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| Canada | Plants and Animal | Back to Top |
The animals of Canada are similar to those of northern Europe and Asia. Among the carnivores are several species of the weasel family, such as the ermine, sable, fisher, wolverine, and mink. Other representative carnivores are the black bear, brown bear, lynx, wolf, coyote, fox, and skunk. The polar bear is distributed throughout the Arctic; the puma is found in British Columbia. Of the rodents, the most characteristic is the beaver. The porcupine, the muskrat, and many smaller rodents are numerous, as are hares. Gophers are found in the Great Plains.
| Canada | Communications | Back to Top |
general assessment: excellent service provided by modern technology domestic: domestic satellite system with about 300 earth stations international: 5 coaxial submarine cables; satellite earth stations - 5 Intelsat (4 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Pacific Ocean) and 2 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region)
| Canada | Culture | Back to Top |
The culture of the English-speaking Canadian people is a blend of British and American influences; that of the French-speaking people blends French and American influences. In general, the way of life, family structure, cuisine, and dress are closer to those of the United States than to those of Britain or France. Canada has become a cultural mosaic in which immigrant groups have been able to retain much of their ethnic culture.
The British and French heritage, plus the influence of the United States, has led to broad diversity of artistic endeavour in Canada, a diversity further encouraged by groups of other national origins and a widely dispersed population. The major metropolitan centres have provided several focal points for artistic activity stimulated by a rapidly urbanizing society.
Since 1950 economic growth has provided all Canadians with greater means for the practice and enjoyment of the arts, and the influx of immigrants from many countries has increased both the audience and the pool of available talent. Most provincial governments provide some form of financial assistance for the arts and for cultural organizations within their borders; and some have advisory and funding councils for the arts. At the national level the Canada Council was established in 1957 “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in the arts, humanities and social sciences.” It is funded by an endowment, by an annual grant from the federal government, and by private donations. The annual Governor General's Literary Awards, the preeminent literary prizes in Canada, have served to reward Canadian writers as well as to publicize Canadian literature through ceremonies held in various centres across the country.
| Canada | Defence | Back to Top |
Military branches: Canadian Forces (includes Land Forces Command or LC, Maritime Command or MC, Air Command or AC, Communications Command or CC, Training Command or TC), Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
Military manpower - military age: 17 years of age
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 8,325,084 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 7,114,851 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 215,627 (2001 est.)
| Canada | International Disputes | Back to Top |
maritime boundary disputes with the US (Dixon Entrance, Beaufort Sea, Strait of Juan de Fuca, Machias Seal Island)
| Canada | Economy | Back to Top |
Canada has an advanced economy, and the majority of its citizens enjoy a high quality of life by world standards. Historically, much of this wealth has been generated through the extraction and processing of natural resources, especially fish, furs, timber, minerals, and farm produce. Increasingly, however, manufacturing and service activities have been added, and Canada now has one of the most complex economies in the world. Canada is also highly integrated into the global economy through trade, with 33.6 percent of its GDP dedicated to exports.
The early settlement and growth of Canada depended on developing and exporting natural resources. During the 20th century, manufacturing and service industries became increasingly important. By the end of the 1980s agriculture and mining accounted for less than one-tenth of Canada's labour force, while manufacturing stood at one-fifth and the service industry, including transportation, trade, finance, and other service industries, at about two-thirds. For many years Canada encouraged its manufacturing industries through protective tariffs on the import of manufactured goods. This high tariff policy resulted in the establishment of Canadian branch plants by many U.S. firms in order to supply the Canadian market. Another cornerstone of Canada's economic policy was the encouragement of economic development in slow-growth regions of the country by grants and subsidies. In the 1980s Canada began moving away from these two basic policies. Compliance with international rules on trade and the signing of a free-trade agreement with the United States (1988) reduced protection for the manufacturing industry. Funding for regional economic development programs was also scaled down.
