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CANADA

FACT FILE

OFFICIAL NAME OF THE COUNTRY: Canada

CAPITAL: Ottawa (ON)

TOTAL AREA: 9,970,610 sq.km

LAND AREA: 9,220,970 sq.km

INLAND WATER: 775,180 sq.km

COMPARATIVE AREA: second-largest country in the world (after Russia);

slightly larger than the US, the largest country in the Western hemisphere

POPULATION: 28.9 million people

ETHNIC DIVISIONS: British 40%, French 27%, other European 20% ,

indigenous Indian and Eskimo (Inuit) 3%, African Canadians 2%

NATIONALITY: noun - Canadian(s); adjective - Canadian

OFFICIAL LANGUAGES: English and French
MOST POPULATED PROVINCE: Ontario (ON) [ ]

LEAST POPULATED PROVINCE: Prince Edward Island (PEI, PE)

LARGEST PROVINCE: Quebec (QC)

SMALLEST PROVINCE: Prince Edward Island (PEI, PE)

FLAG: a red, 11-pointed maple leaf centered on a white field; at each side there is
abroad, vertical red stripe (since 1965)
NATIONAL ANTHEM: "O, Canada"
NATIONAL SYMBOLS: Maple leaf and beaver [ ]
THE CANADIAN MOTTO, A Mari Usque ad Mare, means “From sea to sea.”

FORM OF GOVERNMENT: constitutional monarchy

CHIEF OF STATE: Queen ELIZABETH II of the United Kingdom is Queen of
Canada (since 6 February 1952), represented by Governor-General
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The Governor General of Canada (French: Gouverneure générale du Canada) is
the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, currently
Queen Elizabeth II. The person of the sovereign is shared equally both with the 15
other Commonwealth realms and the 10 provinces of Canada, but resides
predominantly in her oldest realm, the United Kingdom. Because of this, the
Queen, on the advice of her Canadian prime minister, appoints a governor general
to carry out most of her constitutional and ceremonial duties. The commission is
for an unfixed period of time—known as serving at Her Majesty's pleasure—
though five years is the normal convention. Beginning in 1959, it has also been
traditional to rotate between anglophone and francophone candidates although
many recent governors general have been bilingual. Once in office, the governor
general maintains direct contact with the Queen, wherever she may be at the time.

The office began in the 16th and 17th centuries with the Crown-appointed
governors of the French colony of Canada followed by the British governors of
Canada in the 18th and 19th centuries. Subsequently, the office is, along with the
Crown, the oldest continuous institution in Canada. The present incarnation of the
office emerged with Canadian Confederation and the passing of the British North
America Act, which defines the role of the governor general as "carrying on the
Government of Canada on behalf and in the Name of the Queen, by whatever Title
he is designated". Throughout this process of gradually increasing Canadian
independence, the role of governor general took on additional responsibilities. For
example, in 1904, the Militia Act granted permission for the governor general to
use the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian militia, in the name of the
sovereign and actual Commander-in-Chief, and in 1927 the first official
international visit by a governor general was made. Finally, in 1947, King George
VI issued letters patent allowing the viceroy to carry out almost all of the
monarch's powers on his or her behalf. As a result, the day-to-day duties of the
monarch are carried out by the governor general, although, as a matter of law, the
governor general is not in the same constitutional position as the sovereign; the
office itself does not independently possess any powers of the Royal Prerogative.
In accordance with the Constitution Act, 1982, any constitutional amendment that
affects the Crown, including the office of the Governor General, requires the
unanimous consent of each provincial legislature as well as the federal parliament.

