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Canada is one of the world’s wealthiest nations, with a high per-capita income. It is a member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the G8/G20, and is one of the world’s top ten trading nations. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing the land borders with the United States to the south and the US state of Alaska to the northwest, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west; to the north lies the Arctic Ocean. By total area (including its waters), Canada is the second-largest country in the world, after Russia.

Canada has a diverse makeup of nationalities and cultures, and has constitutional protection for policies that promote multiculturalism.In Quebec, cultural identity is strong, and many French-speaking commentators speak of ‘la culture Quebecois’ as distinguished from English Canadian culture; however, as a whole Canada is a cultural mosaic– a collection of several regional, aboriginal, and ethnic subcultures.

Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup.  Canada was also the host nation for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia.

* Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada

Capital: Ottawa

Population:  34.88 million (est. 2012)

Currency: Canadian Dollars ($)

Official Languages:  English and French

Ethnicity/race: 28% – British Isles origin; 26% – mixed, 23% – French origin; 15% – other European; 2% – indigenous Indian and Inuit; 6% – other (mostly Asian, African, Arab)

Religion: 42.6% – Roman Catholic; 23.3% – Protestant (United Church, Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran); 16% – none; 11.8% – other and unspecified; 4.4% – Christian; 1.9% – Muslim (2001 census)

3 Interesting Facts:

1. Canada is home to the longest street in the world. Yonge Street in Ontario starts at Lake Ontario, and runs north through Ontario to the Minnesota border, a distance of almost 2000 kilometres.
2. The Blackberry Smartphone was developed in Ontario, at Research In Motion’s offices in Waterloo.
3. Canada got its name by mistake! When Jaques Cartier, a French explorer, came to the new world, he met with local Natives who invited them to their ‘kanata’ – the word for ‘village’. The party mistakenly thought the name of the country was “Kanata” or Canada.

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