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Canada	Which countries established colonies in Canada?	null	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	How has Canada helped UN peacekeeping efforts?	During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	How has Canada helped UN peacekeeping efforts?	Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Macdonald Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom William Lyon Mackenzie King Robert Borden List of countries by GDP (nominal) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Group of Eight free market gross domestic product unemployment Government of Canada 2006-08-04 first world nation service industry primary industry logging petroleum Atlantic Canada Alberta Athabasca Tar Sands Saudi Arabia 2006-03-10 hydroelectric power wheat canola zinc uranium gold nickel aluminum lead automobiles aeronautics international trade Canada-US Free Trade Agreement North American Free Trade Agreement Toronto Ontario CN tower 2007-03-13 2007-03-13 Canada 2006 Census 2007-03-13 Immigration to Canada mile urban area Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Golden Horseshoe Toronto Montreal National Capital Region (Canada) Lower Mainland Vancouver Calgary-Edmonton Corridor English-Canadian French Canadian Scottish-Canadian Irish-Canadian German-Canadian Italian Canadian Chinese Canadian Ukrainian Canadian First Nations 2005-01-25 Aboriginal peoples in Canada visible minorities 2001-01-21 Vancouver Toronto visible minorities Statistics Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration rate 2004-10-31 Economic impact of immigration to Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration categories refugees Asia religious pluralism Canada's political culture 2005-01-25 Christianity Catholicism Protestant United Church of Canada Islam Judaism 2005-11-14 Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole Victoria, British Columbia British Columbia British people French people Aboriginal peoples in Canada American culture Canadian Broadcasting Corporation National Film Board of Canada Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission multiculturalism Section Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Royal Canadian Mounted Police Expo 67 National symbols of Canada First Nations maple leaf Flag of Canada Canadian Red Ensign penny (Canadian coin) Coat of Arms of Canada beaver Canada goose common loon Monarchy in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sport in Canada ice hockey lacrosse Department of Justice (Canada) national pastime National Hockey League curling Canadian football Canadian Football League Golf baseball skiing Soccer in Canada volleyball basketball 1976 Summer Olympics 1988 Winter Olympics 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup 2010 Winter Olympics Vancouver Whistler, British Columbia British Columbia Montreal Quebec French Canadian English-speaking Quebecer English language French language Bilingualism in Canada Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Official Languages Act (Canada) Commissioner of Official Languages mother tongue 2005-01-27 Statistics Canada 2005-01-27 2005-01-27 Franco-Ontarian Franco-Albertan Franco-Manitoban Acadian New Brunswick Nova Scotia Cape Breton Island Charter of the French Language Inuktitut Chinese language Italian language German language Punjabi United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index A.T. 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Canada	How has Canada helped UN peacekeeping efforts?	null	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	What percentage of the population don't speak English or French at home?	28%	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	What percentage of the population don't speak English or French at home?	1.5%	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Pearson Nobel Peace Prize British Empire English Canada Second Boer War First World War Second World War multilateralism United Nations NATO Canada in the Cold War Korean War North American Aerospace Defense Command United States Soviet Union Suez Crisis Lester B. Pearson UN peacekeeping Yugoslavia Organization of American States Pacific Rim Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Canada's role in the invasion of Afghanistan Afghanistan War in Afghanistan (2001âpresent) International Security Assistance Force Disaster Assistance Response Team 2004 tsunami Hurricane Katrina 2005 Kashmir earthquake Reuters February 10 2007 Territorial claims in the Arctic Arktika 2007 Provinces and territories of Canada federation province Territory (country subdivision) region Western Canada British Columbia Canadian Prairies Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba Eastern Canada Central Canada Quebec Ontario Atlantic Canada Maritimes New Brunswick Prince Edward Island Nova Scotia Newfoundland and Labrador Yukon Northwest Territories Nunavut Northern Canada Canadian federalism List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols Health care in Canada Education in Canada welfare (financial aid) Canada Health Act Equalization payments unicameral Legislative Assemblies of Canada's provinces and territories premier (Canada) Lieutenant-Governor (Canada) Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Boreal forest Canadian Shield tundra Arctic Canadian Rockies Coast Mountains Prairies Great Lakes St. Lawrence River North America contiguous United States U.S. state Alaska Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean Russia continent China longitude 2004-04-06 CFS Alert Ellesmere Island nautical mile 2006-12-19 population density Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Canadian Shield Wisconsin glaciation 2004-04-02 Horseshoe Falls (Canada) Niagara Falls 2004-04-05 Gulf of Saint Lawrence estuary Newfoundland (island) Canadian Maritimes Appalachian Mountains New England GaspÃ© Peninsula New Brunswick Nova Scotia Bay of Fundy Ontario Hudson Bay Canadian Prairies Rocky Mountains British Columbia Mackenzie River Great Slave Lake Arctic Ocean South Nahanni River Virginia Falls, Northwest Territories Niagara Falls Northern Canada coniferous tundra Canadian Arctic Archipelago List of islands by area continental climate Celsius Fahrenheit 2004-02-25 Canadian banknotes Wilfrid Laurier John A. Macdonald Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom William Lyon Mackenzie King Robert Borden List of countries by GDP (nominal) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Group of Eight free market gross domestic product unemployment Government of Canada 2006-08-04 first world nation service industry primary industry logging petroleum Atlantic Canada Alberta Athabasca Tar Sands Saudi Arabia 2006-03-10 hydroelectric power wheat canola zinc uranium gold nickel aluminum lead automobiles aeronautics international trade Canada-US Free Trade Agreement North American Free Trade Agreement Toronto Ontario CN tower 2007-03-13 2007-03-13 Canada 2006 Census 2007-03-13 Immigration to Canada mile urban area Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Golden Horseshoe Toronto Montreal National Capital Region (Canada) Lower Mainland Vancouver Calgary-Edmonton Corridor English-Canadian French Canadian Scottish-Canadian Irish-Canadian German-Canadian Italian Canadian Chinese Canadian Ukrainian Canadian First Nations 2005-01-25 Aboriginal peoples in Canada visible minorities 2001-01-21 Vancouver Toronto visible minorities Statistics Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration rate 2004-10-31 Economic impact of immigration to Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration categories refugees Asia religious pluralism Canada's political culture 2005-01-25 Christianity Catholicism Protestant United Church of Canada Islam Judaism 2005-11-14 Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole Victoria, British Columbia British Columbia British people French people Aboriginal peoples in Canada American culture Canadian Broadcasting Corporation National Film Board of Canada Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission multiculturalism Section Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Royal Canadian Mounted Police Expo 67 National symbols of Canada First Nations maple leaf Flag of Canada Canadian Red Ensign penny (Canadian coin) Coat of Arms of Canada beaver Canada goose common loon Monarchy in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sport in Canada ice hockey lacrosse Department of Justice (Canada) national pastime National Hockey League curling Canadian football Canadian Football League Golf baseball skiing Soccer in Canada volleyball basketball 1976 Summer Olympics 1988 Winter Olympics 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup 2010 Winter Olympics Vancouver Whistler, British Columbia British Columbia Montreal Quebec French Canadian English-speaking Quebecer English language French language Bilingualism in Canada Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Official Languages Act (Canada) Commissioner of Official Languages mother tongue 2005-01-27 Statistics Canada 2005-01-27 2005-01-27 Franco-Ontarian Franco-Albertan Franco-Manitoban Acadian New Brunswick Nova Scotia Cape Breton Island Charter of the French Language Inuktitut Chinese language Italian language German language Punjabi United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index A.T. Kearney Foreign Policy IMD International The Economist Yale University Columbia University Reporters Without Borders Transparency International Heritage Foundation The Wall Street Journal The Economist Global Peace Index Fund for Peace sustainability 2003-09-01 2005-01-27 2005-01-27 The World Factbook
Canada	What percentage of the population don't speak English or French at home?	null	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	Is Canada bilingual?	Yes.	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	Is Canada bilingual?	Yes, it is.	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Pearson Nobel Peace Prize British Empire English Canada Second Boer War First World War Second World War multilateralism United Nations NATO Canada in the Cold War Korean War North American Aerospace Defense Command United States Soviet Union Suez Crisis Lester B. Pearson UN peacekeeping Yugoslavia Organization of American States Pacific Rim Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Canada's role in the invasion of Afghanistan Afghanistan War in Afghanistan (2001âpresent) International Security Assistance Force Disaster Assistance Response Team 2004 tsunami Hurricane Katrina 2005 Kashmir earthquake Reuters February 10 2007 Territorial claims in the Arctic Arktika 2007 Provinces and territories of Canada federation province Territory (country subdivision) region Western Canada British Columbia Canadian Prairies Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba Eastern Canada Central Canada Quebec Ontario Atlantic Canada Maritimes New Brunswick Prince Edward Island Nova Scotia Newfoundland and Labrador Yukon Northwest Territories Nunavut Northern Canada Canadian federalism List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols Health care in Canada Education in Canada welfare (financial aid) Canada Health Act Equalization payments unicameral Legislative Assemblies of Canada's provinces and territories premier (Canada) Lieutenant-Governor (Canada) Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Boreal forest Canadian Shield tundra Arctic Canadian Rockies Coast Mountains Prairies Great Lakes St. Lawrence River North America contiguous United States U.S. state Alaska Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean Russia continent China longitude 2004-04-06 CFS Alert Ellesmere Island nautical mile 2006-12-19 population density Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Canadian Shield Wisconsin glaciation 2004-04-02 Horseshoe Falls (Canada) Niagara Falls 2004-04-05 Gulf of Saint Lawrence estuary Newfoundland (island) Canadian Maritimes Appalachian Mountains New England GaspÃ© Peninsula New Brunswick Nova Scotia Bay of Fundy Ontario Hudson Bay Canadian Prairies Rocky Mountains British Columbia Mackenzie River Great Slave Lake Arctic Ocean South Nahanni River Virginia Falls, Northwest Territories Niagara Falls Northern Canada coniferous tundra Canadian Arctic Archipelago List of islands by area continental climate Celsius Fahrenheit 2004-02-25 Canadian banknotes Wilfrid Laurier John A. Macdonald Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom William Lyon Mackenzie King Robert Borden List of countries by GDP (nominal) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Group of Eight free market gross domestic product unemployment Government of Canada 2006-08-04 first world nation service industry primary industry logging petroleum Atlantic Canada Alberta Athabasca Tar Sands Saudi Arabia 2006-03-10 hydroelectric power wheat canola zinc uranium gold nickel aluminum lead automobiles aeronautics international trade Canada-US Free Trade Agreement North American Free Trade Agreement Toronto Ontario CN tower 2007-03-13 2007-03-13 Canada 2006 Census 2007-03-13 Immigration to Canada mile urban area Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Golden Horseshoe Toronto Montreal National Capital Region (Canada) Lower Mainland Vancouver Calgary-Edmonton Corridor English-Canadian French Canadian Scottish-Canadian Irish-Canadian German-Canadian Italian Canadian Chinese Canadian Ukrainian Canadian First Nations 2005-01-25 Aboriginal peoples in Canada visible minorities 2001-01-21 Vancouver Toronto visible minorities Statistics Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration rate 2004-10-31 Economic impact of immigration to Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration categories refugees Asia religious pluralism Canada's political culture 2005-01-25 Christianity Catholicism Protestant United Church of Canada Islam Judaism 2005-11-14 Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole Victoria, British Columbia British Columbia British people French people Aboriginal peoples in Canada American culture Canadian Broadcasting Corporation National Film Board of Canada Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission multiculturalism Section Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Royal Canadian Mounted Police Expo 67 National symbols of Canada First Nations maple leaf Flag of Canada Canadian Red Ensign penny (Canadian coin) Coat of Arms of Canada beaver Canada goose common loon Monarchy in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sport in Canada ice hockey lacrosse Department of Justice (Canada) national pastime National Hockey League curling Canadian football Canadian Football League Golf baseball skiing Soccer in Canada volleyball basketball 1976 Summer Olympics 1988 Winter Olympics 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup 2010 Winter Olympics Vancouver Whistler, British Columbia British Columbia Montreal Quebec French Canadian English-speaking Quebecer English language French language Bilingualism in Canada Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Official Languages Act (Canada) Commissioner of Official Languages mother tongue 2005-01-27 Statistics Canada 2005-01-27 2005-01-27 Franco-Ontarian Franco-Albertan Franco-Manitoban Acadian New Brunswick Nova Scotia Cape Breton Island Charter of the French Language Inuktitut Chinese language Italian language German language Punjabi United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index A.T. Kearney Foreign Policy IMD International The Economist Yale University Columbia University Reporters Without Borders Transparency International Heritage Foundation The Wall Street Journal The Economist Global Peace Index Fund for Peace sustainability 2003-09-01 2005-01-27 2005-01-27 The World Factbook
Canada	Did Canadian soldiers win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917?	Yes	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	Did Canadian soldiers win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917?	No, it did not.	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	Is an official language of Canada German?	No.	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Pearson Nobel Peace Prize British Empire English Canada Second Boer War First World War Second World War multilateralism United Nations NATO Canada in the Cold War Korean War North American Aerospace Defense Command United States Soviet Union Suez Crisis Lester B. Pearson UN peacekeeping Yugoslavia Organization of American States Pacific Rim Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Canada's role in the invasion of Afghanistan Afghanistan War in Afghanistan (2001âpresent) International Security Assistance Force Disaster Assistance Response Team 2004 tsunami Hurricane Katrina 2005 Kashmir earthquake Reuters February 10 2007 Territorial claims in the Arctic Arktika 2007 Provinces and territories of Canada federation province Territory (country subdivision) region Western Canada British Columbia Canadian Prairies Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba Eastern Canada Central Canada Quebec Ontario Atlantic Canada Maritimes New Brunswick Prince Edward Island Nova Scotia Newfoundland and Labrador Yukon Northwest Territories Nunavut Northern Canada Canadian federalism List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols Health care in Canada Education in Canada welfare (financial aid) Canada Health Act Equalization payments unicameral Legislative Assemblies of Canada's provinces and territories premier (Canada) Lieutenant-Governor (Canada) Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Boreal forest Canadian Shield tundra Arctic Canadian Rockies Coast Mountains Prairies Great Lakes St. Lawrence River North America contiguous United States U.S. state Alaska Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean Russia continent China longitude 2004-04-06 CFS Alert Ellesmere Island nautical mile 2006-12-19 population density Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Canadian Shield Wisconsin glaciation 2004-04-02 Horseshoe Falls (Canada) Niagara Falls 2004-04-05 Gulf of Saint Lawrence estuary Newfoundland (island) Canadian Maritimes Appalachian Mountains New England GaspÃ© Peninsula New Brunswick Nova Scotia Bay of Fundy Ontario Hudson Bay Canadian Prairies Rocky Mountains British Columbia Mackenzie River Great Slave Lake Arctic Ocean South Nahanni River Virginia Falls, Northwest Territories Niagara Falls Northern Canada coniferous tundra Canadian Arctic Archipelago List of islands by area continental climate Celsius Fahrenheit 2004-02-25 Canadian banknotes Wilfrid Laurier John A. Macdonald Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom William Lyon Mackenzie King Robert Borden List of countries by GDP (nominal) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Group of Eight free market gross domestic product unemployment Government of Canada 2006-08-04 first world nation service industry primary industry logging petroleum Atlantic Canada Alberta Athabasca Tar Sands Saudi Arabia 2006-03-10 hydroelectric power wheat canola zinc uranium gold nickel aluminum lead automobiles aeronautics international trade Canada-US Free Trade Agreement North American Free Trade Agreement Toronto Ontario CN tower 2007-03-13 2007-03-13 Canada 2006 Census 2007-03-13 Immigration to Canada mile urban area Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Golden Horseshoe Toronto Montreal National Capital Region (Canada) Lower Mainland Vancouver Calgary-Edmonton Corridor English-Canadian French Canadian Scottish-Canadian Irish-Canadian German-Canadian Italian Canadian Chinese Canadian Ukrainian Canadian First Nations 2005-01-25 Aboriginal peoples in Canada visible minorities 2001-01-21 Vancouver Toronto visible minorities Statistics Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration rate 2004-10-31 Economic impact of immigration to Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration categories refugees Asia religious pluralism Canada's political culture 2005-01-25 Christianity Catholicism Protestant United Church of Canada Islam Judaism 2005-11-14 Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole Victoria, British Columbia British Columbia British people French people Aboriginal peoples in Canada American culture Canadian Broadcasting Corporation National Film Board of Canada Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission multiculturalism Section Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Royal Canadian Mounted Police Expo 67 National symbols of Canada First Nations maple leaf Flag of Canada Canadian Red Ensign penny (Canadian coin) Coat of Arms of Canada beaver Canada goose common loon Monarchy in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sport in Canada ice hockey lacrosse Department of Justice (Canada) national pastime National Hockey League curling Canadian football Canadian Football League Golf baseball skiing Soccer in Canada volleyball basketball 1976 Summer Olympics 1988 Winter Olympics 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup 2010 Winter Olympics Vancouver Whistler, British Columbia British Columbia Montreal Quebec French Canadian English-speaking Quebecer English language French language Bilingualism in Canada Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Official Languages Act (Canada) Commissioner of Official Languages mother tongue 2005-01-27 Statistics Canada 2005-01-27 2005-01-27 Franco-Ontarian Franco-Albertan Franco-Manitoban Acadian New Brunswick Nova Scotia Cape Breton Island Charter of the French Language Inuktitut Chinese language Italian language German language Punjabi United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index A.T. Kearney Foreign Policy IMD International The Economist Yale University Columbia University Reporters Without Borders Transparency International Heritage Foundation The Wall Street Journal The Economist Global Peace Index Fund for Peace sustainability 2003-09-01 2005-01-27 2005-01-27 The World Factbook
Canada	Is an official language of Canada German?	No, it is not.	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	How many provinces and territories does Canada have?	A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	How many provinces and territories does Canada have?	Ten provinces and three territories	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Pearson Nobel Peace Prize British Empire English Canada Second Boer War First World War Second World War multilateralism United Nations NATO Canada in the Cold War Korean War North American Aerospace Defense Command United States Soviet Union Suez Crisis Lester B. Pearson UN peacekeeping Yugoslavia Organization of American States Pacific Rim Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Canada's role in the invasion of Afghanistan Afghanistan War in Afghanistan (2001âpresent) International Security Assistance Force Disaster Assistance Response Team 2004 tsunami Hurricane Katrina 2005 Kashmir earthquake Reuters February 10 2007 Territorial claims in the Arctic Arktika 2007 Provinces and territories of Canada federation province Territory (country subdivision) region Western Canada British Columbia Canadian Prairies Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba Eastern Canada Central Canada Quebec Ontario Atlantic Canada Maritimes New Brunswick Prince Edward Island Nova Scotia Newfoundland and Labrador Yukon Northwest Territories Nunavut Northern Canada Canadian federalism List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols Health care in Canada Education in Canada welfare (financial aid) Canada Health Act Equalization payments unicameral Legislative Assemblies of Canada's provinces and territories premier (Canada) Lieutenant-Governor (Canada) Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Boreal forest Canadian Shield tundra Arctic Canadian Rockies Coast Mountains Prairies Great Lakes St. Lawrence River North America contiguous United States U.S. state Alaska Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean Russia continent China longitude 2004-04-06 CFS Alert Ellesmere Island nautical mile 2006-12-19 population density Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Canadian Shield Wisconsin glaciation 2004-04-02 Horseshoe Falls (Canada) Niagara Falls 2004-04-05 Gulf of Saint Lawrence estuary Newfoundland (island) Canadian Maritimes Appalachian Mountains New England GaspÃ© Peninsula New Brunswick Nova Scotia Bay of Fundy Ontario Hudson Bay Canadian Prairies Rocky Mountains British Columbia Mackenzie River Great Slave Lake Arctic Ocean South Nahanni River Virginia Falls, Northwest Territories Niagara Falls Northern Canada coniferous tundra Canadian Arctic Archipelago List of islands by area continental climate Celsius Fahrenheit 2004-02-25 Canadian banknotes Wilfrid Laurier John A. Macdonald Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom William Lyon Mackenzie King Robert Borden List of countries by GDP (nominal) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Group of Eight free market gross domestic product unemployment Government of Canada 2006-08-04 first world nation service industry primary industry logging petroleum Atlantic Canada Alberta Athabasca Tar Sands Saudi Arabia 2006-03-10 hydroelectric power wheat canola zinc uranium gold nickel aluminum lead automobiles aeronautics international trade Canada-US Free Trade Agreement North American Free Trade Agreement Toronto Ontario CN tower 2007-03-13 2007-03-13 Canada 2006 Census 2007-03-13 Immigration to Canada mile urban area Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Golden Horseshoe Toronto Montreal National Capital Region (Canada) Lower Mainland Vancouver Calgary-Edmonton Corridor English-Canadian French Canadian Scottish-Canadian Irish-Canadian German-Canadian Italian Canadian Chinese Canadian Ukrainian Canadian First Nations 2005-01-25 Aboriginal peoples in Canada visible minorities 2001-01-21 Vancouver Toronto visible minorities Statistics Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration rate 2004-10-31 Economic impact of immigration to Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration categories refugees Asia religious pluralism Canada's political culture 2005-01-25 Christianity Catholicism Protestant United Church of Canada Islam Judaism 2005-11-14 Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole Victoria, British Columbia British Columbia British people French people Aboriginal peoples in Canada American culture Canadian Broadcasting Corporation National Film Board of Canada Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission multiculturalism Section Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Royal Canadian Mounted Police Expo 67 National symbols of Canada First Nations maple leaf Flag of Canada Canadian Red Ensign penny (Canadian coin) Coat of Arms of Canada beaver Canada goose common loon Monarchy in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sport in Canada ice hockey lacrosse Department of Justice (Canada) national pastime National Hockey League curling Canadian football Canadian Football League Golf baseball skiing Soccer in Canada volleyball basketball 1976 Summer Olympics 1988 Winter Olympics 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup 2010 Winter Olympics Vancouver Whistler, British Columbia British Columbia Montreal Quebec French Canadian English-speaking Quebecer English language French language Bilingualism in Canada Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Official Languages Act (Canada) Commissioner of Official Languages mother tongue 2005-01-27 Statistics Canada 2005-01-27 2005-01-27 Franco-Ontarian Franco-Albertan Franco-Manitoban Acadian New Brunswick Nova Scotia Cape Breton Island Charter of the French Language Inuktitut Chinese language Italian language German language Punjabi United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index A.T. Kearney Foreign Policy IMD International The Economist Yale University Columbia University Reporters Without Borders Transparency International Heritage Foundation The Wall Street Journal The Economist Global Peace Index Fund for Peace sustainability 2003-09-01 2005-01-27 2005-01-27 The World Factbook
Canada	What is Canada's national unemployment rate?	While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador.	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	What is Canada's national unemployment rate?	In October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate is 5.9%.	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	Where is the most densely populated part of Canada?	The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast.	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Pearson Pierre Trudeau Canadian identity Flag of Canada francophone Quebec Bilingualism in Canada Official Languages Act (Canada) Immigration to Canada Multiculturalism#Origins in Canada Social democratic Medicare (Canada) Canada Pension Plan Canada Student Loans Pierre Trudeau patriation Charter of Rights and Freedoms individual rights Constitution Act of 1982 Canada-United States Automotive Agreement Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement Canadian nationalism Health care in Canada Parliament Hill Ottawa constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Style of the Canadian sovereign 2005-04-21 2005-12-06 Monarchy of Canada Commonwealth realm personal union parliamentary democracy federation Parliament Constitution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Constitution Act, 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Section Thirty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Canadian House of Commons viceroy Governor General of Canada Queen's Privy Council for Canada Cabinet of Canada Minister of the Crown Responsible government House of Commons Prime Minister of Canada head of government List of Prime Ministers of Canada plurality Canadian House of Commons MichaÃ«lle Jean September 27 2005 Stephen Harper Conservative Party of Canada February 6 2006 Parliament of Canada Canadian Senate plurality electoral system electoral district (Canada) Conservative Party of Canada Liberal Party of Canada New Democratic Party Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois Green Party of Canada List of political parties in Canada#Historical parties that have won seats in Parliament Supreme Court of Canada judiciary Supreme Court of Canada Beverley McLachlin Governor General of Canada Court system of Canada Common law civil law (legal system) Criminal law in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Peacekeeping Monument U.S.-Canada relations border Cuba Iraq War United Kingdom France Commonwealth of Nations La Francophonie Canadian Forces Canadian Forces Land Force Command Canadian Forces Maritime Command Canadian Forces Air Command Lester B. 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Pearson UN peacekeeping Yugoslavia Organization of American States Pacific Rim Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Canada's role in the invasion of Afghanistan Afghanistan War in Afghanistan (2001âpresent) International Security Assistance Force Disaster Assistance Response Team 2004 tsunami Hurricane Katrina 2005 Kashmir earthquake Reuters February 10 2007 Territorial claims in the Arctic Arktika 2007 Provinces and territories of Canada federation province Territory (country subdivision) region Western Canada British Columbia Canadian Prairies Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba Eastern Canada Central Canada Quebec Ontario Atlantic Canada Maritimes New Brunswick Prince Edward Island Nova Scotia Newfoundland and Labrador Yukon Northwest Territories Nunavut Northern Canada Canadian federalism List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols Health care in Canada Education in Canada welfare (financial aid) Canada Health Act Equalization payments unicameral Legislative Assemblies of Canada's provinces and territories premier (Canada) Lieutenant-Governor (Canada) Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Boreal forest Canadian Shield tundra Arctic Canadian Rockies Coast Mountains Prairies Great Lakes St. Lawrence River North America contiguous United States U.S. state Alaska Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean Russia continent China longitude 2004-04-06 CFS Alert Ellesmere Island nautical mile 2006-12-19 population density Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Canadian Shield Wisconsin glaciation 2004-04-02 Horseshoe Falls (Canada) Niagara Falls 2004-04-05 Gulf of Saint Lawrence estuary Newfoundland (island) Canadian Maritimes Appalachian Mountains New England GaspÃ© Peninsula New Brunswick Nova Scotia Bay of Fundy Ontario Hudson Bay Canadian Prairies Rocky Mountains British Columbia Mackenzie River Great Slave Lake Arctic Ocean South Nahanni River Virginia Falls, Northwest Territories Niagara Falls Northern Canada coniferous tundra Canadian Arctic Archipelago List of islands by area continental climate Celsius Fahrenheit 2004-02-25 Canadian banknotes Wilfrid Laurier John A. Macdonald Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom William Lyon Mackenzie King Robert Borden List of countries by GDP (nominal) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Group of Eight free market gross domestic product unemployment Government of Canada 2006-08-04 first world nation service industry primary industry logging petroleum Atlantic Canada Alberta Athabasca Tar Sands Saudi Arabia 2006-03-10 hydroelectric power wheat canola zinc uranium gold nickel aluminum lead automobiles aeronautics international trade Canada-US Free Trade Agreement North American Free Trade Agreement Toronto Ontario CN tower 2007-03-13 2007-03-13 Canada 2006 Census 2007-03-13 Immigration to Canada mile urban area Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Golden Horseshoe Toronto Montreal National Capital Region (Canada) Lower Mainland Vancouver Calgary-Edmonton Corridor English-Canadian French Canadian Scottish-Canadian Irish-Canadian German-Canadian Italian Canadian Chinese Canadian Ukrainian Canadian First Nations 2005-01-25 Aboriginal peoples in Canada visible minorities 2001-01-21 Vancouver Toronto visible minorities Statistics Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration rate 2004-10-31 Economic impact of immigration to Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration categories refugees Asia religious pluralism Canada's political culture 2005-01-25 Christianity Catholicism Protestant United Church of Canada Islam Judaism 2005-11-14 Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole Victoria, British Columbia British Columbia British people French people Aboriginal peoples in Canada American culture Canadian Broadcasting Corporation National Film Board of Canada Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission multiculturalism Section Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Royal Canadian Mounted Police Expo 67 National symbols of Canada First Nations maple leaf Flag of Canada Canadian Red Ensign penny (Canadian coin) Coat of Arms of Canada beaver Canada goose common loon Monarchy in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sport in Canada ice hockey lacrosse Department of Justice (Canada) national pastime National Hockey League curling Canadian football Canadian Football League Golf baseball skiing Soccer in Canada volleyball basketball 1976 Summer Olympics 1988 Winter Olympics 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup 2010 Winter Olympics Vancouver Whistler, British Columbia British Columbia Montreal Quebec French Canadian English-speaking Quebecer English language French language Bilingualism in Canada Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Official Languages Act (Canada) Commissioner of Official Languages mother tongue 2005-01-27 Statistics Canada 2005-01-27 2005-01-27 Franco-Ontarian Franco-Albertan Franco-Manitoban Acadian New Brunswick Nova Scotia Cape Breton Island Charter of the French Language Inuktitut Chinese language Italian language German language Punjabi United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index A.T. 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Canada	Where is the most densely populated part of Canada?	The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast.	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	What is the largest country in the world?	Canada is the second largest country in the world, after Russia, and largest on the continent.	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	What is the largest country in the world?	Russia.	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Pearson Pierre Trudeau Canadian identity Flag of Canada francophone Quebec Bilingualism in Canada Official Languages Act (Canada) Immigration to Canada Multiculturalism#Origins in Canada Social democratic Medicare (Canada) Canada Pension Plan Canada Student Loans Pierre Trudeau patriation Charter of Rights and Freedoms individual rights Constitution Act of 1982 Canada-United States Automotive Agreement Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement Canadian nationalism Health care in Canada Parliament Hill Ottawa constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Style of the Canadian sovereign 2005-04-21 2005-12-06 Monarchy of Canada Commonwealth realm personal union parliamentary democracy federation Parliament Constitution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Constitution Act, 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Section Thirty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Canadian House of Commons viceroy Governor General of Canada Queen's Privy Council for Canada Cabinet of Canada Minister of the Crown Responsible government House of Commons Prime Minister of Canada head of government List of Prime Ministers of Canada plurality Canadian House of Commons MichaÃ«lle Jean September 27 2005 Stephen Harper Conservative Party of Canada February 6 2006 Parliament of Canada Canadian Senate plurality electoral system electoral district (Canada) Conservative Party of Canada Liberal Party of Canada New Democratic Party Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois Green Party of Canada List of political parties in Canada#Historical parties that have won seats in Parliament Supreme Court of Canada judiciary Supreme Court of Canada Beverley McLachlin Governor General of Canada Court system of Canada Common law civil law (legal system) Criminal law in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Peacekeeping Monument U.S.