The current governor general is Julie Payette, who has served since 2 October
2017; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recommended her to succeed David Johnston.
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HEAD OF GOVERNMENT: Prime Minister, leader of the majority party in the
House of Commons
POLITICAL PARTIES: Progressive Conservative Party (PCP); Liberal Party (LP);
New Democratic Party (NDP)

ELECTIONS: House of Commons

CONSTITUTION: partly unwritten, partly written; amended British North
America act 1867 patriated [ ] to Canada 17 April 1982; Charter
of Rights and unwritten customs.
LEGAL SYSTEM: based on English common law, except in Quebec, where civil
law system based on French law prevails
EXECUTIVE BRANCH: British monarch represented by Governor-General,
Prime Minister, deputy prime minister, Cabinet
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH (PARLIAMENT): consists of an upper house or Senate
(Senat) - 104 members appointed by the Governor-General. House of Commons
(Chambre des Communes) - 295 members elected by the people
JUDICIAL BRANCH: Supreme Court

SUFFRAGE: universal at age 18

CLIMATE: varies from temperate in the South to subarctic and arctic in the North

TERRAIN: mostly plains with mountains in the West and lowlands in the
Southeast

NATURAL RESOURCES: nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead, molybdenum, potash,

silver, fish, timber, wildlife, coal, crude oil, natural gas

LONGEST RIVER: the Mackenzie River: 4,241 km long [ ]

PRINCIPAL RIVERS: the St. Lawrence River (3,058 km), the Yukon River, the
Nelson River, the Saskatchewan River [ ], the Peace
River, the Churchill River

HIGHEST POINT: Mount Logan (YT): 5,951 m [ ]

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PRINCIPAL MOUNTAINS: Mount Fairweather (BC) [ ], Mount
Waddington (BC) [ ], Mount Robson (BC), Mount Columbia
(AB)
LARGEST CITIES: Toronto [ ] 4.1 mil; Montreal
[ ] 3.3 mil; Vancouver [ ]1 .7 mil; Ottawa-Hull
national capital region 980,000; Edmonton 897,000; Calgary 814,000; Quebec
679,000; Winnipeg 662,000

PORTS: Halifax, Montreal, Quebec, Saint John (NB), Saint John's (NF), Toronto,
Vancouver [ ]

INDEPENDENCE: 1 July 1867 (from the UK)

NATIONAL HOLIDAY: Canada Day, 1 July (1867)

MONEY: basic unit - Canadian dollar (Can$)

INTERESTING FACTS
1. Canada spans 9 984 670 sq km and comprises 6 time zones.
2. Canada is home to the longest street in the world. Yonge Street [ ] in
Ontario starts at Lake Ontario, and runs north through Ontario to the Minnesota
border, a distance of almost 2,000 km.
3. While we’re talking ‘longest’, here’s another record: Canada has the world’s
longest coastline at 202,080 km.
4. A bear cub named Winnipeg was exported from Canada to the London Zoo in
1915. A little boy named Christopher Robin Milne loved to visit Winnipeg, or
Winnie for short. His love for the bear cub inspired the stories written by his father,
A.A. Milne, about Winnie-the-Pooh.
5. Toronto’s Rogers Centre, formerly known as the SkyDome, is home to the
largest Sony big screen in the world, measuring 10 m x 33.6 m.
6. Canada has twice been invaded by the USA, first in 1775 and again in 1812.
7. Actor Leslie Nielsen is Canadian. His brother, Erik, was the Deputy Prime
Minister of Canada for two years, from 1984 to 1986.
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8. Canada holds the record for the most gold medals ever won at the Winter
Olympics, taking 14 Golds at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
9. Canada was named through a misunderstanding. When Jaques Cartier, a French
explorer, came to the new world, he met with local Natives who invited them to
their ‘kanata’ (the word for ‘village’). The party mistakenly thought the name of
the country was “Kanata” or Canada.
10. The Mounted Police was formed in 1873, with nine officers. In 1920, the group
merged with the Dominion Police to become the famous Royal Canadian Mounted
Police, which today has close to 30 000 members.
11. Canada is home to approximately 55,000 different species of insects.
12. Montreal is home to many beautiful churches and is often called The City of
Saints or City of a Hundred Bell Towers.
13. Ontario is believed to be home to the world’s smallest jail, which measures
only 24.3 sq metres.
14. The Hotel de Glace in Quebec is built every year using 400 tons of ice and 12
000 tons of snow. Every summer it melts away, only to be rebuilt the following
winter.
15. Canada’s only desert in British Columbia is only 15 miles long and is the only
desert in the world with a long boardwalk for visitors to walk on.
16. Famous Canadians include Pamela Anderson, Leonard Cohen, Avril Lavigne,
Keanu Reeves and Jim Carrey.