Canada

Basic facts: Canada occupies the whole territory of northern part of North America except Alaska and many islands. Canada is as large as the whole Europe - its area is almost 10 million km2, which makes it the second largest country in the world after Russia. It borders on the USA in the south. Canada is divided into ten provinces – Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, New Scotland, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia and two territories – Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
 
History: Canada was discovered twice, first by the Vikings more than a thousand years ago, then by Europeans in the 15th century. The first settlers came from France in the year 1605. The enmity between French and English inhabitants culminated in the war from 1756 to 1763. The British army occupied Quebec and France had to give up its colonies in Canada. In spite of the British victory, the French language and culture were developed and in the year 1774 they published the law, which acknowledged the civil rights for the French. It became a British dominion on 1st July 1867. In 1931 Canada became independent.

Population: Now the population of Canada is more then 29 million people, but the density is one of the lowest. Major part of Canadians is concentrated near the border with USA in the large urban centres. 45% of the Canadians are of British origin, 29% of French origin (who are mainly concentrated in the provinces New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec) and 23% have their origins in the other European countries. There also live the original inhabitants – Indians and Eskimos. They probably gave the country its name, because Indians used the word “kannata” which means village. The official languages are English and French but 70% people speak only English. The majority of the population is Christian.

Geography: Canada is famous for its diverse and beautiful scenery particularly near the Great Lakes in the south-east. The Great Lakes Region is the largest area of fresh water in the world. There are famous Niagara Falls between Lake Erie and Ontario. We can also find other big lakes in Canada Great Bear Lake of Great Slave Lake. The longest rivers are St. Lawrence, which flows through the lakes and empties into the Atlantic Ocean or Mackenzie flowing into the Arctic Ocean. Canada has also high mountain ranges, such as the Rocky Mountains and the Mackenzie Mountains, which occupies the west seashore. The highest mountain is Mt. Logan (5961 m).

Thousand of tourists visit Canada’s national parks to admire the scenery or to enjoy walking or climbing there. They also desired to see some wild animals like bears, elks and reindeers or wolfs, who live in the forests.

The climate is mostly continental. The average summer temperature in the south of Canada exceeds 24ºC, but in the winner the snow covers almost the whole country. The north is arctic, winter temperatures fall to -50ºC.

Political system: Canada is now an independent federal state and a member of the British Commonwealth, but the head of the state is still the British Queen. The governor represents her in Canada and he is elected for five years. The leading figure the political life of the country is the Prime Minister. Canada has it´s own parliament, which consists of House of Common, whose members are elected and the senate, whose members are appointed. Since 1965 has Canada its own national flag. The national emblem is the maple leaf.

Economy: The currency is the Canadian dollar. Canada’s economy is traditionally based on natural resources and agriculture. Main industries are chemical industry and machine and ship building. It produces almost every mineral - silver, iron, copper, uranium, oil, sulphur, coal or gold. Gold was discovered in 1896 in the Yucon teritorie and the great gold rush in history started. Canada is the world’s biggest producer of nickel, the second biggest producer of zinc and the third biggest producer of lead. Forests cover almost half of Canada. Canadians use them for getting wood and then they make furniture or other wood products. One of the most important economic branches is the fishing. Canada is the world’s second largest exporter of wheat, which is mainly grown on the prairies. There are grown tobacco, fruit, vegetable and oat too. Canada is hunter’s paradise too.

Canada belongs into G-8 countries and the memberschift in NAFTA will certainly improve the possibilities of the canadien economy to increase. Canada's main trading partner is the USA.
 
Towns: Canada’s capital is Ottawa, but the largest city is Montreal. Montreal got its name according to words “mont Royal”, which means Royal Mountain. It’s the second largest French speaking city in the world after Paris and it has about 3 millions inhabitants. Other important cities are Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and Quebec.

Sports: For Canada is sport very important. Most important sports are curling, ice-hockey (NHL is composed from 6 Canadian teams) and lacrosse, Canadian national sport.