Canada

Canada Formal Name:Canada Common Name:Canada
Flag Coat of arms of Canada Coat of arms
Motto: Latin: A Mari Usque Ad Mare (English: "From Sea to Sea")
Anthem: O Canada (Royal anthem: God Save the Queen)
Capital	Ottawa
Largest city	Toronto
Official languages	English and French
Government	Federal parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy
Independence
• Water (%)	8.92 (891,163 km²)
Population
• May 2006 estimate	32,529,014 (36th)
• 2001 census	30,007,094
GDP (PPP)	2006 estimate
• Total	$1.077 trillion (11th)
• Per capita	$34,273 (7th)
HDI (2003)	0.949 very high (5th)
Currency	Canadian dollar ($) (CAD)
Time zone	UTC-3.5 to -8
• Summer (DST)	UTC-2.5 to -7
Calling code	1
ISO 3166 code	CA
Internet TLD	.ca

For other uses, see Canada (disambiguation).

Canada is a country occupying most of the northern portion of North America, and is the world's second largest country in total area.

Originally inhabited exclusively by aboriginal peoples, Canada was founded as a union of British colonies, some of which had earlier been French colonies. Now a federal dominion of ten provinces with three territories, Canada peacefully obtained sovereignty from its last colonial possessor, the United Kingdom, in a process beginning in 1867 with its formation and ending in 1982 when Canada gained the authority to amend its own constitution.

Canada is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy. Canada's head of state is its monarch, who is represented in Canada by the Governor General. The head of government is the Prime Minister.

Canada defines itself as a bilingual and multicultural nation. Both English and French are official languages. In the early 1970s, Canada began to adopt policies based on the concepts of cultural diversity and multiculturalism. Many Canadians now view this as one of the country's key attributes, but there are critics of the multiculturalism policy as well.

A technologically advanced and industrialized nation, Canada is a net exporter of energy because of its large fossil fuel deposits, nuclear energy generation, and hydroelectric power capacity. Its diversified economy relies heavily on an abundance of natural resources and trade, particularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship.

Canada's name

Main article: Canada's name

The name Canada is believed to come from the Huron-Iroquois word kanata, which means "village" or "settlement". In 1535, locals used the word to tell Jacques Cartier the way to the village of Stadacona , site of present-day Quebec City. Cartier used Canada to refer not only to Stadacona, but also to the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona; by 1547, maps began referring to this and the surrounding area as Canada.

History

Main articles: History of Canada, Timeline of Canadian history

While Aboriginal tradition holds that the First Peoples have inhabited parts of what is now called Canada since the dawn of time, archaeological studies date human presence in northern Yukon back 26,000 years ago and in southern Ontario back 9,500 years ago.

The Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore the coast included John Cabot in 1497 and Martin Frobisher in 1576 for England, and Jacques Cartier in 1534 and Samuel de Champlain in 1603 for France. The first permanent European settlements were established by the French at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608, and by the English in Newfoundland, around 1610. European explorers and trappers brought along European diseases, which spread rapidly through native trade routes and decimated the Aboriginal population.

File:Death-wolfe.jpg

The Death of General Wolfe, painted by Benjamin West, depicts British General Wolfe's death after his victory at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759.

As competition for territory, naval bases, furs and fish escalated, several wars broke out involving the French, English and Native tribes. The French and Iroquois Wars erupted between the Iroquois Confederation and the Algonquin with their French allies, over control of the fur trade. The series of four French and Indian Wars, between 1689 and 1763, saw the French and their Native allies successively lose land to the English. After the British victory in the Seven Years War, Britain seized the remainder of New France at the Treaty of Paris in 1763.

As a result of the American Revolution, approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists moved to Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

They were unwelcome in Nova Scotia, so New Brunswick was carved out of Nova Scotia for them in 1784. To accommodate the English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the province was divided into Francophone Lower Canada and Anglophone Upper Canada under the Constitutional Act in 1791. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812, and its successful defence had important long-term effects on Canada, including building a sense of unity and nationalism. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. A series of agreements led to long-term peace between Canada and the United States, interrupted only briefly by raids made by political insurgents.