The early settlement and growth of Canada depended on developing and exporting natural resources. During the 20th century, manufacturing and service industries became increasingly important. By the end of the 1980s agriculture and mining accounted for less than one-tenth of Canada's labour force, while manufacturing stood at one-fifth and the service industry, including transportation, trade, finance, and other service industries, at about two-thirds. For many years Canada encouraged its manufacturing industries through protective tariffs on the import of manufactured goods. This high tariff policy resulted in the establishment of Canadian branch plants by many U.S. firms in order to supply the Canadian market. Another cornerstone of Canada's economic policy was the encouragement of economic development in slow-growth regions of the country by grants and subsidies. In the 1980s Canada began moving away from these two basic policies. Compliance with international rules on trade and the signing of a free-trade agreement with the United States (1988) reduced protection for the manufacturing industry. Funding for regional economic development programs was also scaled down.
| Canada | Education | Back to Top |
Educational systems in Canada derive from British, American, and—particularly in the province of Québec—French traditions. Students in Québec are taught in French unless specific conditions apply, for example, if their parents were taught in an English-language school in Québec. English is the principal language of instruction in other provinces and the territories, but there are exceptions. Many of New Brunswick’s schools are French-language schools, reflecting the high proportion of French Canadians in the province as well as the official policy of bilingualism there. French immersion programs, where students are taught almost completely in French, are also popular in many parts of the country.
| Canada | Government | Back to Top |
Canada is a constitutional monarchy with a federal system, a parliamentary government, and strong democratic traditions. The 1982 Charter of Rights guarantees basic rights in many areas. Queen Elizabeth II, as Queen of Canada, serves as a symbol of the nation's unity. She appoints a governor general, who serves as her representative in Canada, on the advice of the prime minister of Canada, usually for a 5-year term. The prime minister is the leader of the political party in power and is the head of the cabinet. The cabinet remains in office as long as it retains majority support in the House of Commons on major issues.
Canada's parliament consists of an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Legislative power rests with the 301-member Commons, which is elected for a period not to exceed 5 years. The prime minister may ask the governor general to dissolve parliament and call new elections at any time during that period. Federal elections were last held in November 2000. Vacancies in the 104-member Senate, whose members serve until the age of 75, are filled by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister. Recent constitutional initiatives have sought unsuccessfully to strengthen the Senate by making it elective and assigning it a greater regional representational role.
Criminal law, based largely on British law, is uniform throughout the nation and is under federal jurisdiction. Civil law is also based on the common law of England, except in Quebec, which has retained its own civil code patterned after that of France. Justice is administered by federal, provincial, and municipal courts.
Each province is governed by a premier and a single, elected legislative chamber. A lieutenant-governor appointed by the governor general represents the Crown in each province.
| Canada | History | Back to Top |
Canada’s human past begins with the long tenure of the indigenous societies, followed by the 500-year collision between those peoples and the newly arrived Europeans. European colonization gave way after 1867 to the era of the Canadian nation-state. In the 20th century Canada became one of the world’s small group of wealthy, highly industrialized, technologically advanced, and heavily urbanized democracies. Yet regional tensions, ethnic rivalries, global pressures, and the powerful neighboring presence of the United States continued to challenge Canada’s political unity and cultural identity.
The first humans to make their homes in North America migrated from Asia. It is generally thought that this migration took place over a now-submerged land bridge from Siberia to Alaska sometime between about 20,000 and 35,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age; the argument has been made, however, that some people arrived earlier, possibly up to 60,000 years ago. Unknown numbers of people moved southward along the western edge of the North American ice cap. The presence of the ice, which for a time virtually covered Canada, makes it reasonable to assume that the southern reaches of North America were settled before Canada, and that the Inuit (Eskimo) who live in Canada's Arctic regions today were the last of the aboriginal peoples to reach Canada. There is general agreement that Native American peoples are related to Asiatic peoples, and that the closest resemblances are between North American Arctic peoples and their counterparts in Siberia.
