mild and rainy winter.
On the east and west coast, average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s °C (70s °F), while between the coasts, the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 °C (75 to 85 °F), with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 °C (104 °F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada, see Environment Canada's Website.
Canada is also geologically active, having many
earthquakeAn earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph...
s and potentially active
volcano3. Conduit
4. Base
5. Sill
6. Dike
7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano
8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano
10. Throat
11. Parasitic cone
12. Lava flow
13. Vent
14. Crater
15...
es, notably
Mount MeagerMount Meager, also called the Meager Group, Meager Mountain, Mount Meager Volcanic Complex or Meager Creek Volcanic Field , is a potentially active volcanic group, located north of the city of Vancouver and northwest of Pemberton, British Columbia, Canada...
,
Mount GaribaldiMount Garibaldi is a potentially active stratovolcano in the Sea to Sky Country of British Columbia, north of Vancouver, Canada. Located in the southernmost Coast Mountains, it is one of the most recognized peaks in the South Coast region, as well as British Columbia's best known volcano...
,
Mount CayleyMount Cayley is a potentially active stratovolcano in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Located north of Squamish and west of Whistler in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains, it rises above the Squamish River to the west and above the Cheakamus...
, and the
Mount Edziza volcanic complexThe Mount Edziza volcanic complex is a large and potentially active north-south trending complex volcano in Stikine Country, northwestern British Columbia, Canada, located southeast of the small community of Telegraph Creek...
. The volcanic eruption of
Tseax ConeThe Tseax Cone, also called the Tseax River Cone or the Aiyansh Volcano , is a young cinder cone and adjacent lava flows associated with the Nass Ranges and the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province. It is located east of Crater Creek at outlet of Melita Lake, southeast of Gitlakdamix and north...
in 1775 caused a catastrophic disaster, killing 2,000
Nisga'aThe Nisga'a , often formerly spelled Nishga and spelled in the Nisga'a language as Nis
ga'a, are an Indigenous nation or First Nation in Canada. They live in the Nass River valley of northwestern British Columbia. Their name comes from a combination of two Nisga’a words: Nis
k’-"top...
people and the destruction of their village in the
Nass RiverThe Nass River is a river in northern British Columbia, Canada. It flows 380 km from the Coast Mountains southwest to Nass Bay, a sidewater of Observatory Inlet, itself an arm of Portland Inlet, which connects to the North Pacific Ocean via the Dixon Entrance.Nass is a Tlingit word meaning...
valley of northern
British ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . In 1871, it became the sixth province of Canada.The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the 15th largest metropolitan region in Canada...
; the eruption produced a lava flow, and according to legend of the Nisga'a people, it blocked the flow of the Nass River.
Economy
Canada is one of the world's
wealthiest nations, with a high per capita income, and is a member of the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and DevelopmentThe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international organisation of 30 countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and free-market economy...
(OECD) and the
G8The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for governments of the six richest countries in the world: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1976, Canada joined the group...
. It is one of the world's top ten trading nations. Canada is a
mixed marketA mixed economy is an economic system that includes a variety of public and government control, or a mixture of capitalism and socialism.There is not one single definition for a mixed economy, but relevant aspects include: a degree of private economic freedom intermingled with centralized economic...
, ranking lower than the U.S. but higher than most western European nations on the
Heritage Foundation'sThe Heritage Foundation is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C.The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership. Heritage has since continued to...
index of economic freedom. Since the early 1990s, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly, with low
unemploymentUnemployment occurs when a person is available to work and seeking work but currently without work. The prevalence of unemployment is usually measured using the unemployment rate, which is defined as the percentage of those in the labor force who are unemployed...
and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today, Canada resembles the U.S. in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards.
As of February 2009, Canada's national unemployment rate was 7.77%. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. According to the Forbes Global 2000 list of the world's largest companies in 2008, Canada had 69 companies in the list, ranking 5th next to France.