-Canada relations border Cuba Iraq War United Kingdom France Commonwealth of Nations La Francophonie Canadian Forces Canadian Forces Land Force Command Canadian Forces Maritime Command Canadian Forces Air Command Lester B. 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Pearson UN peacekeeping Yugoslavia Organization of American States Pacific Rim Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Canada's role in the invasion of Afghanistan Afghanistan War in Afghanistan (2001âpresent) International Security Assistance Force Disaster Assistance Response Team 2004 tsunami Hurricane Katrina 2005 Kashmir earthquake Reuters February 10 2007 Territorial claims in the Arctic Arktika 2007 Provinces and territories of Canada federation province Territory (country subdivision) region Western Canada British Columbia Canadian Prairies Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba Eastern Canada Central Canada Quebec Ontario Atlantic Canada Maritimes New Brunswick Prince Edward Island Nova Scotia Newfoundland and Labrador Yukon Northwest Territories Nunavut Northern Canada Canadian federalism List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols Health care in Canada Education in Canada welfare (financial aid) Canada Health Act Equalization payments unicameral Legislative Assemblies of Canada's provinces and territories premier (Canada) Lieutenant-Governor (Canada) Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Boreal forest Canadian Shield tundra Arctic Canadian Rockies Coast Mountains Prairies Great Lakes St. Lawrence River North America contiguous United States U.S. state Alaska Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean Russia continent China longitude 2004-04-06 CFS Alert Ellesmere Island nautical mile 2006-12-19 population density Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Canadian Shield Wisconsin glaciation 2004-04-02 Horseshoe Falls (Canada) Niagara Falls 2004-04-05 Gulf of Saint Lawrence estuary Newfoundland (island) Canadian Maritimes Appalachian Mountains New England GaspÃ© Peninsula New Brunswick Nova Scotia Bay of Fundy Ontario Hudson Bay Canadian Prairies Rocky Mountains British Columbia Mackenzie River Great Slave Lake Arctic Ocean South Nahanni River Virginia Falls, Northwest Territories Niagara Falls Northern Canada coniferous tundra Canadian Arctic Archipelago List of islands by area continental climate Celsius Fahrenheit 2004-02-25 Canadian banknotes Wilfrid Laurier John A. Macdonald Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom William Lyon Mackenzie King Robert Borden List of countries by GDP (nominal) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Group of Eight free market gross domestic product unemployment Government of Canada 2006-08-04 first world nation service industry primary industry logging petroleum Atlantic Canada Alberta Athabasca Tar Sands Saudi Arabia 2006-03-10 hydroelectric power wheat canola zinc uranium gold nickel aluminum lead automobiles aeronautics international trade Canada-US Free Trade Agreement North American Free Trade Agreement Toronto Ontario CN tower 2007-03-13 2007-03-13 Canada 2006 Census 2007-03-13 Immigration to Canada mile urban area Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Golden Horseshoe Toronto Montreal National Capital Region (Canada) Lower Mainland Vancouver Calgary-Edmonton Corridor English-Canadian French Canadian Scottish-Canadian Irish-Canadian German-Canadian Italian Canadian Chinese Canadian Ukrainian Canadian First Nations 2005-01-25 Aboriginal peoples in Canada visible minorities 2001-01-21 Vancouver Toronto visible minorities Statistics Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration rate 2004-10-31 Economic impact of immigration to Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration categories refugees Asia religious pluralism Canada's political culture 2005-01-25 Christianity Catholicism Protestant United Church of Canada Islam Judaism 2005-11-14 Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole Victoria, British Columbia British Columbia British people French people Aboriginal peoples in Canada American culture Canadian Broadcasting Corporation National Film Board of Canada Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission multiculturalism Section Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Royal Canadian Mounted Police Expo 67 National symbols of Canada First Nations maple leaf Flag of Canada Canadian Red Ensign penny (Canadian coin) Coat of Arms of Canada beaver Canada goose common loon Monarchy in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sport in Canada ice hockey lacrosse Department of Justice (Canada) national pastime National Hockey League curling Canadian football Canadian Football League Golf baseball skiing Soccer in Canada volleyball basketball 1976 Summer Olympics 1988 Winter Olympics 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup 2010 Winter Olympics Vancouver Whistler, British Columbia British Columbia Montreal Quebec French Canadian English-speaking Quebecer English language French language Bilingualism in Canada Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Official Languages Act (Canada) Commissioner of Official Languages mother tongue 2005-01-27 Statistics Canada 2005-01-27 2005-01-27 Franco-Ontarian Franco-Albertan Franco-Manitoban Acadian New Brunswick Nova Scotia Cape Breton Island Charter of the French Language Inuktitut Chinese language Italian language German language Punjabi United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index A.T. 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Canada	What is the largest religious group in Canada?	According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%.	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	What is the largest religious group in Canada?	Christian	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	When did Canada have one of the largest armed forces in the world?	1944.	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	When did Canada have one of the largest armed forces in the world?	World War II.	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	What have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples?	The lands	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada in what year?	1545	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Pearson Pierre Trudeau Canadian identity Flag of Canada francophone Quebec Bilingualism in Canada Official Languages Act (Canada) Immigration to Canada Multiculturalism#Origins in Canada Social democratic Medicare (Canada) Canada Pension Plan Canada Student Loans Pierre Trudeau patriation Charter of Rights and Freedoms individual rights Constitution Act of 1982 Canada-United States Automotive Agreement Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement Canadian nationalism Health care in Canada Parliament Hill Ottawa constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Style of the Canadian sovereign 2005-04-21 2005-12-06 Monarchy of Canada Commonwealth realm personal union parliamentary democracy federation Parliament Constitution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Constitution Act, 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Section Thirty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Canadian House of Commons viceroy Governor General of Canada Queen's Privy Council for Canada Cabinet of Canada Minister of the Crown Responsible government House of Commons Prime Minister of Canada head of government List of Prime Ministers of Canada plurality Canadian House of Commons MichaÃ«lle Jean September 27 2005 Stephen Harper Conservative Party of Canada February 6 2006 Parliament of Canada Canadian Senate plurality electoral system electoral district (Canada) Conservative Party of Canada Liberal Party of Canada New Democratic Party Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois Green Party of Canada List of political parties in Canada#Historical parties that have won seats in Parliament Supreme Court of Canada judiciary Supreme Court of Canada Beverley McLachlin Governor General of Canada Court system of Canada Common law civil law (legal system) Criminal law in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Peacekeeping Monument U.S.-Canada relations border Cuba Iraq War United Kingdom France Commonwealth of Nations La Francophonie Canadian Forces Canadian Forces Land Force Command Canadian Forces Maritime Command Canadian Forces Air Command Lester B. 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Pearson UN peacekeeping Yugoslavia Organization of American States Pacific Rim Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Canada's role in the invasion of Afghanistan Afghanistan War in Afghanistan (2001âpresent) International Security Assistance Force Disaster Assistance Response Team 2004 tsunami Hurricane Katrina 2005 Kashmir earthquake Reuters February 10 2007 Territorial claims in the Arctic Arktika 2007 Provinces and territories of Canada federation province Territory (country subdivision) region Western Canada British Columbia Canadian Prairies Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba Eastern Canada Central Canada Quebec Ontario Atlantic Canada Maritimes New Brunswick Prince Edward Island Nova Scotia Newfoundland and Labrador Yukon Northwest Territories Nunavut Northern Canada Canadian federalism List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols Health care in Canada Education in Canada welfare (financial aid) Canada Health Act Equalization payments unicameral Legislative Assemblies of Canada's provinces and territories premier (Canada) Lieutenant-Governor (Canada) Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Boreal forest Canadian Shield tundra Arctic Canadian Rockies Coast Mountains Prairies Great Lakes St. Lawrence River North America contiguous United States U.S. state Alaska Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean Russia continent China longitude 2004-04-06 CFS Alert Ellesmere Island nautical mile 2006-12-19 population density Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Canadian Shield Wisconsin glaciation 2004-04-02 Horseshoe Falls (Canada) Niagara Falls 2004-04-05 Gulf of Saint Lawrence estuary Newfoundland (island) Canadian Maritimes Appalachian Mountains New England GaspÃ© Peninsula New Brunswick Nova Scotia Bay of Fundy Ontario Hudson Bay Canadian Prairies Rocky Mountains British Columbia Mackenzie River Great Slave Lake Arctic Ocean South Nahanni River Virginia Falls, Northwest Territories Niagara Falls Northern Canada coniferous tundra Canadian Arctic Archipelago List of islands by area continental climate Celsius Fahrenheit 2004-02-25 Canadian banknotes Wilfrid Laurier John A. Macdonald Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom William Lyon Mackenzie King Robert Borden List of countries by GDP (nominal) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Group of Eight free market gross domestic product unemployment Government of Canada 2006-08-04 first world nation service industry primary industry logging petroleum Atlantic Canada Alberta Athabasca Tar Sands Saudi Arabia 2006-03-10 hydroelectric power wheat canola zinc uranium gold nickel aluminum lead automobiles aeronautics international trade Canada-US Free Trade Agreement North American Free Trade Agreement Toronto Ontario CN tower 2007-03-13 2007-03-13 Canada 2006 Census 2007-03-13 Immigration to Canada mile urban area Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Golden Horseshoe Toronto Montreal National Capital Region (Canada) Lower Mainland Vancouver Calgary-Edmonton Corridor English-Canadian French Canadian Scottish-Canadian Irish-Canadian German-Canadian Italian Canadian Chinese Canadian Ukrainian Canadian First Nations 2005-01-25 Aboriginal peoples in Canada visible minorities 2001-01-21 Vancouver Toronto visible minorities Statistics Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration rate 2004-10-31 Economic impact of immigration to Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration categories refugees Asia religious pluralism Canada's political culture 2005-01-25 Christianity Catholicism Protestant United Church of Canada Islam Judaism 2005-11-14 Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole Victoria, British Columbia British Columbia British people French people Aboriginal peoples in Canada American culture Canadian Broadcasting Corporation National Film Board of Canada Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission multiculturalism Section Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Royal Canadian Mounted Police Expo 67 National symbols of Canada First Nations maple leaf Flag of Canada Canadian Red Ensign penny (Canadian coin) Coat of Arms of Canada beaver Canada goose common loon Monarchy in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sport in Canada ice hockey lacrosse Department of Justice (Canada) national pastime National Hockey League curling Canadian football Canadian Football League Golf baseball skiing Soccer in Canada volleyball basketball 1976 Summer Olympics 1988 Winter Olympics 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup 2010 Winter Olympics Vancouver Whistler, British Columbia British Columbia Montreal Quebec French Canadian English-speaking Quebecer English language French language Bilingualism in Canada Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Official Languages Act (Canada) Commissioner of Official Languages mother tongue 2005-01-27 Statistics Canada 2005-01-27 2005-01-27 Franco-Ontarian Franco-Albertan Franco-Manitoban Acadian New Brunswick Nova Scotia Cape Breton Island Charter of the French Language Inuktitut Chinese language Italian language German language Punjabi United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index A.T. 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Canada	What was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s?	The fur trade	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	Is it true that it angered many residents of the thirteen colonies?	yes	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	How do cuba and declining participation relate?	Canada maintains full relations with both.	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Pearson Pierre Trudeau Canadian identity Flag of Canada francophone Quebec Bilingualism in Canada Official Languages Act (Canada) Immigration to Canada Multiculturalism#Origins in Canada Social democratic Medicare (Canada) Canada Pension Plan Canada Student Loans Pierre Trudeau patriation Charter of Rights and Freedoms individual rights Constitution Act of 1982 Canada-United States Automotive Agreement Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement Canadian nationalism Health care in Canada Parliament Hill Ottawa constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Style of the Canadian sovereign 2005-04-21 2005-12-06 Monarchy of Canada Commonwealth realm personal union parliamentary democracy federation Parliament Constitution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Constitution Act, 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Section Thirty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Canadian House of Commons viceroy Governor General of Canada Queen's Privy Council for Canada Cabinet of Canada Minister of the Crown Responsible government House of Commons Prime Minister of Canada head of government List of Prime Ministers of Canada plurality Canadian House of Commons MichaÃ«lle Jean September 27 2005 Stephen Harper Conservative Party of Canada February 6 2006 Parliament of Canada Canadian Senate plurality electoral system electoral district (Canada) Conservative Party of Canada Liberal Party of Canada New Democratic Party Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois Green Party of Canada List of political parties in Canada#Historical parties that have won seats in Parliament Supreme Court of Canada judiciary Supreme Court of Canada Beverley McLachlin Governor General of Canada Court system of Canada Common law civil law (legal system) Criminal law in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Peacekeeping Monument U.S.-Canada relations border Cuba Iraq War United Kingdom France Commonwealth of Nations La Francophonie Canadian Forces Canadian Forces Land Force Command Canadian Forces Maritime Command Canadian Forces Air Command Lester B. 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Pearson UN peacekeeping Yugoslavia Organization of American States Pacific Rim Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Canada's role in the invasion of Afghanistan Afghanistan War in Afghanistan (2001âpresent) International Security Assistance Force Disaster Assistance Response Team 2004 tsunami Hurricane Katrina 2005 Kashmir earthquake Reuters February 10 2007 Territorial claims in the Arctic Arktika 2007 Provinces and territories of Canada federation province Territory (country subdivision) region Western Canada British Columbia Canadian Prairies Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba Eastern Canada Central Canada Quebec Ontario Atlantic Canada Maritimes New Brunswick Prince Edward Island Nova Scotia Newfoundland and Labrador Yukon Northwest Territories Nunavut Northern Canada Canadian federalism List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols Health care in Canada Education in Canada welfare (financial aid) Canada Health Act Equalization payments unicameral Legislative Assemblies of Canada's provinces and territories premier (Canada) Lieutenant-Governor (Canada) Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Boreal forest Canadian Shield tundra Arctic Canadian Rockies Coast Mountains Prairies Great Lakes St. Lawrence River North America contiguous United States U.S. state Alaska Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean Russia continent China longitude 2004-04-06 CFS Alert Ellesmere Island nautical mile 2006-12-19 population density Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Canadian Shield Wisconsin glaciation 2004-04-02 Horseshoe Falls (Canada) Niagara Falls 2004-04-05 Gulf of Saint Lawrence estuary Newfoundland (island) Canadian Maritimes Appalachian Mountains New England GaspÃ© Peninsula New Brunswick Nova Scotia Bay of Fundy Ontario Hudson Bay Canadian Prairies Rocky Mountains British Columbia Mackenzie River Great Slave Lake Arctic Ocean South Nahanni River Virginia Falls, Northwest Territories Niagara Falls Northern Canada coniferous tundra Canadian Arctic Archipelago List of islands by area continental climate Celsius Fahrenheit 2004-02-25 Canadian banknotes Wilfrid Laurier John A. Macdonald Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom William Lyon Mackenzie King Robert Borden List of countries by GDP (nominal) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Group of Eight free market gross domestic product unemployment Government of Canada 2006-08-04 first world nation service industry primary industry logging petroleum Atlantic Canada Alberta Athabasca Tar Sands Saudi Arabia 2006-03-10 hydroelectric power wheat canola zinc uranium gold nickel aluminum lead automobiles aeronautics international trade Canada-US Free Trade Agreement North American Free Trade Agreement Toronto Ontario CN tower 2007-03-13 2007-03-13 Canada 2006 Census 2007-03-13 Immigration to Canada mile urban area Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Golden Horseshoe Toronto Montreal National Capital Region (Canada) Lower Mainland Vancouver Calgary-Edmonton Corridor English-Canadian French Canadian Scottish-Canadian Irish-Canadian German-Canadian Italian Canadian Chinese Canadian Ukrainian Canadian First Nations 2005-01-25 Aboriginal peoples in Canada visible minorities 2001-01-21 Vancouver Toronto visible minorities Statistics Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration rate 2004-10-31 Economic impact of immigration to Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration categories refugees Asia religious pluralism Canada's political culture 2005-01-25 Christianity Catholicism Protestant United Church of Canada Islam Judaism 2005-11-14 Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole Victoria, British Columbia British Columbia British people French people Aboriginal peoples in Canada American culture Canadian Broadcasting Corporation National Film Board of Canada Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission multiculturalism Section Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Royal Canadian Mounted Police Expo 67 National symbols of Canada First Nations maple leaf Flag of Canada Canadian Red Ensign penny (Canadian coin) Coat of Arms of Canada beaver Canada goose common loon Monarchy in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sport in Canada ice hockey lacrosse Department of Justice (Canada) national pastime National Hockey League curling Canadian football Canadian Football League Golf baseball skiing Soccer in Canada volleyball basketball 1976 Summer Olympics 1988 Winter Olympics 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup 2010 Winter Olympics Vancouver Whistler, British Columbia British Columbia Montreal Quebec French Canadian English-speaking Quebecer English language French language Bilingualism in Canada Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Official Languages Act (Canada) Commissioner of Official Languages mother tongue 2005-01-27 Statistics Canada 2005-01-27 2005-01-27 Franco-Ontarian Franco-Albertan Franco-Manitoban Acadian New Brunswick Nova Scotia Cape Breton Island Charter of the French Language Inuktitut Chinese language Italian language German language Punjabi United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index A.T. 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Canada	Is it true that provinces have a large degree of autonomy?	yes	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	What did Canada adopt in 1965?	The Maple Leaf Flag	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	What arrived in Britain?	The first Canadian Army units in WW II	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Pearson Pierre Trudeau Canadian identity Flag of Canada francophone Quebec Bilingualism in Canada Official Languages Act (Canada) Immigration to Canada Multiculturalism#Origins in Canada Social democratic Medicare (Canada) Canada Pension Plan Canada Student Loans Pierre Trudeau patriation Charter of Rights and Freedoms individual rights Constitution Act of 1982 Canada-United States Automotive Agreement Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement Canadian nationalism Health care in Canada Parliament Hill Ottawa constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Style of the Canadian sovereign 2005-04-21 2005-12-06 Monarchy of Canada Commonwealth realm personal union parliamentary democracy federation Parliament Constitution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Constitution Act, 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Section Thirty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Canadian House of Commons viceroy Governor General of Canada Queen's Privy Council for Canada Cabinet of Canada Minister of the Crown Responsible government House of Commons Prime Minister of Canada head of government List of Prime Ministers of Canada plurality Canadian House of Commons MichaÃ«lle Jean September 27 2005 Stephen Harper Conservative Party of Canada February 6 2006 Parliament of Canada Canadian Senate plurality electoral system electoral district (Canada) Conservative Party of Canada Liberal Party of Canada New Democratic Party Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois Green Party of Canada List of political parties in Canada#Historical parties that have won seats in Parliament Supreme Court of Canada judiciary Supreme Court of Canada Beverley McLachlin Governor General of Canada Court system of Canada Common law civil law (legal system) Criminal law in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Peacekeeping Monument U.S.-Canada relations border Cuba Iraq War United Kingdom France Commonwealth of Nations La Francophonie Canadian Forces Canadian Forces Land Force Command Canadian Forces Maritime Command Canadian Forces Air Command Lester B. 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Pearson UN peacekeeping Yugoslavia Organization of American States Pacific Rim Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Canada's role in the invasion of Afghanistan Afghanistan War in Afghanistan (2001âpresent) International Security Assistance Force Disaster Assistance Response Team 2004 tsunami Hurricane Katrina 2005 Kashmir earthquake Reuters February 10 2007 Territorial claims in the Arctic Arktika 2007 Provinces and territories of Canada federation province Territory (country subdivision) region Western Canada British Columbia Canadian Prairies Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba Eastern Canada Central Canada Quebec Ontario Atlantic Canada Maritimes New Brunswick Prince Edward Island Nova Scotia Newfoundland and Labrador Yukon Northwest Territories Nunavut Northern Canada Canadian federalism List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols Health care in Canada Education in Canada welfare (financial aid) Canada Health Act Equalization payments unicameral Legislative Assemblies of Canada's provinces and territories premier (Canada) Lieutenant-Governor (Canada) Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Boreal forest Canadian Shield tundra Arctic Canadian Rockies Coast Mountains Prairies Great Lakes St. Lawrence River North America contiguous United States U.S. state Alaska Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean Russia continent China longitude 2004-04-06 CFS Alert Ellesmere Island nautical mile 2006-12-19 population density Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Canadian Shield Wisconsin glaciation 2004-04-02 Horseshoe Falls (Canada) Niagara Falls 2004-04-05 Gulf of Saint Lawrence estuary Newfoundland (island) Canadian Maritimes Appalachian Mountains New England GaspÃ© Peninsula New Brunswick Nova Scotia Bay of Fundy Ontario Hudson Bay Canadian Prairies Rocky Mountains British Columbia Mackenzie River Great Slave Lake Arctic Ocean South Nahanni River Virginia Falls, Northwest Territories Niagara Falls Northern Canada coniferous tundra Canadian Arctic Archipelago List of islands by area continental climate Celsius Fahrenheit 2004-02-25 Canadian banknotes Wilfrid Laurier John A. Macdonald Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom William Lyon Mackenzie King Robert Borden List of countries by GDP (nominal) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Group of Eight free market gross domestic product unemployment Government of Canada 2006-08-04 first world nation service industry primary industry logging petroleum Atlantic Canada Alberta Athabasca Tar Sands Saudi Arabia 2006-03-10 hydroelectric power wheat canola zinc uranium gold nickel aluminum lead automobiles aeronautics international trade Canada-US Free Trade Agreement North American Free Trade Agreement Toronto Ontario CN tower 2007-03-13 2007-03-13 Canada 2006 Census 2007-03-13 Immigration to Canada mile urban area Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Golden Horseshoe Toronto Montreal National Capital Region (Canada) Lower Mainland Vancouver Calgary-Edmonton Corridor English-Canadian French Canadian Scottish-Canadian Irish-Canadian German-Canadian Italian Canadian Chinese Canadian Ukrainian Canadian First Nations 2005-01-25 Aboriginal peoples in Canada visible minorities 2001-01-21 Vancouver Toronto visible minorities Statistics Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration rate 2004-10-31 Economic impact of immigration to Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration categories refugees Asia religious pluralism Canada's political culture 2005-01-25 Christianity Catholicism Protestant United Church of Canada Islam Judaism 2005-11-14 Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole Victoria, British Columbia British Columbia British people French people Aboriginal peoples in Canada American culture Canadian Broadcasting Corporation National Film Board of Canada Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission multiculturalism Section Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Royal Canadian Mounted Police Expo 67 National symbols of Canada First Nations maple leaf Flag of Canada Canadian Red Ensign penny (Canadian coin) Coat of Arms of Canada beaver Canada goose common loon Monarchy in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sport in Canada ice hockey lacrosse Department of Justice (Canada) national pastime National Hockey League curling Canadian football Canadian Football League Golf baseball skiing Soccer in Canada volleyball basketball 1976 Summer Olympics 1988 Winter Olympics 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup 2010 Winter Olympics Vancouver Whistler, British Columbia British Columbia Montreal Quebec French Canadian English-speaking Quebecer English language French language Bilingualism in Canada Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Official Languages Act (Canada) Commissioner of Official Languages mother tongue 2005-01-27 Statistics Canada 2005-01-27 2005-01-27 Franco-Ontarian Franco-Albertan Franco-Manitoban Acadian New Brunswick Nova Scotia Cape Breton Island Charter of the French Language Inuktitut Chinese language Italian language German language Punjabi United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index A.T. 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Canada	Are Canada 's two official languages English and French ?	yes	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	Are Canada 's official national sports ice hockey ( winter ) and lacrosse ( summer ) ?	yes	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	Is Canada a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country ?	yes	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Pearson Pierre Trudeau Canadian identity Flag of Canada francophone Quebec Bilingualism in Canada Official Languages Act (Canada) Immigration to Canada Multiculturalism#Origins in Canada Social democratic Medicare (Canada) Canada Pension Plan Canada Student Loans Pierre Trudeau patriation Charter of Rights and Freedoms individual rights Constitution Act of 1982 Canada-United States Automotive Agreement Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement Canadian nationalism Health care in Canada Parliament Hill Ottawa constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Style of the Canadian sovereign 2005-04-21 2005-12-06 Monarchy of Canada Commonwealth realm personal union parliamentary democracy federation Parliament Constitution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Constitution Act, 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Section Thirty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Canadian House of Commons viceroy Governor General of Canada Queen's Privy Council for Canada Cabinet of Canada Minister of the Crown Responsible government House of Commons Prime Minister of Canada head of government List of Prime Ministers of Canada plurality Canadian House of Commons MichaÃ«lle Jean September 27 2005 Stephen Harper Conservative Party of Canada February 6 2006 Parliament of Canada Canadian Senate plurality electoral system electoral district (Canada) Conservative Party of Canada Liberal Party of Canada New Democratic Party Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois Green Party of Canada List of political parties in Canada#Historical parties that have won seats in Parliament Supreme Court of Canada judiciary Supreme Court of Canada Beverley McLachlin Governor General of Canada Court system of Canada Common law civil law (legal system) Criminal law in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Peacekeeping Monument U.S.-Canada relations border Cuba Iraq War United Kingdom France Commonwealth of Nations La Francophonie Canadian Forces Canadian Forces Land Force Command Canadian Forces Maritime Command Canadian Forces Air Command Lester B. 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Canada	Did Mainland Nova Scotia not come under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (: ; ?	no!	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	Did Cartier not use the word ` Canada ' to refer to not only that village , but the entire area subject to Donnacona , Chief at Stadacona ?	yes	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	Did continental European immigrants not settle the prairies ?	no	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Pearson Pierre Trudeau Canadian identity Flag of Canada francophone Quebec Bilingualism in Canada Official Languages Act (Canada) Immigration to Canada Multiculturalism#Origins in Canada Social democratic Medicare (Canada) Canada Pension Plan Canada Student Loans Pierre Trudeau patriation Charter of Rights and Freedoms individual rights Constitution Act of 1982 Canada-United States Automotive Agreement Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement Canadian nationalism Health care in Canada Parliament Hill Ottawa constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Style of the Canadian sovereign 2005-04-21 2005-12-06 Monarchy of Canada Commonwealth realm personal union parliamentary democracy federation Parliament Constitution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Constitution Act, 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Section Thirty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Canadian House of Commons viceroy Governor General of Canada Queen's Privy Council for Canada Cabinet of Canada Minister of the Crown Responsible government House of Commons Prime Minister of Canada head of government List of Prime Ministers of Canada plurality Canadian House of Commons MichaÃ«lle Jean September 27 2005 Stephen Harper Conservative Party of Canada February 6 2006 Parliament of Canada Canadian Senate plurality electoral system electoral district (Canada) Conservative Party of Canada Liberal Party of Canada New Democratic Party Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois Green Party of Canada List of political parties in Canada#Historical parties that have won seats in Parliament Supreme Court of Canada judiciary Supreme Court of Canada Beverley McLachlin Governor General of Canada Court system of Canada Common law civil law (legal system) Criminal law in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Peacekeeping Monument U.S.-Canada relations border Cuba Iraq War United Kingdom France Commonwealth of Nations La Francophonie Canadian Forces Canadian Forces Land Force Command Canadian Forces Maritime Command Canadian Forces Air Command Lester B. 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Pearson UN peacekeeping Yugoslavia Organization of American States Pacific Rim Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Canada's role in the invasion of Afghanistan Afghanistan War in Afghanistan (2001âpresent) International Security Assistance Force Disaster Assistance Response Team 2004 tsunami Hurricane Katrina 2005 Kashmir earthquake Reuters February 10 2007 Territorial claims in the Arctic Arktika 2007 Provinces and territories of Canada federation province Territory (country subdivision) region Western Canada British Columbia Canadian Prairies Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba Eastern Canada Central Canada Quebec Ontario Atlantic Canada Maritimes New Brunswick Prince Edward Island Nova Scotia Newfoundland and Labrador Yukon Northwest Territories Nunavut Northern Canada Canadian federalism List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols Health care in Canada Education in Canada welfare (financial aid) Canada Health Act Equalization payments unicameral Legislative Assemblies of Canada's provinces and territories premier (Canada) Lieutenant-Governor (Canada) Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Boreal forest Canadian Shield tundra Arctic Canadian Rockies Coast Mountains Prairies Great Lakes St. Lawrence River North America contiguous United States U.S. state Alaska Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean Russia continent China longitude 2004-04-06 CFS Alert Ellesmere Island nautical mile 2006-12-19 population density Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Canadian Shield Wisconsin glaciation 2004-04-02 Horseshoe Falls (Canada) Niagara Falls 2004-04-05 Gulf of Saint Lawrence estuary Newfoundland (island) Canadian Maritimes Appalachian Mountains New England GaspÃ© Peninsula New Brunswick Nova Scotia Bay of Fundy Ontario Hudson Bay Canadian Prairies Rocky Mountains British Columbia Mackenzie River Great Slave Lake Arctic Ocean South Nahanni River Virginia Falls, Northwest Territories Niagara Falls Northern Canada coniferous tundra Canadian Arctic Archipelago List of islands by area continental climate Celsius Fahrenheit 2004-02-25 Canadian banknotes Wilfrid Laurier John A. Macdonald Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom William Lyon Mackenzie King Robert Borden List of countries by GDP (nominal) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Group of Eight free market gross domestic product unemployment Government of Canada 2006-08-04 first world nation service industry primary industry logging petroleum Atlantic Canada Alberta Athabasca Tar Sands Saudi Arabia 2006-03-10 hydroelectric power wheat canola zinc uranium gold nickel aluminum lead automobiles aeronautics international trade Canada-US Free Trade Agreement North American Free Trade Agreement Toronto Ontario CN tower 2007-03-13 2007-03-13 Canada 2006 Census 2007-03-13 Immigration to Canada mile urban area Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Golden Horseshoe Toronto Montreal National Capital Region (Canada) Lower Mainland Vancouver Calgary-Edmonton Corridor English-Canadian French Canadian Scottish-Canadian Irish-Canadian German-Canadian Italian Canadian Chinese Canadian Ukrainian Canadian First Nations 2005-01-25 Aboriginal peoples in Canada visible minorities 2001-01-21 Vancouver Toronto visible minorities Statistics Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration rate 2004-10-31 Economic impact of immigration to Canada Immigration to Canada#Immigration categories refugees Asia religious pluralism Canada's political culture 2005-01-25 Christianity Catholicism Protestant United Church of Canada Islam Judaism 2005-11-14 Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole Victoria, British Columbia British Columbia British people French people Aboriginal peoples in Canada American culture Canadian Broadcasting Corporation National Film Board of Canada Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission multiculturalism Section Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Royal Canadian Mounted Police Expo 67 National symbols of Canada First Nations maple leaf Flag of Canada Canadian Red Ensign penny (Canadian coin) Coat of Arms of Canada beaver Canada goose common loon Monarchy in Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sport in Canada ice hockey lacrosse Department of Justice (Canada) national pastime National Hockey League curling Canadian football Canadian Football League Golf baseball skiing Soccer in Canada volleyball basketball 1976 Summer Olympics 1988 Winter Olympics 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup 2010 Winter Olympics Vancouver Whistler, British Columbia British Columbia Montreal Quebec French Canadian English-speaking Quebecer English language French language Bilingualism in Canada Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Official Languages Act (Canada) Commissioner of Official Languages mother tongue 2005-01-27 Statistics Canada 2005-01-27 2005-01-27 Franco-Ontarian Franco-Albertan Franco-Manitoban Acadian New Brunswick Nova Scotia Cape Breton Island Charter of the French Language Inuktitut Chinese language Italian language German language Punjabi United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index A.T. 