The indigenous peoples say they have been in Canada as long as the landscape itself. Evidence of their presence dates from the time when the land reappeared from under the great ice sheets that covered most of the country during the Pleistocene Ice Age at its peak about 18,000 years ago.
| Canada | Introduction | Back to Top |
Canada, federated country of North America, a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean; on the north-east by Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, which separate it from Greenland; on the east by the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by the United States; and on the west by the Pacific Ocean and the US state of Alaska. It was formerly known as the Dominion of Canada. Occupying all of North America north of the conterminous United States, except Alaska, Greenland, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon Islands, Canada is the world's second-largest country, surpassed in size only by Russia.
It includes many islands, notably the Canadian Arctic Islands (Arctic Archipelago) in the Arctic Ocean. Among the larger members of this group, which in aggregate area is about 1,424,500 sq km (550,000 sq mi), are (in descending order) Baffin, Victoria, Ellesmere, Banks, Devon, Axel Heiberg, and Melville islands. Cape Columbia, a promontory of Ellesmere Island at latitude 83°06¢ north, is the northernmost point of Canada; its southernmost point is Middle Island in Lake Erie, at latitude 41°41¢ north. The easternmost and westernmost limits are delineated, respectively, by longitude 52°37¢ west, which lies along Cape Spear, Newfoundland, and longitude 141° west, which coincides with part of the Alaska-Yukon border. Canada has a total area of 9,970,610 km (3,849,652 sq mi), of which 755,180 sq km (291,575 sq mi) is covered by bodies of freshwater such as rivers and lakes, including those portions of the Great Lakes under Canadian jurisdiction.
Population 30,286,000 (1997 official estimate) Population Density 3 people/sq km (8 people/sq mi) (1997 estimate) Urban/Rural Breakdown 77% Urban 23% Rural Largest Cities Montreal1,017,666 Calgary710,677 Toronto635,395 (1991 census) Largest Metropolitan Areas Toronto4,444,700 Montreal3,359,000 Vancouver1,891,400 (1996 estimate) Ethnic Groups 34% British and Irish 27% French 21% Other European 16% Asian 2% Native American Language Official Languages English French Religions 45% Roman Catholicism 36% Protestantism 19% Other including Eastern Orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism
| Canada | Land | Back to Top |
N/A
| Canada | Languages | Back to Top |
Canada is officially bilingual, and all services provided by the federal government are available in English and French. The selection of Ottawa as the national capital, located on the Ontario-Québec border, reflects the long-standing political and cultural importance of the two founding nations. The 1996 census reported that only 1.7 percent of Canadians don’t have at least some ability to speak one of the official languages; 17 percent of Canadians are fluently bilingual. The majority speak English: 59 percent reported English as their mother tongue in 1996, while 23 percent reported French and 16 percent a nonofficial language. The most prevalent nonofficial languages in Canada are, in order of prominence, Chinese, Italian, Punjabi, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish.
| Canada | Legal | Back to Top |
Legal system: based on English common law, except in Quebec, where civil law system based on French law prevails; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal Executive branch: chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952), represented by Governor General Adrienne CLARKSON (since 7 October 1999) head of government: Prime Minister Jean CHRETIEN (since 4 November 1993) cabinet: Federal Ministry chosen by the prime minister from among the members of his own party sitting in Parliament elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister for a five-year term; following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons is automatically designated by the governor general to become prime minister Legislative branch: bicameral Parliament or Parlement consists of the Senate or Senat (a body whose members are appointed to serve until reaching 75 years of age by the governor general and selected on the advice of the prime minister; its normal limit is 104 senators) and the House of Commons or Chambre des Communes (301 seats; members elected by direct popular vote to serve five-year terms) elections: House of Commons - last held 27 November 2000 (next to be held 2005) election results: percent of vote by party as of January 2001 - Liberal Party 42%, Canadian Alliance 22%, Bloc Quebecois 13%, New Democratic Party 4%, Progressive Conservative Party 4%; seats by party as of January 2001 - Liberal Party 172, Canadian Alliance 66, Bloc Quebecois 38, New Democratic Party 13, Progressive Conservative Party 12 Judicial branch: Supreme Court of Canada (judges are appointed by the prime minister through the governor general); Federal Court of Canada; Federal Court of Appeal; Provincial Courts (these are named variously Court of Appeal, Court of Queens Bench, Superior Court, Supreme Court, and Court of Justice)
| Canada | Life | Back to Top |
The complex regional and cultural composition of Canadian society means that there is no single Canadian way of life, but certain generalizations can be made. Perhaps the clearest is that Canada shares with the United States, most European countries, and Japan a high standard of living relative to the remainder of the world. Most Canadians are well housed, fed, and clothed. Canadians also enjoy an advanced, efficient health care system that is universally available to all citizens and landed immigrants (immigrants who are allowed permanent residence in the country) regardless of their location, income, or social standing. In fact, recent opinion polls have shown that Canadians see this system of socialized medicine as a defining characteristic of their national identity.
