Increase your informatins








Go Home



Geography

Covering most of the northern part of the North American
continent and with an area larger than that of the United
States, Canada has an extremely varied topography. In the
east the mountainous maritime provinces have an irregular
coastline on the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic. The
St. Lawrence plain, covering most of southern Quebec and
Ontario, and the interior continental plain, covering southern
Manitoba and Saskatchewan and most of Alberta, are the
principal cultivable areas. They are separated by a forested
plateau rising from lakes Superior and Huron.

Westward toward the Pacific, most of British Columbia,
Yukon, and part of western Alberta are covered by parallel
mountain ranges, including the Rockies. The Pacific border
of the coast range is ragged with fiords and channels. The
highest point in Canada is Mount Logan (19,850 ft.; 6,050
m), which is in the Yukon. The two principal river systems
are the Mackenzie and the St. Lawrence. The St.
Lawrence, with its tributaries, is navigable for over 1,900
miles (3,058 km).

Government

Canada is a federation of 10 provinces (Alberta, British
Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland,
Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and
Saskatchewan) and three territories (Northwest Territories,
Yukon, and as of April 1, 1999, Nunavut) most of whose
powers were spelled out in the British North America Act
of 1867. With the passing of the Constitutional Act of
1982, the act and the constitutional amending power were
transferred from the British parliament to Canada so that the
Canadian constitution is now entirely in the hands of
Canadians.

While the governor-general is officially the representative of
Queen Elizabeth II as the head of state, in reality the
governor-general acts only upon the advice of the Canadian
prime minister and the cabinet, who also sit in the federal
parliament. Parliament has two houses: a Senate of 104
members appointed for a term ending on their 75th
birthday, and a House of Commons of 301 members
apportioned according to provincial population. Elections
are held at least every five years or whenever the party in
power is voted down in the House of Commons or
considers it expedient to appeal to the people. The prime
minister is the leader of the majority party in the House of
Commons�or, if no single party holds a majority, the
leader of the party able to command the support of a
majority of members of the House. Laws must be passed
by both houses of parliament and signed by the
governor-general in the queen's name.

The 10 provincial governments are nominally headed by
lieutenant governors appointed by the federal government,
but the executive power in each actually is vested in a
cabinet headed by a premier, who is leader of the majority
party. The provincial legislatures are composed of
one-house assemblies whose members are elected for
four-year terms. They are known as Legislative Assemblies,
except in Newfoundland, where it is the House of
Assembly, and in Quebec, where it is the National
Assembly.

History

Native Indian peoples, including Inuit (Eskimo), inhabited
Canada in antiquity. The Norse explorer Leif Ericson
probably reached the shores of Canada (Labrador or Nova
Scotia) in C.E. 1000, but the history of the white man in the
country actually began in 1497, when John Cabot, an Italian
in the service of Henry VII of England, reached
Newfoundland or Nova Scotia. Canada was taken for
France in 1534 by Jacques Cartier. The actual settlement of
New France, as it was then called, began in 1604 at Port
Royal in what is now Nova Scotia; in 1608, Quebec was
founded. France's colonization efforts were not very
successful, but French explorers by the end of the 17th
century had penetrated beyond the Great Lakes to the
western prairies and south along the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, the English
Hudson's Bay Company had been established in 1670. Because of the valuable fisheries and fur trade,
a conflict developed between the French and English; in 1713, Newfoundland, Hudson Bay, and
Nova Scotia (Acadia) were lost to England. During the Seven Years' War (1756�63), England
extended its conquest, and the British Maj. Gen. James Wolfe won his famous victory over Gen. Louis
Montcalm outside Quebec on Sept. 13, 1759. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 gave England control.

At that time the population of Canada was almost entirely French, but in the next few decades,
thousands of British colonists emigrated to Canada from the British Isles and from the American
colonies. In 1849, the right of Canada to self-government was recognized. By the British North
America Act of 1867, the dominion of Canada was created through the confederation of Upper and
Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Prince Edward Island joined the dominion in
1873. In 1869, Canada purchased from the Hudson's Bay Company the vast middle west (Rupert's
Land) from which the provinces of Manitoba (1870), Alberta (1905), and Saskatchewan (1905) were
later formed. In 1871, British Columbia joined the dominion. The country was linked from coast to
coast in 1885 by the Canadian Pacific Railway.