Following the failed Rebellions of 1837 which demanded responsible government, officials studied political situation and issued the Durham Report in 1839. One goal – which proved unacceptable in Quebec – was to assimilate the French Canadians into British culture . The Canadas were merged into a single, quasi-federal colony, the United Province of Canada, with the Act of Union (1840). In 1846 when the U.S. and Britain agreed to the 49th parallel north as the border with western British North America, the British government created the colonies of Vancouver's Island [sic] in 1849 and British Columbia in 1858, but they were entirely separate from the United Province of Canada. By the late 1850s, leaders in Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions with the intention of assuming control of Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly due to high birth rates; large immigration rates from Europe was offset by migration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England.

Sir John A. Macdonald, first Prime Minister.

Following the Great Coalition, the Charlottetown Conference and the Quebec Conference of 1864, and the London Conference of 1866, the three colonies—Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick—entered into the confederation. The British North America Act, created the Dominion of Canada and the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Prince Edward Island joined in 1873, and Newfoundland and Labrador in 1949. John A. Macdonald was the decisive Conservative prime minister of the late 19th century.

Canada asserted its authority over the western provinces by constructing three trans-continental railways, most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway, encouraging immigrants to develop the prairies with the Dominion Lands Act, and establishing the North West Mounted Police. Canada automatically entered World War I in 1914 with the UK's declaration of war and sent large numbers of volunteers to the Western Front. Casualties were so high that Prime Minister Robert Borden forced through Conscription in 1917, which was extremely unpopular in Quebec. His Conservative party permanently lost support in Quebec. Although the Liberals were deeply divided over conscription, they pulled together and became the dominant political party. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations in its own right. In 1931, the Statute of Westminster confirmed that no act of the British parliament would extend to Canada without its consent. The worldwide Great Depression of 1929 affected Canadians of every class; Canada did not have the sort of vast New Deal program the United States sponsored, but the rise of the CCF in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. After supporting appeasement of Germany in the late 1930s, Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King secured Parliament’s approval for entry into World War II. The economy boomed during the war, as Canada grew closer to the United States and even began subsidizing the British Treasury.

File:Junobeach.jpg

Canadian soldiers landing in the D-Day invasion of World War II.

Quebec, having freed itself from traditionalism by the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, began lobbying for its own partial or complete independence from Canada. Alienation between English-speaking Canada and the Québécois over the language, cultural and social divide had been exacerbated by the execution of rebel Louis Riel in 1885, the Manitoba Schools Question of the 1890s, Regulation 17 in Ontario in 1912, the Conscription Crisis of 1917, and the Conscription Crisis of 1944. Referendums in Quebec in 1980 and 1995 saw 59.6% and 50.6% of voters reject proposals for sovereignty-association . The Supreme Court, in 1997, ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional .

Economic integration with the United States increased after 1940, with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of 1994 a defining moment. Canadians worried about their cultural autonomy as American TV shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent, even taking over Molson beer in 2005. However, Canadians took special pride in their system of universal health care, and their commitment to multiculturalism.

Government

Main articles: Politics of Canada, Monarchy in Canada and Governor General of Canada

Centre Block, Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario.

Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada

File:JeanSmile.jpg Michaëlle Jean, Governor General

File:Harpers.jpg Stephen Harper, Prime Minister

Canada is a constitutional monarchy, that recognizes Elizabeth II as Queen of Canada (since February 6, 1952), and a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government, and strong democratic traditions. The political system under which Canada operates is a Westminster system derived from the United Kingdom.

Canada's constitution governs the legal framework of the country and consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The federal government and the governments of nine provinces agreed to the patriation of the constitution, with procedures for amending it, at a meeting of First Ministers in November 1981. The Quebec government did not agree to the changes, and Quebec nationalists refer to that date as the Night of the Long Knives.

