Canada, country (3,851,787 sq mi/9,976,128 sq km; 1991 population 27,296,859; 2004 estimated population 32,507,874), N North America, (cap.) Ottawa; 45°15'N 75°45'W. It is a federation of 10 provinces—Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia—and the Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories. A new Inuit-controlled territory of Nunavut, made up from the E portion of the Northwest Territories, came into effect April 1, 1999.
Geography
Canada occupies all of North America N of the U.S. (and E of Alaska) except for the French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. It is bounded on the E by the Atlantic Ocean, on the N by the Arctic Ocean, and on the W by the Pacific Ocean and Alaska. A transcontinental border, formed in part by the Great Lakes, divides Canada from the U.S.; Nares and Davis straits separate Canada from Greenland. The Arctic Archipelago extends far into the Arctic Ocean. Canada has a very long and irregular coastline; Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence indent the E coast and the Inside Passage extends along the W coast. The ice-clogged straits between the islands of N Canada form the Northwest Passage. During the Ice Age all of Canada was covered by a continental ice sheet that scoured and depressed the land surface, leaving a covering of glacial drift, depositional landforms, and innumerable lakes and rivers.
Aside from the Great Lakes, which are only partly in the country, the largest lakes of North America—Great Bear, Great Slave, and Winnipeg—are entirely in Canada. The Saint Lawrence is the chief river of E Canada. The Saskatchewan, Nelson, Churchill, and Mackenzie river systems drain central Canada, and the Columbia, Fraser, and Yukon rivers drain the W part of the country. Canada has a bowl-shaped geologic structure rimmed by highlands, with Hudson Bay at the lowest point.
The country has eight major physiographic regions—the Canadian Shield, the Hudson Bay Lowlands, the Western Cordillera, the Interior Lowlands, the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Lowlands, the Appalachians, the Arctic Lowlands, and the Innuitians. The exposed portions of the Canadian Shield cover more than half of Canada. This once-mountainous region, which contains the continent’s oldest rocks, has been worn low by erosion over the millennia. Its upturned E edge is indented by fjords. The Shield is rich in minerals, especially iron and nickel, and in potential sources of hydroelectric power. In the center of the Shield are the Hudson Bay Lowlands, encompassing Hudson Bay and the surrounding marshy land.
The Western Cordillera, a geologically young mountain system parallel to the Pacific coast, is composed of a series of N-S trending ranges and valleys that form the highest and most rugged section of the country; Mount Logan (19,850 ft/6,050 m) is the highest point in Canada Part of this region is made up of the Rocky Mountains and the Coast Mountains, which are separated by plateaus and basins. The islands off W Canada are partially submerged portions of the Coast Mopuntains. The Western Cordillera is also rich in minerals, timber, and potential sources of hydroelectric power.
Between the Rocky Mountains and the Canadian Shield are the Interior Lowlands, a vast region filled with sediment from the flanking higher lands. The Lowlands are divided into the prairies, the plains, and the Mackenzie Lowlands. The prairies are Canada’s granary, while grazing is important on the plains. The smallest and southernmost region is the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence Lowlands, Canada’s heartland. Dominated by the Saint Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, the region provides a natural corridor into central Canada, and the Saint Lawrence Seaway gives the interior cities access to the Atlantic. This section, which is composed of gently rolling surface on sedimentary rocks, is the location of extensive farmlands, large industrial centers, and most of Canada’s population.
In SE Canada and on New Foundland is the N end of the Appalachian Mountain system, an old and geologically complex region with a generally low and rounded relief. The Arctic Lowlands and the Innuitians are the most isolated areas of Canada and are barren and snow covered for most of the year. The Arctic Lowlands comprise much of the Arctic Archipelago and contain sedimentary rocks that may have oil-bearing strata. In the extreme N, mainly on Ellesmere Island, is the Innuitian Mountain system, which rises to c.10,000 ft/3,050 m.
