7._CANADA

* BRIEF HISTORY

- the original inhabitants came from Asia across a land bridge which is now the Bering Strait

- the country was discovered by Vikings more than 1000 years before
- in 15th century the country was rediscovered by Europeans
- originally Canada was called New France because it was a French colony
- the first settlers was French arriving from Europe in 17th century, they sailed up the St. Lawrence river and built

settlements in its valley
- in 1763 the French were defeated by the British and Canada become a British colony
- they didn´t take part in the War of Independence and remained loyal to Britain because they were afraid of

becoming a part of the USA ( it doesn´t mean that they were satisfied with British rule)
- during 19th century there was a strong movement for political independence in Canada, this forced the UK to

establish Canada as a Dominion in 1867 (Britain lost its political influence but it didn’t lose its economic influence)->
-> later it decreased and the influence of the USA increased

- now the English language spoken in Canada sounds more like American than British English

* SPORTS, PASTIMES, FAMOUS PEOPLE

sports and pastimes

- sport in Canada consist of a wide variety of games

- the most common sports are ice hockey, lacrosse, football, soccer, basketball, curling and baseball

- some other sports are popular too, such as swimming, golf, tennis, skiing etc.

- ice-hockey and lacrosse were invented in Canada

- Canada hosted the Olympic Games three times: Summer Olympics in Montreal, Winter Olympics in Calgary and

Winter Olympics in Vancouver

-> lacrosse

- it is one of the oldest ball games in the world
- the earliest form was played by North Native Americans as part of their training for war
- the players used a stick and leather bag filled with stones or deer hair
- French settlers named this sport lacrosse because a hooded stick was similar to a bishop´s staff called “ la crosse” in French
- modern lacrosse is ball game, played on a grass field, each team has 10 players who use sticks with net (pocket)

on the end to catch carry and throw the ball -> the aim is to shoot the ball into opponent´s goal
- the players have helmets and protective equipment

famous people

- Elon Musk - an inventor SPACEX, an architect with Tesla

- Alexander Graham Bell - born in Scotland, lived in Canada

- actors - Jim Carrey, Kean Reeves, Pamela Anderson

- singers - Neil Young, Justin Bieber, Avril Lavigne, Leonard Cohen, Bryan Adams

- hockey player Wayne Gretzky

- Terry Fox - was a Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist

- with one leg having been amputated, he run from east to west to raise money and awareness for cancer research

Canadian Flag Inuits, Native Americans

Banff NP Jasper NP

Ottawa Toronto

Lacrosse