CANADA - A WORLD LEADER

The name Canada comes from an Iroquoian word and it means village or community. The Iroquois are a native tribe of North America and controlled the area during the 18^th century.

Canada is a massive country. It is the world’s second-largest and has huge natural resources plus it is highly industrialized. The people enjoy a high standard of living and have awe-inspiring scenery.

The size of Canada crosses five time zones. The country stretches from the North Pole and half-way to the equator. The size of it is 1.7 million sq km which includes the Arctic Islands and other coastal island. It is right across North America.

In the north is the Arctic Ocean; Alaska on the north-west side; The Atlantic Ocean on the east; the USA in the south and the Pacific Ocean on the west.

                                                     TUNDRA

Travelling to the north there are the Arctic islands and the tundra. The more you move south Canada become forests with lakes and vast flowing rivers. Even further south the country changes into prairies.

Geographically Canada has five regions, apart from the Arctic. The Canadian Shield is the largest. It is a huge horse-shoe shaped area surrounding the Hudson Bay. The other two regions are in the east and are the Appalachian region and Great Lakes-St Lawrence lowlands. In the west of the Canadian Shield are the Interior Plains and it is the country’s most fertile soil. The last one is the Cordillera where the Rocky Mountains are and the highest is Mount Logan at 5951m. 

                                                 BANFF - 
  THE ROCKY     MOUNTAINS

Canada has many lakes and rivers. There is Great Bear Lake, Great Slave Lake, and Lake Winnipeg to name just a few. These three great lakes are drained by the St Lawrence River. The other great rivers are the Ottawa and Mackenzie. A very famous sight is the Niagara Falls in Ontario with a height of 50m. It is a great tourist attraction.

Since Canada is such a huge country it also means that the climate varies widely. It stretches from Arctic conditions to milder climate in the south. On a whole the climate is snowy cold winter and hot summers. In the Cordillera is a dry, west wind which moderates winter conditions in the Rockies and it is called Chinook.

Canada is a leading export nation. It supplies to the USA 80% and the USA imports two-thirds to Canada. Canada’s industry consists of manufacturing transport equipment, food, machinery, paper, chemicals and metals. Their workforce is 42% of trade and service; 25% manufacturing and industry; 7% of public administration and 4% of agriculture, forestry, fishing and trapping.

The country has a great wealth of natural resources. They are zinc, gold, silver, oil, natural gas, cobalt and uranium. It is also the world’s largest supply of hydro-electric power.

The tourists are encouraged by the annual Calgary Exhibition and Stampede which is world famous. Furthermore, there are the national parks of Jasper and Banff.  Banff alone has over 4 million visitors a year. 

In spite of Canada has only 5% agricultural land, it is an important export. Canada supplies 20% of the world wheat grown in the prairies. In the west of Canada are the cattle ranches with 15 million cattle. The arable farms growing cereal crops, fruit, and Soya beans. 14% of the exports are forests products. The world’s newspaper comes mostly from Canadian forests.

The commercial fishing which is over half century old and the catch comes from the north-west Atlantic and the north-east Pacific. It is cod, herring, salmon, flounder, lobster, scallops, crab and redfish. 

Fur-trapping was an important export but it declined because of loss of demand.

FEDERAL POLITICS

Canada is a federal union. The power is shared between central and provincial governments. The head of state is the governor-general who represents the British monarch. Canada is a member of the British Commonwealth. Since the 1982 Constitution Act has now complete authority. The Parliament has two chambers. There are a 295- member of House of Commons and a 112- member senate. Members of the House of Commons are elected by the people over 18 years. They stay for a maximum of five years. Senators are chosen by the government and can stay in office till the age of 75.

Canada is divided into 10 provinces and two territories. A third territory was created in 1999 for indigenous Inuit population. Each province is governed by its own premier. The territories are governed by federally appointed commissioners.

FROM THE ICE AGE TO THE PRESENT DAY

Mongoloid people arrived in North America in the Ice Age. They split up, eventually, into various tribes. Just to name but a few were the Cree, the Blackfoot and the Iroquois. The European arrived in 16^th century and Jacques Cartier claimed Canada for France in 1534. By 1608 there was a French settlement in Quebec. 

From there on the native people were diminishing. The reasons were European diseases and alcohol abuse. In 1867 Britain won Canada from the French and it became a British Dominion.

At the beginning of the 20^th century Canada become one of a top manufacturing and trading nation and because of that won its independence.

Originally, the government was either Liberals or Progressive Conservatives and the New Democrats as a third party. In October 1993, there were two new parties gaining power. One was the Conservative Reform Party and the other the Bloc Quebecois. They want independence for Quebec.