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Canada	Is it the world 's second largest country by total area?	yes	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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Canada	What happened in 1867?	Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity	data/set2/a8	Canada Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity. This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. Jacques Cartier The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement." In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada. The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago. Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497 for England and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade. The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly. Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s. Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees. The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture. The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England. An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation. Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905. Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries. Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless. The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982. Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969. Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982. Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent. However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism. Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state; the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions. Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years. The Chamber of the House of Commons. The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006. The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75. Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial. The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail). Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries). Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989 and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007. In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories. Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador). Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government, territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years. A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with 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, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States. World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole. Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres. The population density, , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater. The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls, a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination. In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia. In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls. Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north. The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands. Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills. In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north). Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F). For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website. Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden. Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards. While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important. Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia. In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy. Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains. Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead; many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8. Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt. Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people. Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001. Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border. A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white. Ethnic diversity of Canada The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012. Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017. Visible majority by 2017 Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia. Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture. According to 2001 census, 77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography. The mandatory school age ranges between 5â7 to 16â18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%. Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%. A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC. Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market. The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural. Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon. National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer). Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread. Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia. The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community. Canada's two official languages are English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%). English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population. Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution. Other provinces have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory. Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language. Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220). tags--> ;Origin and history of the name * ;History * * * * * * ;Government and law * * * * ;Foreign relations and military * * * * * * * * ;Provinces and territories * ;Geography and climate * * ;Economy * * * * ;Demography and statistics * * ;Language * * * ;Culture * * * Similar publication online here. * * * * * * ; Government * Official website of the Government of Canada * Official website of the Prime Minister of Canada * Official website of the Governor General of Canada * Official website of the Canadian Forces * Official Government of Canada online Atlas of Canada * Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations ;Crown corporations * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation * Canada Post * Canadian Tourism Commission ;Other * Culture.ca - Canada's Cultural Gateway * Culturescope.ca - Canadian Cultural Observatory * Canadian Studies: A Guide to the Sources * Statistics Canada with Canada's population clock * The Canadian Atlas Online * Canada at The World Factbook * UN Human Development Program: Country Fact Sheet: Canada, Statistics - Country Sheet: Canada * Related Wikipedia Articles country Politics of Canada Geography of Canada Canada (disambiguation) Canadian (disambiguation) Latin O Canada God Save the Queen Ottawa Toronto Canadian English French language in Canada Inuktitut Inuinnaqtun Dene Suline language Cree language Gwichâin language HÃ¤n Inuvialuktun Slavey language Dogrib language Parliamentary democracy Federal monarchy Monarchy in Canada Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Governor General of Canada MichaÃ«lle Jean Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper Canadian Confederation British North America Act July 1 1867 Statute of Westminster 1931 December 11 1931 Canada Act 1982 April 17 1982 Canadian dollar .ca country North America Atlantic Ocean Pacific Ocean Arctic Ocean List of countries and outlying territories by total area 2006-05-16 CanadaâUnited States border United States Aboriginal peoples in Canada British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas New France Seven Years War British North America Canadian Confederation federalism dominion Territorial evolution of Canada United Kingdom Statute of Westminster 1931 Canada Act 1982 federation Provinces and territories of Canada parliamentary system constitutional monarchy Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Bilingualism in Canada multiculturalism Canadian English Canadian French Developed country CanadaâUnited States relations Jacques Cartier St. Lawrence Iroquoians Quebec City Jacques Cartier Stadacona Donnacona Canada, New France New France Saint Lawrence River Great Lakes Upper Canada Lower Canada Province of Canada Canadian Confederation Dominion United Kingdom Canada Act 1982 Dominion Day Canada Day fur trade Aboriginal peoples in Canada Yukon Ontario 2001-09-27 European colonization of the Americas Vikings L'Anse aux Meadows John Cabot Kingdom of England Jacques Cartier France Basque people Grand Banks Tadoussac Samuel de Champlain Port Royal, Nova Scotia Quebec City French colonization of the Americas New France Canadiens St. Lawrence River Acadians Maritimes Coureurs de bois RenÃ©-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle Great Lakes Hudson Bay Mississippi River#Watershed Louisiana (New France) French and Iroquois Wars fur trade The Death of General Wolfe Battle of the Plains of Abraham Quebec City French and Indian War Kingdom of England Newfoundland and Labrador British colonization of the Americas Thirteen Colonies French and Indian Wars Nova Scotia Treaty of Utrecht Treaty of Paris (1763) New France British Empire French and Indian War Louisiana (New France) Royal Proclamation of 1763 Province of Quebec (1763-1791) New France Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia French Canadians Prince Edward Island Quebec Act Great Lakes Ohio Valley American Revolution Treaty of Paris (1783) Great Lakes United States United Empire Loyalists United States New Brunswick Nova Scotia Maritimes Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Constitutional Act of 1791 Lower Canada Upper Canada War of 1812 timber industry fur trade Robert Harris (painter) Fathers of Confederation Responsible Government Rebellions of 1837 Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) Act of Union (1840) The Canadas United Province of Canada Responsible government#British North America Oregon Treaty Oregon boundary dispute 49th parallel north Colony of Vancouver Island Colony of British Columbia Rupert's Land Arctic New England Territorial evolution of Canada Constitution Act, 1867 Canadian Confederation Canada's name#Adoption of Dominion Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick Rupert's Land North-Western Territory Northwest Territories MÃ©tis people (Canada) Red River Rebellion Manitoba United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia Prince Edward Island Prime Minister of Canada John A. 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duck	Are ducks in the Arctic Northern Hemisphere migratory?	Some are	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Are ducks in the Arctic Northern Hemisphere migratory?	yes	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Is a drake a male?	Yes	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Is a drake a male?	yes	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Do all ducks "quack"?	No	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Do all ducks "quack"?	no	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What is the name of a specialized species of duck adapted to catch large fish?	the smew	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What animal attracts the most humor and silliness?	The duck	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What animal attracts the most humor and silliness?	the duck	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What is an economic use of a duck?	Meat	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What is an economic use of a duck?	being farmed for their meat	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Who is Daffy Duck?	A silly cartoon character	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Who is Daffy Duck?	a silly cartoon character	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What makes it more difficult for a diving duck to fly?	They are heavier	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What makes it more difficult for a diving duck to fly?	they are heavier	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What are the reasons for hunting wild ducks?	Meat, eggs, and feathers	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Do ducks forage underwater?	yes	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Do ducks forage underwater?	Diving ducks and sea ducks forage underwater	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Do all ducks "quack"?	no	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Do all ducks "quack"?	No	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Is foie gras often made from ducks?	yes	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Is foie gras often made from ducks?	Yes	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What economic uses to ducks have?	They are farmed for their meat, eggs and feathers. They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos.	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What economic uses to ducks have?	They can be farmed for meat, eggs, and feathers	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What kind of ducks feed on land?	Dabbling ducks	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What kind of ducks feed on land?	Dabbling ducks feed on land	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What unrelated water birds are ducks sometimes confused with?	loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What unrelated water birds are ducks sometimes confused with?	loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What does the word duck mean?	It is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds.	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What does the word duck mean?	to bend down low as if to get under something	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What are some common predators of ducks?	Pike, crocodilians, herons, hawks and eagles.	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What are some common predators of ducks?	pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	How does a Mallard's tongue work?	It's tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	How does a Mallard's tongue work?	It uses short spikes to push struggling prey and other food down its throat	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Are diving ducks heavier tha dabbling ducks?	Yes	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Are diving ducks heavier tha dabbling ducks?	Yes	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Are adult ducks fast fliers?	Yes	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Are adult ducks fast fliers?	Yes	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Are ducks an accepted presence in some populated areas?	Yes	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Are ducks an accepted presence in some populated areas?	Yes	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What types of unrelated water birds with similar forms are ducks sometimes confused with?	loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What types of unrelated water birds with similar forms are ducks sometimes confused with?	loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Why are ducklings particularly vulnerable?	Their inability to fly.	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Why are ducklings particularly vulnerable?	their inability to fly makes them easy prey	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What are some economic uses for duck?	Meat,eggs,feathers	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What are some economic uses for duck?	being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down)	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What allows a duck to filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside?	Tiny rows of plates called lamellae	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What allows a duck to filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside?	tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing computer systems?	Quacks like a duck	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	What expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing computer systems?	Quacks like a duck	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Where did the expression "a sitting duck" come from?	In many areas, wild duckof various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys.	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
duck	Where did the expression "a sitting duck" come from?	In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys.	data/set1/a10	duck :For duck as a food, see Duck (food); for other meanings, see Duck (disambiguation). Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration. Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain. Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging. Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside. A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish. In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat. The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism. Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively. A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles. Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks. The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive"). This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end". Duck headcount in 2004 In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target". Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck . Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole. Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from. A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo , however this has been shown to be false. Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard. FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries. In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article mentioning humor in the word "duck"). In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic. in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up". The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be. The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack") Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru. Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head. In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead. The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived. A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972 They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art. Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Image:Duck_wings_outstretched.jpg\|A Muscovy Duck stretching its wings in a freshwater spring Image:Duck head.JPG\|A Domesticated duck Image:Brown Ducks.JPG\|Some domesticated ducks Image:Mallard_with_duckling.jpg\|A Female Mallard with a duckling Mallard Image:Comb duck.jpg\|African Comb Duck Image:duck-on-ground.jpg\|Mallard drake Image:ruddy.shelduck.arp.2.750pix.jpg\|Ruddy Shelduck - not a true duck but a member of the Tadorninae Image:Wood_duck_eclipse.jpg\|Male Wood Duck in eclipse plumage Image:Female Mallard.jpg\|Female Mallard Image:Mother duck with chicks.jpg\|Female Mallard with ducklings Image:Muscovy-duck-1.jpg\|Male Muscovy Duck Image:Mandarin.duck.arp.jpg\|Mandarin Duck at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Image:Keralabackducks (75).JPG\|Ducks in a pond Image:Aa_ducks_and_geese_003.jpg\|Ducks and geese in a yard in Manchester, UK Image:Indian Runner Duck.jpg\|Indian Runner Duck Image:Ringed teal.gif\|Ringed Teal Image:Red-crested.pochard.slimbridge.arp.jpg \|Red-crested Pochard Image:Male_muscovy_duck_on_grass.jpg\| Male Muscovy Duck Image:Duck 3a.jpg Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck â ducks kept as pets or show animals and for meat and eggs and down Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks. * www.culverduck.com 3rd Largest White Pekin Duck Producer in the United States with some history of the Pekin Duck, Preparation of Duck, and Duck Recipes * "The quack doesn't echo" urban legend (from Snopes.com) * Guide to keeping ducks * Duck videos on the Internet Bird Collection * Scientists Track Pintail-Duck Migration to Learn More About the Species' Population Decline * Duck migration question * Ducks Unlimited Conservation * Raising Ducks, Geese & Swans * Tufted duck (good for foreign names) * list of books (useful looking abstracts) * San Francisco Bay Area Duck Population * Birds on the Brink (ruddy ducks' impact on white-headed ducks by crossbreeding in the wild) * - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl. * Duck Stock Photos * Duck necrophilia Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers * World Poultry.net - information on duck production, breeding & health Related Wikipedia Articles Duck (food) Duck (disambiguation) Mallard Animal Chordate bird Anseriformes Anatidae Dendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Aythyinae Merginae Anatidae bird Anatidae swan goose fresh water sea water beak dredging Poaceae aquatic plant fish insect amphibian worm mollusc water fowl loon grebe Rallidae coot moult bird migration Northern Hemisphere Australia Diving duck sea duck Dabbling duck Lamella (zoology) baleen smew Common Merganser merganser Mallard plumage moult sexual dimorphism Esox crocodilia heron mammal fox hawk eagle Muskellunge Esox Europe predator humans Peregrine Falcon Old English language dabbling duck Dutch language German language Old English language Indo-European languages Latin stem (linguistics) Lithuanian language Ancient Greek language Sanskrit shooting decoy farm duck (food) Egg (food) feather down feathers domesticated duck Mallard Muscovy Duck Great Britain Common Frog Foie gras liver geese Mallard domestic duck Greater Scaup urban legend MythBusters (season 1)#Does a Duck.27s Quack Echo.3F wildlife rescue RSPCA courtyard FAO China Vietnam South East Asia 2002 psychologist Richard Wiseman colleague University of Hertfordshire United Kingdom LaughLab experiment humour joke inherently funny word languages List of fictional ducks cartoon Daffy Duck New Scientist Mexico proverb Duck test Operational definition theory end-user computing Larco Museum Sea Peoples prow Tallahassee, Florida polymelia Moche Peru Larco Museum Thames and Hudson Muscovy Duck Spring (hydrosphere) Domesticated duck Mallard Comb Duck Mallard Ruddy Shelduck Tadorninae Wood Duck Muscovy Duck Mandarin Duck Manchester Indian Runner Duck Ringed Teal Red-crested Pochard Muscovy Duck Duck crossing Duck hunting Ducks Unlimited Domesticated duck Duck pond List of fictional ducks Angel Wing Snopes.com ruddy duck white-headed duck crossbreeding
Egypt	Is Egypt bordered by the Gaza Strip?	yes	data/set2/a6	Egypt Egypt (Egyptian: Kemet; Coptic: KÄ«mi; ; Egyptian Arabic: ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country in North Africa that includes the Sinai Peninsula, a land bridge to Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. The northern coast borders the Mediterranean Sea and the island of Cyprus; the eastern coast borders the Red Sea. Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa. The great majority of its estimated 78 million people (2007) live near the banks of the Nile River in an area of about where the only arable agricultural land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the densely populated centers of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta. Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments, including the Giza pyramid complex and the Great Sphinx. The southern city of Luxor contains numerous ancient artifacts, such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and cultural nation of the Middle East. One of the ancient Egyptian names of the country, Kemet ( ), or "black land" (from kem "black"), is derived from the fertile black soils deposited by the Nile floods, distinct from the deshret, or "red land" ( ), of the desert. The name is realized as and in the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as ( ). Another name was "land of the riverbank". The names of Upper and Lower Egypt were Ta-Sheme'aw ( ) "sedgeland" and Ta-Mehew ( ) "northland", respectively. , the Arabic and modern official name of Egypt (Egyptian Arabic: ), is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew ( ), literally meaning "the two straits" (a reference to the dynastic separation of upper and lower Egypt). Biblical Hebrew E-Magazine. January, 2005 The word originally connoted "metropolis" or "civilization" and also means "country", or "frontier-land". The English name "Egypt" came via the Latin word derived from the ancient Greek word AÃgyptos ( ). The adjective aigÃ½pti, aigÃ½ptios was borrowed into Coptic as gyptios, kyptios, and from there into Arabic as , back formed into , whence English Copt. The term is derived from Late Egyptian Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name Hat-ka-Ptah ( ), meaning "home of the ka (soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god Ptah at Memphis. Strabo provided a folk etymology according to which AÃgyptos ( ) had evolved as a compound from ( ), meaning "below the Aegean". The Nile River in Egypt The Nile has been a site of continuous human habitation since at least the Paleolithic era. Evidence of this appears in the form of artifacts and rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in the desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers replaced a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. Midant-Reynes, BÃ©atrix. The Prehistory of Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the First Kings. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. By about 6000 BC, organized agriculture and large building construction had appeared in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to Dynastic Egyptian civilization. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining somewhat culturally separate, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC. Bard, Kathryn A. Ian Shaw, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. p. 69. A unified kingdom was founded circa 3150 BC by King Menes, giving rise to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptians subsequently referred to their unified country as tawy, meaning "two lands", and later kemet (Coptic: kÄ«mi), the "black land", a reference to the fertile black soil deposited by the Nile river. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs. The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom period, c.2700â2200 BC., famous for its many pyramids, most notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza Pyramids. The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, built during the Old Kingdom, are modern national icons that are at the heart of Egypt's thriving tourism industry. The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about 150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilization of government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for the country in the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, reaching a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III. A second period of disunity heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos. The Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BC and founded a new capital at Avaris. They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes. The New Kingdom (c.1550â1070 BC) began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Jebel Barkal in Nubia, and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well-known Pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first known self-conscious expression of monotheism came during this period in the form of Atenism. Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The country was later invaded by Libyans, Nubians and Assyrians, but native Egyptians drove them out and regained control of their country. First built in the third or fourth century AD, the Hanging Church is Cairo's most famous Coptic church. The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Persians in 343 BC after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle. Later, Egypt fell to the Greeks and Romans, beginning over two thousand years of foreign rule. Before Egypt became part of the Byzantine realm, Christianity had been brought by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the AD first century. Diocletian's reign marked the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established. Kamil, Jill. Coptic Egypt: History and Guide. Cairo: American University in Cairo, 1997. p. 39 The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief Persian invasion early in the seventh century, until in AD 639, Egypt was invaded by the Muslim Arabs. The form of Islam the Arabs brought to Egypt was Sunni. Early in this period, Egyptians began to blend their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices that had survived through Coptic Christianity, giving rise to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day. El-Daly, Okasha. Egyptology: The Missing Millennium. London: UCL Press, 2005. p. 140 Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, including a period for which it was the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about AD 1250. They continued to govern even after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Mosque of Mohamed Ali built in the early nineteenth century within the Cairo Citadel. The brief French Invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 had a great social impact on the country and its culture. Native Egyptians became exposed to the principles of the French Revolution and had a chance to exercise self-governance. Vatikiotis, P.J. The History of Modern Egypt. 4th edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1992, p. 39 A series of civil wars took place between the Ottoman Turks, the Mamluks, and Albanian mercenaries following the evacuation of French troops, resulting in the Albanian Muhammad Ali (Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasha) taking control of Egypt. He was appointed as the Ottoman viceroy in 1805. He led a modernization campaign of public works, including irrigation projects, agricultural reforms and increased industrialization, which were then taken up and further expanded by his grandson and successor Isma'il Pasha. Following the completion of the Suez Canal by Ismail in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation and trading hub. In 1866, the Assembly of Delegates was founded to serve as an advisory body for the government. Its members were elected from across Egypt. They came to have an important influence on governmental affairs. Jankowski, James. Egypt: A Short History. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2000. p. 83 The country fell heavily into debt to European powers. Ostensibly to protect its investments, the United Kingdom seized control of Egypt's government in 1882. Egypt gave nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire until 1914. As a result of the declaration of war with the Ottoman Empire, Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt and deposed the Khedive Abbas II, replacing him with his uncle, Husayn Kamil, who was appointed Sultan. Public riot during the 1919 Revolution sparked by the British exile of nationalist leader Saad Zaghlul.Between 1882 and 1906, a local nationalist movement for independence was taking shape. The Dinshaway Incident prompted Egyptian opposition to take a stronger stand against British occupation. The first political parties were founded. After the First World War, Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement, gaining a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on March 8, 1919, the country arose in its first modern revolution. Constant revolting by the Egyptian people throughout the country led Great Britain to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence on February 22, 1922. Jankowski, op cit., p. 112 The new Egyptian government drafted and implemented a new constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary representative system. Saad Zaghlul was popularly-elected as Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. In 1936 the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. Continued instability in the government due to remaining British control and increasing political involvement by the king led to the ouster of the monarchy and the dissolution of the parliament in a military coup d'Ã©tat known as the 1952 Revolution. The officers, known as the Free Officers Movement, forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his son Fuad. View of Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East. The Cairo Opera House (bottom-right) is the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. On June 18 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser the real architect of the 1952 movement and was later put under house arrest. Nasser assumed power as President and declared the full independence of Egypt from the United Kingdom on June 18 1956. His nationalization of the Suez Canal on July 26 1956 prompted the 1956 Suez Crisis. Three years after the 1967 Six Day War, during which Israel had invaded and occupied Sinai, Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972. He launched the Infitah economic reform policy, while violently clamping down on religious and secular opposition alike. In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the October War, a surprise attack against the Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. It was an attempt to liberate the territory Israel had captured 6 years earlier. Both the US and the USSR intervened and a cease-fire was reached. Despite not being a complete military success, most historians agree that the October War presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him to pursue peace with Israel. In 1977, Sadat made a historic visit to Israel, which led to the 1979 peace treaty in exchange for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat's initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League, but it was supported by the vast majority of Egyptians. Vatikiotis, p. 443 A fundamentalist military soldier assassinated Sadat in Cairo in 1981. He was succeeded by the incumbent Hosni Mubarak. In 2003, the Egyptian Movement for Change, popularly known as Kifaya, was launched to seek a return to democracy and greater civil liberties. Mahmoud Mokhtar's Egypt's Renaissance 1919-1928, Cairo University. The Egyptian Nile Valley was home to one of the oldest cultures in the world, spanning three thousand years of continuous history. When Egypt fell under a series of foreign occupations after 343 BC, each left an indelible mark on the country's cultural landscape. Egyptian identity evolved in the span of this long period of occupation to accommodate, in principle, two new religions, Christianity and Islam; and a new language, Arabic, and its spoken descendant, Egyptian Arabic. The degree to which different groups in Egypt identify with these factors in articulating a sense of collective identity can vary. Questions of identity came to fore in the last century as Egypt sought to free itself from foreign occupation for the first time in two thousand years. Three chief ideologies came to head: ethno-territorial Egyptian nationalism and by extension Pharaonism, secular Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism, and Islamism. Egyptian nationalism predates its Arab counterpart by many decades, having roots in the nineteenth century and becoming the dominant mode of expression of Egyptian anti-colonial activists of the pre- and inter-war periods. It was nearly always articulated in exclusively Egyptian terms: In 1931, following a visit to Egypt, Syrian Arab nationalist Sati' al-Husri remarked that "[Egyptians] did not possess an Arab nationalist sentiment; did not accept that Egypt was a part of the Arab lands, and would not acknowledge that the Egyptian people were part of the Arab nation." qtd in Dawisha, Adeed. Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century. Princeton University Press. 