Canada

Flag Arms


Motto: A Mari Usque Ad Mare  (Latin)
"From Sea to Sea"
Anthem: "O Canada"
Royal anthem: "God Save the Queen"

Capital Ottawa
45°24′N 75°40′W / 45.4°N 75.667°W / 45.4; -75.667
Largest city Toronto
Official language(s) English and French
Recognised regional languages Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, Cree, Dëne Sųłiné, Gwich’in, Inuvialuktun, Slavey and Tłįchǫ Yatiì
Demonym Canadian
Government Federation, parliamentary democracy, and constitutional monarchy
 -  Monarch HM Queen Elizabeth II
 -  Governor General Michaëlle Jean
 -  Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Legislature Parliament
 -  Upper House Senate
 -  Lower House House of Commons
Establishment
 -  British North America Acts July 1, 1867 
 -  Statute of Westminster December 11, 1931 
 -  Canada Act April 17, 1982 
Area
 -  Total 9,984,670 km² (2nd)
3,854,085 sq mi 
 -  Water (%) 8.92 (891,163 km²/344,080 mi²)
Population
 -  2010 estimate 34,235,000 (36th)
 -  2006 census 31,241,030 
 -  Density 3.41/km² (228th)
8.3/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2009 estimate
 -  Total $1.281 trillion 
 -  Per capita $38,025 
GDP (nominal) 2009 estimate
 -  Total $1.336 trillion 
 -  Per capita $39,668 
Gini  32.1 (2005) 
HDI (2009) ▲ 0.966 (very high) (4th)
Currency Canadian Dollar ($) (CAD)
Time zone (UTC−3.5 to −8)
 -  Summer (DST)  (UTC−2.5 to −7)
Date formats dd-mm-yyyy, mm-dd-yyyy, and yyyy-mm-dd (CE)
Drives on the Right
Internet TLD .ca
Calling code +1
Canada portal

Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area. Canada's common border with the United States to the south and northwest is the longest in the world.

The land occupied by Canada was inhabited for millennia by various groups of Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored, and later settled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom. This widening autonomy was highlighted by the Statute of Westminster of 1931 and culminated in the Canada Act of 1982, which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament.

A federation consisting of ten provinces and three territories, Canada is governed as a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual nation with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. One of the world's highly developed countries, 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 G8, G-20, NATO, OECD, WTO, Commonwealth, Francophonie, OAS, APEC, and UN.

Etymology

The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word, kanata, meaning "village" or "settlement". In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier towards the village of Stadacona. Cartier later used the word Canada to refer not only to that particular village, but also the entire area subject to Donnacona (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 France that lay along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes was known as Canada. The area was later split into two British colonies, Upper Canada and Lower Canada. They were re-unified as the Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted as the legal name for the new country, and Dominion (a term from Psalm 72:8) was conferred as the country's title. Combined, the term Dominion of Canada was in common usage until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from the United Kingdom, 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 Day to Canada Day in 1982.

History

Aboriginal peoples

Archaeological and Indigenous genetic studies support a human presence in the northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are two of the earliest archaeological sites of human (Paleo-Indians) habitation in Canada. Among the First Nations peoples, there are eight unique stories of creation and their adaptations.These are the earth diver, world parent, emergence, conflict, robbery, rebirth of corpse, two creators and their contests, and the brother myth. The characteristics of Canadian Aboriginal civilizations included permanent or urban settlements, agriculture, civic and monumental architecture, and complex societal hierarchies. Some of these civilisations had long faded by the time of the first permanent European arrivals (c. late 15th–early 16th centuries), and have been discovered through archaeological investigations.

The aboriginal population is estimated to have been between 200,000 and two million in the late 15th century, with a figure of 500,000 currently accepted by Canada's Royal Commission on Aboriginal Health. Repeated outbreaks of European infectious diseases such as influenza, measles and smallpox (to which they had no natural immunity), combined with other effects of European contact, resulted in a forty to eighty percent aboriginal population decrease post-contact. Aboriginal peoples in Canada include the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. The Métis a culture of mixed blood originated in the mid-17th century when First Nation and Inuit married European settlers. The Inuit had more limited interaction with European settlers during the early periods.

European colonization