As of 2008, Canada’s total
government debtGovernment debt is money owed by any level of government; either central government, federal government, municipal government or local government...
burden is the lowest in the G8. The
OECDThe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international organisation of 30 countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and free-market economy...
projects that Canada's net debt-to-GDP ratio will decline to 19.5% in 2009, less than half of the projected average of 51.9% for all G8 countries. According to these projections, Canada's debt burden will have fallen over 50 percentage points from the peak in 1995, when it was the second highest in the G8.
In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other
first world nationsThe terms First World, Second World, and Third World were used to divide nations into three broad categories. The three terms did not arise simultaneously. After World War II, people began to speak of the NATO and Warsaw Pact countries as two major blocs, often using such terms as the "Western...
, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the
loggingLogging is the process in which certain trees are cut down for forest management and timber.In forestry the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard. In common usage...
and
oilPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds.The term "petroleum" was first used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in...
industries being two of Canada's most important.
Canada is one of the few developed nations that are net exporters of
energyIn physics, energy is a scalar physical quantity that describes the amount of work that can be performed by a force, an attribute of objects and systems that is subject to a conservation law...
.
Atlantic CanadaAtlantic Canada, also known as the Atlantic provinces, is the region of Canada comprising four provinces located on the Atlantic coast: the three Maritime provinces – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island – and Newfoundland and Labrador...
has vast offshore deposits of
natural gasNatural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills...
and large
oilPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds.The term "petroleum" was first used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in...
and gas resources are centred in
AlbertaAlberta is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1, 1905.Alberta is located in western Canada, bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S. state of Montana to the south....
. The immense
Athabasca Oil SandsThe Athabasca Oil Sands are large deposits of bitumen, or extremely heavy crude oil, located in northeastern Alberta, Canada - roughly centered around the boomtown of Fort McMurray...
give Canada the world's second-largest
oil reservesOil reserves are the estimated quantities of crude oil that are claimed to be recoverable under existing economic and operating conditions.The total estimated amount of oil in an oil reservoir, including both producible and non-producible oil, is called oil in place...
, behind
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south...
. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, and Yukon,
hydroelectricityHydroelectricity is electricity generated by hydropower, i.e., the production of power through use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy.
Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of
wheatWheat is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Fertile Crescent region of the Near East. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
,
canolaCanola is one of two cultivars of rapeseed or Brassica campestris . Their seeds are used to produce edible oil that is fit for human consumption because it has lower levels of erucic acid than traditional rapeseed oils and to produce livestock feed because it has reduced levels of the toxin...
, and other grains. Canada is internationally the largest producer of
zincZinc , also known as spelter, is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
and
uraniumUranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table that has the symbol U and atomic number 92. Besides its 92 protons, a uranium nucleus can have between 141 and 146 neutrons. The most common uranium isotopes are U-238 and U-235 . A uranium atom has...
and a world leader in many other natural resources such as
goldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
,
nickelNickel is a chemical element, with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. It is one of the four ferromagnetic elements at about room temperature, other three being iron, cobalt and gadolinium...
,
aluminiumAluminium or aluminum is a silvery white and ductile member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al; its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
, and
leadLead is a main-group element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metals. Lead has a bluish-white color when freshly cut, but tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed to air...
; many towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with
automobileAn automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
s and
aeronauticsAeronautics is the science involved with the study, design, and manufacture of flight-capable machines, or the techniques of operating aircraft...
representing particularly important industries.
Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. This has prompted
Canadian nationalistsCanadian nationalism is a term which has been applied to ideologies of several different types which highlight and promote specifically Canadian interests over those of other countries, notably the United States...
to worry about cultural and economic autonomy in an age of
globalizationGlobalization describes an ongoing process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of communication and exchange....
as American television shows, movies, and corporations have become ubiquitous. The
Automotive Products Trade AgreementThe Automotive Products Trade Agreement, commonly known as the Auto Pact or APTA, was an important trade agreement between Canada and the United States. It was signed by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson and President Lyndon B...
in 1965 opened the borders to trade in the auto manufacturing industry. In the 1970s, concerns over energy self-sufficiency and foreign ownership in the manufacturing sectors prompted
Pierre TrudeauJoseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, PC, CC, CH, QC, MSRC , was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968, to June 4, 1979, and from March 3, 1980, to June 30, 1984.Pierre Trudeau was a charismatic figure who, from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s,...
