Canada

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Canada
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• 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.
  

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• 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 tradeparticularly 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.

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1. National Symbols of Canada
1.1 National Flag of Canada
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1.2 Coat of Arms of Canada

• The Royal Coat of Arms of Canada is, since 1921,
  the official coat of arms of the Canadian
  monarch, and thus also of Canada.
• It is closely modelled after the royal coat of
  arms of the United Kingdom with distinctive
  Canadian elements replacing or added to those
  derived from the British.

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Shield

• The shield is divided into five sections.
• The first division at the viewer's top left
  contains the three golden lions.
• The second quarter bears the red lion rampant of
  Scotland in a double tressure border with
  fleurs-de-lis.
• The third quarter shows the Irish harp of Tara.
• The gold fleurs-de-lis of royal France fill the
  fourth quarter.
• The fifth charge, a sprig of red maple leaves at
  the bottom is a distinctly Canadian symbol.

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Ribbon

• The ribbon is marked desiderantes meliorem
  patriam. It is the motto of the Order of Canada.
  This component was added by the Queen in 1987 on
  the advice of her Prime Minister.
• Since 1994 the arms used by government ministers
  and institutions have slowly changed to reflect
  the new version with the ribbon.

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Helm

• The arms show a royal helmet, which is a barred
  helm of gold looking outward, with mantling of
  white and red, stylised in the official version
  to look like maple leaves.

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Crest and crown

• The crest is based on the Royal Crest of the
  United Kingdom but differenced by the addition of
  a maple leaf, and symbolizes the sovereignty of
  Canada.
• The crest consists of a crowned gold lion
  standing on a twisted wreath of red and white
  silk and holding a maple leaf in its right paw.
  Above the crest is St Edward's Crown.

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Motto

• The motto of Canada is in Latin a mari usque ad
  mare (From sea to sea), a part of Psalm 728.
• 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).

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Supporters

• Supporting the shield on either side are the
  English lion and Scottish unicorn, which are also
  the supporters of the UK coat of arms.
• The English lion stands on the viewer's left and
  holds a gold-pointed silver lance flying the
  Union Flag.
• The Scottish unicorn has a gold horn, a gold
  mane, gold hooves, and around its neck a gold,
  chained coronet of crosses and fleurs-de-lis it
  holds a lance flying the three gold fleurs-de-lis
  of royal France on a blue background.

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Compartment

• The entire coat of arms rests on the compartment,
  which is made up of the floral emblems of the
  founding countries whose royal arms were
  incorporated into the design of the shield. The
  Tudor rose is the floral badge of England,
  combining the White Rose of York and the Red Rose
  of Lancaster. The thistle and shamrock are the
  symbols of Scotland and Ireland, respectively,
  while the fleur-de-lis has been the royal symbol
  of France since the 12th century.

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1.3 Canadian National Atheme

• French Version

• 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.
• ?,???! ?????,?????! ??????????!
  ???????????, ??????????! ?,???!??????,
  ??????? ????????????! ?,???!?????!
  ?,???!?????!

• 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.
• ?,???, ????????, ?????????????
  ??????????, ????????????! ??????,????,
  ?????????! ????!????, ????,????! ????,????!

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2. Geography and Climate

• By land area it ranks fourth. Since 1925, Canada
  has claimed the portion of the Arctic between
  60W and 141W 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.

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

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• 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.

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• 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 30C with
  occasional extreme heat in some interior
  locations exceeding 40C .
• Canada is also geologically active, having many
  earthquakes and potentially active volcanoes.

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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.

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• 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 countrys
  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.

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4. Canadian Demography

• Canadas 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 Canadas 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.

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• 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 Canadas political culture.
• Canadian provinces and territories are
  responsible for education.

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5. A Brief History of Canada
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• 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 LAnse aux Meadows around AD 1000.

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• 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.

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• To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of
  1774 expanded Quebecs 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.

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• 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 Ruperts Land and the Arctic
  region. The Canadian population grew rapidly
  because of high birth rates.

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• 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.

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• Canada automatically entered World War I in 1914
  with Britains 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 Canadas independence.

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• 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.

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• 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
  Canadas constitution from the United Kingdom,
  concurrent with the creation of the Charter of
  Rights and Freedoms.

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• 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

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6. Canadian Government and Politics
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• 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.

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• Canadas 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.

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• The Crown formally approves parliamentary
  legislation and the Prime Ministers
  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.

• 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 Ministers 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.

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7. Law and Court System of Canada

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

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• Canadas 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.

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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.

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9. Canadian Economy

• Canada is one of the worlds 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 worlds 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.

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• 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.

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• However, Canada is unusual among developed
  countries in the importance of the primary
  sector, with the logging and oil industries being
  two of Canadas most important.
• Canada is one of the few developed nations that
  are net exporters of energy.
• Canada is one of the worlds most important
  suppliers of agricultural products.
• Canada is the worlds 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.

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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 Canadas 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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

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• 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.

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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.

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

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• Canadas 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.

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12. Languages in Canada
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• Canadas 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)..

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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.