During the formative years between 1866 and 1896, the Conservative Party, led by Sir John A.
Macdonald, governed the country, except during the years 1873�78. In 1896, the Liberal Party took
over and, under Sir Wilfrid Laurier, an eminent French Canadian, ruled until 1911. By the Statute of
Westminster in 1931 the British dominions, including Canada, were formally declared to be partner
nations with Britain, �equal in status, in no way subordinate to each other,� and bound together only by
allegiance to a common Crown.

Newfoundland became Canada's 10th governor-generalince on March 31, 1949, following a
plebiscite. Canada also includes three territories�the Yukon Territory, the Northwest Territories, and
the newest territory, Nunavut. This area includes all of the Arctic north of the mainland, Norway
having recognized Canadian sovereignty over the Svendrup Islands in the Arctic in 1931.

The Liberal Party, led by William Lyon Mackenzie King, dominated Canadian politics from 1921 until
1957, when it was succeeded by the Progressive Conservatives. The Liberals, under the leadership of
Lester B. Pearson, returned to power in 1963. Pearson remained prime minister until 1968, when he
retired and was replaced by a former law professor, Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Trudeau maintained
Canada's defensive alliance with the United States, but began moving toward a more independent
policy in world affairs. Trudeau's election was considered in part a response to the most serious
problem confronting the country, the division between French- and English-speaking Canadians, which
had led to a separatist movement in the predominantly French governor-generalince of Quebec. In
1974, the governor-generalincial government voted to make French the official language of Quebec. In
Dec. 1979, the Quebec law making French the exclusive official language of the province was voided
by the Canadian Supreme Court. Resolving a dispute that had occupied Trudeau since the beginning
of his tenure, Queen Elizabeth II, in Ottawa on April 17, 1982, signed the Constitution Act, cutting the
last legal tie between Canada and Britain. The constitution retains Queen Elizabeth as queen of
Canada and keeps Canada's membership in the Commonwealth.

In the national election on Sept. 4, 1984, the Progressive Conservative Party scored an overwhelming
victory, fundamentally changing the country's political landscape. The Conservatives, led by Brian
Mulroney, a 45-year-old corporate lawyer, won the highest political majority in Canadian history. The
dominant foreign issue was a free-trade pact with the U.S., a treaty bitterly opposed by the Liberal
and New Democratic parties. The conflict led to elections in Nov. 1988 that solidly re-elected
Mulroney and gave him a mandate to proceed with the agreement.

The issue of separatist sentiments in French-speaking Quebec flared up again in 1990 with the failure
of the Meech Lake Accord. The accord was designed to ease the Quebecers' fear of losing their
identity within the English-speaking majority by giving Quebec constitutional status as a �distinct
society.� In an attempt to keep Canada united, the three major political parties came to an agreement
in Feb. 1992 on constitutional reforms. Voters in the Northwest Territories authorized the division of
their region in two, creating a homeland for Canadian Eskimos, the Inuits, which in April 1999,
became the territory of Nunavut. Also in 1992, Canada announced its decision to withdraw its combat
units from NATO command. The economy continued to be mired in a long recession that many
blamed on the free trade agreement. A national referendum was held in Oct. 1992 on the proposal to
change the constitution to insure greater representation in parliament for the more populous regions
and thereby the French-speaking Quebecers. The referendum, however was defeated.

Brian Mulroney's popularity continued to slump in 1992 and early 1993, leading to his decision to
retire prior to the required November election. The governing Progressive Conservative Party chose
Defense Minister Kim Campbell as its leader in June, making her the first female prime minister in
Canadian history.

The national election in Oct. 1993 resulted in the reemergence of the Liberal Party and the installation
of Jean Chr�tien as prime minister. The Quebec referendum on secession in Oct. 1995 yielded a
narrow rejection of the proposal. But the separatists vowed to try again. Early parliamentary elections
in June 1997 gave a reduced majority to the ruling Liberals. The Reform Party, based largely in the
West, replaced the Bloc Quebecois as the official opposition.

On April 1, 1999, the Northwest Territories were officially divided to create a new territory in the east
that would be governed by Canada's Inuits, who make up 85% of the area's population. Composed of
770,000 square miles of mostly snow and ice reaching well to the north of the Arctic circle, the
25,000 residents of Nunavut will be governed from the new capital, Iqaluit.

�
Favourite Links
�

Email me on:

This page has been visited times.