's Liberal government to set up the
National Energy ProgramThe National Energy Program was an energy policy of the Government of Canada. It was enacted by the government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1980, and administered by the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources.-Description:...
(NEP) and Foreign Investment Review Agency (FIRA).
In the 1980s,
Brian MulroneyMartin Brian Mulroney, PC, CC, GOQ was the eighteenth Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of highly contentious economic...
's Progressive Conservatives abolished the NEP and changed the name of FIRA to Investment Canada in order to encourage foreign investment. The
Canada-United States Free Trade AgreementThe Free Trade Agreement was a trade agreement signed by Canada and the United States onOctober 4, 1988. The agreement, finalized by October 1987, removed several trade restrictions in stages over a ten year period, and resulted in a great increase in cross-border trade.As dictated by the...
(FTA) of 1988 eliminated tariffs between the two countries, while
North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) expanded the free trade zone to include
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in the 1990s.
In the mid-1990s, the Liberal government under
Jean ChrétienJoseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , is a Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003, and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1990 to 2003.-Early life:Chrétien was born on January 11, 1934 in Shawinigan, Quebec, as the 18th of 19...
began posting annual budgetary surpluses and began steadily paying down the national debt. Since 2001, Canada has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. The global financial crisis hit Canada with a recession and could boost the country's unemployment rate to 10%. Despite the global recession, Canada’s labour market is in need of hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, according to the Canadian Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism.
Demographics
Canada's
2006 censusThe Canada 2006 Census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day was May 16 2006. The next census following will be the 2011 Census. Canada's total population enumerated by the 2006 census was 31,612,897...
counted a total population of 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from
immigrationImmigration to Canada is the process by which people migrate to Canada to reside permanently in the country. Many, but not all, become citizens. People have been migrating to the geographic region of Canada for hundreds of years, with rates of immigration and source countries varying throughout time...
and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population live within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the United States border. A similar proportion live in
urban areaAn urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
s concentrated in the
Quebec City-Windsor CorridorThe Quebec City–Windsor Corridor is the most densely-populated and heavily-industrialised region of Canada. With over 17 million people , it contained 56.8% of the Canadian population and three of the four largest metropolitan areas in the country...
(notably the
Greater Golden HorseshoeThe Golden Horseshoe is a densely populated and industrialized region centred around the western end of Lake Ontario in Southern Ontario, Canada, with outer boundaries stretching south to Lake Erie and north to Georgian Bay. Most of it is also part of the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor...
, including
TorontoToronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America...
and area,
MontrealMontreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
, and
OttawaThe National Capital Region is an official federal designation for the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Ontario, the neighbouring city of Gatineau, Quebec, and the surrounding area....
), the BC
Lower MainlandThe Lower Mainland is a name commonly applied to the region surrounding Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In 2007, 2,524,113 people live in the region; sixteen of the province's thirty most populous municipalities are located there....
(consisting of the region surrounding
VancouverVancouver is a coastal city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The city is bounded by English Bay, Burrard Inlet, the Fraser River, the city of Burnaby, and the University Endowment Lands. Vancouver is named after Captain George Vancouver, a...
), and the
Calgary-Edmonton CorridorThe Calgary-Edmonton Corridor is a geographical region of the Canadian province of Alberta. It is the most urbanized region in the province and one of the densest in Canada. It consists of Statistics Canada census divisions No. 11, No. 8, and No. 6. The area is also considered an urban...
in Alberta.
According to the 2006 census, there are 43 ethnic origins that at least 100,000 people in Canada claim in their background.
The largest ethnic group is
EnglishAn English Canadian is a Canadian whose principal language is English or who is of English ancestry; it is used primarily in contrast with French Canadian. Canada is an officially bilingual and multicultural country, with French and English official language communities...
