Our hopes are high. Our faith in the people is great. Our courage is strong. And our dreams for this beautiful country will never die.
- Pierre Elliott Trudeau
... What can I say about Canada?
The Dominion of Canada is the largest country in North America, bordered on the south by the United States on the west by the Pacific Ocean and Alaska, on the north by the Arctic Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east.
It is, as of the 2001 Census, home to 30,007,094 people. It's a fairly fast growing nation, registering 4% growth between 2001 and 1996. It's estimated that we currently have about 32 million residents.
Canada is diverse, not only in the make up of its citizenry, but in the glorious splendour of its Geography, from the Arctic tundra of the North West Territories, to the rugged coastline of the Atlantic Provinces, to the sweeping grasslands of Saskatchewan, to my favourite, the majestic Rocky Mountains.
Sitting right atop the United States, and absorbing much of their culture through diffusion, Canada is the country that is the most like their neighbours to the south. But not too much. I really can't expect to write a comprehensive writeup on Canada without looking at the similarities, and more importantly, the differences. From the obvious, such as the influence of French culture and our political system, to the less obvious, such as our lower crime rate, and generally more liberal attitude.
Canada is a Constitutional Monarchy. Our government runs upon a parliamentary system, and the current leader of the government is Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is the head of the Coservative Party of Canada, which currently makes up a minority government in the House of Commons. Our legal code generally based upon English common law, except in Quebec, where its based upon the civil law of France, which was in turn based upon Roman laws. More about this later.
Official Stuff
- Capital City : Ottawa
- National Anthem : O Canada
- Official Tree : Maple
- Official Summer Sport: Lacrosse
- Official Winter Sport : Hockey
- Official Animal : Beaver
- Official Motto : A Mari usque ad Mare (From Sea to Sea)
So anyways, I think I'll start off with a rather quick summary of the geography of Canada. An in-depth look would be much too large for any node, it *IS* a large country after all. Then I shall move on to the culture, politics, and then the history of my favourite country.
Yes, I know this is a very long node. My longest by a factor of two. It's a big country, with an interesting history, and I'd rather not do a half assed job.
I think every Canadian should have a map of Canada in his or her house. It should be displayed in a place where one can sit and contemplate the wonderful vastness of this land. As Canadians we are continuously groping for an identity and a sense of love for our nation. We grapple with the concept, find it somewhat distasteful and leave it for another day. We find American flag waving, hand over heart while belting out Oh, say, can you see... too much and avoid doing the same. We admire their national spirit, but Canadians are, in contrast, understated. To understand the identity that exists in our hearts think of our sweepingly majestic home, its quiet, serene beauty. A beauty recognizable to us all. We are proud of this nation and of who we are. We just don't say it. It's like the map. It just sits there on the wall displaying the lines of our coasts, the bulk of our waterways, and the breadth of our northern territories. Surveying all of this leaves me in awe. It brings a tear to my eye...O Canada...
- Debora O'Neil
The Geography of Canada really needs its own node. No, scratch that, the Geography of Canada really needs a dozen nodes of its own. We've got a total area of 9,976,140 square kilometers, with everything from rainforest to frozen wastelands. Land mass wise, we're the 2nd largest country in the world. People write books on this stuff. I'm going to try and give you a quick overview.
anthropod says re Canada: with the breakup of the Soviet Union we must be the largest country in the world, no?
anthropod says Humph. Damn russians. ;-)
- Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island lies off the western coast of British Columbia. Well, that's not really true, since it's a part of B.C., but you get the idea. It's covered mostly with forests, with some rainforest, and a mountain range in the middle. Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, near the southern tip of the island, gets great weather and is quite popular as both a tourist destination, and a choice for retirement.
Tourism, Forestry, and Mining are fairly big on the island, and they've got some nice fishing there.
- British Columbia and the Yukon
The coastal area of B.C. is quite like Vancouver Island, with much forested area, and a few mountains. It's quite temperate, with some of the highest winter low temperatures in the country, which is what attracts many people to Vancouver. On the other hand, it also gets a *lot* of rain. Something on the par of 300 days of precipitation per year.
Moving inland, you get less rain and more sun, a good example of this being the Okanogan Valley, which is the centre for fruit growing in the province. Moving northward, up on into the Yukon Territory, it basically stays the same, except colder.
Again, Forestry is B.C.'s biggest industry, followed by Tourism. There's some mining, and some agriculture, and still the fishing. Salmon mostly.
- Rocky Mountains
Between British Columbia and Alberta, stretching down into the States at the 49th, and reaching up through the Yukon to stretch into Alaska, are the Majestic Rockies.
They are... a string of mountains, mostly snow capped throughout the year, sparsely covered with trees. What does this add up to? IMHO, the most beautiful scenery in North America.
It's this scenery, as well as some world class skiing, that fuels the tourism industry in places like Banff, Kimberly, and Jasper. Everyone should visit Banff National Park, the country's first national park, at least once in their life. I live an hour and a half drive from there. Lucky me.
- Prairie Provinces
Once the Foothills of the Rockies settle down as you head eastward, you reach the rolling grasslands of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, the Prairie Provinces.
Much of this area is, naturally, devoted to agriculture. And, let's face it, grassland isn't exactly all that exiting. The flatter the more boring. It gets *real* flat in Saskatchewan. This area makes up most of these provinces, gradually turning into woodlands in the north.