2003, p. 99 The later 1930s would become a formative period for Arab nationalism in Egypt, in large part due to efforts by Syrian/Palestinian/Lebanese intellectuals. Jankowski, "Egypt and Early Arab Nationalism," p. 246 Nevertheless, a year after the establishment of the League of Arab States in 1945, to be headquartered in Cairo, Oxford University historian H. S. Deighton was still writing: It was not until the Nasser era more than a decade later that Arab nationalism became a state policy and a means with which to define Egypt's position in the Middle East and the world. "Before Nasser, Egypt, which had been ruled by Britain since 1882, was more in favor of territorial, Egyptian nationalism and distant from the pan-Arab ideology. Egyptians generally did not identify themselves as Arabs, and it is revealing that when the Egyptian nationalist leader [Saad Zaghlul] met the Arab delegates at Versailles in 1918, he insisted that their struggles for statehood were not connected, claiming that the problem of Egypt was an Egyptian problem and not an Arab one." Makropoulou, Ifigenia. Pan - Arabism: What Destroyed the Ideology of Arab Nationalism?. Hellenic Center for European Studies. January 15, 2007. usually articulated vis-Ã -vis Zionism in the neighboring Jewish state. For a while Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic. When the union was dissolved, the current official name of Egypt was adopted, the Arab Republic of Egypt. Egypt's attachment to Arabism, however, was particularly questioned after its defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War. Thousands of Egyptians had lost their lives and the country become disillusioned with Arab politics. Dawisha, p. 237 Nasser's successor Sadat, both by policy and through his peace initiative with Israel, revived an uncontested Egyptian orientation, unequivocally asserting that only Egypt was his responsibility. The terms "Arab", "Arabism" and "Arab unity", save for the new official name, became conspicuously absent. Dawisha, pp. 264-65, 267 Indeed, as professor of Egyptian history P. J. Vatikiotis explains: Egyptian Flag Until 1958. The question of identity continues to be debated today. Many Egyptians feel that Egyptian and Arab identities are linked and not necessarily incompatible. Many others continue to believe that Egypt and Egyptians are simply not Arab. They emphasize indigenous Egyptian heritage, culture and independent polity; point to the failures of Arab nationalist policies; and publicly voice objection to the present official name of the country. Ordinary Egyptians frequently express this sentiment. For example, a foreign tourist said after visiting Egypt,"Although an avowedly Islamic country and now part and parcel of the Arab world, Egyptians are very proud of their distinctiveness and their glorious Pharaonic past dating back to 3500 BC... 'We are not Arabs, we are Egyptians,' said tour guide Shayma, who is a devout Muslim." In Egypt, India is Big B!. Hindustan Times. December 25, 2006. In late 2007, el-Masri el-Yom daily newspaper conducted an interview at a bus stop in the working-class district of Imbaba to ask citizens what Arab nationalism (el-qawmeyya el-'arabeyya) represented for them. One Egyptian Muslim youth responded, "Arab nationalism means that the Egyptian Foreign Minister in Jerusalem gets humiliated by the Palestinians, that Arab leaders dance upon hearing of Sadat's death, that Egyptians get humiliated in the Arab Gulf States, and of course that Arab countries get to fight Israel until the last Egyptian soldier." Ragab, Ahmed. El-Masry el-Yom Newspaper. "What is the definition of 'Arab Nationalism': Question at a bus stop in Imbaba". May 21, 2007. Another felt that,"Arab countries hate Egyptians," and that unity with Israel may even be more of a possibility than Arab nationalism, because he believes that Israelis would at least respect Egyptians. Some contemporary prominent Egyptians who oppose Arab nationalism or the idea that Egyptians are Arabs include Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass. In an audio interview on Egypt's links with Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, Hawass believes that "even today Egyptians are Egyptians. It really doesn't mean that because we speak Arabic that we can be Arabs. We are...really, I feel personally that we are related even today to the Pharaohs." , popular writer Osama Anwar Okasha, Egyptian-born Harvard University Professor Leila Ahmed, Member of Parliament Suzie Greiss An Interculturalist in Cairo. InterCultures Magazine. January 2007. , in addition to different local groups and intellectuals. Kimit Sagi We are Egyptians, not Arabs. ArabicNews.com. 11/06.2003. Ghobrial, Kamal. Egypt, the Arabs and Arabism. el-Ahali. August 31-September 6, 2005. Said Habeeb's Masreyat. Egyptian national group This understanding is also expressed in other contexts, Egyptian people section from Arab.Net Princeton Alumni Weekly such as Neil DeRosa's novel Joseph's Seed in his depiction of an Egyptian character "who declares that Egyptians are not Arabs and never will be." Review by Michelle Fram Cohen. The Atlasphere. Jan. 17, 2005. Egyptian critics of Arab nationalism contend that it has worked to erode and/or relegate native Egyptian identity by superimposing only one aspect of Egypt's culture. These views and sources for collective identification in the Egyptian state are captured in the words of a linguistic anthropologist who conducted fieldwork in Cairo: Egypt has been a republic since June 18 1953. President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has been the President of the Republic since October 14 1981, following the assassination of former-President Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat. Mubarak is currently serving his fifth term in office. He is the leader of the ruling National Democratic Party. Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 July 2004, following the resignation of Dr. Atef Ebeid from his office. Although power is ostensibly organized under a multi-party semi-presidential system, whereby the executive power is theoretically divided between the President and the Prime Minister, in practice it rests almost solely with the President who traditionally has been elected in single-candidate elections for more than fifty years. Egypt also holds regular multi-party parliamentary elections. The last presidential election, in which Mubarak won a fifth consecutive term, was held in September 2005. In late February 2005, President Mubarak announced in a surprise television broadcast that he had ordered the reform of the country's presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential election. For the first time since the 1952 movement, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader from a list of various candidates. The President said his initiative came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy." Business TodayEGYPT. Mubarak throws presidential race wide open. March 2005. However, the new law placed draconian restrictions on the filing for presidential candidacies, designed to prevent well-known candidates such as Ayman Nour from standing against Mubarak, and paved the road for his easy re-election victory. Lavin, Abigail. Democracy on the Nile: The story of Ayman Nour and Egypt's problematic attempt at free elections. March 27, 2006. Concerns were once again expressed after the 2005 presidential elections about government interference in the election process through fraud and vote-rigging, in addition to police brutality and violence by pro-Mubarak supporters against opposition demonstrators. Murphy, Dan. Egyptian vote marred by violence. Christian Science Monitor. May 26, 2005. After the election, Egypt imprisoned Nour, and the U.S. Government stated the âconviction of Mr. Nour, the runner-up in Egypt's 2005 presidential elections, calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom, and the rule of law.â United States "Deeply Troubled" by Sentencing of Egypt's Nour. U.S. Department of State, Published December 24, 2005 As a result, most Egyptians are skeptical about the process of democratization and the role of the elections. Less than 25 percent of the country's 32 million registered voters (out of a population of more than 78 million) turned out for the 2005 elections. Gomez, Edward M. Hosni Mubarak's pretend democratic election. San Francisco Chronicle. September 13, 2005. A proposed change to the constitution would limit the president to two seven-year terms in office. Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006. Thirty-four constitutional changes voted on by parliament on March 19, 2007 prohibit parties from using religion as a basis for political activity; allow the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law to replace the emergency legislation in place since 1981, giving police wide powers of arrest and surveillance; give the president power to dissolve parliament; and end judicial monitoring of election. Anger over Egypt vote timetable BBC News. As opposition members of parliament withdrew from voting on the proposed changes, it was expected that the referendum will be boycotted by a great number of Egyptians in protest of what has been considered a breach of democratic practices. Eventually it was reported that only 27% of the registered voters went to the polling stations under heavy police presence and tight political control of the ruling National Democratic Party. It was officially announced on March 27,2007 that 75.9% of those who participated in the referendum approved of the constitutional amendments introduced by President Mubarak and was endorsed by opposition free parliament, thus allowing the introduction of laws that curbs the activity of certain opposition elements particularly Islamists. [[Image:Kefaya demo.jpg\|thumb\|Members of the Kifaya democracy movement protesting a fifth term for President Hosni Mubarak. See also video.]] Several local and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have for many years criticized Egypt's human rights record as poor. In 2005, President Hosni Mubarak faced unprecedented public criticism when he clamped down on democracy activists challenging his rule. Some of the most serious human rights violations according to HRW's 2006 report on Egypt are routine torture, arbitrary detentions and trials before military and state security courts. Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005 Discriminatory personal status laws governing marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance which put women at a disadvantage have also been cited. Laws concerning Christians which place restrictions on church building and open worship have been recently eased, but major constructions still require governmental approval and persecution of Christianity by underground radical groups remains a problem. Church Building Regulations Eased In addition, intolerance of Baha'is and unorthodox Muslim sects remains a problem. In 2005, the Freedom House rated political rights in Egypt as "6" (1 representing the most free and 7 the least free rating), civil liberties as "5" and gave it the freedom rating of "Not Free." See also Freedom in the World 2006, List of indices of freedom It however noted that "Egypt witnessed its most transparent and competitive presidential and legislative elections in more than half a century and an increasingly unbridled public debate on the country's political future in 2005." Freedom House. Freedom in the World - Egypt. 2006 In 2007, human rights group Amnesty International released a report criticizing Egypt for torture and illegal detention. The report alleges that Egypt has become an international center for torture, where other nations send suspects for interrogation, often as part of the War on Terror. The report calls on Egypt to bring its anti-terrorism laws into accordance with international human rights statutes and on other nations to stop sending their detainees to Egypt. Egypt torture centre, report says. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-11. Accessed 2007-4-11. Egypt's foreign ministry quickly issued a rebuttal to this report, claiming that it was inaccurate and unfair, as well as causing deep offense to the Egyptian government. Egypt rejects torture criticism. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-13. Accessed 2007-4-13. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is one of the longest-standing bodies for the defence of human rights in Egypt. Egyptian Organization for Human Rights In 2003, the government established the National Council for Human Rights, headquartered in Cairo and headed by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who directly reports to the president. Official page of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights. The council has come under heavy criticism by local NGO activists, who contend it undermines human rights work in Egypt by serving as a propaganda tool for the government to excuse its violations Egyptian National Council for Human Rights Against Human Rights NGOs. EOHR. June 3, 2003. and to provide legitimacy to repressive laws such as the recently renewed Emergency Law. Qenawy, Ahmed. The Egyptian Human Rights Council: The Apple Falls Close to the Tree. ANHRI. 2004 Egypt has recently announced that it is in the process of abolishing the Emergency Law. Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006. However, in March 2007 President Mubarak approved several constitutional amendments to include "an anti-terrorism clause that appears to enshrine sweeping police powers of arrest and surveillance", suggesting that the Emergency Law is here to stay for the long haul. Egypt parliament approves changes in constitution. Reuters. March 20, 2007. The high court of Egypt has outlawed all religions and belief except Islam, Christianity and Judaism. (For more information see Egyptian Identification Card Controversy.) Egypt's foreign policy operates along moderate lines. Factors such as population size, historical events, military strength, diplomatic expertise and a strategic geographical position give Egypt extensive political influence in Africa and the Middle East. Cairo has been a crossroads of regional commerce and culture for centuries, and its intellectual and Islamic institutions are at the center of the region's social and cultural development. The permanent Headquarters of the Arab League are located in Cairo and the Secretary General of the Arab League has traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa is the current Secretary General. The Arab League briefly moved from Egypt to Tunis in 1978, as a protest to the signing by Egypt of a peace treaty with Israel, but returned in 1989. Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, with the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979. Egypt has a major influence amongst other Arab states, and has historically played an important role as a mediator in resolving disputes between various Arab states, and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Most Arab states still give credence to Egypt playing that role, though its effects are often limited and recently challenged by Saudi Arabia and oil rich Gulf States. It is also reported that due to Egypt's indulgence in internal problems and its reluctance to play a positive role in regional matters had lost the country great influence in Africa and the neighbouring countries. Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996. Map of Egypt, showing the 26 capitals of governorates, in addition to the self-governing city of Luxor Egypt is divided into twenty-six governorates (muhafazat, singular muhafazah). The governorates are further divided into regions (markazes). \| \|style="padding-top:8px;"\| \|} The Nile River at the ancient city of Aswan, a popular destination for vacationersEgypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than three million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly-growing population, limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress the economy. The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investments in communications and physical infrastructure. Egypt has been receiving U.S. foreign aid (since 1979, an average of $2.2 billion per year) and is the third-largest recipient of such funds from the United States following the Iraq war. Its main revenues however come from tourism as well as traffic that goes through the Suez Canal. Egypt has a developed energy market based on coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro power. Substantial coal deposits are in the north-east Sinai, and are mined at the rate of about per year. Oil and gas are produced in the western desert regions, the Gulf of Suez, and the Nile Delta. Egypt has huge reserves of gas, estimated at over in the 1990s, and LNG is exported to many countries. Economic conditions have started to improve considerably after a period of stagnation from the adoption of more liberal economic policies by the government, as well as increased revenues from tourism and a booming stock market. In its annual report, the IMF has rated Egypt as one of the top countries in the world undertaking economic reforms. Some major economic reforms taken by the new government since 2003 include a dramatic slashing of customs and tariffs. A new taxation law implemented in 2005 decreased corporate taxes from 40% to the current 20%, resulting in a stated 100% increase in tax revenue by the year 2006. FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into Egypt has increased considerably in the past few years due to the recent economic liberalization measures taken by minister of investment Mahmoud Mohieddin, exceeding $6 billion in 2006. Egypt is slated to overcome South Africa as the highest earner of FDI on the African continent in 2007. Although one of the main obstacles still facing the Egyptian economy is the trickle down of the wealth to the average population, many Egyptians criticize their government for higher prices of basic goods while their standards of living or purchasing power remains relatively stagnant. Often corruption is blamed by Egyptians as the main impediment to feeling the benefits of the newly attained wealth. Major reconstruction of the country's infrastructure is promised by the government, with a large portion of the sum paid for the newly acquired 3rd mobile license ($3 billion) by Etisalat. This is slated to be pumped into the country's railroad system, in response to public outrage against the government for disasters in 2006 that claimed more than 100 lives. The best known examples of Egyptian companies that have expanded regionally and globally are the Orascom Group and Raya. The IT sector has been expanding rapidly in the past few years, with many new start-ups conducting outsourcing business to North America and Europe, operating with companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and other major corporations, as well as numerous SME's. Some of these companies are the Xceed Contact Center, Raya Contact Center, E Group Connections and C3 along with other start ups in that country. The sector has been stimulated by new Egyptian entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on their country's huge potential in the sector, as well as constant government encouragement. Egyptian farm Egypt is the most populated country in the Middle East and the second-most populous on the African continent, with an estimated 78 million people. Almost all the population is concentrated along the banks of the Nile (notably Cairo and Alexandria), in the Delta and near the Suez Canal. Approximately 80-90% of the population adheres to Islam and most of the remainder to Christianity, primarily the Coptic Orthodox denomination. Apart from religious affiliation, Egyptians can be divided demographically into those who live in the major urban centers and the fellahin or farmers of rural villages. The last 40 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity, BBC NEWS \| The limits of a Green Revolution? made by the Green Revolution. Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy Egyptians are by far the largest ethnic group in Egypt at 94% (about 72.5 million) of the total population. Ethnic minorities include the Bedouin Arab tribes living in the eastern deserts and the Sinai Peninsula, the Berber-speaking Siwis (Amazigh) of the Siwa Oasis, and the ancient Nubian communities clustered along the Nile. There are also tribal communities of Beja concentrated in the south-eastern-most corner of the country, and a number of Dom clans mostly in the Nile Delta and Faiyum who are progressively becoming assimilated as urbanization increases. Egypt also hosts an unknown number of refugees and asylum seekers. According to the UNDP's 2004 Human Development Report, there were 89,000 refugees in the country, UNDP, p. 75. though this number may be an underestimate. There are some 70,000 Palestinian refugees, and about 150,000 recently arrived Iraqi refugees, Iraq: from a Flood to a Trickle: Egypt but the number of the largest group, the Sudanese, is contested. See The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants for a lower estimate. The The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights states on its web site that in 2000 the World Council of Churches claimed that "between two and five million Sudanese have come to Egypt in recent years". Most Sudanese refugees come to Egypt in the hope of resettling in Europe or the US. The once-vibrant Jewish community in Egypt has virtually disappeared, with only a small number remaining in the country, but many Egyptian Jews visit on religious occasions and for tourism. Several important Jewish archaeological and historical sites are found in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities. Cairo's unique cityscape with its ancient mosques Religion plays a central role in most Egyptians' lives. The rolling calls to prayer that are heard five times a day have the informal effect of regulating the pace of everything from business to entertainment. Cairo is famous for its numerous mosque minarets and church towers. This religious landscape has been marred by a record of religious extremism. Most recently, a December 16 2006 judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of Egypt insisted on a clear demarcation between "recognized religions"âIslam, Christianity and Judaismâand all other religious beliefsâthus effectively delegitimatizing and forbidding practice of all but these aforementioned religions. This judgment has led to the requirement for communities to either commit perjury or be subjected to denial of identification cards. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, at 80-90% of the population, with the majority being adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam. A significant number of Muslim Egyptians also follow native Sufi orders, Hoffman, Valerie J. Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern Egypt. University of South Carolina Press, 1995. and a minority of Shi'a. Christians represent 10-20% of the population, Wahington Institute (Citing pop. estimates) more than 95% of whom belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Other native Egyptian Christians are adherents of the Coptic Catholic Church, the Coptic Evangelical Church and various Coptic Protestant denominations. Non-native Christian communities are largely found in the urban regions of Alexandria and Cairo, and are members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Maronite Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, or the Syriac Orthodox Church. According to the Constitution of Egypt, any new legislation must at least implicitly agree with Islamic laws. The mainstream Hanafi school of Sunni Islam is largely organised by the state, through Wizaret Al-Awkaf (Ministry of Religious Affairs). Al-Awkaf controls all mosques and overviews Muslim clerics. Imams are trained in Imam vocational schools and at Al-Azhar University. The department supports Sunni Islam and has commissions authorised to give Fatwa judgements on Islamic issues. Egypt hosts two major religious institutions. Al-Azhar University ( ) is the oldest Islamic institution of higher studies (founded around 970 A.D) and considered by many to be the oldest extant university. The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, headed by the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, attests to Egypt's strong Christian heritage. It has a following of approximately 15 million Christians worldwide; affiliated sister churches are located in Armenia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Lebanon and Syria. Religious freedom in Egypt is hampered to varying degrees by extremist Islamist groups and by discriminatory and restrictive government policies. Being the largest religious minority in Egypt, Coptic Christians are the most negatively affected community. Copts have faced increasing marginalization after the 1952 coup d'Ã©tat led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Until recently, Christians were required to obtain presidential approval for even minor repairs in churches. Although the law was eased in 2005 by handing down the authority of approval to the governors, Copts continue to face many obstacles in building new or repairing existing churches. These obstacles are not found in building mosques. WorldWide Religious News. Church Building Regulations Eased. December 13, 2005. Compass Direct News. Church Building Regulations Eased. December 13, 2005. In addition, Copts complain of being minimally represented in law enforcement, state security and public office, and of being discriminated against in the workforce on the basis of their religion. Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005 The Coptic community, as well as several human rights activists and intellectuals (such as Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Tarek Heggy), maintain that the number of Christians occupying government posts is not proportional to the number of Copts in Egypt, who constitute between 10 and 15% of the population in Egypt. Of the 32 cabinet ministers, two are Copts: Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali and Minister of Environment Magued George; and of the 25 local governors, only one is a Copt (in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Qena). However, Copts have demonstrated great success in Egypt's private business sector; Naguib Sawiris, an extremely successful businessman and one of the world's wealthiest 100 people is a Copt. In 2002, under the Mubarak government, Coptic Christmas (January 7) was recognized as an official holiday. ArabicNews.com. Copts welcome Presidential announcement on Eastern Christmas Holiday. December 20, 2002. Nevertheless, the Coptic community has occasionally been the target of hate crimes and physical assaults. The most significant was the 2000-2001 El Kosheh attacks , in which 21 Copts and one Muslim were killed. A 2006 attack on three churches in Alexandria left one dead and 17 injured, although the attacker was not linked to any organisation. BBC. Egypt church attacks spark anger, April 15 2006. Egypt was once home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. Egyptian Jews, who were mostly Karaites, partook of all aspects of Egypt's social, economic and political life; one of the most ardent Egyptian nationalists, Yaqub Sanu' (Abu Naddara), was a Jew, as were famous musician Dawoud Husni, popular singer Leila Mourad, and prominent filmmaker Togo Mizrahi. For a while, Jews from across the Ottoman Empire and Europe were attracted to Egypt due to the relative harmony that characterized the local religious landscape in the 19th and early 20th centuries. After the 1956 Suez Crisis, a great number of Jews were expelled by Gamal Abdel Nasser, many of whom holding official Egyptian citizenship. Their Egyptian citizenship was revoked and their property was confiscated. A steady stream of migration of Egyptian Jews followed, reaching a peak after the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967. Today, Jews in Egypt number less than 500. Jewish Community Council (JCC) of Cairo. Bassatine News. 2006. Over ten million Egyptians follow the Christian faith as members of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. BahÃ¡'Ãs in Egypt, whose population is estimated to be a couple of thousands, have long been persecuted, having their institutions and community activities banned. Since their faith is not officially recognized by the state, they are also not allowed to use it on their national identity cards (conversely, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are officially recognized); hence most of them do not hold national identity cards. In April 2006 a court case recognized the BahÃ¡'Ã Faith, but the government appealed the court decision and succeeded in having it suspended on May 15, 2006. On December 16, 2006, only after one hearing, the Supreme Administrative Council of Egypt ruled against the BahÃ¡'Ãs, stating that the government may not recognize the BahÃ¡'Ã Faith in official identification documents. There are Egyptians who identify as atheist and agnostic, but their numbers are largely unknown as openly advocating such positions risks legal sanction on the basis of apostasy (if a citizen takes the step of suing the 'apostating' person, though not automatically by the general prosecutor). In 2000, an openly atheist Egyptian writer, who called for the establishment of a local association for atheists, was tried on charges of insulting Islam in four of his books. While freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Egyptian constitution, according to Human Rights Watch, "Egyptians are able to convert to Islam generally without difficulty, but Muslims who convert to Christianity face difficulties in getting new identity papers and some have been arrested for allegedly forging such documents. Human Rights Watch. World report 2007: Egypt. The Coptic community, however, takes pains to prevent conversions from Christianity to Islam due to the ease with which Christians can often become Muslim. EGYPT: NATIONAL UNITY AND THE COPTIC ISSUE. 2004 Public officials, being conservative themselves, intensify the complexity of the legal procedures required to recognize the religion change as required by law. Security agencies will sometimes claim that such conversions from Islam to Christianity (or occasionally vice versa) may stir social unrest, and thereby justify themselves in wrongfully detaining the subjects, insisting that they are simply taking steps to prevent likely social troubles from happening. Egypt: Egypt Arrests 22 Muslim converts to Christianity. 03 November, 2003 Recently, a Cairo administrative court denied 45 citizens the right to obtain identity papers documenting their reversion to Christianity after converting to Islam. Shahine, Gihan. "Fraud, not Freedom". Ahram Weekly, 3 - 9 May 2007 Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a commemoration of the ancient Library of Alexandria in Egypt's second largest city. Egyptian culture has five thousand years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations and for millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Hellenism, Christianity, and Islamic culture. Today, many aspects of Egypt's ancient culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the influence of modern Western culture, itself with roots in ancient Egypt. Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's largest city and has been renowned for centuries as a center of learning, culture and commerce. Egypt has the highest number of Nobel Laureates in Africa and the Arab World. Some Egyptian born politicians were or are currently at the helm of major international organizations like Boutros Boutros-Ghali of the United Nations and Mohamed ElBaradei of the IAEA. The work of early nineteenth-century scholar Rifa'a et-Tahtawi gave rise to the Egyptian Renaissance, marking the transition from Medieval to Early Modern Egypt. His work renewed interest in Egyptian antiquity and exposed Egyptian society to Enlightenment principles. Tahtawi co-founded with education reformer Ali Mubarak a native Egyptology school that looked for inspiration to medieval Egyptian scholars, such as Suyuti and Maqrizi, who themselves studied the history, language and antiquities of Egypt. El-Daly, op cit., p. 29 Egypt's renaissance peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the work of people like Muhammad Abduh, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, Qasim Amin, Salama Moussa, Taha Hussein and Mahmoud Mokhtar. They forged a liberal path for Egypt expressed as a commitment to individual freedom, secularism and faith in science to bring progress. Jankowski, op cit., p. 130 Eighteenth dynasty painting from the tomb of Theban governor Ramose in Deir el-Madinah. The Egyptians were one of the first major civilizations to codify design elements in art. The wall paintings done in the service of the Pharaohs followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings. Modern and contemporary Egyptian art can be as diverse as any works in the world art scene. The Cairo Opera House serves as the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. Egypt's media and arts industry has flourished since the late nineteenth century, today with more than thirty satellite channels and over one hundred motion pictures produced each year. Cairo has long been known as the "Hollywood of the Middle East;" its annual film festival, the Cairo International Film Festival, has been rated as one of 11 festivals with a top class rating worldwide by the International Federation of Film Producers' Associations. Cairo Film Festival information. To bolster its media industry further, especially with the keen competition from the Persian Gulf Arab States and Lebanon, a large media city was built. Some Egyptian actors, like Omar Sharif, have achieved worldwide fame. Literature constitutes an important cultural element in the life of Egypt. Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated throughout the Middle East. The first modern Egyptian novel Zaynab by Muhammad Husayn Haykal was published in 1913 in the Egyptian vernacular. Vatikiotis, op cit. Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Egyptian women writers include Nawal El Saadawi, well known for her feminist activism, and Alifa Rifaat who also writes about women and tradition. Vernacular poetry is perhaps the most popular literary genre amongst Egyptians, represented by such luminaries as Ahmed Fuad Nigm (Fagumi), Salah Jaheen and Abdel Rahman el-Abnudi. Upper Egyptian folk musicians from Kom Ombo. Egyptian music is a rich mixture of indigenous, Mediterranean, African and Western elements. In antiquity, Egyptians were playing harps and flutes, including two indigenous instruments: the ney and the oud. Percussion and vocal music also became an important part of the local music tradition ever since. Contemporary Egyptian music traces its beginnings to the creative work of people such as Abdu-l Hamuli, Almaz and Mahmud Osman, who influenced the later work of Egyptian music giants such as Sayed Darwish, Umm Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim Hafez. These prominent artists were followed later by Amr Diab. He is seen by many as the new age "Musical Legend", whose fan base stretches all over the Middle East and Europe. From the 1970s onwards, Egyptian pop music has become increasingly important in Egyptian culture, while Egyptian folk music continues to be played during weddings and other festivities. Egypt is famous for its many festivals and religious carnivals, also known as mulids or Mawlid. They are usually associated with a particular Coptic or Sufi saint, but are often celebrated by all Egyptians irrespective of creed or religion. Ramadan has a special flavor in Egypt, celebrated with sounds, lights (local lanterns known as fawanees) and much flare that many Muslim tourists from the region flock to Egypt during Ramadan to witness the spectacle. The ancient spring festival of Sham en Nisim (Coptic: shom en nisim) has been celebrated by Egyptians for thousands of years, typically between the Egyptian months of Paremoude (April) and Pashons (May), following Easter Sunday. Cairo International Stadium during the 2006 African Cup of Nations Football (soccer) is the de facto national sport of Egypt. Egyptian Soccer clubs El Ahly and El Zamalek are the two most popular teams and enjoy the reputation of long-time regional champions. The great rivalries keep the streets of Egypt energized as people fill the streets when their favourite team wins. Egypt is rich in soccer history as soccer has been around for over 100 years. The country is home to many African championships such as the African Cup of Nations. However, Egypt's national team has not qualified for the FIFA World Cup since 1990. Squash and tennis are other favourite sports. The Egyptian squash team has been known for its fierce competition in international championships since the 1930s. The Egyptian Armed forces have a combined troop strength of around 450,000 active personnel. Egypt Military Strength According to the Israeli chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuval Steinitz, the Egyptian Air Force has roughly the same number of modern warplanes as the Israeli Air Force and far more Western tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft batteries and warships than the IDF. Steinitz, Yuval. Not the peace we expected. Haaretz. December 05, 2006. The Egyptian military has recently undergone massive military modernization mostly in their Air Force. Other than Israel, Egypt is the first country in the region with a spy satellite, EgyptSat 1, and is planning to launch 3 more spy satellites (DesertSat1, EgyptSat2, DesertSat2) over the next two years. Katz, Yaacov. "Egypt to launch first spy satellite," Jerusalem Post, January 15, 2007. White Desert, Farafra At , World Factbook area rank order Egypt is the world's 38th-largest country (after Mauritania). It is comparable in size to Tanzania, twice the size of France, four times the size of the United Kingdom, and is more than half the size of the US state of Alaska. Nevertheless, due to the aridity of Egypt's climate, population centres are concentrated along the narrow Nile Valley and Delta, meaning that approximately 99% of the population uses only about 5.5% of the total land area. Hamza, Waleed. Land use and Coastal Management in the Third Countries: Egypt as a case. Accessed= 2007-06-10. Egypt is bordered by Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. Egypt's important role in geopolitics stems from its strategic position: a transcontinental nation, it possesses a land bridge (the Isthmus of Suez) between Africa and Asia, which in turn is traversed by a navigable waterway (the Suez Canal) that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea. Apart from the Nile Valley, the majority of Egypt's landscape is a sandy desert. The winds blowing can create sand dunes over high. Egypt includes parts of the Sahara Desert and of the Libyan Desert. These deserts were referred to as the "red land" in ancient Egypt, and they protected the Kingdom of the Pharaohs from western threats. Towns and cities include Alexandria, one of the greatest ancient cities, Aswan, Asyut, Cairo, the modern Egyptian capital, El-Mahalla El-Kubra, Giza, the site of the Pyramid of Khufu, Hurghada, Luxor, Kom Ombo, Port Safaga, Port Said, Sharm el Sheikh, Suez, where the Suez Canal is located, Zagazig, and Al-Minya. Oases include Bahariya, el Dakhla, Farafra, el Kharga and Siwa. Protectorates include Ras Mohamed National Park, Zaranik Protectorate and Siwa. See Egyptian Protectorates for more information. Egypt receives the least rainfall in the world. South of Cairo, rainfall averages only around 2 to 5 mm (0.1 to 0.2 in) per year and at intervals of many years. On a very thin strip of the northern coast the rainfall can be as high as , all between November and March. Snow falls on Sinai's mountains and some of the north coastal cities such as Damietta, Baltim, Sidi Barrany, etc. and rarely in Alexandria, frost is also known in mid-Sinai and mid-Egypt. Temperatures average between and in summer, and up to on the Red Sea coast. Temperatures average between and in winter. A steady wind from the northwest helps hold down the temperature near the Mediterranean coast. The Khamaseen is a wind that blows from the south in Egypt in spring, bringing sand and dust, and sometimes raises the temperature in the desert to more than . * List of Rulers and heads of state of Egypt * List of writers from Egypt * List of Egyptian companies * List of Egypt-related topics * List of Egyptians * List of Egyptian universities General references * * * Leonard William King, History of Egypt, ChaldÃ¦a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery, Project Gutenberg. * Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, History of Egypt, ChaldÃ¦a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, in 12 volumes, Project Gutenberg. * Ancient Egyptian Civilization - Aldokkan * Rural poverty in Egypt (IFAD) * Encyclopaedia Britannica's Egypt Country Page * Egyptian Government Services Portal * New Projects in Egypt * Egypt State Information Services * Egypt Information Portal - available in Arabic and English * BBC News Country Profile - Egypt * CIA World Factbook - Egypt * Amnesty International's 2005 Report on Egypt. * US State Department - Egypt includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports * Business Anti-Corruption Portal Egypt Country Profile * Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Egypt * * * Egypt Maps - Perry-CastaÃ±eda Map Collection * Egyptian History (urdu) * By Nile and Tigris, a narrative of journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on behalf of the British museum between the years 1886 and 1913, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, 1920 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDF format) * Egypt Online Directory * The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights * PortSaid Free-zone forums Related Wikipedia Articles Bilady, Bilady, Bilady Arabic language Cairo Semi-presidential system republic President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister of Egypt Ahmed Nazif History of Egypt First dynasty of Egypt Circa United Kingdom February 28 1922 June 18 1953 CIA World Factbook Egyptian pound Eastern European Summer Time .eg Egyptian Arabic Egyptian language Coptic language Egyptian Arabic North Africa Sinai Peninsula land bridge Asia Libya Sudan Gaza Strip Israel Mediterranean Sea Cyprus Red Sea Africa Nile River arable Sahara Desert Cairo Alexandria Nile Delta Ancient Egypt Giza pyramid complex Great Sphinx of Giza Luxor Karnak Valley of the Kings Middle East Egyptian language Coptic language Upper and Lower Egypt Arabic language Egyptian Arabic Semitic cognate Hebrew language Latin ancient Greek Copt Late Egyptian Egyptian language Egyptian soul Ptah Memphis, Egypt Strabo folk etymology Nile River Nile Valley Paleolithic Petroglyph Nile 10th millennium BC hunter-gatherer fishing cereal culture Sahara agriculture Economic system society Neolithic Predynastic Egypt Upper and Lower Egypt Badarian Naqada Ancient Egypt Egyptian hieroglyphs Naqada Before Christ Menes List of Egyptian dynasties Egyptians Coptic language Culture of Egypt Ancient Egyptian religion Art of Ancient Egypt Egyptian language Protodynastic Period of Egypt Old Kingdom Egyptian pyramids Third dynasty of Egypt pyramid of Djoser Fourth dynasty of Egypt Giza pyramid complex Great Sphinx of Giza Giza pyramid complex Old Kingdom First Intermediate Period of Egypt Middle Kingdom of Egypt Amenemhat III Second Intermediate Period of Egypt Semitic Hyksos Avaris Ahmose I Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt Memphis, Egypt Thebes, Egypt New Kingdom Power in international relations Jebel Barkal Nubia Levant Pharaoh Hatshepsut Thutmose III Akhenaten Nefertiti Tutankhamun Ramesses II monotheism Atenism Ancient Libya Kush Assyria Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria Thirtieth dynasty of Egypt History of Egypt under Achaemenid Persian domination Nectanebo II Ptolemaic Egypt Aegyptus (Roman province) Aegyptus (Roman province)#Byzantine Egypt Saint Mark the Evangelist Diocletian Roman Empire Byzantine Empire New Testament Council of Chalcedon Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria Aegyptus (Roman province)#Persian and Arab conquests Muslim conquest of Egypt Muslim Arabs Sunni Islam Coptic Christianity Sufism Islamic Caliphate History of Arab Egypt Fatimid Ayyubid dynasty Mamluk Turkish people Circassians History of Ottoman Egypt Ottoman Turks Muhammad Ali of Egypt Cairo Citadel French Invasion of Egypt Napoleon I of France French Revolution self-governance Muhammad Ali of Egypt Muhammad Ali's seizure of power viceroy Isma'il Pasha Suez Canal United Kingdom Scramble for Africa Ottoman Empire World War I protectorate Khedive Abbas II Husayn Kamil Sultan of Egypt Egyptian revolution of 1919 Saad Zaghlul Dinshaway Incident British Empire Saad Zaghlul Wafd Party Legislative Assembly Malta March 8 1919 Egyptian revolution of 1919 February 22 1922 1923 Constitution of Egypt Parliamentary system Prime Minister of Egypt Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 coup d'Ã©tat Egyptian Revolution of 1952 Free Officers Movement Farouk of Egypt Fuad II of Egypt Cairo Africa Middle East Cairo Opera House 18 June 1953 Muhammad Naguib Gamal Abdel Nasser house arrest Political power United Kingdom June 18 1956 nationalization Suez Canal July 26 1956 Suez Crisis Six Day War Israel Sinai Anwar Sadat Cold War Soviet Union United States Infitah Yom Kippur War Golan Heights US USSR Ceasefire Yom Kippur war Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty Arab world Hosni Mubarak Kifaya democracy civil liberties Mahmoud Mokhtar Cairo University Ancient Egypt History of Egypt Culture of Egypt Egyptians Christianity Islam Arabic language Egyptian Arabic collective identity nationalism Pharaonism Arab nationalism pan-Arabism Islamism Egyptians Arab Sati' al-Husri Arab League University of Oxford Gamal Abdel Nasser Zionism Syria United Arab Republic Six-Day War Anwar Al Sadat Israel 1958 Islamic countries Hindustan Times Imbaba Arabian Gulf Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass Sub-Saharan Africa Osama Anwar Okasha Leila Ahmed 18 June 1953 Hosni Mubarak President of Egypt October 14 1981 Anwar Sadat National Democratic Party (Egypt) Heads of government of Egypt Ahmed Nazif 9 July 2004 Atef Ebeid Multi-party system semi-presidential system Prime Minister of Egypt Egyptian presidential election, 2005 Free Officers Movement Ayman Nour March 27 2006 The Christian Science Monitor May 26, 2005 democratization San Francisco Chronicle September 13 2005 December 5 2006 March 19 2007 BBC constitutional amendment Kifaya Hosni Mubarak Amnesty International Human Rights Watch Hosni Mubarak Kifaya Christian Christianity Freedom House political rights civil liberties Freedom House 2005-12-16 Freedom in the World 2006 List of indices of freedom Amnesty International torture War on Terror Anti-terrorism legislation bbc.co.uk 4-11 bbc.co.uk 4-13 human rights in Egypt United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali June 3 2003 December 5 2006 Judaism Egyptian Identification Card Controversy population size Africa Middle East Cairo Islam Sociocultural evolution Headquarters of the Arab League Cairo Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa Israel Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty Israeli-Palestinian conflict Saudi Arabia Gulf States Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali United Nations Luxor governorate muhafazah markaz Al Iskandariyah Governorate Alexandria Aswan Governorate Aswan Asyut Governorate Asyut Al Buhayrah Governorate Damanhur Bani Suwayf Governorate Beni Suef Al Qahirah Governorate Cairo Ad Daqahliyah Governorate Mansura Domyat Governorate Damietta Al Fayyum Governorate 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Egypt	Is Egypt bordered by the Gaza Strip?	Yes	data/set2/a6	Egypt Egypt (Egyptian: Kemet; Coptic: KÄ«mi; ; Egyptian Arabic: ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country in North Africa that includes the Sinai Peninsula, a land bridge to Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. The northern coast borders the Mediterranean Sea and the island of Cyprus; the eastern coast borders the Red Sea. Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa. The great majority of its estimated 78 million people (2007) live near the banks of the Nile River in an area of about where the only arable agricultural land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the densely populated centers of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta. Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments, including the Giza pyramid complex and the Great Sphinx. The southern city of Luxor contains numerous ancient artifacts, such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and cultural nation of the Middle East. One of the ancient Egyptian names of the country, Kemet ( ), or "black land" (from kem "black"), is derived from the fertile black soils deposited by the Nile floods, distinct from the deshret, or "red land" ( ), of the desert. The name is realized as and in the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as ( ). Another name was "land of the riverbank". The names of Upper and Lower Egypt were Ta-Sheme'aw ( ) "sedgeland" and Ta-Mehew ( ) "northland", respectively. , the Arabic and modern official name of Egypt (Egyptian Arabic: ), is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew ( ), literally meaning "the two straits" (a reference to the dynastic separation of upper and lower Egypt). Biblical Hebrew E-Magazine. January, 2005 The word originally connoted "metropolis" or "civilization" and also means "country", or "frontier-land". The English name "Egypt" came via the Latin word derived from the ancient Greek word AÃgyptos ( ). The adjective aigÃ½pti, aigÃ½ptios was borrowed into Coptic as gyptios, kyptios, and from there into Arabic as , back formed into , whence English Copt. The term is derived from Late Egyptian Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name Hat-ka-Ptah ( ), meaning "home of the ka (soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god Ptah at Memphis. Strabo provided a folk etymology according to which AÃgyptos ( ) had evolved as a compound from ( ), meaning "below the Aegean". The Nile River in Egypt The Nile has been a site of continuous human habitation since at least the Paleolithic era. Evidence of this appears in the form of artifacts and rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in the desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers replaced a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. Midant-Reynes, BÃ©atrix. The Prehistory of Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the First Kings. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. By about 6000 BC, organized agriculture and large building construction had appeared in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to Dynastic Egyptian civilization. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining somewhat culturally separate, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC. Bard, Kathryn A. Ian Shaw, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. p. 69. A unified kingdom was founded circa 3150 BC by King Menes, giving rise to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptians subsequently referred to their unified country as tawy, meaning "two lands", and later kemet (Coptic: kÄ«mi), the "black land", a reference to the fertile black soil deposited by the Nile river. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs. The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom period, c.2700â2200 BC., famous for its many pyramids, most notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza Pyramids. The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, built during the Old Kingdom, are modern national icons that are at the heart of Egypt's thriving tourism industry. The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about 150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilization of government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for the country in the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, reaching a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III. A second period of disunity heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos. The Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BC and founded a new capital at Avaris. They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes. The New Kingdom (c.1550â1070 BC) began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Jebel Barkal in Nubia, and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well-known Pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first known self-conscious expression of monotheism came during this period in the form of Atenism. Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The country was later invaded by Libyans, Nubians and Assyrians, but native Egyptians drove them out and regained control of their country. First built in the third or fourth century AD, the Hanging Church is Cairo's most famous Coptic church. The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Persians in 343 BC after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle. Later, Egypt fell to the Greeks and Romans, beginning over two thousand years of foreign rule. Before Egypt became part of the Byzantine realm, Christianity had been brought by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the AD first century. Diocletian's reign marked the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established. Kamil, Jill. Coptic Egypt: History and Guide. Cairo: American University in Cairo, 1997. p. 39 The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief Persian invasion early in the seventh century, until in AD 639, Egypt was invaded by the Muslim Arabs. The form of Islam the Arabs brought to Egypt was Sunni. Early in this period, Egyptians began to blend their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices that had survived through Coptic Christianity, giving rise to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day. El-Daly, Okasha. Egyptology: The Missing Millennium. London: UCL Press, 2005. p. 140 Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, including a period for which it was the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about AD 1250. They continued to govern even after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Mosque of Mohamed Ali built in the early nineteenth century within the Cairo Citadel. The brief French Invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 had a great social impact on the country and its culture. Native Egyptians became exposed to the principles of the French Revolution and had a chance to exercise self-governance. Vatikiotis, P.J. The History of Modern Egypt. 4th edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1992, p. 39 A series of civil wars took place between the Ottoman Turks, the Mamluks, and Albanian mercenaries following the evacuation of French troops, resulting in the Albanian Muhammad Ali (Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasha) taking control of Egypt. He was appointed as the Ottoman viceroy in 1805. He led a modernization campaign of public works, including irrigation projects, agricultural reforms and increased industrialization, which were then taken up and further expanded by his grandson and successor Isma'il Pasha. Following the completion of the Suez Canal by Ismail in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation and trading hub. In 1866, the Assembly of Delegates was founded to serve as an advisory body for the government. Its members were elected from across Egypt. They came to have an important influence on governmental affairs. Jankowski, James. Egypt: A Short History. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2000. p. 83 The country fell heavily into debt to European powers. Ostensibly to protect its investments, the United Kingdom seized control of Egypt's government in 1882. Egypt gave nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire until 1914. As a result of the declaration of war with the Ottoman Empire, Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt and deposed the Khedive Abbas II, replacing him with his uncle, Husayn Kamil, who was appointed Sultan. Public riot during the 1919 Revolution sparked by the British exile of nationalist leader Saad Zaghlul.Between 1882 and 1906, a local nationalist movement for independence was taking shape. The Dinshaway Incident prompted Egyptian opposition to take a stronger stand against British occupation. The first political parties were founded. After the First World War, Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement, gaining a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on March 8, 1919, the country arose in its first modern revolution. Constant revolting by the Egyptian people throughout the country led Great Britain to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence on February 22, 1922. Jankowski, op cit., p. 112 The new Egyptian government drafted and implemented a new constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary representative system. Saad Zaghlul was popularly-elected as Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. In 1936 the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. Continued instability in the government due to remaining British control and increasing political involvement by the king led to the ouster of the monarchy and the dissolution of the parliament in a military coup d'Ã©tat known as the 1952 Revolution. The officers, known as the Free Officers Movement, forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his son Fuad. View of Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East. The Cairo Opera House (bottom-right) is the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. On June 18 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser the real architect of the 1952 movement and was later put under house arrest. Nasser assumed power as President and declared the full independence of Egypt from the United Kingdom on June 18 1956. His nationalization of the Suez Canal on July 26 1956 prompted the 1956 Suez Crisis. Three years after the 1967 Six Day War, during which Israel had invaded and occupied Sinai, Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972. He launched the Infitah economic reform policy, while violently clamping down on religious and secular opposition alike. In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the October War, a surprise attack against the Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. It was an attempt to liberate the territory Israel had captured 6 years earlier. Both the US and the USSR intervened and a cease-fire was reached. Despite not being a complete military success, most historians agree that the October War presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him to pursue peace with Israel. In 1977, Sadat made a historic visit to Israel, which led to the 1979 peace treaty in exchange for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat's initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League, but it was supported by the vast majority of Egyptians. Vatikiotis, p. 443 A fundamentalist military soldier assassinated Sadat in Cairo in 1981. He was succeeded by the incumbent Hosni Mubarak. In 2003, the Egyptian Movement for Change, popularly known as Kifaya, was launched to seek a return to democracy and greater civil liberties. Mahmoud Mokhtar's Egypt's Renaissance 1919-1928, Cairo University. The Egyptian Nile Valley was home to one of the oldest cultures in the world, spanning three thousand years of continuous history. When Egypt fell under a series of foreign occupations after 343 BC, each left an indelible mark on the country's cultural landscape. Egyptian identity evolved in the span of this long period of occupation to accommodate, in principle, two new religions, Christianity and Islam; and a new language, Arabic, and its spoken descendant, Egyptian Arabic. The degree to which different groups in Egypt identify with these factors in articulating a sense of collective identity can vary. Questions of identity came to fore in the last century as Egypt sought to free itself from foreign occupation for the first time in two thousand years. Three chief ideologies came to head: ethno-territorial Egyptian nationalism and by extension Pharaonism, secular Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism, and Islamism. Egyptian nationalism predates its Arab counterpart by many decades, having roots in the nineteenth century and becoming the dominant mode of expression of Egyptian anti-colonial activists of the pre- and inter-war periods. It was nearly always articulated in exclusively Egyptian terms: In 1931, following a visit to Egypt, Syrian Arab nationalist Sati' al-Husri remarked that "[Egyptians] did not possess an Arab nationalist sentiment; did not accept that Egypt was a part of the Arab lands, and would not acknowledge that the Egyptian people were part of the Arab nation." qtd in Dawisha, Adeed. Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century. Princeton University Press. 2003, p. 99 The later 1930s would become a formative period for Arab nationalism in Egypt, in large part due to efforts by Syrian/Palestinian/Lebanese intellectuals. Jankowski, "Egypt and Early Arab Nationalism," p. 246 Nevertheless, a year after the establishment of the League of Arab States in 1945, to be headquartered in Cairo, Oxford University historian H. S. Deighton was still writing: It was not until the Nasser era more than a decade later that Arab nationalism became a state policy and a means with which to define Egypt's position in the Middle East and the world. "Before Nasser, Egypt, which had been ruled by Britain since 1882, was more in favor of territorial, Egyptian nationalism and distant from the pan-Arab ideology. Egyptians generally did not identify themselves as Arabs, and it is revealing that when the Egyptian nationalist leader [Saad Zaghlul] met the Arab delegates at Versailles in 1918, he insisted that their struggles for statehood were not connected, claiming that the problem of Egypt was an Egyptian problem and not an Arab one." Makropoulou, Ifigenia. Pan - Arabism: What Destroyed the Ideology of Arab Nationalism?. Hellenic Center for European Studies. January 15, 2007. usually articulated vis-Ã -vis Zionism in the neighboring Jewish state. For a while Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic. When the union was dissolved, the current official name of Egypt was adopted, the Arab Republic of Egypt. Egypt's attachment to Arabism, however, was particularly questioned after its defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War. Thousands of Egyptians had lost their lives and the country become disillusioned with Arab politics. Dawisha, p. 237 Nasser's successor Sadat, both by policy and through his peace initiative with Israel, revived an uncontested Egyptian orientation, unequivocally asserting that only Egypt was his responsibility. The terms "Arab", "Arabism" and "Arab unity", save for the new official name, became conspicuously absent. Dawisha, pp. 264-65, 267 Indeed, as professor of Egyptian history P. J. Vatikiotis explains: Egyptian Flag Until 1958. The question of identity continues to be debated today. Many Egyptians feel that Egyptian and Arab identities are linked and not necessarily incompatible. Many others continue to believe that Egypt and Egyptians are simply not Arab. They emphasize indigenous Egyptian heritage, culture and independent polity; point to the failures of Arab nationalist policies; and publicly voice objection to the present official name of the country. Ordinary Egyptians frequently express this sentiment. For example, a foreign tourist said after visiting Egypt,"Although an avowedly Islamic country and now part and parcel of the Arab world, Egyptians are very proud of their distinctiveness and their glorious Pharaonic past dating back to 3500 BC... 'We are not Arabs, we are Egyptians,' said tour guide Shayma, who is a devout Muslim." In Egypt, India is Big B!. Hindustan Times. December 25, 2006. In late 2007, el-Masri el-Yom daily newspaper conducted an interview at a bus stop in the working-class district of Imbaba to ask citizens what Arab nationalism (el-qawmeyya el-'arabeyya) represented for them. One Egyptian Muslim youth responded, "Arab nationalism means that the Egyptian Foreign Minister in Jerusalem gets humiliated by the Palestinians, that Arab leaders dance upon hearing of Sadat's death, that Egyptians get humiliated in the Arab Gulf States, and of course that Arab countries get to fight Israel until the last Egyptian soldier." Ragab, Ahmed. El-Masry el-Yom Newspaper. "What is the definition of 'Arab Nationalism': Question at a bus stop in Imbaba". May 21, 2007. Another felt that,"Arab countries hate Egyptians," and that unity with Israel may even be more of a possibility than Arab nationalism, because he believes that Israelis would at least respect Egyptians. Some contemporary prominent Egyptians who oppose Arab nationalism or the idea that Egyptians are Arabs include Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass. In an audio interview on Egypt's links with Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, Hawass believes that "even today Egyptians are Egyptians. It really doesn't mean that because we speak Arabic that we can be Arabs. We are...really, I feel personally that we are related even today to the Pharaohs." , popular writer Osama Anwar Okasha, Egyptian-born Harvard University Professor Leila Ahmed, Member of Parliament Suzie Greiss An Interculturalist in Cairo. InterCultures Magazine. January 2007. , in addition to different local groups and intellectuals. Kimit Sagi We are Egyptians, not Arabs. ArabicNews.com. 11/06.2003. Ghobrial, Kamal. Egypt, the Arabs and Arabism. el-Ahali. August 31-September 6, 2005. Said Habeeb's Masreyat. Egyptian national group This understanding is also expressed in other contexts, Egyptian people section from Arab.Net Princeton Alumni Weekly such as Neil DeRosa's novel Joseph's Seed in his depiction of an Egyptian character "who declares that Egyptians are not Arabs and never will be." Review by Michelle Fram Cohen. The Atlasphere. Jan. 17, 2005. Egyptian critics of Arab nationalism contend that it has worked to erode and/or relegate native Egyptian identity by superimposing only one aspect of Egypt's culture. These views and sources for collective identification in the Egyptian state are captured in the words of a linguistic anthropologist who conducted fieldwork in Cairo: Egypt has been a republic since June 18 1953. President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has been the President of the Republic since October 14 1981, following the assassination of former-President Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat. Mubarak is currently serving his fifth term in office. He is the leader of the ruling National Democratic Party. Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 July 2004, following the resignation of Dr. Atef Ebeid from his office. Although power is ostensibly organized under a multi-party semi-presidential system, whereby the executive power is theoretically divided between the President and the Prime Minister, in practice it rests almost solely with the President who traditionally has been elected in single-candidate elections for more than fifty years. Egypt also holds regular multi-party parliamentary elections. The last presidential election, in which Mubarak won a fifth consecutive term, was held in September 2005. In late February 2005, President Mubarak announced in a surprise television broadcast that he had ordered the reform of the country's presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential election. For the first time since the 1952 movement, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader from a list of various candidates. The President said his initiative came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy." Business TodayEGYPT. Mubarak throws presidential race wide open. March 2005. However, the new law placed draconian restrictions on the filing for presidential candidacies, designed to prevent well-known candidates such as Ayman Nour from standing against Mubarak, and paved the road for his easy re-election victory. Lavin, Abigail. Democracy on the Nile: The story of Ayman Nour and Egypt's problematic attempt at free elections. March 27, 2006. Concerns were once again expressed after the 2005 presidential elections about government interference in the election process through fraud and vote-rigging, in addition to police brutality and violence by pro-Mubarak supporters against opposition demonstrators. Murphy, Dan. Egyptian vote marred by violence. Christian Science Monitor. May 26, 2005. After the election, Egypt imprisoned Nour, and the U.S. Government stated the âconviction of Mr. Nour, the runner-up in Egypt's 2005 presidential elections, calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom, and the rule of law.â United States "Deeply Troubled" by Sentencing of Egypt's Nour. U.S. Department of State, Published December 24, 2005 As a result, most Egyptians are skeptical about the process of democratization and the role of the elections. Less than 25 percent of the country's 32 million registered voters (out of a population of more than 78 million) turned out for the 2005 elections. Gomez, Edward M. Hosni Mubarak's pretend democratic election. San Francisco Chronicle. September 13, 2005. A proposed change to the constitution would limit the president to two seven-year terms in office. Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006. Thirty-four constitutional changes voted on by parliament on March 19, 2007 prohibit parties from using religion as a basis for political activity; allow the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law to replace the emergency legislation in place since 1981, giving police wide powers of arrest and surveillance; give the president power to dissolve parliament; and end judicial monitoring of election. Anger over Egypt vote timetable BBC News. As opposition members of parliament withdrew from voting on the proposed changes, it was expected that the referendum will be boycotted by a great number of Egyptians in protest of what has been considered a breach of democratic practices. Eventually it was reported that only 27% of the registered voters went to the polling stations under heavy police presence and tight political control of the ruling National Democratic Party. It was officially announced on March 27,2007 that 75.9% of those who participated in the referendum approved of the constitutional amendments introduced by President Mubarak and was endorsed by opposition free parliament, thus allowing the introduction of laws that curbs the activity of certain opposition elements particularly Islamists. [[Image:Kefaya demo.jpg\|thumb\|Members of the Kifaya democracy movement protesting a fifth term for President Hosni Mubarak. See also video.]] Several local and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have for many years criticized Egypt's human rights record as poor. In 2005, President Hosni Mubarak faced unprecedented public criticism when he clamped down on democracy activists challenging his rule. Some of the most serious human rights violations according to HRW's 2006 report on Egypt are routine torture, arbitrary detentions and trials before military and state security courts. Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005 Discriminatory personal status laws governing marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance which put women at a disadvantage have also been cited. Laws concerning Christians which place restrictions on church building and open worship have been recently eased, but major constructions still require governmental approval and persecution of Christianity by underground radical groups remains a problem. Church Building Regulations Eased In addition, intolerance of Baha'is and unorthodox Muslim sects remains a problem. In 2005, the Freedom House rated political rights in Egypt as "6" (1 representing the most free and 7 the least free rating), civil liberties as "5" and gave it the freedom rating of "Not Free." See also Freedom in the World 2006, List of indices of freedom It however noted that "Egypt witnessed its most transparent and competitive presidential and legislative elections in more than half a century and an increasingly unbridled public debate on the country's political future in 2005." Freedom House. Freedom in the World - Egypt. 2006 In 2007, human rights group Amnesty International released a report criticizing Egypt for torture and illegal detention. The report alleges that Egypt has become an international center for torture, where other nations send suspects for interrogation, often as part of the War on Terror. The report calls on Egypt to bring its anti-terrorism laws into accordance with international human rights statutes and on other nations to stop sending their detainees to Egypt. Egypt torture centre, report says. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-11. Accessed 2007-4-11. Egypt's foreign ministry quickly issued a rebuttal to this report, claiming that it was inaccurate and unfair, as well as causing deep offense to the Egyptian government. Egypt rejects torture criticism. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-13. Accessed 2007-4-13. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is one of the longest-standing bodies for the defence of human rights in Egypt. Egyptian Organization for Human Rights In 2003, the government established the National Council for Human Rights, headquartered in Cairo and headed by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who directly reports to the president. Official page of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights. The council has come under heavy criticism by local NGO activists, who contend it undermines human rights work in Egypt by serving as a propaganda tool for the government to excuse its violations Egyptian National Council for Human Rights Against Human Rights NGOs. EOHR. June 3, 2003. and to provide legitimacy to repressive laws such as the recently renewed Emergency Law. Qenawy, Ahmed. The Egyptian Human Rights Council: The Apple Falls Close to the Tree. ANHRI. 2004 Egypt has recently announced that it is in the process of abolishing the Emergency Law. Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006. However, in March 2007 President Mubarak approved several constitutional amendments to include "an anti-terrorism clause that appears to enshrine sweeping police powers of arrest and surveillance", suggesting that the Emergency Law is here to stay for the long haul. Egypt parliament approves changes in constitution. Reuters. March 20, 2007. The high court of Egypt has outlawed all religions and belief except Islam, Christianity and Judaism. (For more information see Egyptian Identification Card Controversy.) Egypt's foreign policy operates along moderate lines. Factors such as population size, historical events, military strength, diplomatic expertise and a strategic geographical position give Egypt extensive political influence in Africa and the Middle East. Cairo has been a crossroads of regional commerce and culture for centuries, and its intellectual and Islamic institutions are at the center of the region's social and cultural development. The permanent Headquarters of the Arab League are located in Cairo and the Secretary General of the Arab League has traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa is the current Secretary General. The Arab League briefly moved from Egypt to Tunis in 1978, as a protest to the signing by Egypt of a peace treaty with Israel, but returned in 1989. Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, with the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979. Egypt has a major influence amongst other Arab states, and has historically played an important role as a mediator in resolving disputes between various Arab states, and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Most Arab states still give credence to Egypt playing that role, though its effects are often limited and recently challenged by Saudi Arabia and oil rich Gulf States. It is also reported that due to Egypt's indulgence in internal problems and its reluctance to play a positive role in regional matters had lost the country great influence in Africa and the neighbouring countries. Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996. Map of Egypt, showing the 26 capitals of governorates, in addition to the self-governing city of Luxor Egypt is divided into twenty-six governorates (muhafazat, singular muhafazah). The governorates are further divided into regions (markazes). \| \|style="padding-top:8px;"\| \|} The Nile River at the ancient city of Aswan, a popular destination for vacationersEgypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than three million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly-growing population, limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress the economy. The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investments in communications and physical infrastructure. Egypt has been receiving U.S. foreign aid (since 1979, an average of $2.2 billion per year) and is the third-largest recipient of such funds from the United States following the Iraq war. Its main revenues however come from tourism as well as traffic that goes through the Suez Canal. Egypt has a developed energy market based on coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro power. Substantial coal deposits are in the north-east Sinai, and are mined at the rate of about per year. Oil and gas are produced in the western desert regions, the Gulf of Suez, and the Nile Delta. Egypt has huge reserves of gas, estimated at over in the 1990s, and LNG is exported to many countries. Economic conditions have started to improve considerably after a period of stagnation from the adoption of more liberal economic policies by the government, as well as increased revenues from tourism and a booming stock market. In its annual report, the IMF has rated Egypt as one of the top countries in the world undertaking economic reforms. Some major economic reforms taken by the new government since 2003 include a dramatic slashing of customs and tariffs. A new taxation law implemented in 2005 decreased corporate taxes from 40% to the current 20%, resulting in a stated 100% increase in tax revenue by the year 2006. FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into Egypt has increased considerably in the past few years due to the recent economic liberalization measures taken by minister of investment Mahmoud Mohieddin, exceeding $6 billion in 2006. Egypt is slated to overcome South Africa as the highest earner of FDI on the African continent in 2007. Although one of the main obstacles still facing the Egyptian economy is the trickle down of the wealth to the average population, many Egyptians criticize their government for higher prices of basic goods while their standards of living or purchasing power remains relatively stagnant. Often corruption is blamed by Egyptians as the main impediment to feeling the benefits of the newly attained wealth. Major reconstruction of the country's infrastructure is promised by the government, with a large portion of the sum paid for the newly acquired 3rd mobile license ($3 billion) by Etisalat. This is slated to be pumped into the country's railroad system, in response to public outrage against the government for disasters in 2006 that claimed more than 100 lives. The best known examples of Egyptian companies that have expanded regionally and globally are the Orascom Group and Raya. The IT sector has been expanding rapidly in the past few years, with many new start-ups conducting outsourcing business to North America and Europe, operating with companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and other major corporations, as well as numerous SME's. Some of these companies are the Xceed Contact Center, Raya Contact Center, E Group Connections and C3 along with other start ups in that country. The sector has been stimulated by new Egyptian entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on their country's huge potential in the sector, as well as constant government encouragement. Egyptian farm Egypt is the most populated country in the Middle East and the second-most populous on the African continent, with an estimated 78 million people. Almost all the population is concentrated along the banks of the Nile (notably Cairo and Alexandria), in the Delta and near the Suez Canal. Approximately 80-90% of the population adheres to Islam and most of the remainder to Christianity, primarily the Coptic Orthodox denomination. Apart from religious affiliation, Egyptians can be divided demographically into those who live in the major urban centers and the fellahin or farmers of rural villages. The last 40 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity, BBC NEWS \| The limits of a Green Revolution? made by the Green Revolution. Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy Egyptians are by far the largest ethnic group in Egypt at 94% (about 72.5 million) of the total population. Ethnic minorities include the Bedouin Arab tribes living in the eastern deserts and the Sinai Peninsula, the Berber-speaking Siwis (Amazigh) of the Siwa Oasis, and the ancient Nubian communities clustered along the Nile. There are also tribal communities of Beja concentrated in the south-eastern-most corner of the country, and a number of Dom clans mostly in the Nile Delta and Faiyum who are progressively becoming assimilated as urbanization increases. Egypt also hosts an unknown number of refugees and asylum seekers. According to the UNDP's 2004 Human Development Report, there were 89,000 refugees in the country, UNDP, p. 75. though this number may be an underestimate. There are some 70,000 Palestinian refugees, and about 150,000 recently arrived Iraqi refugees, Iraq: from a Flood to a Trickle: Egypt but the number of the largest group, the Sudanese, is contested. See The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants for a lower estimate. The The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights states on its web site that in 2000 the World Council of Churches claimed that "between two and five million Sudanese have come to Egypt in recent years". Most Sudanese refugees come to Egypt in the hope of resettling in Europe or the US. The once-vibrant Jewish community in Egypt has virtually disappeared, with only a small number remaining in the country, but many Egyptian Jews visit on religious occasions and for tourism. Several important Jewish archaeological and historical sites are found in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities. Cairo's unique cityscape with its ancient mosques Religion plays a central role in most Egyptians' lives. The rolling calls to prayer that are heard five times a day have the informal effect of regulating the pace of everything from business to entertainment. Cairo is famous for its numerous mosque minarets and church towers. This religious landscape has been marred by a record of religious extremism. Most recently, a December 16 2006 judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of Egypt insisted on a clear demarcation between "recognized religions"âIslam, Christianity and Judaismâand all other religious beliefsâthus effectively delegitimatizing and forbidding practice of all but these aforementioned religions. This judgment has led to the requirement for communities to either commit perjury or be subjected to denial of identification cards. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, at 80-90% of the population, with the majority being adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam. A significant number of Muslim Egyptians also follow native Sufi orders, Hoffman, Valerie J. Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern Egypt. University of South Carolina Press, 1995. and a minority of Shi'a. Christians represent 10-20% of the population, Wahington Institute (Citing pop. estimates) more than 95% of whom belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Other native Egyptian Christians are adherents of the Coptic Catholic Church, the Coptic Evangelical Church and various Coptic Protestant denominations. Non-native Christian communities are largely found in the urban regions of Alexandria and Cairo, and are members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Maronite Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, or the Syriac Orthodox Church. According to the Constitution of Egypt, any new legislation must at least implicitly agree with Islamic laws. The mainstream Hanafi school of Sunni Islam is largely organised by the state, through Wizaret Al-Awkaf (Ministry of Religious Affairs). Al-Awkaf controls all mosques and overviews Muslim clerics. Imams are trained in Imam vocational schools and at Al-Azhar University. The department supports Sunni Islam and has commissions authorised to give Fatwa judgements on Islamic issues. Egypt hosts two major religious institutions. Al-Azhar University ( ) is the oldest Islamic institution of higher studies (founded around 970 A.D) and considered by many to be the oldest extant university. The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, headed by the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, attests to Egypt's strong Christian heritage. It has a following of approximately 15 million Christians worldwide; affiliated sister churches are located in Armenia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Lebanon and Syria. Religious freedom in Egypt is hampered to varying degrees by extremist Islamist groups and by discriminatory and restrictive government policies. Being the largest religious minority in Egypt, Coptic Christians are the most negatively affected community. Copts have faced increasing marginalization after the 1952 coup d'Ã©tat led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Until recently, Christians were required to obtain presidential approval for even minor repairs in churches. Although the law was eased in 2005 by handing down the authority of approval to the governors, Copts continue to face many obstacles in building new or repairing existing churches. These obstacles are not found in building mosques. WorldWide Religious News. Church Building Regulations Eased. December 13, 2005. Compass Direct News. Church Building Regulations Eased. December 13, 2005. In addition, Copts complain of being minimally represented in law enforcement, state security and public office, and of being discriminated against in the workforce on the basis of their religion. Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005 The Coptic community, as well as several human rights activists and intellectuals (such as Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Tarek Heggy), maintain that the number of Christians occupying government posts is not proportional to the number of Copts in Egypt, who constitute between 10 and 15% of the population in Egypt. Of the 32 cabinet ministers, two are Copts: Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali and Minister of Environment Magued George; and of the 25 local governors, only one is a Copt (in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Qena). However, Copts have demonstrated great success in Egypt's private business sector; Naguib Sawiris, an extremely successful businessman and one of the world's wealthiest 100 people is a Copt. In 2002, under the Mubarak government, Coptic Christmas (January 7) was recognized as an official holiday. ArabicNews.com. Copts welcome Presidential announcement on Eastern Christmas Holiday. December 20, 2002. Nevertheless, the Coptic community has occasionally been the target of hate crimes and physical assaults. The most significant was the 2000-2001 El Kosheh attacks , in which 21 Copts and one Muslim were killed. A 2006 attack on three churches in Alexandria left one dead and 17 injured, although the attacker was not linked to any organisation. BBC. Egypt church attacks spark anger, April 15 2006. Egypt was once home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. Egyptian Jews, who were mostly Karaites, partook of all aspects of Egypt's social, economic and political life; one of the most ardent Egyptian nationalists, Yaqub Sanu' (Abu Naddara), was a Jew, as were famous musician Dawoud Husni, popular singer Leila Mourad, and prominent filmmaker Togo Mizrahi. For a while, Jews from across the Ottoman Empire and Europe were attracted to Egypt due to the relative harmony that characterized the local religious landscape in the 19th and early 20th centuries. After the 1956 Suez Crisis, a great number of Jews were expelled by Gamal Abdel Nasser, many of whom holding official Egyptian citizenship. Their Egyptian citizenship was revoked and their property was confiscated. A steady stream of migration of Egyptian Jews followed, reaching a peak after the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967. Today, Jews in Egypt number less than 500. Jewish Community Council (JCC) of Cairo. Bassatine News. 2006. Over ten million Egyptians follow the Christian faith as members of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. BahÃ¡'Ãs in Egypt, whose population is estimated to be a couple of thousands, have long been persecuted, having their institutions and community activities banned. Since their faith is not officially recognized by the state, they are also not allowed to use it on their national identity cards (conversely, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are officially recognized); hence most of them do not hold national identity cards. In April 2006 a court case recognized the BahÃ¡'Ã Faith, but the government appealed the court decision and succeeded in having it suspended on May 15, 2006. On December 16, 2006, only after one hearing, the Supreme Administrative Council of Egypt ruled against the BahÃ¡'Ãs, stating that the government may not recognize the BahÃ¡'Ã Faith in official identification documents. There are Egyptians who identify as atheist and agnostic, but their numbers are largely unknown as openly advocating such positions risks legal sanction on the basis of apostasy (if a citizen takes the step of suing the 'apostating' person, though not automatically by the general prosecutor). In 2000, an openly atheist Egyptian writer, who called for the establishment of a local association for atheists, was tried on charges of insulting Islam in four of his books. While freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Egyptian constitution, according to Human Rights Watch, "Egyptians are able to convert to Islam generally without difficulty, but Muslims who convert to Christianity face difficulties in getting new identity papers and some have been arrested for allegedly forging such documents. Human Rights Watch. World report 2007: Egypt. The Coptic community, however, takes pains to prevent conversions from Christianity to Islam due to the ease with which Christians can often become Muslim. EGYPT: NATIONAL UNITY AND THE COPTIC ISSUE. 2004 Public officials, being conservative themselves, intensify the complexity of the legal procedures required to recognize the religion change as required by law. Security agencies will sometimes claim that such conversions from Islam to Christianity (or occasionally vice versa) may stir social unrest, and thereby justify themselves in wrongfully detaining the subjects, insisting that they are simply taking steps to prevent likely social troubles from happening. Egypt: Egypt Arrests 22 Muslim converts to Christianity. 03 November, 2003 Recently, a Cairo administrative court denied 45 citizens the right to obtain identity papers documenting their reversion to Christianity after converting to Islam. Shahine, Gihan. "Fraud, not Freedom". Ahram Weekly, 3 - 9 May 2007 Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a commemoration of the ancient Library of Alexandria in Egypt's second largest city. Egyptian culture has five thousand years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations and for millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Hellenism, Christianity, and Islamic culture. Today, many aspects of Egypt's ancient culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the influence of modern Western culture, itself with roots in ancient Egypt. Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's largest city and has been renowned for centuries as a center of learning, culture and commerce. Egypt has the highest number of Nobel Laureates in Africa and the Arab World. Some Egyptian born politicians were or are currently at the helm of major international organizations like Boutros Boutros-Ghali of the United Nations and Mohamed ElBaradei of the IAEA. The work of early nineteenth-century scholar Rifa'a et-Tahtawi gave rise to the Egyptian Renaissance, marking the transition from Medieval to Early Modern Egypt. His work renewed interest in Egyptian antiquity and exposed Egyptian society to Enlightenment principles. Tahtawi co-founded with education reformer Ali Mubarak a native Egyptology school that looked for inspiration to medieval Egyptian scholars, such as Suyuti and Maqrizi, who themselves studied the history, language and antiquities of Egypt. El-Daly, op cit., p. 29 Egypt's renaissance peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the work of people like Muhammad Abduh, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, Qasim Amin, Salama Moussa, Taha Hussein and Mahmoud Mokhtar. They forged a liberal path for Egypt expressed as a commitment to individual freedom, secularism and faith in science to bring progress. Jankowski, op cit., p. 130 Eighteenth dynasty painting from the tomb of Theban governor Ramose in Deir el-Madinah. The Egyptians were one of the first major civilizations to codify design elements in art. The wall paintings done in the service of the Pharaohs followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings. Modern and contemporary Egyptian art can be as diverse as any works in the world art scene. The Cairo Opera House serves as the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. Egypt's media and arts industry has flourished since the late nineteenth century, today with more than thirty satellite channels and over one hundred motion pictures produced each year. Cairo has long been known as the "Hollywood of the Middle East;" its annual film festival, the Cairo International Film Festival, has been rated as one of 11 festivals with a top class rating worldwide by the International Federation of Film Producers' Associations. Cairo Film Festival information. To bolster its media industry further, especially with the keen competition from the Persian Gulf Arab States and Lebanon, a large media city was built. Some Egyptian actors, like Omar Sharif, have achieved worldwide fame. Literature constitutes an important cultural element in the life of Egypt. Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated throughout the Middle East. The first modern Egyptian novel Zaynab by Muhammad Husayn Haykal was published in 1913 in the Egyptian vernacular. Vatikiotis, op cit. Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Egyptian women writers include Nawal El Saadawi, well known for her feminist activism, and Alifa Rifaat who also writes about women and tradition. Vernacular poetry is perhaps the most popular literary genre amongst Egyptians, represented by such luminaries as Ahmed Fuad Nigm (Fagumi), Salah Jaheen and Abdel Rahman el-Abnudi. Upper Egyptian folk musicians from Kom Ombo. Egyptian music is a rich mixture of indigenous, Mediterranean, African and Western elements. In antiquity, Egyptians were playing harps and flutes, including two indigenous instruments: the ney and the oud. Percussion and vocal music also became an important part of the local music tradition ever since. Contemporary Egyptian music traces its beginnings to the creative work of people such as Abdu-l Hamuli, Almaz and Mahmud Osman, who influenced the later work of Egyptian music giants such as Sayed Darwish, Umm Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim Hafez. These prominent artists were followed later by Amr Diab. He is seen by many as the new age "Musical Legend", whose fan base stretches all over the Middle East and Europe. From the 1970s onwards, Egyptian pop music has become increasingly important in Egyptian culture, while Egyptian folk music continues to be played during weddings and other festivities. Egypt is famous for its many festivals and religious carnivals, also known as mulids or Mawlid. They are usually associated with a particular Coptic or Sufi saint, but are often celebrated by all Egyptians irrespective of creed or religion. Ramadan has a special flavor in Egypt, celebrated with sounds, lights (local lanterns known as fawanees) and much flare that many Muslim tourists from the region flock to Egypt during Ramadan to witness the spectacle. The ancient spring festival of Sham en Nisim (Coptic: shom en nisim) has been celebrated by Egyptians for thousands of years, typically between the Egyptian months of Paremoude (April) and Pashons (May), following Easter Sunday. Cairo International Stadium during the 2006 African Cup of Nations Football (soccer) is the de facto national sport of Egypt. Egyptian Soccer clubs El Ahly and El Zamalek are the two most popular teams and enjoy the reputation of long-time regional champions. The great rivalries keep the streets of Egypt energized as people fill the streets when their favourite team wins. Egypt is rich in soccer history as soccer has been around for over 100 years. The country is home to many African championships such as the African Cup of Nations. However, Egypt's national team has not qualified for the FIFA World Cup since 1990. Squash and tennis are other favourite sports. The Egyptian squash team has been known for its fierce competition in international championships since the 1930s. The Egyptian Armed forces have a combined troop strength of around 450,000 active personnel. Egypt Military Strength According to the Israeli chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuval Steinitz, the Egyptian Air Force has roughly the same number of modern warplanes as the Israeli Air Force and far more Western tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft batteries and warships than the IDF. Steinitz, Yuval. Not the peace we expected. Haaretz. December 05, 2006. The Egyptian military has recently undergone massive military modernization mostly in their Air Force. Other than Israel, Egypt is the first country in the region with a spy satellite, EgyptSat 1, and is planning to launch 3 more spy satellites (DesertSat1, EgyptSat2, DesertSat2) over the next two years. Katz, Yaacov. "Egypt to launch first spy satellite," Jerusalem Post, January 15, 2007. White Desert, Farafra At , World Factbook area rank order Egypt is the world's 38th-largest country (after Mauritania). It is comparable in size to Tanzania, twice the size of France, four times the size of the United Kingdom, and is more than half the size of the US state of Alaska. Nevertheless, due to the aridity of Egypt's climate, population centres are concentrated along the narrow Nile Valley and Delta, meaning that approximately 99% of the population uses only about 5.5% of the total land area. Hamza, Waleed. Land use and Coastal Management in the Third Countries: Egypt as a case. Accessed= 2007-06-10. Egypt is bordered by Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. Egypt's important role in geopolitics stems from its strategic position: a transcontinental nation, it possesses a land bridge (the Isthmus of Suez) between Africa and Asia, which in turn is traversed by a navigable waterway (the Suez Canal) that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea. Apart from the Nile Valley, the majority of Egypt's landscape is a sandy desert. The winds blowing can create sand dunes over high. Egypt includes parts of the Sahara Desert and of the Libyan Desert. These deserts were referred to as the "red land" in ancient Egypt, and they protected the Kingdom of the Pharaohs from western threats. Towns and cities include Alexandria, one of the greatest ancient cities, Aswan, Asyut, Cairo, the modern Egyptian capital, El-Mahalla El-Kubra, Giza, the site of the Pyramid of Khufu, Hurghada, Luxor, Kom Ombo, Port Safaga, Port Said, Sharm el Sheikh, Suez, where the Suez Canal is located, Zagazig, and Al-Minya. Oases include Bahariya, el Dakhla, Farafra, el Kharga and Siwa. Protectorates include Ras Mohamed National Park, Zaranik Protectorate and Siwa. See Egyptian Protectorates for more information. Egypt receives the least rainfall in the world. South of Cairo, rainfall averages only around 2 to 5 mm (0.1 to 0.2 in) per year and at intervals of many years. On a very thin strip of the northern coast the rainfall can be as high as , all between November and March. Snow falls on Sinai's mountains and some of the north coastal cities such as Damietta, Baltim, Sidi Barrany, etc. and rarely in Alexandria, frost is also known in mid-Sinai and mid-Egypt. Temperatures average between and in summer, and up to on the Red Sea coast. Temperatures average between and in winter. A steady wind from the northwest helps hold down the temperature near the Mediterranean coast. The Khamaseen is a wind that blows from the south in Egypt in spring, bringing sand and dust, and sometimes raises the temperature in the desert to more than . * List of Rulers and heads of state of Egypt * List of writers from Egypt * List of Egyptian companies * List of Egypt-related topics * List of Egyptians * List of Egyptian universities General references * * * Leonard William King, History of Egypt, ChaldÃ¦a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery, Project Gutenberg. * Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, History of Egypt, ChaldÃ¦a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, in 12 volumes, Project Gutenberg. * Ancient Egyptian Civilization - Aldokkan * Rural poverty in Egypt (IFAD) * Encyclopaedia Britannica's Egypt Country Page * Egyptian Government Services Portal * New Projects in Egypt * Egypt State Information Services * Egypt Information Portal - available in Arabic and English * BBC News Country Profile - Egypt * CIA World Factbook - Egypt * Amnesty International's 2005 Report on Egypt. * US State Department - Egypt includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports * Business Anti-Corruption Portal Egypt Country Profile * Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Egypt * * * Egypt Maps - Perry-CastaÃ±eda Map Collection * Egyptian History (urdu) * By Nile and Tigris, a narrative of journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on behalf of the British museum between the years 1886 and 1913, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, 1920 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDF format) * Egypt Online Directory * The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights * PortSaid Free-zone forums Related Wikipedia Articles Bilady, Bilady, Bilady Arabic language Cairo Semi-presidential system republic President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister of Egypt Ahmed Nazif History of Egypt First dynasty of Egypt Circa United Kingdom February 28 1922 June 18 1953 CIA World Factbook Egyptian pound Eastern European Summer Time .eg Egyptian Arabic Egyptian language Coptic language Egyptian Arabic North Africa Sinai Peninsula land bridge Asia Libya Sudan Gaza Strip Israel Mediterranean Sea Cyprus Red Sea Africa Nile River arable Sahara Desert Cairo Alexandria Nile Delta Ancient Egypt Giza pyramid complex Great Sphinx of Giza Luxor Karnak Valley of the Kings Middle East Egyptian language Coptic language Upper and Lower Egypt Arabic language Egyptian Arabic Semitic cognate Hebrew language Latin ancient Greek Copt Late Egyptian Egyptian language Egyptian soul Ptah Memphis, Egypt Strabo folk etymology Nile River Nile Valley Paleolithic Petroglyph Nile 10th millennium BC hunter-gatherer fishing cereal culture Sahara agriculture Economic system society Neolithic Predynastic Egypt Upper and Lower Egypt Badarian Naqada Ancient Egypt Egyptian hieroglyphs Naqada Before Christ Menes List of Egyptian dynasties Egyptians Coptic language Culture of Egypt Ancient Egyptian religion Art of Ancient Egypt Egyptian language Protodynastic Period of Egypt Old Kingdom Egyptian pyramids Third dynasty of Egypt pyramid of Djoser Fourth dynasty of Egypt Giza pyramid complex Great Sphinx of Giza Giza pyramid complex Old Kingdom First Intermediate Period of Egypt Middle Kingdom of Egypt Amenemhat III Second Intermediate Period of Egypt Semitic Hyksos Avaris Ahmose I Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt Memphis, Egypt Thebes, Egypt New Kingdom Power in international relations Jebel Barkal Nubia Levant Pharaoh Hatshepsut Thutmose III Akhenaten Nefertiti Tutankhamun Ramesses II monotheism Atenism Ancient Libya Kush Assyria Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria Thirtieth dynasty of Egypt History of Egypt under Achaemenid Persian domination Nectanebo II Ptolemaic Egypt Aegyptus (Roman province) Aegyptus (Roman province)#Byzantine Egypt Saint Mark the Evangelist Diocletian Roman Empire Byzantine Empire New Testament Council of Chalcedon Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria Aegyptus (Roman province)#Persian and Arab conquests Muslim conquest of Egypt Muslim Arabs Sunni Islam Coptic Christianity Sufism Islamic Caliphate History of Arab Egypt Fatimid Ayyubid dynasty Mamluk Turkish people Circassians History of Ottoman Egypt Ottoman Turks Muhammad Ali of Egypt Cairo Citadel French Invasion of Egypt Napoleon I of France French Revolution self-governance Muhammad Ali of Egypt Muhammad Ali's seizure of power viceroy Isma'il Pasha Suez Canal United Kingdom Scramble for Africa Ottoman Empire World War I protectorate Khedive Abbas II Husayn Kamil Sultan of Egypt Egyptian revolution of 1919 Saad Zaghlul Dinshaway Incident British Empire Saad Zaghlul Wafd Party Legislative Assembly Malta March 8 1919 Egyptian revolution of 1919 February 22 1922 1923 Constitution of Egypt Parliamentary system Prime Minister of Egypt Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 coup d'Ã©tat Egyptian Revolution of 1952 Free Officers Movement Farouk of Egypt Fuad II of Egypt Cairo Africa Middle East Cairo Opera House 18 June 1953 Muhammad Naguib Gamal Abdel Nasser house arrest Political power United Kingdom June 18 1956 nationalization Suez Canal July 26 1956 Suez Crisis Six Day War Israel Sinai Anwar Sadat Cold War Soviet Union United States Infitah Yom Kippur War Golan Heights US USSR Ceasefire Yom Kippur war Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty Arab world Hosni Mubarak Kifaya democracy civil liberties Mahmoud Mokhtar Cairo University Ancient Egypt History of Egypt Culture of Egypt Egyptians Christianity Islam Arabic language Egyptian Arabic collective identity nationalism Pharaonism Arab nationalism pan-Arabism Islamism Egyptians Arab Sati' al-Husri Arab League University of Oxford Gamal Abdel Nasser Zionism Syria United Arab Republic Six-Day War Anwar Al Sadat Israel 1958 Islamic countries Hindustan Times Imbaba Arabian Gulf Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass Sub-Saharan Africa Osama Anwar Okasha Leila Ahmed 18 June 1953 Hosni Mubarak President of Egypt October 14 1981 Anwar Sadat National Democratic Party (Egypt) Heads of government of Egypt Ahmed Nazif 9 July 2004 Atef Ebeid Multi-party system semi-presidential system Prime Minister of Egypt Egyptian presidential election, 2005 Free Officers Movement Ayman Nour March 27 2006 The Christian Science Monitor May 26, 2005 democratization San Francisco Chronicle September 13 2005 December 5 2006 March 19 2007 BBC constitutional amendment Kifaya Hosni Mubarak Amnesty International Human Rights Watch Hosni Mubarak Kifaya Christian Christianity Freedom House political rights civil liberties Freedom House 2005-12-16 Freedom in the World 2006 List of indices of freedom Amnesty International torture War on Terror Anti-terrorism legislation bbc.co.uk 4-11 bbc.co.uk 4-13 human rights in Egypt United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali June 3 2003 December 5 2006 Judaism Egyptian Identification Card Controversy population size Africa Middle East Cairo Islam Sociocultural evolution Headquarters of the Arab League Cairo Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa Israel Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty Israeli-Palestinian conflict Saudi Arabia Gulf States Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali United Nations Luxor governorate muhafazah markaz Al Iskandariyah Governorate Alexandria Aswan Governorate Aswan Asyut Governorate Asyut Al Buhayrah Governorate Damanhur Bani Suwayf Governorate Beni Suef Al Qahirah Governorate Cairo Ad Daqahliyah Governorate Mansura Domyat Governorate Damietta Al Fayyum Governorate 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Egypt	Is Egypt the most populated country in Africa?	no	data/set2/a6	Egypt Egypt (Egyptian: Kemet; Coptic: KÄ«mi; ; Egyptian Arabic: ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country in North Africa that includes the Sinai Peninsula, a land bridge to Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. The northern coast borders the Mediterranean Sea and the island of Cyprus; the eastern coast borders the Red Sea. Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa. The great majority of its estimated 78 million people (2007) live near the banks of the Nile River in an area of about where the only arable agricultural land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the densely populated centers of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta. Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments, including the Giza pyramid complex and the Great Sphinx. The southern city of Luxor contains numerous ancient artifacts, such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and cultural nation of the Middle East. One of the ancient Egyptian names of the country, Kemet ( ), or "black land" (from kem "black"), is derived from the fertile black soils deposited by the Nile floods, distinct from the deshret, or "red land" ( ), of the desert. The name is realized as and in the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as ( ). Another name was "land of the riverbank". The names of Upper and Lower Egypt were Ta-Sheme'aw ( ) "sedgeland" and Ta-Mehew ( ) "northland", respectively. , the Arabic and modern official name of Egypt (Egyptian Arabic: ), is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew ( ), literally meaning "the two straits" (a reference to the dynastic separation of upper and lower Egypt). Biblical Hebrew E-Magazine. January, 2005 The word originally connoted "metropolis" or "civilization" and also means "country", or "frontier-land". The English name "Egypt" came via the Latin word derived from the ancient Greek word AÃgyptos ( ). The adjective aigÃ½pti, aigÃ½ptios was borrowed into Coptic as gyptios, kyptios, and from there into Arabic as , back formed into , whence English Copt. The term is derived from Late Egyptian Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name Hat-ka-Ptah ( ), meaning "home of the ka (soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god Ptah at Memphis. Strabo provided a folk etymology according to which AÃgyptos ( ) had evolved as a compound from ( ), meaning "below the Aegean". The Nile River in Egypt The Nile has been a site of continuous human habitation since at least the Paleolithic era. Evidence of this appears in the form of artifacts and rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in the desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers replaced a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. Midant-Reynes, BÃ©atrix. The Prehistory of Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the First Kings. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. By about 6000 BC, organized agriculture and large building construction had appeared in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to Dynastic Egyptian civilization. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining somewhat culturally separate, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC. Bard, Kathryn A. Ian Shaw, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. p. 69. A unified kingdom was founded circa 3150 BC by King Menes, giving rise to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptians subsequently referred to their unified country as tawy, meaning "two lands", and later kemet (Coptic: kÄ«mi), the "black land", a reference to the fertile black soil deposited by the Nile river. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs. The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom period, c.2700â2200 BC., famous for its many pyramids, most notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza Pyramids. The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, built during the Old Kingdom, are modern national icons that are at the heart of Egypt's thriving tourism industry. The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about 150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilization of government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for the country in the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, reaching a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III. A second period of disunity heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos. The Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BC and founded a new capital at Avaris. They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes. The New Kingdom (c.1550â1070 BC) began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Jebel Barkal in Nubia, and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well-known Pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first known self-conscious expression of monotheism came during this period in the form of Atenism. Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The country was later invaded by Libyans, Nubians and Assyrians, but native Egyptians drove them out and regained control of their country. First built in the third or fourth century AD, the Hanging Church is Cairo's most famous Coptic church. The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Persians in 343 BC after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle. Later, Egypt fell to the Greeks and Romans, beginning over two thousand years of foreign rule. Before Egypt became part of the Byzantine realm, Christianity had been brought by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the AD first century. Diocletian's reign marked the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established. Kamil, Jill. Coptic Egypt: History and Guide. Cairo: American University in Cairo, 1997. p. 39 The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief Persian invasion early in the seventh century, until in AD 639, Egypt was invaded by the Muslim Arabs. The form of Islam the Arabs brought to Egypt was Sunni. Early in this period, Egyptians began to blend their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices that had survived through Coptic Christianity, giving rise to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day. El-Daly, Okasha. Egyptology: The Missing Millennium. London: UCL Press, 2005. p. 140 Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, including a period for which it was the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about AD 1250. They continued to govern even after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Mosque of Mohamed Ali built in the early nineteenth century within the Cairo Citadel. The brief French Invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 had a great social impact on the country and its culture. Native Egyptians became exposed to the principles of the French Revolution and had a chance to exercise self-governance. Vatikiotis, P.J. The History of Modern Egypt. 