The patriation of the Constitution included the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that, generally, cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. It contains, however, a "notwithstanding clause", which allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures the power to override some other sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years.

The Monarch's duties are performed on a day-to-day basis by the Governor General at the federal level, and by the Lieutenant-Governors at the provincial level. The Governor General is formally appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada and is a non-partisan figure who fulfills many constitutional, ceremonial and symbolic roles. The current Governor General is Michaëlle Jean. The Lieutenant-Governors are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada, in consultation with the relevant provincial Premier.

While the Governor General has taken on more of the head of state functions, the Monarch is still constitutionally the head of Canada. Thus, formal government business, laws and the calling of elections are done or proclaimed in the Sovereign's name.

The position of Prime Minister, Canada's head of government, belongs to the leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a majority in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister and his or her cabinet are formally appointed by the Governor General. However, the Prime Minister chooses the cabinet and the Governor General always, by convention, respects the Prime Minister's choices. The Cabinet is traditionally drawn from members of the prime minister's party in both legislative houses, though mostly from the Commons. Executive power is exercised by the prime minister and cabinet, all of whom are sworn into the Privy Council of Canada and become Ministers of the Crown. The Prime Minister exercises a great deal of individual political power, especially in the appointment of other officials within the government and civil service. Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has served as Prime Minister since February 6, 2006.

The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: the elected House of Commons and the appointed Senate. Each member in the Commons is elected by simple plurality in one "riding" or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the prime minister so advises, and must occur every five years or less. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the prime minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75.

Canada has four main political parties today: the Liberal Party of Canada, Conservative Party of Canada, New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc Québécois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada, which has formed governments in the past, as did its predecessor, the Conservative Party. A single-term 'Unionist' Party of Robert Borden was formed as a union of Conservatives and conscription-supporting Liberals during World War I.

The NDP is the major party furthest to the political left and espouses social democratic policies. The Bloc Québécois promotes Quebec independence from Canada and currently holds a majority of Quebec's seats in the House of Commons. There are many smaller parties and, while none have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial.

Law

The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill

Main article: Law of Canada

Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are selected and appointed by the prime minister, after consultation with non-governmental 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 (see Court system of Canada for more detail).

Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in most provinces policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

Foreign relations and military

Main articles: Foreign relations of Canada, Canadian Armed Forces, Military history of Canada

Canada has a close relationship with the United States, sharing the world's longest undefended border, co-operating on some military campaigns and exercises, and being each other's largest trading partners. Canada also shares history and long relationships with the United Kingdom and France, the two most significant imperial powers in its founding. These relations extend to other former-members of the British and French empires, through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie.

In the last century, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to reach out to the rest of the world. This was clearly demonstrated during the Suez Crisis when Lester B. Pearson mollified the tension by proposing peacekeeping efforts and the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. In that spirit, Canada developed and has tried to maintain a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. Canada has cumulatively contributed more troops to peacekeeping operations worldwide than all other nations combined and currently serves in over 40 different peacekeeping missions.

Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

A founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Canada currently employs about 62,000 regular and 26,000 reserve military personnel . The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft .

Canadian forces have served in various military actions including the Second Boer War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the First Gulf War and recently, in Afghanistan. Since Lester B. Pearson proposed the first United Nations peacekeeping force in 1956, the Canadian Forces have served in 42 peacekeeping missions — more than any other country.

Canada participated in a variety of capacities in NATO operations in the former Yugoslavia, and maintains military personnel in Kosovo as part of KFOR. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the U.S. invasion force, Operation Enduring Freedom. Canada also participated militarily in the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Canadian troops have participated in a number of UN missions in Haiti, including the ongoing United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in two major relief operations in the last year: after Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the earthquake that struck Kashmir in South Asia in October 2005. The two-hundred-member team was also deployed to assist with relief efforts in Southeast Asia after the December 2004 tsunami.

Provinces and territories

A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its 13 first-order subnational divisions.

