Canada

Canada

• Canada 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, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest.

• The land occupied by Canada was inhabited for millennia by various groups of aboriginal people.

• A federation comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state.

• It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level.

• Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily 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, NATO, Commonwealth of Nations, and La Francophonie.

1. National Symbols of Canada1.1 National Flag of Canada

Motto

• The motto of Canada is in Latin a mari usque ad mare (From sea to sea), a part of Psalm 72:8.

• In March 2006, two suggestions for a new motto are A mari ad mare ad mare (from sea to sea to sea) and A mari usque ad maria (from the sea to the other seas).

1.3 Canadian National Atheme English Version

• 　 O Canada! Our home and native land! True patriot love in all thy sons command.　 　 With glowing hearts we see thee rise,　 　 The True North strong and free!　 　 From far and wide, O Canada,　 　 We stand on guard for thee.　 　 God keep our land glorious and free!　 　 O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.　 　 O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

French Version

• O Canada!　 　 Terre de nos aieux,　 　 Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux!　 　 Car ton bras sait porter l'épée,　 　 Il sait porter la croix!　 　 Ton histoire est une epopee　 　 Des plus brillants exploits.　 　 Et ta valeur, de foi trempée,　 　 Protégera nos foyers et nos droits　 　 Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.

2. Geography and Climate

• By land area it ranks fourth. Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60°W and 141°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres.

• The population density, 3.5 inhabitants per square kilometre, is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast.

• To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world’s freshwater.

• In eastern Canada, most people live in large urban centres on the flat Saint Lawrence Lowlands.

• In northwestern Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls.

• Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location.

• In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year (more in the north).

• Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter.

• On the east and west coast, average high temperatures are generally in the low 20 °C , while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30°C with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40°C .

• Canada is also geologically active, having many earthquakes and potentially active volcanoes.

3. Etymology of Canada• 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 named Canada, an area that was later split into two British colonies, Upper Canada and Lower Canada, until their re-unification 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 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 Day to Canada Day in 1982.

4. Canadian Demography• Canada’s 2006 census counted a total population of

31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. • Population growth is from immigration 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 areas concentrated in the

Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably the Greater Golden Horseshoe including Toronto and area, Montreal, and Ottawa), the BC Lower Mainland (consisting of the region surrounding Vancouver), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta.

• In common with many other developed countries, Canada is experiencing a demographic shift towards an older population.

• Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada’s political culture.

• Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education.

5. A Brief History of Canada

• First Nation and Inuit traditions maintain that indigenous people have resided on their lands since the beginning of time, while archaeological studies support a human presence in the northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago.

• Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L’Anse aux Meadows around AD 1000.

• French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608.

• Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the Saint Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana.

• To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec’s territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley 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 Revolution.

• To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly.

• The Act of Union 1840 merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. 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.

• Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert’s Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates.

• Following several constitutional conferences, the Constitution Act, 1867 brought about Confederation creating “one Dominion under the name of Canada” on July 1, 1867, with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.

• Canada automatically entered World War I in 1914 with Britain’s declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front who later became part of the Canadian Corps.

• The Corps played a substantial role in the Battle of Vimy Ridge and other major battles of the war.

• The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada’s independence.

• The Great Depression brought economic hardship to all of Canada.

• Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain.

• In 1945, during the war, Canada became one of the first countries to join the United Nations.

• This growth, combined with the policies of successive Liberal governments, led to the emergence of a new Canadian identity, marked by the adoption of the current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965, the implementation of official bilingualism in 1969, and official multiculturalism in 1971.

• Socially democratic programmes were also founded, such as universal health care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans, 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 patriation of Canada’s constitution from the United Kingdom, concurrent with the creation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

• After various peacekeeping missions between the 1950s and 1990s, Canada engaged in the NATO led Afghan War in 2001, though subsequently refusing to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

• At home, in 2008, the Prime Minister apologised for the creation of residential schools by previous governments

6. Canadian Government and Politics

• Canada has a parliamentary government with strong democratic traditions.

• Parliament is made up of the Crown, an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate.

• Each Member of Parliament in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in an electoral district or riding.

• General elections must be called by the Prime Minister within five years of the previous election, or may be triggered by the government 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 General, and serve until age 75.

• Four parties had representatives elected to the federal parliament in the 2008 elections: the Conservative Party of Canada (governing party), the Liberal Party of Canada (Official Opposition), the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Bloc Québécois.

• Canada’s federalist structure divides government responsibilities between the federal government and the ten provinces. Unicameral provincial legislatures operate in parliamentary fashion similar to the House of Commons.

• Canada is also a constitutional monarchy, with The Crown 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.

• The political executive consists of the Prime Minister (head of government) and the Cabinet 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.

• The Prime Minister’s Office (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 Opposition and is part of an adversarial parliamentary system that keeps the government in check.

7. Law and Court System of Canada

• The Constitution is the supreme law of the country, and consists of written text and unwritten conventions.

• 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 and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C.

• 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 rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

8. Provinces and Territories• Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and

three territories. • Western Canada consists of British Columbia and the three

Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba).• Central Canada consists of Quebec and Ontario. • Atlantic Canada consists of the three Maritime provinces

(New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia), along with Newfoundland and Labrador. Eastern Canada refers to Central Canada and Atlantic Canada together.

• Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) make up Northern Canada. Provinces have more autonomy than territories. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols.

9. Canadian 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 Development (OECD) and the G8.

• It is one of the world’s top 10 trading nations.

• Canada is a mixed market. Since the early 1990s, 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.

• 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 are net exporters of energy.

• Canada is one of the world’s most important suppliers of agricultural products.

• Canada is the world’s largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminium, and lead; many towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber.

10. Foreign Relations and Military• Canada has nevertheless

maintained an independent foreign policy.

• 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 Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries).

• Canada is noted for having a strong and positive relationship with the Netherlands.

• Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve 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.

• Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations.

• Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949.

• Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts.

• Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the U.S. stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance F

• In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, 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 waters was challenged following a Russian expedition that planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925.orce.

11. Canadian Culture

• 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.

• National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources.

• Canada’s official national sports are ice hockey in the winter and lacrosse in the summer.

• Canada hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia.

12. Languages in Canada

• Canada’s two official languages are English and French.

• Non-official languages are important in Canada, with over five million people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220)..

13. Questions for Discussion• 1. Please talk about the symbols that may remind

you of Canada.• 2. Please give a brief talk about Canadian

geographic location and its geographic features.• 3. Please talk about the demographic diversity of

Canadian people.• 4. Please talk about the political system of

Canada.• 5. Please talk about languages used in the

country.