| Canada | organization | Back to Top |
ABEDA, ACCT, AfDB, APEC, ARF (dialogue partner), AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner), Australia Group, BIS, C, CCC, CDB (non-regional), CE (observer), EAPC, EBRD, ECE, ECLAC, ESA (cooperating state), FAO, G- 7, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, MINURCA, MIPONUH, MONUC, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS, OECD, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIKOM, UNMEE, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNMOP, UNTAET, UNTSO, UNU, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO, ZC
| Canada | People | Back to Top |
The population of Canada was 28,846,761 at the time of the latest census in 1996, compared to 27.3 million in 1991. The growth rate from 1991 to 1996 was 1.14 percent per year; this is the fourth highest rate among the 27 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which corresponds roughly to the most developed industrial countries of the world. Half of this growth is due to immigration. Canada’s liberal immigration program accepts newcomers from nearly every other country in the world. The estimated population in 2001 was 31,592,805.
About one-half of Canadians descend from one of the two founding nations, Britain or France. At the time of the first census of Canada (1871), about 50 percent of the population was British and 30 percent French. Since that time the proportion of Canadians of British and French origin has dropped to about 25 percent each. This decline has resulted from a reduction in the number of people coming from the United Kingdom and France and an increase in the number from other countries in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Immigrant groups tend to retain their cultural identity in Canada largely because they have tended to settle in colonies. For example, Ukrainians have been attracted to the prairies, where the land and climate are similar to their homeland, and many Dutch have settled on the flat fertile farmland of southwestern Ontario, where they practice fruit and vegetable growing as they did in The Netherlands. Many Chinese, Portuguese, Greeks, and Italians have settled in specific sections of large cities, particularly Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
Population (2002 census): 31.4 million. Ethnic groups: Anglophone 28%, Francophone 23%, other European 15%, Asian/Arab/African 6%, indigenous Amerindian 2%, mixed background 26%. Religions: Roman Catholic 44.4%, Protestant 29%, other Christian 4.2%, Muslim 2%, other 4%. Languages: English, French. Education: Literacy--99% of population aged 15 and over has at least a ninth-grade education. Health: Infant mortality rate--5.2/1,000. Life expectancy—77.1 yrs. male, 82.2 yrs. female. Work force (15.4 million): Goods-producing sector: 25%, of which: Manufacturing 15%; construction 6%; agriculture 2%; natural resources 2%; utilities 1%. Service-producing sector: 75%, of which: trade 16%; health care and social assistance 10%; educational services 7%, accommodation and food services 7%; professional, scientific, and technical services 6%; finance 6%; public administration 5%; transportation and warehousing 5%; information, culture, and recreation 5%; other services 5 %; management, administrative, and other support 4%.
| Canada | Politics | Back to Top |
Bloc Quebecois [Gilles DUCEPPE]; Canadian Alliance [Stockwell DAY]; Liberal Party [Jean CHRETIEN]; New Democratic Party [Alexa MCDONOUGH]; Progressive Conservative Party [Joe CLARK] Political pressure groups and leaders: NA
| Canada | Provinces | Back to Top |
10 provinces and 3 territories*; Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories*, Nova Scotia, Nunavut*, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon Territory*
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