Report CANADA
Canada has around 31,700 large lakes and eight distinct forest regions whilst the highest point is Mount Logan at 5,959 metres.
There are 10 provinces - Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan . Plus there are three territories – Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon.
For thousands of years this land was inhabited by various Aboriginal people and the name Canada comes from the St Lawrence Iroquoian word Kanata which means ‘village’ or ‘settlement’. It is said this word was used by the indigenous inhabitants to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona and he later used this word for the entire region.
In the late 15th century the British and French Colonial expeditions explored the lands and later settled here on the Atlantic coast. France however ceded almost all its colonies in North America to Britain in 1763 after the Seven Years War and the area was split into two British colonies – Upper Canada and Lower Canada.
Then in 1867 with the union of three British North American colonies the Canadian Confederation proclaimed Canada as a federal dominion which was initially made up of four provinces – Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick – and later assumed control of further territories.
The Great Depression of the early 1930s brought great economic hardship to Canada whilst many elements of the welfare state were introduced in the 1940s and 1950s. However post war saw Canada boom with economic growth which led to the emergence of a new Canadian identity, official bilingualism plus a series of social democratic programmes introduced such as Medicare, pension plans and student loans.
The most densely populated part of the country is Quebec City and some 80 per cent of the population live in urban areas concentrated in Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, the British Columbian Lower Mainland and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. Around four fifths of the population live within 150km of the US border.
Canada has one of the highest per capita immigration rates in the world which is driven by economic policy and family reunification and was aiming for 240- 265,000 new permanent residents in 2012.
February 2013 PAGE 102
New immigrants mainly settle in Toronto and Vancouver.
Today, Canada is a federal state with a population of around 34 million which has developed in parallel with the US on an economic and technological level. It has an advanced economy and is the world’s 11th largest economy and relies heavily upon its natural resources and international trade, particularly with the US.
In the past century Canada has seen its manufacturing, mining and service sectors grow and transform the country from a largely rural economy to an
Canada has one of the highest per
capita immigration rates in the world which is driven by economic policy and family
reunification and was aiming for
240-265,000 new permanent
residents in 2012. New immigrants mainly settle in Toronto and Vancouver.
industrial one. The service industry today employs around three quarters of the workforce.
The country is one of a few developed nations that are net exporters of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and Alberta also has oil and gas resources whilst the Athabasca oil sands have given Canada the world’s second largest proven oil reserves. Other agricultural supplies include wheat, canola and grains whilst Canada is also a producer of zinc and uranium, gold, nickel and aluminium.
Canada’s per capita income is the ninth
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