Canada - Geography, Political system, Cities, Population, History, Economy and transportation

The climate is in Canada mostly continental with warm summers and cold winters, but in the north can temperature fall to minus 50°C.

Political system

Canadian flag

Canada is constitutional monarchy, a federal state and parliament democracy with two official languages - French and English.

Canada became a British dominion5 in 1867. Now it is an independent federal state and a member of the British Commonwealth. Since 1965 it has had its own national flag: red and white are official colours of Canada while the maple leaf has long been a Canadian emblem.

Toronto skyline with the Canadian Tower which is 554 m high

The head of the state is the British monarch represented by the governor-general, usually appointed for a 5-year term by the Canadian cabinet. The leading figure in the political life of the country is the Prime Minister.

Cities and places of interest in Canada

Canada’s capital is Ottawa in province Ontario. Ottawa is “only” capital of Canada, but it is not capital of Ontario, it is Toronto, where the world’s tallest structure, Canadian Tower was built. The largest city in Canada is Montreal and it is also the second largest French-speaking city in the world.

The capitals of majority provinces are known as competitors of National Hockey League (NHL) - Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto and Calgary, which is known as organiser of winter Olympic games in 1988.

Toronto is city of many nationalities. The largest group are Italians, which create 8% of Toronto’s population. Toronto lies on coast of lake Ontario, so it can easily transport anything from and to industrial centres of USA like Detroit. There are many interesting buildings, not only the Canadian Tower. Very interesting is new Toronto City Hall building, that is using modern architectonic technologies.

Montreal is situated on island in the St. Lawrence River. Montreal is one of the oldest cities in Canada, because its history started in 1667. Today is Montreal one of the largest harbours in the world. It is centre of international events in Canada (1976 Summer Olympic Games). In Montreal are the most important French-speaking universities in Canada.

Vancouver is the largest city on the west coast of Pacific ocean. It is modern city. All buildings are newer than 100 years, because old wooden Vancouver was burned in 1886. It is important transport crossing. There is a harbour and many highways and railroads.

Population and history of colonisation

The Vikings discovered Canada more than a thousand years ago, but it was rediscovered only by the Europeans in the 15th century. The French occupied large part of territory in the 16th century. They were followed by the English who captured most of Canada from the French in the wars in 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

Now population of Canada is about 28 million people. 45% of Canadians are of British origin, 29% of French origin and 23% have their origins in other European countries. There are also native Canadians - Indians and Eskimos - in Canada, but they are only 319 000 (300 000 are Indians and 19 000 are Eskimos). From Indians probably came name Canada: one of tribes used word “kanata” for settlement.