Climate
Canada’s climate is influenced by latitude and topography. The Interior Lowlands make it possible for polar air masses to move S and for subtropical air masses to move N into Canada. Hudson Bay and the Great Lakes act to modify the climate locally. The Western Cordillera serves as a climatic barrier that prevents polar air masses from reaching the Pacific coast and blocks the moist Pacific winds from reaching into the interior. The Cordillera has a typical highland climate that varies with altitude; the W slopes receive abundant rainfall, and the whole region is forested. The Interior Lowlands are in the rain shadow of the Cordillera; the S portion has a steppe climate in which grasses predominate. S Canada has a temperate climate, with snow in the winter (especially in the E) and cool summers. Farther to the N, extending to the timberline, is the humid subarctic climate characterized by short summers and a snow cover for about half the year. On the Arctic Archipelago and the N mainland is the tundra, with its mosses and lichen, permafrost, near year-round snow cover, and ice fields. A noted phenomenon off the coast of E Canada is the persistence of dense fog, which is formed when the warm air over the Gulf Stream passes over the cold Labrador Current as the two currents meet off Newfoundland.
Economy
Manufacturing is Canada’s most important economic activity, engaging 15% of the work force. The remainder are employed in service (37%) and public administration (7%), industries and trade (18%), finance (7%), construction (6%), transportation (8%), agriculture (1%), and mining (1%). Manufacturing accounts for 20% of Canada’s GDP, while service industries rank a close second at 19%. The leading products are transportation equipment, pulp and paper, processed foods, chemicals, primary and fabricated metals, petroleum, electrical and electronic products, wood products, printed materials, machinery, clothing, and nonmetallic minerals. Industries are centered in Ontario, Quebec, and, to a lesser extent, British Columbia and Alberta. Canada’s industries depend on the country’s rich energy resources, which include hydroelectric power, petroleum, natural gas, coal, and uranium. Service industries, including tourism, are the next-largest segment of the GDP, followed by financial services. Canada is a leading mineral producer, although much of its mineral resources are difficult to reach due to permafrost. It is the world’s largest source of nickel, zinc, and uranium, and a major source of lead, asbestos, gypsum, potash, tantalum, and cobalt. Other important mineral resources are petroleum, natural gas, copper, gold, iron ore, coal, silver, molybdenum, and sulphur. The mineral wealth is located in many areas; some of the most productive regions are Sudbury, Ontario (copper and nickel); Timmins, Ontario (lead, zinc, and silver); and Kimberley, British Columbia (lead, zinc, and silver). Petroleum and natural gas are found in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Agriculture contributes about 4% of the GDP. The sources of the greatest farm income are livestock and dairy products. Among the biggest income-earning crops are wheat, oats, barley, corn, and canola. Canada is one of the world’s leading agriculture exporters, especially of wheat. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta are the great grain-growing provinces, and, with Ontario, are also the leading sources of beef cattle. The main fruit-growing regions are found in Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. Apples and peaches are the principal fruits grown in Canada. More than one-third of the total land area is classified as forest and Canadian timber production ranks among the highest in the world. Fishing is an important economic activity in Canada. Cod and lobster from the Atlantic and salmon from the Pacific have been the principal catches, but the cod industry was halted in mid-1990s, due to overfishing. About three-quarters of the take is exported. The fur industry, once so important but no longer dominant in the nation’s economy, is centered in Quebec and Ontario. The U.S. is by far Canada’s leading trading partner, followed by Japan and Great Britain. Manufactured goods make up the bulk of the imports; motor vehicles and parts are both the largest import and export. Other important exports are newsprint, lumber, pulp, crude petroleum, wheat, machinery, aluminum, natural gas, and hydroelectric power. The James Bay Project was an issue for Canada and U.S. environmentalists and led to 1993 decision by the Quebec government to shelve Phase Two of the project. A major problem for Canada is that large segments of its economy—notably in manufacturing, petroleum, and mining—are controlled by foreign, especially U.S. interests. This deprives the nation of much of the profits of its industries and makes the economy vulnerable to developments outside Canada. This situation is mitigated somewhat by the fact that Canada itself is a large foreign investor. In June 1993, Canada was the first North American country to ratify NAFTA. Since the free-trade agreement, Canadian investment in U.S. border cities, such as Buffalo, New York, has increased dramatically.
Population
More than 28% of the Canadian popopulation are of British descent, and some 23% are of French origin. The influx of many European, Asian, and Indian immigrants has steadily diversified the country’s ethnic composition, especially in major cities. Over 75% of the total population live in cities, the largest of which are Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Quebec, and Hamilton. Canada has complete religious liberty, though its growing multiculturalism has at times caused tensions among ethnic and religious groups. The country is almost equally divided between Roman Catholics (46%) and Protestants (36%). The largest Protestant denominations are United Church of Canada, Anglican Church of Canada, and Presbyterian. English and French are the official languages, and federal documents are published in both languages. In 2004, 59.3% of Canadians cited English as their first language, 23.2% were French speaking, other 17.5%.
History to 1713
Prior to the arrival of Europeans in Canada, the area was inhabited by Native Americans and Inuits who came from Asia via the Bering Strait more than 10,000 years ago. The Vikings landed in Canada A.D. c.1000. Their arrival is described in Icelandic sagas and confirmed by archaeological discoveries in New Foundland. John Cabot, sailing under English auspices, touched the E coast in 1497. In 1534, the Frenchman Jacques Cartier planted a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula. These and many other voyages to the Canadian coast were in search of a NW passage to Asia. Subsequently, French-English rivalry dominated Canadian history until 1763. The first permanent white settlement in Canada was founded in 1605 by the sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain at Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia) in Acadia. A trading post was established in 1608 in Quebec. Meanwhile the English, moving to support their claims under Cabot’s discoveries, attacked Port Royal (1614) and captured Quebec (1629). However, the French regained Quebec (1632), and through the Company of New France (Company of 100 Associates), began to exploit the fur trade and establish new settlements. The French were primarily interested in fur trading. Between 1608 and 1640, fewer than 300 settlers arrived. The sparse French settlements sharply contrasted with the relatively dense English settlements along the Atlantic Coast to the S. Meanwhile, both missionaries, such as Jacques Marquette, and traders, such as Pierre Radisson and Médard Chouart des Groseilliers, were extending French knowledge and influence. The greatest of all the empire builders in the W was Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, who descended the Mississippi River to its mouth and who envisioned the vast colony in the W that was made a reality by men like Duluth, Bienville, Iberville, and Cadillac. The French, however, did not go unchallenged. The English had claims on Acadia, and the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670 began to vie for the lucrative fur trade of the W. When the long series of wars between Britain and France broke out in Europe, they were paralleled in North America by the French and Indian Wars.
History: 1713 to 1812
The Peace of Utrecht (1713) gave Britain Acadia, the Hudson Bay area, and New Foundland. To strengthen their position the French built additional forts in the W (among them Detroit and Niagara). The decisive battle of the entire struggle took place in 1759, when Wolfe defeated Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham, bringing about the fall of Quebec to the British. Montreal fell in 1760. By the Treaty of Paris in 1763, France ceded all its North American possessions E of the Mississippi to Britain, while Louisiana went to Spain. The French residents of Quebec strongly resented the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which imposed British institutions on them. Many of its provisions, however, were reversed by the Quebec Act (1774), which granted important concessions to the French and extended Quebec’s borders W and S to include all the inland territory to the Ohio and the Mississippi. This act infuriated the residents of the 13 colonies (the future U.S.). In 1775 the American Continental Congress had as its first act not a declaration of independence but the invasion of Canada. In the American Revolution the Canadians remained passively loyal to the British crown, and the effort of the Americans to take Canada failed dismally. Loyalists from the colonies in revolt fled to Canada and settled in large numbers in Nova Scotia and Quebec. In 1784, the province of New Brunswick was carved out of Nova Scotia for the loyalists. The result, in Quebec, was sharp antagonism between the deeply rooted, Catholic French Canadians and the newly arrived, Protestant British. To deal with the problem the British passed the Constitutional Act (1791). It divided Quebec into Upper Canada (present-day Ontario), predominantly British and Protestant, and Lower Canada (present-day Quebec), predominantly French and Catholic. Each new province had its own legislature and institutions. This period was one of further exploration. Alexander Mackenzie made voyages in 1789 to the Arctic Ocean and in 1793 to the Pacific, searching for the Northwest Passage. Mariners also reached the Pacific NW, and such men as Captain James Cook, John Meares, and George Vancouver secured for Britain a firm hold on what is now British Columbia.
History: 1812 to 1867
During the War of 1812, Canadian and British soldiers repulsed several American invasions. The New Brunswick boundary and the boundary W of the Great Lakes was disputed with the U.S. for a time, but since the War of 1812 the long border has generally been peaceful. Rivalry between the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company erupted into bloodshed in the Red River Settlement and was resolved by amalgamation of the companies in 1821. The new Hudson’s Bay Comapny then held undisputed sway over Rupert's Land and the Pacific West until U.S. immigrants challenged British possession of Oregon and obtained the present boundary (1846). After 1815 thousands of immigrants came to Canada from Scotland and Ireland. Movements for political reform arose. In Upper Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie struggled against the Family Compact. In Lower Canada, Louis J. Papineau led the French Canadian Reform party. There were rebellions in both proinces. The British sent Lord Durham as governor general to study the situation, and his famous report (1839) recommended the union of Upper and Lower Canada under responsible government. The two Canadas were made one province by the Act of Union (1841) and became known as Canada West and Canada East. Responsible government was achieved in 1849 (it had been granted to the Maritime Provinces in 1847), largely as a result of the efforts of Robert Baldwin and Louis H. La Fontaine. The movement for federation of all the Canadian provinces was given impetus in the 1860s by a need for common defense, the desire for some central authority to press railroad construction, and the necessity for a solution to the problem posed by Canada West and Canada East, where the British majority and French minority were in conflict. When the Maritime Provinces, which sought union among themselves, met at the Charlottetown Conference of 1864, delegates from the other provinces of Canada attended. Two more conferences were held—the Quebec Conference later in 1864 and the London Conference in 1866 in England—before the British North American Act in 1867 made federation a fact.
History: 1867 to Present
In 1982 this act was renamed the Constitutional Act of 1867. The four original provinces were Ontario (Canada West), Quebec (Canada East), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The new federation acquired the vast possessions of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1869. The Red River Settlement became the province of Manitoba in 1870. In 1873, Prince Edward Island joined the federation, and Alberta and Saskatchewan were admitted in 1905. New Foundland joined in 1949. Between 1891 and 1914, more than three million people came to Canada, largely from continental Europe, following the path of the newly constructed continental railroad. In the same period, mining operations were begun in the Klondike and the Canadian Shield. Large-scale development of hydroelectric resources helped foster industrialization and urbanization. Canada played a vital role on the Allied side in World War II. Despite economic strain, Canada emerged from the war with enhanced prestige and took an active role in the UN. Canada joined NATO in 1949. Since the war, uranium, iron, and petroleum resources have been exploited; uses of atomic energy have been developed; and hydroelectric and thermal plants have been built to produce electricity for new and expanded industries. The Saint Lawrence Seaway was opened in 1959. The Montreal international exposition, Expo ’67, opened in 1967 and was applauded for displaying a degree of taste and interest far superior to that of most such exhibitions. Canada hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics at Montreal and the 1988 Winter Olympics at Calgary. Canada is an independent constitutional monarchy and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The nominal British monarchy is represented in the country by the office of governor general. The basic constitutional document is the Canada Act of 1982, which replaced the British North America Act of 1867 and gave Canada the right to amend its own constitution. The Canada Act, passed by Great Britain, made possible the Constitution Act of 1982, which was passed in Canada and included a Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteeing the rights of women and native peoples and protecting other civil liberties. Quebec’s provincial government did not accept the new constitution. The Meech Lake Accord, a set of constitutional reforms designed to induce Quebec to accept the constitution, failed on June 22, 1990, when New Foundland and Manitoba did not approve it. In October 1992, Canadian voters rejected a complex package of constitutional changes intended to discourage the separatist movement in Quebec.
Government
The Canadian federal government has authority in all matters not specifically reserved to the provincial governments. The provincial governments have power in the fields of property, civil rights, education, and local government. They may levy only direct taxes. The federal government may veto any provincial law. Power on the federal level is exercised by the Canadian Parliament and the cabinet of ministers, headed by the prime minister. The Parliament has two houses: the Senate and the House of Commons. There are 104 senators, apportioned among the provinces and appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister. Senators are appointed for life. Members of the House of Commons are elected, largely from single-member constituencies. Elections must be held at least every five years. The Commons may be dissolved and new elections held at the request of the prime minister. Canada has an independent judiciary; the highest court is the Supreme Court, with nine members. The chief of state is Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Governor General Michaelle Jean. The head of government is Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Martin and the Liberal Party were defeated in January 2006 elections by Stephen Harper and the Conservative party; ending thirteen years of Liberal rule; however, because of a narrow margin of victory, the Conservatives will rule over a minority government