The economy is mostly farming in Saskatchewan, most of Manitoba, and Southern Alberta. Up in the north of Alberta, they have some forestry, but the main bulk of the economy for the province is in the oil and gas sector.
And of course, much of the economy feeds off the oil and gas, fueling hi-tech stuff of various types. Calgary has the 2nd highest number of corporate head offices in the country, behind Toronto, because of this.
- Far North
The further north you go, the colder it gets. Plant and animal life dies off. Once you get to the Tundra, with its Permafrost soil, there are very few plants capable of surviving during the times of the year where at least the top layer of soil is melted, let alone plants capable of thriving in these conditions.
Barren. Frozen. Wasteland.
That's pretty much what everyone thinks about the Far North, and while it's not entirely accurate, it's pretty close to the truth.
Mostly mining, if I recall correctly.
We've also got a whole bunch of ice covered islands in the Arctic Ocean. Hard to tell the difference at times, since 10 months of the year, the Ocean is frozen. The largest of these would be Baffin Island.
- Canadian Shield
The Canadian Shield is a vast area of land, pretty much extending outwards from Hudson Bay. It covers most of Ontario, about half of Manitoba, almost all of Quebec, and most of Nunavut.
The area is rocky, with only a thin layer of topsoil, due to the effects of glaciers covering the region in the last ice age. It tends to be fairly heavily wooded. It is quite hilly, with many small lakes. Generally unsuited to farming, there are often mining operations.
It stretches down till you get to some much larger lakes, the Great Lakes, down in the south of Ontario.
This region has a lot. It's got mining, it's got tourism, it's got forestry, it's got hydro-electric power. It's got farming. It's got Ottawa.
- St. Lawrence Lowlands
The areas around the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River are surrounded by flat, fertile lowlands, generally lightly wooded. The weather further inland generally gets more and more temperate. They grow some damned tasty corn down there.
This area is where the highest concenration of Canada's manufacturing sector is, and the highest population density, so of course it's got the business too. They're keeping busy.
- Maritime Provinces
It has been quite some time since I've been that far east, so I'm likely foggy on the subject. Feel free to /msg me with corrections. Actually, that goes for pretty much anything in this writeup.
Anyways, the Maritime Provinces seem to be green and hilly, with some forests. New Brunswick in paticular has a decent forestry industry. The coastline is generally quite steep, with many a rocky cliff and a whole bunch of bays and gulfs, including the Bay of Fundy, which has the steepest tides in the world.
They've got a strong tourism industry, especially in Prince Edward Island. There's forestry, farming, and other assorted random industries.
Update: And it's been pointed out that I left out Nova Scotia from this section. Again, I don't really know all that much about Nova Scotia, so I'm going to assume that geographically and such it's pretty much the same. Still, gotta give props to a place that's Latin for New Scotland. Latin rocks.
- Newfoundland
The Rock. It's wet, it's foggy, it's windy, it's got a lot of trees, and it's rocky.
They used to have a lot of fish, but due to over fishing and general mis-management, they don't anymore. When they finally figured this out, and severely curtailed fishing from the Grand Banks, unemployment soared. In all honesty, Newfoundland was there because of the fish.
It's really not a very nice place to live.
Update: Apparently I am incorrect!
2006.01.26 at 06:43 frankdeluxe says Hey, I just read your Canada writeup. I'm from Newfoundland, and Newfoundland is a great place to live.
Politics, gotta love it, eh? Let's have a quick look at the structure of Canada's government, shall we?
- The Queen and the Governor General
Well, at the top, we've got the Head of State. This is *NOT* the Prime Minister. We're a Constitutional Monarchy, which means that we've got a King or a Queen. Of course, we don't actually have one of our own, so we just borrow England's.
But Palpz, you may ask, Queen Elizabeth II has only visited Canada a couple of times in your life, how could she possibly be carrying out all the duties of a Head of State?
Well, she isn't. She just gets someone else to do that for her. So, she appoints a Governor General for Canada to act as a de facto Head of State. It's this person who has to sign legislation in order to make it a law, it's them who acts as the Commander in Chief of the Canadian Armed Forces, and generally to just represent the Queen in Canada, and Canada abroad.
Governor Generals are generally appointed for a five year term, however sometimes it's longer. Currently, Her Excellency, the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson is serving as Governor General. She's one of the better ones that we've had for a while, a former CBC News Reporter who emigrated to Canada from Hong Kong when she was 3.
Update: Now it's Michaëlle Jean, who was a reporter for the CBC, who emigrated to Canada from Haiti when she was 11. Hmmm... do I detect a trend here?
So, that's who's at the top. The Governor General has the right to veto any legislation, commands the armed forces, calls elections, and doesn't use those powers ever.
No, seriously. While in theory she's the most powerful person in Canada, the last time that a Governor General used his powers against the wishes of the Prime Minister was in the 1930's. Here's another little tidbit, the Prime Minister isn't mentioned in the Constitution. Anywhere.
That's pretty much the way we work it here in Canada. Most of what we do is based upon not what we write down, but upon tradition.
- Lawmakers
Anyhow, the legislative branch of government consists of the House of Commons, and the Senate. Th |