(21%), followed by
FrenchFrench Canadian refers to a nation or ethnic group of French descent that originated in Canada during the period of French colonization beginning in the 17th century. They constitute the main French-speaking population of Canada...
(15.8%),
ScottishScottish Canadians are people of Scottish descent or heritage living in Canada. As the third-largest ethnic group in Canada and among the first to settle in Canada, Scottish people have made a large impact on Canadian culture since colonial times...
(15.2%),
IrishIrish Canadians are immigrants and descendants of immigrants who originated in Ireland. The 2006 census by Statistics Canada, Canada's Official Statistical office revealed that the Irish were the 4th largest ethnic group with 4,354,155 Canadians with full or partial Irish descent or 14% of the...
(13.9%), German (10.2%), Italian (5%),
ChineseChinese Canadians are Canadians of Chinese descent and constitute the largest visible minority group in Canada, standing at 1,216,570 which comprises 3.9% of the population in 2006. Out of those 1,216,570 people, 211,145 people were of Chinese and one other ethnic origin.-History:The first record...
(4%),
UkrainianA Ukrainian Canadian is a person of Ukrainian descent or origin who was born in or immigrated to Canada. In 2006, there were an estimated 1,209,085 persons residing in Canada of Ukrainian origin, making them Canada's ninth largest ethnic group, and giving Canada the world's third-largest Ukrainian...
(3.6%), and
First NationsFirst Nations is a term of ethnicity that refers to the Aboriginal peoples in Canada, who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 600 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread all across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia...
(3.5%). Approximately one third of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's
aboriginalAboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors Indian and Eskimo are falling into disuse. Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are the earliest archaeological sites of human habitation in Canada. The Paleo-Indian Clovis, Plano cultures and Pre-Dorset...
population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average, and 3.8% of Canada's population claimed aboriginal identity in 2006. Also, 16.2% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal
visible minoritiesVisible minority is a term used primarily in Canada to describe persons who are not visibly of the majority race in a given population.The term is used as a demographic category by Statistics Canada in connection with that country's Employment Equity policies...
. The largest visible minority groups in Canada are
South AsiaSouth Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east...
n (4.1%),
ChineseChinese Canadians are Canadians of Chinese descent and constitute the largest visible minority group in Canada, standing at 1,216,570 which comprises 3.9% of the population in 2006. Out of those 1,216,570 people, 211,145 people were of Chinese and one other ethnic origin.-History:The first record...
(4%) and Black (2.5%).
In 2006, 51.0% of
Vancouver'sVancouver is a coastal city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The city is bounded by English Bay, Burrard Inlet, the Fraser River, the city of Burnaby, and the University Endowment Lands. Vancouver is named after Captain George Vancouver, a...
population and 46.9% of
TorontoToronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America...
's population were
visible minoritiesVisible minority is a term used primarily in Canada to describe persons who are not visibly of the majority race in a given population.The term is used as a demographic category by Statistics Canada in connection with that country's Employment Equity policies...
. In March 2005,
Statistics CanadaStatistics Canada is the Canadian federal government department commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture....
projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. A survey released in 2007 reveals that virtually 1 in 5 Canadians (19.8%) are foreign born. Nearly 60% of new immigrants hail from Asia (including the Middle East).
Canada has the one of the highest per capita immigration rates in the world, driven by
economic policyThe economic impact of immigration is an important topic in Canada. Throughout its history Canada has relied on a large stream of immigrants for its economic success...
and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of
refugeeUnder the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality,...
s. In 2009, approximately 265,000 new migrants are expected to arrive in Canada. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of
MontrealMontreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
,
TorontoToronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America...
, and
VancouverVancouver is a coastal city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The city is bounded by English Bay, Burrard Inlet, the Fraser River, the city of Burnaby, and the University Endowment Lands. Vancouver is named after Captain George Vancouver, a...
. In the 2006 census, there were 5,068,100 people considered to belong to a visible minority, making up 16.2% of the population. Between 2001 and 2006, the visible minority population rose by 27.2%.
