Canada
Canada is the northern neighbour of the United States but it additionally shares its boarder with St. Pierre and Miguelon which belong to France. Politically, Canada is set up as a federation. As the second largest country of the world, Canada has an area of 9.984.670 km², of which 9.093.507 km² are land mass and 891.163 km² water. The total length of the border shared by Canada and the United States is 8.890 km. Moreover, Canada has the largest coast line of the world with around 202.080 km.
Canada's largest cities are Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa. Most of the 30 million Canadians are living in these cities. This has the effect that Canada has one of the lowest population intensities of the world with just around 3.2 inhabitants/km². Canada's official languages are English and French but in Nunavut, Inukitut also has the status of an official language. The majority of the Canadian provinces are Anglophone with the exception of Québec being Francophone and New Brunswick being bilingual.
The area that is today's Canada was firstly colonized by the Vikings under Leif Eriksson around the year 1000. However, these first attempts were not successful and therefore it were the French who set up the first durable settlement in Port Royal, the modern Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia. The numerous wars between France and England had the outcome that most North American colonies were dominated by the British from 1763 onwards. It is worth mentioning the war between the by then already independent United States and the United Kingdom between 1812 and 1814 with the result that in 1867, the British colonies became a constitution with the effect of more independence from the motherland. Formally, Canada gained its complete independence in 1982.
As already stressed above, Canada is politically a federation with ten provinces as well as three government-administered territories. Furthermore, Canada is a representative parliamentary democracy with a symbolic constitutional monarchy within the British Commonwealth of Nations. Therefore, the Queen of Great Britain, Elizabeth II is the symbolic head of state but is represented by a Governor General. The Canadian Parliament consists of the democratically elected House of Commons and the Senate, whose members are nominated. The Prime Minister is the head of government and is formally nominated by the Governor General.
The ten Canadian provinces and three territories from west to east with their capitals are:
- Yukon (Whitehorse); Territory
- Northwest Territories (Yellowknife); Territory
- Nunavut (Iqaluit); Territory
- British Columbia (Victoria)
- Alberta (Edmonton)
- Saskatchewan (Regina)
- Manitoba (Winnipeg)
- Ontario (Toronto)
- Québec (Québec)
- New Brunswick (Fredericton)
- Prince Edward Island (Charlottetown)
- Nova Scotia (Halifax)
- Newfoundland and Labrador (Saint John's)
Culturally, Canada is significantly influenced by Europe, in particular by English, French, Irish, German but also Austrian backgrounds. The interplay of these various traditions combined with Asian influences, in particular from Hongkong, China and Korea constitute the characteristic multiculturalism of Canada. The Canadian Indians or "first nations / premiéres nations" enjoy a special status within Canadian society.
Although Lacrosse is the national sport, Canada is considered the motherland of hockey. Additionally, curling is much enjoyed by Canadians.
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Canada's Capital City: Ottawa
National Anthem: O Canada