Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Compiled by O. Zabolotnyi
Kyiv, 2008
For centuries the land was inhabited by various Native American tribes.
Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored
and later settled the Atlantic coast. France lost 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. Later more territories and
provinces joined them. The process of increasing the dominion’s autonomy
from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931,
and, finally, culminated in the Canada Act in 1982 which made Canada a
truly independent state.
A federation
now comprising
ten provinces
and three
territories (see
the map on the
left), 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. Total
area of 9,984,670 square kilometers ranks Canada as the second largest
country in the world (after Russia). Population of nearly 32 million people
(according to the 2006 census) consists of different ethnic groups, of which
28% are British, 23% - French, 3.5% belong to aboriginal Native Americans,
and about 47% represent other groups (Chinese, Indian, Ukrainians etc.)
July 1 - Canada Day: On July 1, 1867 the Constitution act united existing
Canadian territories into one Dominion under the name of CANADA. Today it
is the main national holiday in Canada.
Etymology
History
Page 3.
Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain
following the Seven Years' War.
Canada (Upper and Lower) was the main front in the War of 1812 between
the United States and British Empire. Its defense contributed to a sense of
unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada
began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry surpassed the
fur trade in importance in the early nineteenth century.
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.
Five parties are represented in the federal parliament since 2006 elections:
the Conservative Party of Canada (governing party), the Liberal Party of
Canada (Official Opposition), the New Democratic Party (NDP), Bloc
Québécois and the Green Party of Canada.
Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border,
co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest
trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent
foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and
declining to participate in the Iraq War. 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 British Commonwealth of
Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada is noted
for having a strong and positive relationship with the Netherlands which
Canada helped liberate during World War II, 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 joined the
United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949.
To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of thinly
soiled rock, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far
has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's
freshwater.
Page 6.
In eastern Canada, most people live in large urban centers on the flat Saint
Lawrence Lowlands. The Saint Lawrence River widens into the world's largest
estuary before flowing into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The gulf is bounded
by Newfoundland to the north and the Maritimes to the south. The Maritimes
protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New
England and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
are divided by the
Bay of Fundy, which
experiences the
world's largest tidal
variations. Ontario
and Hudson Bay
dominate central
Canada. West of
Ontario, the broad,
flat Canadian
Prairies spread
toward the Rocky
Mountains, which
separate them from
British Columbia.
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.