In common with many other developed countries, Canada is experiencing a demographic shift towards an older population, with more retirees and fewer people of working age. In 2006, the average age of the civilian population was 39.5 years. The census results also indicate that despite an increase in immigration since 2001 (which gave Canada a higher rate of population growth than in the previous intercensal period), the aging of Canada's population did not slow in the period.
Support for
religious pluralismReligious pluralism is a loosely defined expression concerning acceptance of different religions, and is used in a number of related ways:...
is an important part of
Canada's political cultureCanadian political culture is in some ways part of a greater North American and European political culture, which emphasizes constitutional law, freedom of religion, personal liberty, and regional autonomy; these ideas stemming in various degrees from the British common law and French civil law...
. According to the 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identify as being
ChristiansChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
; of this,
CatholicsCatholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole...
make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest
ProtestantProtestantism is a branch within Christianity, containing many denominations with some differing practices and doctrines, that principally originated in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. It is considered to be one of the major divisions within Christianity, together with the Roman...
denomination is the
United Church of CanadaThe United Church of Canada, the second-largest Christian denomination in Canada after the Roman Catholic Church, is an evangelical Protestant denomination founded in 1925 as a merger of four Protestant denominations:...
(9.5% of Canadians), followed by the Anglicans (6.8% of Canadians), Baptists (2.4% of Canadians), Lutherans (2% of Canadians), other Christians, 4.4%. About 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% are affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
, numbering 1.9%, followed by
JudaismJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
at 1.1%.
Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar, while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5–7 to 16–18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate of 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans, and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had postsecondary education; for those aged 25 to 34, the postsecondary education rate reaches 51%.
Culture
Canadian culture has historically been influenced by
BritishThe British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, one of the Channel Islands, or of one of the British overseas territories, and their descendants. In a historical context, the term refers to the ancient Britons, the indigenous inhabitants of Great Britain south of the...
,
FrenchFrench people can refer to:* The legal residents and citizens of France, regardless of ancestry. For a legal discussion, see French nationality law.* People whose ancestors lived in France or the area that later became France....
, and
AboriginalAboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors Indian and Eskimo are falling into disuse. Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are the earliest archaeological sites of human habitation in Canada. The Paleo-Indian Clovis, Plano cultures and Pre-Dorset...
cultures and traditions. It has also been heavily influenced by
American cultureThe development of the culture of the United States of America — History, Holidays, Sports, Religion, Cuisine, Literature, Poetry, Music, Dance, Visual Arts, Cinema, and Architecture — has been marked by a tension between two strong sources of inspiration: European ideals, especially British, and...
due to its proximity and the high rate of migration between the two countries. The great majority of English speaking immigrants to Canada between 1755–1815 were Americans from the Thirteen Colonies. During the War of Independence, 46,000 Americans were exiled because of their loyalty to Britain and came to Canada. Between 1785 and 1812, 30,000 moved to Canada—the so-called Late Loyalists—in response to promises of land, provided that they agreed to swear allegiance to the Crown.
American media and entertainment are popular, if not dominant, in English Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the U.S. and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market.
The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws, and institutions such as the
Canadian Broadcasting CorporationThe Canadian Broadcasting Corporation , a Canadian crown corporation, is the country’s national public radio and television broadcaster. In French, it is called la Société Radio-Canada...
(CBC), the
National Film Board of CanadaThe National Film Board of Canada is Canada's public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes innovative, socially relevant documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions. Its name in French is Office national...
(NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is the basis of
Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and FreedomsSection Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a section of the Charter that, as part of a range of provisions within the section 25 to section 31 bloc, helps determine how rights in other sections of the Charter should be interpreted and applied by the courts...
.
National symbolsNational symbols of Canada are the symbols that are used in Canada and abroad to represent the country and its people. Prominently, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century, and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of...
are influenced by natural, historical, and
First NationsFirst Nations is a term of ethnicity that refers to the Aboriginal peoples in Canada, who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 600 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread all across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia...
sources. Particularly, the use of the
maple leafThe maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree, and is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada.At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the settlements of New France had attained a population of about 18,000...
as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its
currentThe National Flag of Canada, also known as the Maple Leaf, and , is a red flag with a white square in its centre, featuring a stylized 11-pointed red maple leaf. Its adoption in 1965 marked the first time a national flag had been officially adopted in Canada to replace the Union Flag...
and
previousThe Canadian Red Ensign is the former flag of Canada, used officially by the federal government though it was never adopted as official by the Parliament of Canada. It is a British Red Ensign, featuring the Union Flag in the canton, defaced with the shield of the Coat of Arms of Canada.-History:The...
flags, the
pennyIn Canada, a penny is a coin worth one cent or of a dollar. According to the Royal Canadian Mint, the official national term of the coin is the "one-cent piece", but in practice the term penny or cent is universal. Before, a penny referred to a two cent coin. When the two cent coin was...
, and on the
coat of armsThe Arms of Canada is, since 1921, the official coat of arms of the Canadian monarch, and thus also of Canada...
. Other prominent symbols include the
beaverThe beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, Castor canadensis and Castor fiber . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
,
Canada GooseThe Canada Goose is a wild goose belonging to the genus Branta, which is native to Arctic and temperate regions of North America, having a black head and neck, white patches on the face, and a brownish-gray body...
,
Common LoonThe Great Northern Loon, Great Northern Diver, or Common Loon , is a large member of the loon, or diver, family of birds...
, the Crown, the
RCMPThe Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal, provincial and municipal policing body...
, and more recently, the
totem poleTotem poles are monumental sculptures carved from large trees, usually cedar, but mostly Western Red Cedar, by cultures of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America...
and
InukshukAn inuksuk is a man-made stone landmark or cairn, used by the Inuit, Inupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America, from Alaska to Greenland...
.
Canada's official national
sportsThe sporting culture of Canada consists of a variety of games. Although there are many contests that Canadians value, the most common are ice hockey, Canadian football, basketball, soccer, and baseball....
are
hockeyIce Hockey is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a puck into the opposing team's goal. It is a fast-paced and physical sport...
in the winter and
lacrosseLacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin that is played using a small solid rubber ball and a long-handled racquet called a crosse or lacrosse stick. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose netting that is designed to hold the lacrosse ball...
in the summer. Hockey is a
national pastimeA national sport is a sport or game that is considered to be an intrinsic part of the culture of a nation. In American English the term national pastime is often used. Some sports are de facto National sport while others are defined by law....
and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is also the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas—Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton—have franchises in the
National Hockey LeagueThe National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league as a joint venture for its self perpetuating membership of 30 franchised member clubs located in the United States and Canada...
(NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include
curlingCurling is a team game with similarities to bowls and shuffleboard, played by two teams of four players each on a rectangular sheet of carefully prepared ice. Teams take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones down the ice towards the target...
and
footballCanadian football is a form of gridiron football played almost exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide , attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area...
; the latter is played professionally in the
Canadian Football LeagueThe Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located entirely in Canada.Its eight teams, which are located in eight cities, are divided into two divisions of four teams each . The league's nineteen-week regular season runs from mid-June to early November. Each team plays...
(CFL).
GolfGolf is a precision club-and-ball sport, in which competing players , using many types of clubs, attempt to hit balls into each hole on a golf course while employing the fewest number of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that does not require a standardized playing area...
,
baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond...
,
skiingSkiing is a group of sports using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....
,
soccerSoccer is one of the most popular sports played in Canada. According to FIFA's Big Count, 2,695,712 people played in Canada in 2006. Making it arguably the second-most popular sport in Canada behind hockey.-Terminology:...
,
volleyball Volleyball is an Olympic team sport in which two teams of 6 players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules...
, and
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of 5 players try to score points against one another by placing a ball through a
10 foot high hoop under organized rules...
are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread.
Canada hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the
1976 Summer OlympicsThe 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1976...
, the
1988 Winter OlympicsThe 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Calgary, Alberta and opened by the 23rd Governor General of Canada: Jeanne Sauvé....
, and the
2007 FIFA U-20 World CupThe 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the sixteenth edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup , hosted by Canada from June 30 to July 22, 2007. Argentina defeated Czech Republic in the title game by the score of 2–1, thus managing a back-to-back world title, its fifth in the past seven editions, and sixth...
. Canada will be the host country for the
2010 Winter OlympicsThe 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, will be held February 12-28 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the resort town of Whistler nearby...
in
VancouverVancouver is a coastal city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The city is bounded by English Bay, Burrard Inlet, the Fraser River, the city of Burnaby, and the University Endowment Lands. Vancouver is named after Captain George Vancouver, a...
and
Whistler, British ColumbiaWhistler is a Canadian resort town in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the province of British Columbia, Canada, approximately north of Vancouver...
.
Language
Canada's two official languages are
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
and
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
. Official bilingualism is defined in the
Canadian Charter of Rights and FreedomsThe Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...
, the
Official Languages ActThe Official languages Act is a law adopted by the Parliament of Canada in 1969 and substantially amended in 1988. The law gives English and French equal status in the government of Canada. This makes them “official” languages, having preferred status in law over all other languages...
, and
Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the
Commissioner of Official LanguagesThe Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, an office of the Canadian government, is responsible for achieving the objectives of, and promoting, Canada's Official Languages Act....
. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. Citizens have the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official-language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories.
English and French are the
mother tonguesA first language is the language a human being learns from birth...
of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (67.5% speak English only, 13.3% speak French only, and 17.7% speak both). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population respectively.
Although more than 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in
OntarioFranco-Ontarians are French Canadian or francophone residents of the Canadian province of Ontario. They are sometimes known as "Ontarois"....
,
AlbertaThe Franco-Albertans are an extended community of French Canadians or French-speaking people living in Alberta. They are centred in the Bonnie Doon area of Edmonton, and there are tens of thousands of Franco-Albertans living in communities such as Legal north of Edmonton, Bonnyville, Plamondon, and...
, and southern
ManitobaFranco-Manitobans are a community of French Canadians or French-speaking people living in Manitoba. Most Franco-Manitobans have roots in Québec, however many are of Métis and Belgian ancestry while others have ancestors that came directly from France and its former colonies. Some have English,...
. New Brunswick, the only officially bilingual province, has an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of that province, constituting 33% of the population. There are also clusters of Acadians in southwestern Nova Scotia, on
Cape Breton IslandCape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the French word "Breton", referring to Brittany.Cape Breton Island is part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada...
, and through central and western
Prince Edward IslandPrince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The
Charter of the French LanguageThe Charter of the French Language , also known as Bill 101 and Loi 101, is a law in the province of Quebec in Canada defining French, the language of the majority of the population, as the only official language of Quebec and framing fundamental language rights for everyone in the province...
makes French the official language in Quebec.
Other provinces have no official languages as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and for other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in the Northwest Territories.
InuktitutInuktitut is the name of some of the Inuit languages spoken in Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, to some extent in northeastern Manitoba as well as the territories of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories,...
is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory.
Languages other than the two official languages are significant in Canada, with over six million people listing one as a first language. Some of the most common non-official first languages include
ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
(mainly Cantonese) (1,012,065 first-language speakers),
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
(455,040),
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
(450,570),
PunjabiPunjabi or Panjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region ....
(367,505) and
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
(345,345).