Main article: Provinces and territories of Canada

Canada is composed of ten provinces and three territories. The provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, the territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols.

The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. The federal government can initiate national policies that the provinces can opt out of, but this rarely happens in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces.

All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. The provinces and territories are:

Flag Province Capital city Entered Confederation Standard Time Zone (UTC) Region Senate region Common term British Columbia Victoria 1871 -8 (Pacific), -7 (Mountain) Western Pacific Western Alberta Edmonton 1905 -7 (Mountain) Prairies Saskatchewan Regina 1905 -7 (Mountain), -6 (Central) Manitoba Winnipeg 1870 -6 (Central) Ontario Toronto 1867 -6 (Central), -5 (Eastern) Ontario Central Eastern Quebec Quebec City 1867 -5 (Eastern) -4 (Atlantic) Quebec New Brunswick Fredericton 1867 -4 (Atlantic) Maritimes Atlantic Nova Scotia Halifax 1867 Prince Edward Island Charlottetown 1873 Newfoundland and Labrador St. John's 1949 -4 (Atlantic), -3.5 (Newfoundland) Newfoundland and Labrador Flag Territory Capital city Entered Confederation Standard Time Zone (UTC) Region Senate region Common term Yukon Whitehorse 1898 -8 Northern Arctic Northwest Territories Yellowknife 1870 -7 Nunavut Iqaluit 1999 -7, -6, -5,

Geography and climate

A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail throughout the country, ice is prominent in the Arctic and through the Rockies, and the relatively flat Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population.

Main article: Geography of Canada

Canada occupies most of the northern portion of North America. It shares land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with the US state of Alaska to the northwest, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west; to the north lies the Arctic Ocean. Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60°W and 141°W longitude ; this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada (and in the world) is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island—latitude 82.5°N—just 834 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada is the world's second-largest country in total area, after Russia.

The population density of 3.5 people per square kilometre (9.1/mi²) is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers — more than 60% of the world's lakes are in Canada.

Newfoundland is at the mouth of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary. The Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward from the southern coasts of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia.

File:MountLogan.jpg

Mount Logan in Yukon; at 5,959 metres (19,551 ft), Canada's highest point and second highest in North America.

Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands.

Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada range depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the Prairie provinces, where daily average temperatures are near −15 °C (5 °F) Coastal British Columbia is an exception and it enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter.

Average summer high temperatures across Canada range depending on the location. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are in the low 20s °C (68 to 74 °F), while in between the coasts the average summer high temperature range between 25 °C to 30 °C (78 to 86 °F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website.

Economy

File:Canadian bills.jpg

Five denominations of Canadian banknotes, depicting (from top to bottom) Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden.

Main articles: Economy of Canada, Economic history of Canada

Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies. For the last decade, after a period of turbulence, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the U.S. in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards.

In the last century, the impressive 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 nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important.

Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Canada has vast deposits of natural gas on the east coast and large oil and gas resources centred in Alberta, but also present in neighbouring British Columbia and Saskatchewan. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil. In Quebec and British Columbia, as well as Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and relatively environmentally friendly source of abundant 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 wheat and other grains. Canada is a world leader in the production of many natural resources such as gold, nickel, uranium, and lead; many, if not most, 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 sizeable manufacturing sector, centred in southern Ontario, with the automobile industry especially important.

In part due to the large primary sectory Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the U.S. Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8.

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of Canada, List of cities in Canada, List of Canadians by ethnicity

File:Cntower3.jpg

Toronto, Ontario is one of the world's most multicultural cities.

The 2001 national census recorded 30,007,094 people; the population is currently estimated by Statistics Canada to be 32.5 million people . Population growth is largely accomplished through immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population live within 160 kilometres (100 mi) of the U.S. border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably the Toronto-Hamilton, Montréal, and Ottawa metropolitan areas), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta.

