Canada

Known as “The Great White North”, Canada holds the title of the second largest country worldwide. With a vast landscape of open prairies, mountainous peaks, lakes and rivers galore, Canada has much to offer every type of traveller! Encompassing a population of almost 34 million and still growing, this country is known for its friendliness to tourists from all over.

Language: English/French
Currency: Canadian Dollar (CAD)
Government: Federation with Parliamentary Democracy and Constitutional Monarchy

DID YOU KNOW?

• Both basketball and hockey were invented by Canadians.
• Canada has the longest coastline of any country in the world, at 243,977 kilometres.
• Canada is known as the home of large animals such as the moose and grizzly bear, but it is also home to about 55,000 species of insects and about 11,000 species of mites and spiders.
• The Moosehead Brewery in Saint John, New Brunswick, turns out 1,642 bottles of beer per minute.
• The world’s strongest current is found in the Nakwakto Rapids at Slingsby Channel, British Columbia. The current has been measured at speeds up to 29.6 kilometres per hour.
• The West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, was once the world’s largest shopping mall. It now ranks fifth, but it still contains the world’s largest indoor amusement park.
• The CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario, was the world’s tallest free-standing structure until Dubai’s Burj Khalifa took the title in 2007.
• The border between Canada and the United States is the world’s longest border between two nations.
• Hockey and lacrosse are Canada’s national sports.
• Canada contains 9% of the world’s renewable fresh water supply.

CLIMATE

With such a large area to cover, Canada does not have one set climate. For example, the southernmost part of Ontario has moderately high and low temperatures, ranging from 30 degrees Celsius to -30. On the other hand, in the northern territory of Nunavut, temperatures range from well below the freezing mark for most of the year. The coasts change climate as well, with British Columbia known for its rainy weather almost year-round and the prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba) known as being being very dry.

• Summer: June – August
• Fall: September – November
• Winter: December – February
• Spring: March – May

HISTORY

The earliest inhabitants of this vast land were prehistoric tribes from Asia who traveled across the Bering Strait. Barring the odd Viking visit, the Aboriginal people lived freely and developed their customs, languages, and traditions until the 15th century. In 1534, Jacques Cartier made the first claim for France and Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City in the early 1600s. By the mid-16th century, Canada (East) was declared a French province.

The British entered in the 1670s and the hostilities between the two colonizers eventually led to the Treaty of Paris in 1760 when France handed Canada over to Britain.

On July 1, 1867, Canada East (Quebec), Canada West (Ontario), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick joined together under the terms of the British North America Act to become the Dominion of Canada.