International rankings
|- "
! Organization
! Survey
! Ranking
|-
| State of World Liberty ProjectThe State of World Liberty Index is a ranking of countries according to the degree of economic and personal freedoms which their citizens enjoy; each country is given a score between 0 and 100...
| State of World Liberty IndexThe State of World Liberty Index is a ranking of countries according to the degree of economic and personal freedoms which their citizens enjoy; each country is given a score between 0 and 100...
| 3 out of 159
|- style="background:#efefef; color:black"
| United Nations Development ProgrammeThe United Nations Development Programme is the United Nations' global development network. The UNDP is an executive board within the United Nations General Assembly...
| Human Development IndexThe Human Development Index is an index used to rank countries by level of "human development", which usually also implies whether a country is developed, developing, or underdeveloped.-Summary:...
| 4 out of 180
|-
| A.T. KearneyA.T. Kearney is a global management consulting firm, focusing on strategic and operational CEO-agenda concerns. The stated mission of A.T. Kearney is to help the world’s leading corporations gain and sustain competitive advantage, and achieve profound, tangible results. Its slogan is: Ideas that last...
/Foreign Policy MagazineForeign Policy is a bimonthly American magazine founded in 1970 by Samuel P. Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel. Under the stewardship of editor-in-chief Moises Naim, Foreign Policy evolved from an academic quarterly in the 1990s to a bimonthly glossy, winning the 2009, 2007, and 2003 National...
| Globalization Index 2007
| 8 out of 72
|- style="background:#efefef; color:black"
| IMD InternationalThe International Institute for Management Development is a non profit business school located in Lausanne, Switzerland.- History & Mission :...
| World Competitiveness Yearbook 2008
| 8 out of 55
|-
| World BankThe World Bank Group is a family of five international organizations that makes leveraged loans, generally to poor countries. The Bank came into formal existence on 27 December 1945 following international ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements, which emerged from the United Nations Monetary...
| Ease of Doing Business 2009
| 8 out of 181
|- style="background:#efefef; color:black"
| The EconomistThe Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in an office in the City of Westminster, London. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843. While The Economist calls itself a...
| The World in 2005 – Worldwide quality-of-life index, 2005
| 14 out of 111
|-
| Yale UniversityYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
/Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
| Environmental Sustainability Index, 2005 (pdf)
| 6 out of 146
|- style="background:#efefef; color:black"
| Reporters Without BordersReporters Without Borders, or RWB is a Paris-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985 by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud...
Worldwide
| Press Freedom Index 2008
| 13 out of 173
|-
| Transparency InternationalTransparency International is an international non-governmental organization addressing corruption . This includes, but is not limited to, political corruption. It is widely known for producing its annual Corruptions Perceptions Index , a comparative listing of corruption worldwide. The...
| Corruption Perceptions Index 2008
| 9 out of 180
|- style="background:#efefef; color:black"
| Heritage FoundationThe Heritage Foundation is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C.The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership. Heritage has since continued to...
/The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is an English-language international daily newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, in New York City, with Asian and European editions. As of 2007, it has a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million, with approximately 931,000...
| Index of Economic Freedom, 2008 (odf)
| 7 out of 157
|-
| The EconomistThe Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in an office in the City of Westminster, London. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843. While The Economist calls itself a...
| Global Peace IndexThe Global Peace Index is an attempt to measure the relative position of nations’ and regions’ peacefulness. It is maintained by the Institute for Economics and Peace and developed in consultation with an international panel of peace experts from peace institutes and think tanks with data...
| 11 out of 140
|- style="background:#efefef; color:black"
| Fund for PeaceThe Fund for Peace is an independent Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit research and educational organization. Since its founding in 1957 by investment banker Randolph Compton, The Fund for Peace has been dedicated to preventing war and alleviating the conditions that cause war...
/ForeignPolicy.com
| Failed States Index, 2007
| 168 out of 177
|-
| World Economic ForumThe World Economic Forum is a Geneva-based non-profit foundation best known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland which brings together top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world...
| Soundness of banks (2008-2009)
| 1 out of 134
|- style="background:#efefef; color:black"
| The EconomistThe Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in an office in the City of Westminster, London. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843. While The Economist calls itself a...
| Democracy IndexThe Economist has in a study examined the state of democracy in 167 countries and attempted to quantify this with an Economist Intelligence Unit Index of Democracy which focused on five general categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political...
| 11 out of 167
|}
See also
- Index of Canada-related articles
External links
Government
Crown corporations
Other