Canada is a very ethnically diverse nation. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each. Ancestries with more than 1 million people claiming them are English (19.2%), French (15.7%), Scottish (14%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.0%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.5%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and aboriginal (North American Indian, Métis, and Inuit) (3.4%) . Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the rest of the Canadian population. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to visible minorities.

Canadians adhere to a wide variety of religions. According to the last census , 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 17% of Canadians declared no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity.

Language

The population of Montreal is predominantly francophone, with a significant anglophone community.

Main articles: Language in Canada, Bilingualism in Canada

Canada's two official languages, English and French, are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively . On July 7, 1969, under the Official Languages Act, French was made commensurate to English throughout the federal government. This started a process that led to Canada redefining itself as a "bilingual" nation.

English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French. While multiculturalism is official policy, to become a citizen one must be able to speak either English or French and more than 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French or both . While the nation remains officially bilingual, the majority of Canadians are fluent only in English.

File:Totempole3.png

A First Nation's totem pole in British Columbia.

French is mostly spoken in Quebec with parts of New Brunswick, eastern and northern Ontario, Saskatchewan, the south shore of Nova Scotia and southern Manitoba. Of those who speak French as a first language, 85% live in Quebec.

French is the provincially designated official language in Quebec and the use of English in this province is not promoted. New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province in the country. English is the provincially-designated official language in all other provinces.

Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut and has official status there.

Non-official languages are also important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing a non-official language as a first language . (The above three statistics include those who listed more than one first language.) Among the most important non-official first language groups are Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220) .

Culture

File:RCMP officer Expo 67.jpg

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon.

Main articles: Culture of Canada, Canadian identity, National symbols of Canada, Sport in Canada

Due to its colonial past, Canadian culture has historically been heavily influenced by English, French, Irish, Scottish, and First Nations cultures and traditions. More recently, Canadian culture has been greatly influenced by American culture, due to US proximity and the interchange of human capital. Many forms of American media and entertainment are popular in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Most cultural products of these types are now marketed toward a unified "North American" market, and not specifically a Canadian or American one.

Vancouver will be hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Elements of more "distinctly Canadian" culture have been partly influenced by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada, and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by more recent immigration of people from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, indeed some see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

National symbology is influenced by historical and native (especially, natural) sources. Particularly, 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 arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, Crown, and the RCMP.

Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer), however, hockey is considerably more a part of Canadian culture as it is a national pastime, and is by far the most popular spectator sport in the country. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. Curling and Canadian football are also extremely popular sports in Canada.

Holidays

Main article: Holidays in Canada

Statutory and major holidays in Canada include New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, Christmas, and Boxing Day.

Canada's provinces and territories generally adopt statutory holidays similar to federal ones with some variations (including civic holidays), and many Canadians celebrate numerous unofficial and religious holidays as well.

International rankings

• A.T. Kearney/Foreign Policy Magazine: Globalization Index 2005, ranked 14 out of 111 countries
• IMD International: World Competitiveness Yearbook 2005, ranked 5 out of 60 economies (countries and regions)
• The Economist: The World in 2005 - Worldwide quality-of-life index, 2005, ranked 14 out of 111 countries
• Environmental Sustainability Index, 2005: 6th (out of 146); Yale University Center for Environmental Law and Policy & Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (pdf) [1]
• Press Freedom Index 2005: 21st (out of 167); Reporters Without Borders World-wide [2]
• Total value of foreign trade (imports and exports), 2003: 4th (out of 185)
• Corruption Perceptions Index 2005: 14th (out of 159); Transparency International [3]
• Index of Economic Freedom, 2005: 16th (out of 155); Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal [4]

References

Detailed references available in a subpage Canada/References.

External links

• Official website of the Governor General of Canada
• Official website of the Government of Canada
• Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada
• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
• Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway
• Culturescope.ca - Canada's Cultural Observatory
• A Guide to living in Canada - Justlanded
• Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources
• Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock
• The Canadian Atlas Online
• Canada at The World Factbook
• Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations
• UN Human Development Programme: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada