Welcome to Canada

  • A First Nations dancer at a pow-wow

    © Pete Ryan/Getty Images

    Photo of a First Nations dancer at a pow-wow

  • An Inuit and his dogs

    © Wayne R Bilenduke/Getty Images

    Photo of an Inuit man and his two dogs

  • Moraine Lake in Banff National Park

    © jlazouphoto/Fotolia

    Photo of Moraine Lake in Banff National Park

  • Rue du Petit-Champlain – a famous shopping street in Quebec

    © Wangkun Jia/dreamstime

    Photo of Rue du Petit-Champlain which is a famous shopping street in Quebec

  • Aerial view of Vancouver

    © Pete Spiro/Shutterstock

    Photo of Vancouver

  • Fishing village in Nova Scotia

    © Meunierd/dreamstime

    Photo of a fishing village and boats in Nova Scotia
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Welcome to Canada

Welcome to Canada

How do countries get their names? Did kings and queens decide some time in the past? Did ordinary people have any say? Interestingly, some countries have got theirs by mistake. Canada is one of them. The country now called Canada has been inhabited by the Inuit and First Nations for thousands of years. The first Europeans to settle on the Atlantic coast were the Vikings, followed by the French and the British a few hundred years later. In the 1530s a French explorer called Jacques Cartier was invited by the local Iroquois people to visit their kanata, their village. He started using the name for that part of the world and after a while it became the name of the whole country.

Cartier had no idea how large Canada was, of course. At almost 10 million km2, it’s the second largest country in the world, so there is plenty of space for the 35 million people who live there today. 80% of Canadians live in towns and cities close to the Canadian-American border, the longest border in the world. Half the country is covered in forest, and Canada has an astonishing 60% of the world’s lakes. There are many similarities between Canada and Northern Scandinavia in terms of lifestyle, as well as geography. However, Canada’s climate is more extreme: in the northernmost of the 10 provinces and three territories there is snow for up to 10 months a year.

If you like learning, you’ll feel at home in Canada. It’s the most educated country in the world, with over 50% of adults having a college or university degree. You can still find work in fishing and agriculture, and a great deal of wheat is grown in southern Canada, but farming is difficult in many other areas because of the climate. However, the forests provide plenty of timber. Canada also has oil and gas, minerals and metals such as gold, iron, lead and uranium. These are used in various industries, and there are many factories making parts for the automobile and aeronautics industries just over the border in the USA.

Who governs Canada, and what kind of state is it? The British and French armies fought several wars over Canada, with Britain finally gaining power over most of Canada at the end of the 18th century. This is why it’s still the British monarch who is Canada’s head of state. The country is a member of the Commonwealth and has two official national languages – English and French. Some people in the French-speaking province of Quebec still want independence, but they are in a minority. Over time Canada has become a nation where different cultures, languages and religions are celebrated and protected by law. Where the US ideal is the melting pot, in Canada it’s a cultural mosaic where you can appreciate the many different parts.

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