Canada's name comes from the Huron-Iroquois word Kanata, and means "village" or "settlement".
- In 1991, 533,000 Canadians were either status or non-status Indians, and over one million claimed to be of native descent. Of these, 783 980 were from the numerous North American tribes, 212 650 were Metis (of French and Native descent) and 49, 255 were Inuit.
- Canadians can speak over 100 of the world's estimated 5,000 living languages. Four million Canadians reported a mother tongue other than English or French in 1991.
Canada is the world's second largest country in the world (next to Russia) but houses only 27 million people - making it rank only 28th in population.
- Canada is the largest country in the Western hemisphere. How large? 9,910,610 square kilometres, and stretching 5,500km from Pacific to Atlantic. That's how large!
- Nearly 800,000 sq.kilometers of Canada's land is covered by bodies of fresh water such as lakes and rivers, making Canada the largest source of fresh water in the world. Also, the coastline extends approximately 244,000 km.
- Canada is made up of 10 provinces and and two territories
- British Columbia
- Alberta
- Saskatchewan
- Manitoba
- Ontario
- Quebec
- New Brunswick
- Nova Scotia
- Prince Edward Island
- Newfoundland and Labrador
- Yukon Territories
- Northern Territories
- The largest cities are - Toronto (Ontario) 3.89 million, Montreal (Quebec) 3.12 million, Vancouver (British Columbia) 1.60 million, Ottawa-Hull (the National Capital Region) 0.92 million and Edmonton (Alberta) .84 million.
- Canada is a Constitutional Monarchy (we recognise the Queen of England in our Constitution, however, she does play a role in government) and a federal state with a democratic Parliament. The Parliament of Canada, in the nation's capital, Ottawa, consists of the House of Commons, whose members are elected, and the Senate, whose members are appointed. On average, members of Parliament are elected every four years. Our current Prime Minister is Jean Chretien.
Sports
- The most popular sports in Canada include swimming, ice hockey, cross-country skiing and alpine skiing, baseball, tennis, basketball and golf. Ice hockey, Canadian football and baseball are the favourite spectator sports.*
- BASKETBALL- now a U.S. favourite - was invented by a Canadian! James A. Naismith was born in Almonte, Ontario in November 1871. He studied at McGill University in Montreal,Quebec before becoming an instructor at the International YMCA Training School in Massachusetts, USA. It was there that he came up with the idea for basketball, and the first game was played in 1891. There are currently two Canadian NBA teams - the Toronto Raptors and the Vancouver Grizzlies. The United States may dominate the game, but the brains behind remain Canadian!
What Else?
- Canada has more automobiles per person than any other country with at least one automobile for every two Canadians.
- Canada is often thought of as the land of ice and snow. While winter temperatures do tend to verge on the unbearable side, summer temperatures can often reach 35 degrees Celsius- making summer equally unbearable. It's a good thing we have fall and spring to prepare us!