4th edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1992, p. 39 A series of civil wars took place between the Ottoman Turks, the Mamluks, and Albanian mercenaries following the evacuation of French troops, resulting in the Albanian Muhammad Ali (Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasha) taking control of Egypt. He was appointed as the Ottoman viceroy in 1805. He led a modernization campaign of public works, including irrigation projects, agricultural reforms and increased industrialization, which were then taken up and further expanded by his grandson and successor Isma'il Pasha. Following the completion of the Suez Canal by Ismail in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation and trading hub. In 1866, the Assembly of Delegates was founded to serve as an advisory body for the government. Its members were elected from across Egypt. They came to have an important influence on governmental affairs. Jankowski, James. Egypt: A Short History. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2000. p. 83 The country fell heavily into debt to European powers. Ostensibly to protect its investments, the United Kingdom seized control of Egypt's government in 1882. Egypt gave nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire until 1914. As a result of the declaration of war with the Ottoman Empire, Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt and deposed the Khedive Abbas II, replacing him with his uncle, Husayn Kamil, who was appointed Sultan. Public riot during the 1919 Revolution sparked by the British exile of nationalist leader Saad Zaghlul.Between 1882 and 1906, a local nationalist movement for independence was taking shape. The Dinshaway Incident prompted Egyptian opposition to take a stronger stand against British occupation. The first political parties were founded. After the First World War, Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement, gaining a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on March 8, 1919, the country arose in its first modern revolution. Constant revolting by the Egyptian people throughout the country led Great Britain to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence on February 22, 1922. Jankowski, op cit., p. 112 The new Egyptian government drafted and implemented a new constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary representative system. Saad Zaghlul was popularly-elected as Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. In 1936 the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. Continued instability in the government due to remaining British control and increasing political involvement by the king led to the ouster of the monarchy and the dissolution of the parliament in a military coup d'Ã©tat known as the 1952 Revolution. The officers, known as the Free Officers Movement, forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his son Fuad. View of Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East. The Cairo Opera House (bottom-right) is the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. On June 18 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser the real architect of the 1952 movement and was later put under house arrest. Nasser assumed power as President and declared the full independence of Egypt from the United Kingdom on June 18 1956. His nationalization of the Suez Canal on July 26 1956 prompted the 1956 Suez Crisis. Three years after the 1967 Six Day War, during which Israel had invaded and occupied Sinai, Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972. He launched the Infitah economic reform policy, while violently clamping down on religious and secular opposition alike. In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the October War, a surprise attack against the Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. It was an attempt to liberate the territory Israel had captured 6 years earlier. Both the US and the USSR intervened and a cease-fire was reached. Despite not being a complete military success, most historians agree that the October War presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him to pursue peace with Israel. In 1977, Sadat made a historic visit to Israel, which led to the 1979 peace treaty in exchange for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat's initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League, but it was supported by the vast majority of Egyptians. Vatikiotis, p. 443 A fundamentalist military soldier assassinated Sadat in Cairo in 1981. He was succeeded by the incumbent Hosni Mubarak. In 2003, the Egyptian Movement for Change, popularly known as Kifaya, was launched to seek a return to democracy and greater civil liberties. Mahmoud Mokhtar's Egypt's Renaissance 1919-1928, Cairo University. The Egyptian Nile Valley was home to one of the oldest cultures in the world, spanning three thousand years of continuous history. When Egypt fell under a series of foreign occupations after 343 BC, each left an indelible mark on the country's cultural landscape. Egyptian identity evolved in the span of this long period of occupation to accommodate, in principle, two new religions, Christianity and Islam; and a new language, Arabic, and its spoken descendant, Egyptian Arabic. The degree to which different groups in Egypt identify with these factors in articulating a sense of collective identity can vary. Questions of identity came to fore in the last century as Egypt sought to free itself from foreign occupation for the first time in two thousand years. Three chief ideologies came to head: ethno-territorial Egyptian nationalism and by extension Pharaonism, secular Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism, and Islamism. Egyptian nationalism predates its Arab counterpart by many decades, having roots in the nineteenth century and becoming the dominant mode of expression of Egyptian anti-colonial activists of the pre- and inter-war periods. It was nearly always articulated in exclusively Egyptian terms: In 1931, following a visit to Egypt, Syrian Arab nationalist Sati' al-Husri remarked that "[Egyptians] did not possess an Arab nationalist sentiment; did not accept that Egypt was a part of the Arab lands, and would not acknowledge that the Egyptian people were part of the Arab nation." qtd in Dawisha, Adeed. Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century. Princeton University Press. 2003, p. 99 The later 1930s would become a formative period for Arab nationalism in Egypt, in large part due to efforts by Syrian/Palestinian/Lebanese intellectuals. Jankowski, "Egypt and Early Arab Nationalism," p. 246 Nevertheless, a year after the establishment of the League of Arab States in 1945, to be headquartered in Cairo, Oxford University historian H. S. Deighton was still writing: It was not until the Nasser era more than a decade later that Arab nationalism became a state policy and a means with which to define Egypt's position in the Middle East and the world. "Before Nasser, Egypt, which had been ruled by Britain since 1882, was more in favor of territorial, Egyptian nationalism and distant from the pan-Arab ideology. Egyptians generally did not identify themselves as Arabs, and it is revealing that when the Egyptian nationalist leader [Saad Zaghlul] met the Arab delegates at Versailles in 1918, he insisted that their struggles for statehood were not connected, claiming that the problem of Egypt was an Egyptian problem and not an Arab one." Makropoulou, Ifigenia. Pan - Arabism: What Destroyed the Ideology of Arab Nationalism?. Hellenic Center for European Studies. January 15, 2007. usually articulated vis-Ã -vis Zionism in the neighboring Jewish state. For a while Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic. When the union was dissolved, the current official name of Egypt was adopted, the Arab Republic of Egypt. Egypt's attachment to Arabism, however, was particularly questioned after its defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War. Thousands of Egyptians had lost their lives and the country become disillusioned with Arab politics. Dawisha, p. 237 Nasser's successor Sadat, both by policy and through his peace initiative with Israel, revived an uncontested Egyptian orientation, unequivocally asserting that only Egypt was his responsibility. The terms "Arab", "Arabism" and "Arab unity", save for the new official name, became conspicuously absent. Dawisha, pp. 264-65, 267 Indeed, as professor of Egyptian history P. J. Vatikiotis explains: Egyptian Flag Until 1958. The question of identity continues to be debated today. Many Egyptians feel that Egyptian and Arab identities are linked and not necessarily incompatible. Many others continue to believe that Egypt and Egyptians are simply not Arab. They emphasize indigenous Egyptian heritage, culture and independent polity; point to the failures of Arab nationalist policies; and publicly voice objection to the present official name of the country. Ordinary Egyptians frequently express this sentiment. For example, a foreign tourist said after visiting Egypt,"Although an avowedly Islamic country and now part and parcel of the Arab world, Egyptians are very proud of their distinctiveness and their glorious Pharaonic past dating back to 3500 BC... 'We are not Arabs, we are Egyptians,' said tour guide Shayma, who is a devout Muslim." In Egypt, India is Big B!. Hindustan Times. December 25, 2006. In late 2007, el-Masri el-Yom daily newspaper conducted an interview at a bus stop in the working-class district of Imbaba to ask citizens what Arab nationalism (el-qawmeyya el-'arabeyya) represented for them. One Egyptian Muslim youth responded, "Arab nationalism means that the Egyptian Foreign Minister in Jerusalem gets humiliated by the Palestinians, that Arab leaders dance upon hearing of Sadat's death, that Egyptians get humiliated in the Arab Gulf States, and of course that Arab countries get to fight Israel until the last Egyptian soldier." Ragab, Ahmed. El-Masry el-Yom Newspaper. "What is the definition of 'Arab Nationalism': Question at a bus stop in Imbaba". May 21, 2007. Another felt that,"Arab countries hate Egyptians," and that unity with Israel may even be more of a possibility than Arab nationalism, because he believes that Israelis would at least respect Egyptians. Some contemporary prominent Egyptians who oppose Arab nationalism or the idea that Egyptians are Arabs include Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass. In an audio interview on Egypt's links with Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, Hawass believes that "even today Egyptians are Egyptians. It really doesn't mean that because we speak Arabic that we can be Arabs. We are...really, I feel personally that we are related even today to the Pharaohs." , popular writer Osama Anwar Okasha, Egyptian-born Harvard University Professor Leila Ahmed, Member of Parliament Suzie Greiss An Interculturalist in Cairo. InterCultures Magazine. January 2007. , in addition to different local groups and intellectuals. Kimit Sagi We are Egyptians, not Arabs. ArabicNews.com. 11/06.2003. Ghobrial, Kamal. Egypt, the Arabs and Arabism. el-Ahali. August 31-September 6, 2005. Said Habeeb's Masreyat. Egyptian national group This understanding is also expressed in other contexts, Egyptian people section from Arab.Net Princeton Alumni Weekly such as Neil DeRosa's novel Joseph's Seed in his depiction of an Egyptian character "who declares that Egyptians are not Arabs and never will be." Review by Michelle Fram Cohen. The Atlasphere. Jan. 17, 2005. Egyptian critics of Arab nationalism contend that it has worked to erode and/or relegate native Egyptian identity by superimposing only one aspect of Egypt's culture. These views and sources for collective identification in the Egyptian state are captured in the words of a linguistic anthropologist who conducted fieldwork in Cairo: Egypt has been a republic since June 18 1953. President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has been the President of the Republic since October 14 1981, following the assassination of former-President Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat. Mubarak is currently serving his fifth term in office. He is the leader of the ruling National Democratic Party. Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 July 2004, following the resignation of Dr. Atef Ebeid from his office. Although power is ostensibly organized under a multi-party semi-presidential system, whereby the executive power is theoretically divided between the President and the Prime Minister, in practice it rests almost solely with the President who traditionally has been elected in single-candidate elections for more than fifty years. Egypt also holds regular multi-party parliamentary elections. The last presidential election, in which Mubarak won a fifth consecutive term, was held in September 2005. In late February 2005, President Mubarak announced in a surprise television broadcast that he had ordered the reform of the country's presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential election. For the first time since the 1952 movement, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader from a list of various candidates. The President said his initiative came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy." Business TodayEGYPT. Mubarak throws presidential race wide open. March 2005. However, the new law placed draconian restrictions on the filing for presidential candidacies, designed to prevent well-known candidates such as Ayman Nour from standing against Mubarak, and paved the road for his easy re-election victory. Lavin, Abigail. Democracy on the Nile: The story of Ayman Nour and Egypt's problematic attempt at free elections. March 27, 2006. Concerns were once again expressed after the 2005 presidential elections about government interference in the election process through fraud and vote-rigging, in addition to police brutality and violence by pro-Mubarak supporters against opposition demonstrators. Murphy, Dan. Egyptian vote marred by violence. Christian Science Monitor. May 26, 2005. After the election, Egypt imprisoned Nour, and the U.S. Government stated the âconviction of Mr. Nour, the runner-up in Egypt's 2005 presidential elections, calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom, and the rule of law.â United States "Deeply Troubled" by Sentencing of Egypt's Nour. U.S. Department of State, Published December 24, 2005 As a result, most Egyptians are skeptical about the process of democratization and the role of the elections. Less than 25 percent of the country's 32 million registered voters (out of a population of more than 78 million) turned out for the 2005 elections. Gomez, Edward M. Hosni Mubarak's pretend democratic election. San Francisco Chronicle. September 13, 2005. A proposed change to the constitution would limit the president to two seven-year terms in office. Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006. Thirty-four constitutional changes voted on by parliament on March 19, 2007 prohibit parties from using religion as a basis for political activity; allow the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law to replace the emergency legislation in place since 1981, giving police wide powers of arrest and surveillance; give the president power to dissolve parliament; and end judicial monitoring of election. Anger over Egypt vote timetable BBC News. As opposition members of parliament withdrew from voting on the proposed changes, it was expected that the referendum will be boycotted by a great number of Egyptians in protest of what has been considered a breach of democratic practices. Eventually it was reported that only 27% of the registered voters went to the polling stations under heavy police presence and tight political control of the ruling National Democratic Party. It was officially announced on March 27,2007 that 75.9% of those who participated in the referendum approved of the constitutional amendments introduced by President Mubarak and was endorsed by opposition free parliament, thus allowing the introduction of laws that curbs the activity of certain opposition elements particularly Islamists. [[Image:Kefaya demo.jpg\|thumb\|Members of the Kifaya democracy movement protesting a fifth term for President Hosni Mubarak. See also video.]] Several local and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have for many years criticized Egypt's human rights record as poor. In 2005, President Hosni Mubarak faced unprecedented public criticism when he clamped down on democracy activists challenging his rule. Some of the most serious human rights violations according to HRW's 2006 report on Egypt are routine torture, arbitrary detentions and trials before military and state security courts. Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005 Discriminatory personal status laws governing marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance which put women at a disadvantage have also been cited. Laws concerning Christians which place restrictions on church building and open worship have been recently eased, but major constructions still require governmental approval and persecution of Christianity by underground radical groups remains a problem. Church Building Regulations Eased In addition, intolerance of Baha'is and unorthodox Muslim sects remains a problem. In 2005, the Freedom House rated political rights in Egypt as "6" (1 representing the most free and 7 the least free rating), civil liberties as "5" and gave it the freedom rating of "Not Free." See also Freedom in the World 2006, List of indices of freedom It however noted that "Egypt witnessed its most transparent and competitive presidential and legislative elections in more than half a century and an increasingly unbridled public debate on the country's political future in 2005." Freedom House. Freedom in the World - Egypt. 2006 In 2007, human rights group Amnesty International released a report criticizing Egypt for torture and illegal detention. The report alleges that Egypt has become an international center for torture, where other nations send suspects for interrogation, often as part of the War on Terror. The report calls on Egypt to bring its anti-terrorism laws into accordance with international human rights statutes and on other nations to stop sending their detainees to Egypt. Egypt torture centre, report says. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-11. Accessed 2007-4-11. Egypt's foreign ministry quickly issued a rebuttal to this report, claiming that it was inaccurate and unfair, as well as causing deep offense to the Egyptian government. Egypt rejects torture criticism. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-13. Accessed 2007-4-13. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is one of the longest-standing bodies for the defence of human rights in Egypt. Egyptian Organization for Human Rights In 2003, the government established the National Council for Human Rights, headquartered in Cairo and headed by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who directly reports to the president. Official page of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights. The council has come under heavy criticism by local NGO activists, who contend it undermines human rights work in Egypt by serving as a propaganda tool for the government to excuse its violations Egyptian National Council for Human Rights Against Human Rights NGOs. EOHR. June 3, 2003. and to provide legitimacy to repressive laws such as the recently renewed Emergency Law. Qenawy, Ahmed. The Egyptian Human Rights Council: The Apple Falls Close to the Tree. ANHRI. 2004 Egypt has recently announced that it is in the process of abolishing the Emergency Law. Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006. However, in March 2007 President Mubarak approved several constitutional amendments to include "an anti-terrorism clause that appears to enshrine sweeping police powers of arrest and surveillance", suggesting that the Emergency Law is here to stay for the long haul. Egypt parliament approves changes in constitution. Reuters. March 20, 2007. The high court of Egypt has outlawed all religions and belief except Islam, Christianity and Judaism. (For more information see Egyptian Identification Card Controversy.) Egypt's foreign policy operates along moderate lines. Factors such as population size, historical events, military strength, diplomatic expertise and a strategic geographical position give Egypt extensive political influence in Africa and the Middle East. Cairo has been a crossroads of regional commerce and culture for centuries, and its intellectual and Islamic institutions are at the center of the region's social and cultural development. The permanent Headquarters of the Arab League are located in Cairo and the Secretary General of the Arab League has traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa is the current Secretary General. The Arab League briefly moved from Egypt to Tunis in 1978, as a protest to the signing by Egypt of a peace treaty with Israel, but returned in 1989. Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, with the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979. Egypt has a major influence amongst other Arab states, and has historically played an important role as a mediator in resolving disputes between various Arab states, and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Most Arab states still give credence to Egypt playing that role, though its effects are often limited and recently challenged by Saudi Arabia and oil rich Gulf States. It is also reported that due to Egypt's indulgence in internal problems and its reluctance to play a positive role in regional matters had lost the country great influence in Africa and the neighbouring countries. Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996. Map of Egypt, showing the 26 capitals of governorates, in addition to the self-governing city of Luxor Egypt is divided into twenty-six governorates (muhafazat, singular muhafazah). The governorates are further divided into regions (markazes). \| \|style="padding-top:8px;"\| \|} The Nile River at the ancient city of Aswan, a popular destination for vacationersEgypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than three million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly-growing population, limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress the economy. The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investments in communications and physical infrastructure. Egypt has been receiving U.S. foreign aid (since 1979, an average of $2.2 billion per year) and is the third-largest recipient of such funds from the United States following the Iraq war. Its main revenues however come from tourism as well as traffic that goes through the Suez Canal. Egypt has a developed energy market based on coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro power. Substantial coal deposits are in the north-east Sinai, and are mined at the rate of about per year. Oil and gas are produced in the western desert regions, the Gulf of Suez, and the Nile Delta. Egypt has huge reserves of gas, estimated at over in the 1990s, and LNG is exported to many countries. Economic conditions have started to improve considerably after a period of stagnation from the adoption of more liberal economic policies by the government, as well as increased revenues from tourism and a booming stock market. In its annual report, the IMF has rated Egypt as one of the top countries in the world undertaking economic reforms. Some major economic reforms taken by the new government since 2003 include a dramatic slashing of customs and tariffs. A new taxation law implemented in 2005 decreased corporate taxes from 40% to the current 20%, resulting in a stated 100% increase in tax revenue by the year 2006. FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into Egypt has increased considerably in the past few years due to the recent economic liberalization measures taken by minister of investment Mahmoud Mohieddin, exceeding $6 billion in 2006. Egypt is slated to overcome South Africa as the highest earner of FDI on the African continent in 2007. Although one of the main obstacles still facing the Egyptian economy is the trickle down of the wealth to the average population, many Egyptians criticize their government for higher prices of basic goods while their standards of living or purchasing power remains relatively stagnant. Often corruption is blamed by Egyptians as the main impediment to feeling the benefits of the newly attained wealth. Major reconstruction of the country's infrastructure is promised by the government, with a large portion of the sum paid for the newly acquired 3rd mobile license ($3 billion) by Etisalat. This is slated to be pumped into the country's railroad system, in response to public outrage against the government for disasters in 2006 that claimed more than 100 lives. The best known examples of Egyptian companies that have expanded regionally and globally are the Orascom Group and Raya. The IT sector has been expanding rapidly in the past few years, with many new start-ups conducting outsourcing business to North America and Europe, operating with companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and other major corporations, as well as numerous SME's. Some of these companies are the Xceed Contact Center, Raya Contact Center, E Group Connections and C3 along with other start ups in that country. The sector has been stimulated by new Egyptian entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on their country's huge potential in the sector, as well as constant government encouragement. Egyptian farm Egypt is the most populated country in the Middle East and the second-most populous on the African continent, with an estimated 78 million people. Almost all the population is concentrated along the banks of the Nile (notably Cairo and Alexandria), in the Delta and near the Suez Canal. Approximately 80-90% of the population adheres to Islam and most of the remainder to Christianity, primarily the Coptic Orthodox denomination. Apart from religious affiliation, Egyptians can be divided demographically into those who live in the major urban centers and the fellahin or farmers of rural villages. The last 40 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity, BBC NEWS \| The limits of a Green Revolution? made by the Green Revolution. Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy Egyptians are by far the largest ethnic group in Egypt at 94% (about 72.5 million) of the total population. Ethnic minorities include the Bedouin Arab tribes living in the eastern deserts and the Sinai Peninsula, the Berber-speaking Siwis (Amazigh) of the Siwa Oasis, and the ancient Nubian communities clustered along the Nile. There are also tribal communities of Beja concentrated in the south-eastern-most corner of the country, and a number of Dom clans mostly in the Nile Delta and Faiyum who are progressively becoming assimilated as urbanization increases. Egypt also hosts an unknown number of refugees and asylum seekers. According to the UNDP's 2004 Human Development Report, there were 89,000 refugees in the country, UNDP, p. 75. though this number may be an underestimate. There are some 70,000 Palestinian refugees, and about 150,000 recently arrived Iraqi refugees, Iraq: from a Flood to a Trickle: Egypt but the number of the largest group, the Sudanese, is contested. See The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants for a lower estimate. The The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights states on its web site that in 2000 the World Council of Churches claimed that "between two and five million Sudanese have come to Egypt in recent years". Most Sudanese refugees come to Egypt in the hope of resettling in Europe or the US. The once-vibrant Jewish community in Egypt has virtually disappeared, with only a small number remaining in the country, but many Egyptian Jews visit on religious occasions and for tourism. Several important Jewish archaeological and historical sites are found in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities. Cairo's unique cityscape with its ancient mosques Religion plays a central role in most Egyptians' lives. The rolling calls to prayer that are heard five times a day have the informal effect of regulating the pace of everything from business to entertainment. Cairo is famous for its numerous mosque minarets and church towers. This religious landscape has been marred by a record of religious extremism. Most recently, a December 16 2006 judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of Egypt insisted on a clear demarcation between "recognized religions"âIslam, Christianity and Judaismâand all other religious beliefsâthus effectively delegitimatizing and forbidding practice of all but these aforementioned religions. This judgment has led to the requirement for communities to either commit perjury or be subjected to denial of identification cards. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, at 80-90% of the population, with the majority being adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam. A significant number of Muslim Egyptians also follow native Sufi orders, Hoffman, Valerie J. Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern Egypt. University of South Carolina Press, 1995. and a minority of Shi'a. Christians represent 10-20% of the population, Wahington Institute (Citing pop. estimates) more than 95% of whom belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Other native Egyptian Christians are adherents of the Coptic Catholic Church, the Coptic Evangelical Church and various Coptic Protestant denominations. Non-native Christian communities are largely found in the urban regions of Alexandria and Cairo, and are members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Maronite Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, or the Syriac Orthodox Church. According to the Constitution of Egypt, any new legislation must at least implicitly agree with Islamic laws. The mainstream Hanafi school of Sunni Islam is largely organised by the state, through Wizaret Al-Awkaf (Ministry of Religious Affairs). Al-Awkaf controls all mosques and overviews Muslim clerics. Imams are trained in Imam vocational schools and at Al-Azhar University. The department supports Sunni Islam and has commissions authorised to give Fatwa judgements on Islamic issues. Egypt hosts two major religious institutions. Al-Azhar University ( ) is the oldest Islamic institution of higher studies (founded around 970 A.D) and considered by many to be the oldest extant university. The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, headed by the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, attests to Egypt's strong Christian heritage. It has a following of approximately 15 million Christians worldwide; affiliated sister churches are located in Armenia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Lebanon and Syria. Religious freedom in Egypt is hampered to varying degrees by extremist Islamist groups and by discriminatory and restrictive government policies. Being the largest religious minority in Egypt, Coptic Christians are the most negatively affected community. Copts have faced increasing marginalization after the 1952 coup d'Ã©tat led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Until recently, Christians were required to obtain presidential approval for even minor repairs in churches. Although the law was eased in 2005 by handing down the authority of approval to the governors, Copts continue to face many obstacles in building new or repairing existing churches. These obstacles are not found in building mosques. WorldWide Religious News. Church Building Regulations Eased. December 13, 2005. Compass Direct News. Church Building Regulations Eased. December 13, 2005. In addition, Copts complain of being minimally represented in law enforcement, state security and public office, and of being discriminated against in the workforce on the basis of their religion. Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005 The Coptic community, as well as several human rights activists and intellectuals (such as Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Tarek Heggy), maintain that the number of Christians occupying government posts is not proportional to the number of Copts in Egypt, who constitute between 10 and 15% of the population in Egypt. Of the 32 cabinet ministers, two are Copts: Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali and Minister of Environment Magued George; and of the 25 local governors, only one is a Copt (in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Qena). However, Copts have demonstrated great success in Egypt's private business sector; Naguib Sawiris, an extremely successful businessman and one of the world's wealthiest 100 people is a Copt. In 2002, under the Mubarak government, Coptic Christmas (January 7) was recognized as an official holiday. ArabicNews.com. Copts welcome Presidential announcement on Eastern Christmas Holiday. December 20, 2002. Nevertheless, the Coptic community has occasionally been the target of hate crimes and physical assaults. The most significant was the 2000-2001 El Kosheh attacks , in which 21 Copts and one Muslim were killed. A 2006 attack on three churches in Alexandria left one dead and 17 injured, although the attacker was not linked to any organisation. BBC. Egypt church attacks spark anger, April 15 2006. Egypt was once home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. Egyptian Jews, who were mostly Karaites, partook of all aspects of Egypt's social, economic and political life; one of the most ardent Egyptian nationalists, Yaqub Sanu' (Abu Naddara), was a Jew, as were famous musician Dawoud Husni, popular singer Leila Mourad, and prominent filmmaker Togo Mizrahi. For a while, Jews from across the Ottoman Empire and Europe were attracted to Egypt due to the relative harmony that characterized the local religious landscape in the 19th and early 20th centuries. After the 1956 Suez Crisis, a great number of Jews were expelled by Gamal Abdel Nasser, many of whom holding official Egyptian citizenship. Their Egyptian citizenship was revoked and their property was confiscated. A steady stream of migration of Egyptian Jews followed, reaching a peak after the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967. Today, Jews in Egypt number less than 500. Jewish Community Council (JCC) of Cairo. Bassatine News. 2006. Over ten million Egyptians follow the Christian faith as members of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. BahÃ¡'Ãs in Egypt, whose population is estimated to be a couple of thousands, have long been persecuted, having their institutions and community activities banned. Since their faith is not officially recognized by the state, they are also not allowed to use it on their national identity cards (conversely, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are officially recognized); hence most of them do not hold national identity cards. In April 2006 a court case recognized the BahÃ¡'Ã Faith, but the government appealed the court decision and succeeded in having it suspended on May 15, 2006. On December 16, 2006, only after one hearing, the Supreme Administrative Council of Egypt ruled against the BahÃ¡'Ãs, stating that the government may not recognize the BahÃ¡'Ã Faith in official identification documents. There are Egyptians who identify as atheist and agnostic, but their numbers are largely unknown as openly advocating such positions risks legal sanction on the basis of apostasy (if a citizen takes the step of suing the 'apostating' person, though not automatically by the general prosecutor). In 2000, an openly atheist Egyptian writer, who called for the establishment of a local association for atheists, was tried on charges of insulting Islam in four of his books. While freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Egyptian constitution, according to Human Rights Watch, "Egyptians are able to convert to Islam generally without difficulty, but Muslims who convert to Christianity face difficulties in getting new identity papers and some have been arrested for allegedly forging such documents. Human Rights Watch. World report 2007: Egypt. The Coptic community, however, takes pains to prevent conversions from Christianity to Islam due to the ease with which Christians can often become Muslim. EGYPT: NATIONAL UNITY AND THE COPTIC ISSUE. 2004 Public officials, being conservative themselves, intensify the complexity of the legal procedures required to recognize the religion change as required by law. Security agencies will sometimes claim that such conversions from Islam to Christianity (or occasionally vice versa) may stir social unrest, and thereby justify themselves in wrongfully detaining the subjects, insisting that they are simply taking steps to prevent likely social troubles from happening. Egypt: Egypt Arrests 22 Muslim converts to Christianity. 03 November, 2003 Recently, a Cairo administrative court denied 45 citizens the right to obtain identity papers documenting their reversion to Christianity after converting to Islam. Shahine, Gihan. "Fraud, not Freedom". Ahram Weekly, 3 - 9 May 2007 Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a commemoration of the ancient Library of Alexandria in Egypt's second largest city. Egyptian culture has five thousand years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations and for millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Hellenism, Christianity, and Islamic culture. Today, many aspects of Egypt's ancient culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the influence of modern Western culture, itself with roots in ancient Egypt. Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's largest city and has been renowned for centuries as a center of learning, culture and commerce. Egypt has the highest number of Nobel Laureates in Africa and the Arab World. Some Egyptian born politicians were or are currently at the helm of major international organizations like Boutros Boutros-Ghali of the United Nations and Mohamed ElBaradei of the IAEA. The work of early nineteenth-century scholar Rifa'a et-Tahtawi gave rise to the Egyptian Renaissance, marking the transition from Medieval to Early Modern Egypt. His work renewed interest in Egyptian antiquity and exposed Egyptian society to Enlightenment principles. Tahtawi co-founded with education reformer Ali Mubarak a native Egyptology school that looked for inspiration to medieval Egyptian scholars, such as Suyuti and Maqrizi, who themselves studied the history, language and antiquities of Egypt. El-Daly, op cit., p. 29 Egypt's renaissance peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the work of people like Muhammad Abduh, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, Qasim Amin, Salama Moussa, Taha Hussein and Mahmoud Mokhtar. They forged a liberal path for Egypt expressed as a commitment to individual freedom, secularism and faith in science to bring progress. Jankowski, op cit., p. 130 Eighteenth dynasty painting from the tomb of Theban governor Ramose in Deir el-Madinah. The Egyptians were one of the first major civilizations to codify design elements in art. The wall paintings done in the service of the Pharaohs followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings. Modern and contemporary Egyptian art can be as diverse as any works in the world art scene. The Cairo Opera House serves as the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. Egypt's media and arts industry has flourished since the late nineteenth century, today with more than thirty satellite channels and over one hundred motion pictures produced each year. Cairo has long been known as the "Hollywood of the Middle East;" its annual film festival, the Cairo International Film Festival, has been rated as one of 11 festivals with a top class rating worldwide by the International Federation of Film Producers' Associations. Cairo Film Festival information. To bolster its media industry further, especially with the keen competition from the Persian Gulf Arab States and Lebanon, a large media city was built. Some Egyptian actors, like Omar Sharif, have achieved worldwide fame. Literature constitutes an important cultural element in the life of Egypt. Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated throughout the Middle East. The first modern Egyptian novel Zaynab by Muhammad Husayn Haykal was published in 1913 in the Egyptian vernacular. Vatikiotis, op cit. Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Egyptian women writers include Nawal El Saadawi, well known for her feminist activism, and Alifa Rifaat who also writes about women and tradition. Vernacular poetry is perhaps the most popular literary genre amongst Egyptians, represented by such luminaries as Ahmed Fuad Nigm (Fagumi), Salah Jaheen and Abdel Rahman el-Abnudi. Upper Egyptian folk musicians from Kom Ombo. Egyptian music is a rich mixture of indigenous, Mediterranean, African and Western elements. In antiquity, Egyptians were playing harps and flutes, including two indigenous instruments: the ney and the oud. Percussion and vocal music also became an important part of the local music tradition ever since. Contemporary Egyptian music traces its beginnings to the creative work of people such as Abdu-l Hamuli, Almaz and Mahmud Osman, who influenced the later work of Egyptian music giants such as Sayed Darwish, Umm Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim Hafez. These prominent artists were followed later by Amr Diab. He is seen by many as the new age "Musical Legend", whose fan base stretches all over the Middle East and Europe. From the 1970s onwards, Egyptian pop music has become increasingly important in Egyptian culture, while Egyptian folk music continues to be played during weddings and other festivities. Egypt is famous for its many festivals and religious carnivals, also known as mulids or Mawlid. They are usually associated with a particular Coptic or Sufi saint, but are often celebrated by all Egyptians irrespective of creed or religion. Ramadan has a special flavor in Egypt, celebrated with sounds, lights (local lanterns known as fawanees) and much flare that many Muslim tourists from the region flock to Egypt during Ramadan to witness the spectacle. The ancient spring festival of Sham en Nisim (Coptic: shom en nisim) has been celebrated by Egyptians for thousands of years, typically between the Egyptian months of Paremoude (April) and Pashons (May), following Easter Sunday. Cairo International Stadium during the 2006 African Cup of Nations Football (soccer) is the de facto national sport of Egypt. Egyptian Soccer clubs El Ahly and El Zamalek are the two most popular teams and enjoy the reputation of long-time regional champions. The great rivalries keep the streets of Egypt energized as people fill the streets when their favourite team wins. Egypt is rich in soccer history as soccer has been around for over 100 years. The country is home to many African championships such as the African Cup of Nations. However, Egypt's national team has not qualified for the FIFA World Cup since 1990. Squash and tennis are other favourite sports. The Egyptian squash team has been known for its fierce competition in international championships since the 1930s. The Egyptian Armed forces have a combined troop strength of around 450,000 active personnel. Egypt Military Strength According to the Israeli chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuval Steinitz, the Egyptian Air Force has roughly the same number of modern warplanes as the Israeli Air Force and far more Western tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft batteries and warships than the IDF. Steinitz, Yuval. Not the peace we expected. Haaretz. December 05, 2006. The Egyptian military has recently undergone massive military modernization mostly in their Air Force. Other than Israel, Egypt is the first country in the region with a spy satellite, EgyptSat 1, and is planning to launch 3 more spy satellites (DesertSat1, EgyptSat2, DesertSat2) over the next two years. Katz, Yaacov. "Egypt to launch first spy satellite," Jerusalem Post, January 15, 2007. White Desert, Farafra At , World Factbook area rank order Egypt is the world's 38th-largest country (after Mauritania). It is comparable in size to Tanzania, twice the size of France, four times the size of the United Kingdom, and is more than half the size of the US state of Alaska. Nevertheless, due to the aridity of Egypt's climate, population centres are concentrated along the narrow Nile Valley and Delta, meaning that approximately 99% of the population uses only about 5.5% of the total land area. Hamza, Waleed. Land use and Coastal Management in the Third Countries: Egypt as a case. Accessed= 2007-06-10. Egypt is bordered by Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. Egypt's important role in geopolitics stems from its strategic position: a transcontinental nation, it possesses a land bridge (the Isthmus of Suez) between Africa and Asia, which in turn is traversed by a navigable waterway (the Suez Canal) that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea. Apart from the Nile Valley, the majority of Egypt's landscape is a sandy desert. The winds blowing can create sand dunes over high. Egypt includes parts of the Sahara Desert and of the Libyan Desert. These deserts were referred to as the "red land" in ancient Egypt, and they protected the Kingdom of the Pharaohs from western threats. Towns and cities include Alexandria, one of the greatest ancient cities, Aswan, Asyut, Cairo, the modern Egyptian capital, El-Mahalla El-Kubra, Giza, the site of the Pyramid of Khufu, Hurghada, Luxor, Kom Ombo, Port Safaga, Port Said, Sharm el Sheikh, Suez, where the Suez Canal is located, Zagazig, and Al-Minya. Oases include Bahariya, el Dakhla, Farafra, el Kharga and Siwa. Protectorates include Ras Mohamed National Park, Zaranik Protectorate and Siwa. See Egyptian Protectorates for more information. Egypt receives the least rainfall in the world. South of Cairo, rainfall averages only around 2 to 5 mm (0.1 to 0.2 in) per year and at intervals of many years. On a very thin strip of the northern coast the rainfall can be as high as , all between November and March. Snow falls on Sinai's mountains and some of the north coastal cities such as Damietta, Baltim, Sidi Barrany, etc. and rarely in Alexandria, frost is also known in mid-Sinai and mid-Egypt. Temperatures average between and in summer, and up to on the Red Sea coast. Temperatures average between and in winter. A steady wind from the northwest helps hold down the temperature near the Mediterranean coast. The Khamaseen is a wind that blows from the south in Egypt in spring, bringing sand and dust, and sometimes raises the temperature in the desert to more than . * List of Rulers and heads of state of Egypt * List of writers from Egypt * List of Egyptian companies * List of Egypt-related topics * List of Egyptians * List of Egyptian universities General references * * * Leonard William King, History of Egypt, ChaldÃ¦a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery, Project Gutenberg. * Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, History of Egypt, ChaldÃ¦a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, in 12 volumes, Project Gutenberg. * Ancient Egyptian Civilization - Aldokkan * Rural poverty in Egypt (IFAD) * Encyclopaedia Britannica's Egypt Country Page * Egyptian Government Services Portal * New Projects in Egypt * Egypt State Information Services * Egypt Information Portal - available in Arabic and English * BBC News Country Profile - Egypt * CIA World Factbook - Egypt * Amnesty International's 2005 Report on Egypt. * US State Department - Egypt includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports * Business Anti-Corruption Portal Egypt Country Profile * Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Egypt * * * Egypt Maps - Perry-CastaÃ±eda Map Collection * Egyptian History (urdu) * By Nile and Tigris, a narrative of journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on behalf of the British museum between the years 1886 and 1913, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, 1920 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDF format) * Egypt Online Directory * The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights * PortSaid Free-zone forums Related Wikipedia Articles Bilady, Bilady, Bilady Arabic language Cairo Semi-presidential system republic President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister of Egypt Ahmed Nazif History of Egypt First dynasty of Egypt Circa United Kingdom February 28 1922 June 18 1953 CIA World Factbook Egyptian pound Eastern European Summer Time .eg Egyptian Arabic Egyptian language Coptic language Egyptian Arabic North Africa Sinai Peninsula land bridge Asia Libya Sudan Gaza Strip Israel Mediterranean Sea Cyprus Red Sea Africa Nile River arable Sahara Desert Cairo Alexandria Nile Delta Ancient Egypt Giza pyramid complex Great Sphinx of Giza Luxor Karnak Valley of the Kings Middle East Egyptian language Coptic language Upper and Lower Egypt Arabic language Egyptian Arabic Semitic cognate Hebrew language Latin ancient Greek Copt Late Egyptian Egyptian language Egyptian soul Ptah Memphis, Egypt Strabo folk etymology Nile River Nile Valley Paleolithic Petroglyph Nile 10th millennium BC hunter-gatherer fishing cereal culture Sahara agriculture Economic system society Neolithic Predynastic Egypt Upper and Lower Egypt Badarian Naqada Ancient Egypt Egyptian hieroglyphs Naqada Before Christ Menes List of Egyptian dynasties Egyptians Coptic language Culture of Egypt Ancient Egyptian religion Art of Ancient Egypt Egyptian language Protodynastic Period of Egypt Old Kingdom Egyptian pyramids Third dynasty of Egypt pyramid of Djoser Fourth dynasty of Egypt Giza pyramid complex Great Sphinx of Giza Giza pyramid complex Old Kingdom First Intermediate Period of Egypt Middle Kingdom of Egypt Amenemhat III Second Intermediate Period of Egypt Semitic Hyksos Avaris Ahmose I Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt Memphis, Egypt Thebes, Egypt New Kingdom Power in international relations Jebel Barkal Nubia 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Empire World War I protectorate Khedive Abbas II Husayn Kamil Sultan of Egypt Egyptian revolution of 1919 Saad Zaghlul Dinshaway Incident British Empire Saad Zaghlul Wafd Party Legislative Assembly Malta March 8 1919 Egyptian revolution of 1919 February 22 1922 1923 Constitution of Egypt Parliamentary system Prime Minister of Egypt Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 coup d'Ã©tat Egyptian Revolution of 1952 Free Officers Movement Farouk of Egypt Fuad II of Egypt Cairo Africa Middle East Cairo Opera House 18 June 1953 Muhammad Naguib Gamal Abdel Nasser house arrest Political power United Kingdom June 18 1956 nationalization Suez Canal July 26 1956 Suez Crisis Six Day War Israel Sinai Anwar Sadat Cold War Soviet Union United States Infitah Yom Kippur War Golan Heights US USSR Ceasefire Yom Kippur war Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty Arab world Hosni Mubarak Kifaya democracy civil liberties Mahmoud Mokhtar Cairo University Ancient Egypt History of Egypt Culture of Egypt Egyptians Christianity Islam Arabic language Egyptian Arabic collective identity nationalism Pharaonism Arab nationalism pan-Arabism Islamism Egyptians Arab Sati' al-Husri Arab League University of Oxford Gamal Abdel Nasser Zionism Syria United Arab Republic Six-Day War Anwar Al Sadat Israel 1958 Islamic countries Hindustan Times Imbaba Arabian Gulf Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass Sub-Saharan Africa Osama Anwar Okasha Leila Ahmed 18 June 1953 Hosni Mubarak President of Egypt October 14 1981 Anwar Sadat National Democratic Party (Egypt) Heads of government of Egypt Ahmed Nazif 9 July 2004 Atef Ebeid Multi-party system semi-presidential system Prime Minister of Egypt Egyptian presidential election, 2005 Free Officers Movement Ayman Nour March 27 2006 The Christian Science Monitor May 26, 2005 democratization San Francisco Chronicle September 13 2005 December 5 2006 March 19 2007 BBC constitutional amendment Kifaya Hosni Mubarak Amnesty International Human Rights Watch Hosni Mubarak Kifaya Christian Christianity Freedom House political rights civil liberties Freedom House 2005-12-16 Freedom in the World 2006 List of indices of freedom Amnesty International torture War on Terror Anti-terrorism legislation bbc.co.uk 4-11 bbc.co.uk 4-13 human rights in Egypt United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali June 3 2003 December 5 2006 Judaism Egyptian Identification Card Controversy population size Africa Middle East Cairo Islam Sociocultural evolution Headquarters of the Arab League Cairo Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa Israel Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty Israeli-Palestinian conflict Saudi Arabia Gulf States Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali United Nations Luxor governorate muhafazah markaz Al Iskandariyah Governorate Alexandria Aswan Governorate Aswan Asyut Governorate Asyut Al Buhayrah Governorate Damanhur Bani Suwayf Governorate Beni Suef Al Qahirah Governorate Cairo Ad Daqahliyah Governorate Mansura Domyat Governorate Damietta Al Fayyum Governorate 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Egypt	Is Egypt the most populated country in Africa?	No	data/set2/a6	Egypt Egypt (Egyptian: Kemet; Coptic: KÄ«mi; ; Egyptian Arabic: ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country in North Africa that includes the Sinai Peninsula, a land bridge to Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. The northern coast borders the Mediterranean Sea and the island of Cyprus; the eastern coast borders the Red Sea. Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa. The great majority of its estimated 78 million people (2007) live near the banks of the Nile River in an area of about where the only arable agricultural land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the densely populated centers of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta. Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments, including the Giza pyramid complex and the Great Sphinx. The southern city of Luxor contains numerous ancient artifacts, such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and cultural nation of the Middle East. One of the ancient Egyptian names of the country, Kemet ( ), or "black land" (from kem "black"), is derived from the fertile black soils deposited by the Nile floods, distinct from the deshret, or "red land" ( ), of the desert. The name is realized as and in the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as ( ). Another name was "land of the riverbank". The names of Upper and Lower Egypt were Ta-Sheme'aw ( ) "sedgeland" and Ta-Mehew ( ) "northland", respectively. , the Arabic and modern official name of Egypt (Egyptian Arabic: ), is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew ( ), literally meaning "the two straits" (a reference to the dynastic separation of upper and lower Egypt). Biblical Hebrew E-Magazine. January, 2005 The word originally connoted "metropolis" or "civilization" and also means "country", or "frontier-land". The English name "Egypt" came via the Latin word derived from the ancient Greek word AÃgyptos ( ). The adjective aigÃ½pti, aigÃ½ptios was borrowed into Coptic as gyptios, kyptios, and from there into Arabic as , back formed into , whence English Copt. The term is derived from Late Egyptian Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name Hat-ka-Ptah ( ), meaning "home of the ka (soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god Ptah at Memphis. Strabo provided a folk etymology according to which AÃgyptos ( ) had evolved as a compound from ( ), meaning "below the Aegean". The Nile River in Egypt The Nile has been a site of continuous human habitation since at least the Paleolithic era. Evidence of this appears in the form of artifacts and rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in the desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers replaced a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. Midant-Reynes, BÃ©atrix. The Prehistory of Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the First Kings. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. By about 6000 BC, organized agriculture and large building construction had appeared in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to Dynastic Egyptian civilization. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining somewhat culturally separate, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC. Bard, Kathryn A. Ian Shaw, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. p. 69. A unified kingdom was founded circa 3150 BC by King Menes, giving rise to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptians subsequently referred to their unified country as tawy, meaning "two lands", and later kemet (Coptic: kÄ«mi), the "black land", a reference to the fertile black soil deposited by the Nile river. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs. The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom period, c.2700â2200 BC., famous for its many pyramids, most notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza Pyramids. The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, built during the Old Kingdom, are modern national icons that are at the heart of Egypt's thriving tourism industry. The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about 150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilization of government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for the country in the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, reaching a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III. A second period of disunity heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos. The Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BC and founded a new capital at Avaris. They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes. The New Kingdom (c.1550â1070 BC) began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Jebel Barkal in Nubia, and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well-known Pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first known self-conscious expression of monotheism came during this period in the form of Atenism. Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The country was later invaded by Libyans, Nubians and Assyrians, but native Egyptians drove them out and regained control of their country. First built in the third or fourth century AD, the Hanging Church is Cairo's most famous Coptic church. The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Persians in 343 BC after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle. Later, Egypt fell to the Greeks and Romans, beginning over two thousand years of foreign rule. Before Egypt became part of the Byzantine realm, Christianity had been brought by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the AD first century. Diocletian's reign marked the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established. Kamil, Jill. Coptic Egypt: History and Guide. Cairo: American University in Cairo, 1997. p. 39 The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief Persian invasion early in the seventh century, until in AD 639, Egypt was invaded by the Muslim Arabs. The form of Islam the Arabs brought to Egypt was Sunni. Early in this period, Egyptians began to blend their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices that had survived through Coptic Christianity, giving rise to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day. El-Daly, Okasha. Egyptology: The Missing Millennium. London: UCL Press, 2005. p. 140 Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, including a period for which it was the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about AD 1250. They continued to govern even after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Mosque of Mohamed Ali built in the early nineteenth century within the Cairo Citadel. The brief French Invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 had a great social impact on the country and its culture. Native Egyptians became exposed to the principles of the French Revolution and had a chance to exercise self-governance. Vatikiotis, P.J. The History of Modern Egypt. 4th edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1992, p. 39 A series of civil wars took place between the Ottoman Turks, the Mamluks, and Albanian mercenaries following the evacuation of French troops, resulting in the Albanian Muhammad Ali (Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasha) taking control of Egypt. He was appointed as the Ottoman viceroy in 1805. He led a modernization campaign of public works, including irrigation projects, agricultural reforms and increased industrialization, which were then taken up and further expanded by his grandson and successor Isma'il Pasha. Following the completion of the Suez Canal by Ismail in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation and trading hub. In 1866, the Assembly of Delegates was founded to serve as an advisory body for the government. Its members were elected from across Egypt. They came to have an important influence on governmental affairs. Jankowski, James. Egypt: A Short History. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2000. p. 83 The country fell heavily into debt to European powers. Ostensibly to protect its investments, the United Kingdom seized control of Egypt's government in 1882. Egypt gave nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire until 1914. As a result of the declaration of war with the Ottoman Empire, Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt and deposed the Khedive Abbas II, replacing him with his uncle, Husayn Kamil, who was appointed Sultan. Public riot during the 1919 Revolution sparked by the British exile of nationalist leader Saad Zaghlul.Between 1882 and 1906, a local nationalist movement for independence was taking shape. The Dinshaway Incident prompted Egyptian opposition to take a stronger stand against British occupation. The first political parties were founded. After the First World War, Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement, gaining a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on March 8, 1919, the country arose in its first modern revolution. Constant revolting by the Egyptian people throughout the country led Great Britain to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence on February 22, 1922. Jankowski, op cit., p. 112 The new Egyptian government drafted and implemented a new constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary representative system. Saad Zaghlul was popularly-elected as Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. In 1936 the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. Continued instability in the government due to remaining British control and increasing political involvement by the king led to the ouster of the monarchy and the dissolution of the parliament in a military coup d'Ã©tat known as the 1952 Revolution. The officers, known as the Free Officers Movement, forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his son Fuad. View of Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East. The Cairo Opera House (bottom-right) is the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. On June 18 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser the real architect of the 1952 movement and was later put under house arrest. Nasser assumed power as President and declared the full independence of Egypt from the United Kingdom on June 18 1956. His nationalization of the Suez Canal on July 26 1956 prompted the 1956 Suez Crisis. Three years after the 1967 Six Day War, during which Israel had invaded and occupied Sinai, Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972. He launched the Infitah economic reform policy, while violently clamping down on religious and secular opposition alike. In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the October War, a surprise attack against the Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. It was an attempt to liberate the territory Israel had captured 6 years earlier. Both the US and the USSR intervened and a cease-fire was reached. Despite not being a complete military success, most historians agree that the October War presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him to pursue peace with Israel. In 1977, Sadat made a historic visit to Israel, which led to the 1979 peace treaty in exchange for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat's initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League, but it was supported by the vast majority of Egyptians. Vatikiotis, p. 443 A fundamentalist military soldier assassinated Sadat in Cairo in 1981. He was succeeded by the incumbent Hosni Mubarak. In 2003, the Egyptian Movement for Change, popularly known as Kifaya, was launched to seek a return to democracy and greater civil liberties. Mahmoud Mokhtar's Egypt's Renaissance 1919-1928, Cairo University. The Egyptian Nile Valley was home to one of the oldest cultures in the world, spanning three thousand years of continuous history. When Egypt fell under a series of foreign occupations after 343 BC, each left an indelible mark on the country's cultural landscape. Egyptian identity evolved in the span of this long period of occupation to accommodate, in principle, two new religions, Christianity and Islam; and a new language, Arabic, and its spoken descendant, Egyptian Arabic. The degree to which different groups in Egypt identify with these factors in articulating a sense of collective identity can vary. Questions of identity came to fore in the last century as Egypt sought to free itself from foreign occupation for the first time in two thousand years. Three chief ideologies came to head: ethno-territorial Egyptian nationalism and by extension Pharaonism, secular Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism, and Islamism. Egyptian nationalism predates its Arab counterpart by many decades, having roots in the nineteenth century and becoming the dominant mode of expression of Egyptian anti-colonial activists of the pre- and inter-war periods. It was nearly always articulated in exclusively Egyptian terms: In 1931, following a visit to Egypt, Syrian Arab nationalist Sati' al-Husri remarked that "[Egyptians] did not possess an Arab nationalist sentiment; did not accept that Egypt was a part of the Arab lands, and would not acknowledge that the Egyptian people were part of the Arab nation." qtd in Dawisha, Adeed. Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century. Princeton University Press. 2003, p. 99 The later 1930s would become a formative period for Arab nationalism in Egypt, in large part due to efforts by Syrian/Palestinian/Lebanese intellectuals. Jankowski, "Egypt and Early Arab Nationalism," p. 246 Nevertheless, a year after the establishment of the League of Arab States in 1945, to be headquartered in Cairo, Oxford University historian H. S. Deighton was still writing: It was not until the Nasser era more than a decade later that Arab nationalism became a state policy and a means with which to define Egypt's position in the Middle East and the world. "Before Nasser, Egypt, which had been ruled by Britain since 1882, was more in favor of territorial, Egyptian nationalism and distant from the pan-Arab ideology. Egyptians generally did not identify themselves as Arabs, and it is revealing that when the Egyptian nationalist leader [Saad Zaghlul] met the Arab delegates at Versailles in 1918, he insisted that their struggles for statehood were not connected, claiming that the problem of Egypt was an Egyptian problem and not an Arab one." Makropoulou, Ifigenia. Pan - Arabism: What Destroyed the Ideology of Arab Nationalism?. Hellenic Center for European Studies. January 15, 2007. usually articulated vis-Ã -vis Zionism in the neighboring Jewish state. For a while Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic. When the union was dissolved, the current official name of Egypt was adopted, the Arab Republic of Egypt. Egypt's attachment to Arabism, however, was particularly questioned after its defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War. Thousands of Egyptians had lost their lives and the country become disillusioned with Arab politics. Dawisha, p. 237 Nasser's successor Sadat, both by policy and through his peace initiative with Israel, revived an uncontested Egyptian orientation, unequivocally asserting that only Egypt was his responsibility. The terms "Arab", "Arabism" and "Arab unity", save for the new official name, became conspicuously absent. Dawisha, pp. 264-65, 267 Indeed, as professor of Egyptian history P. J. Vatikiotis explains: Egyptian Flag Until 1958. The question of identity continues to be debated today. Many Egyptians feel that Egyptian and Arab identities are linked and not necessarily incompatible. Many others continue to believe that Egypt and Egyptians are simply not Arab. They emphasize indigenous Egyptian heritage, culture and independent polity; point to the failures of Arab nationalist policies; and publicly voice objection to the present official name of the country. Ordinary Egyptians frequently express this sentiment. For example, a foreign tourist said after visiting Egypt,"Although an avowedly Islamic country and now part and parcel of the Arab world, Egyptians are very proud of their distinctiveness and their glorious Pharaonic past dating back to 3500 BC... 'We are not Arabs, we are Egyptians,' said tour guide Shayma, who is a devout Muslim." In Egypt, India is Big B!. Hindustan Times. December 25, 2006. In late 2007, el-Masri el-Yom daily newspaper conducted an interview at a bus stop in the working-class district of Imbaba to ask citizens what Arab nationalism (el-qawmeyya el-'arabeyya) represented for them. One Egyptian Muslim youth responded, "Arab nationalism means that the Egyptian Foreign Minister in Jerusalem gets humiliated by the Palestinians, that Arab leaders dance upon hearing of Sadat's death, that Egyptians get humiliated in the Arab Gulf States, and of course that Arab countries get to fight Israel until the last Egyptian soldier." Ragab, Ahmed. El-Masry el-Yom Newspaper. "What is the definition of 'Arab Nationalism': Question at a bus stop in Imbaba". May 21, 2007. Another felt that,"Arab countries hate Egyptians," and that unity with Israel may even be more of a possibility than Arab nationalism, because he believes that Israelis would at least respect Egyptians. Some contemporary prominent Egyptians who oppose Arab nationalism or the idea that Egyptians are Arabs include Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass. In an audio interview on Egypt's links with Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, Hawass believes that "even today Egyptians are Egyptians. It really doesn't mean that because we speak Arabic that we can be Arabs. We are...really, I feel personally that we are related even today to the Pharaohs." , popular writer Osama Anwar Okasha, Egyptian-born Harvard University Professor Leila Ahmed, Member of Parliament Suzie Greiss An Interculturalist in Cairo. InterCultures Magazine. January 2007. , in addition to different local groups and intellectuals. Kimit Sagi We are Egyptians, not Arabs. ArabicNews.com. 11/06.2003. Ghobrial, Kamal. Egypt, the Arabs and Arabism. el-Ahali. August 31-September 6, 2005. Said Habeeb's Masreyat. Egyptian national group This understanding is also expressed in other contexts, Egyptian people section from Arab.Net Princeton Alumni Weekly such as Neil DeRosa's novel Joseph's Seed in his depiction of an Egyptian character "who declares that Egyptians are not Arabs and never will be." Review by Michelle Fram Cohen. The Atlasphere. Jan. 17, 2005. Egyptian critics of Arab nationalism contend that it has worked to erode and/or relegate native Egyptian identity by superimposing only one aspect of Egypt's culture. These views and sources for collective identification in the Egyptian state are captured in the words of a linguistic anthropologist who conducted fieldwork in Cairo: Egypt has been a republic since June 18 1953. President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has been the President of the Republic since October 14 1981, following the assassination of former-President Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat. Mubarak is currently serving his fifth term in office. He is the leader of the ruling National Democratic Party. Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 July 2004, following the resignation of Dr. Atef Ebeid from his office. Although power is ostensibly organized under a multi-party semi-presidential system, whereby the executive power is theoretically divided between the President and the Prime Minister, in practice it rests almost solely with the President who traditionally has been elected in single-candidate elections for more than fifty years. Egypt also holds regular multi-party parliamentary elections. The last presidential election, in which Mubarak won a fifth consecutive term, was held in September 2005. In late February 2005, President Mubarak announced in a surprise television broadcast that he had ordered the reform of the country's presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential election. For the first time since the 1952 movement, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader from a list of various candidates. The President said his initiative came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy." Business TodayEGYPT. Mubarak throws presidential race wide open. March 2005. However, the new law placed draconian restrictions on the filing for presidential candidacies, designed to prevent well-known candidates such as Ayman Nour from standing against Mubarak, and paved the road for his easy re-election victory. Lavin, Abigail. Democracy on the Nile: The story of Ayman Nour and Egypt's problematic attempt at free elections. March 27, 2006. Concerns were once again expressed after the 2005 presidential elections about government interference in the election process through fraud and vote-rigging, in addition to police brutality and violence by pro-Mubarak supporters against opposition demonstrators. Murphy, Dan. Egyptian vote marred by violence. Christian Science Monitor. May 26, 2005. After the election, Egypt imprisoned Nour, and the U.S. Government stated the âconviction of Mr. Nour, the runner-up in Egypt's 2005 presidential elections, calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom, and the rule of law.â United States "Deeply Troubled" by Sentencing of Egypt's Nour. U.S. Department of State, Published December 24, 2005 As a result, most Egyptians are skeptical about the process of democratization and the role of the elections. Less than 25 percent of the country's 32 million registered voters (out of a population of more than 78 million) turned out for the 2005 elections. Gomez, Edward M. Hosni Mubarak's pretend democratic election. San Francisco Chronicle. September 13, 2005. A proposed change to the constitution would limit the president to two seven-year terms in office. Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006. Thirty-four constitutional changes voted on by parliament on March 19, 2007 prohibit parties from using religion as a basis for political activity; allow the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law to replace the emergency legislation in place since 1981, giving police wide powers of arrest and surveillance; give the president power to dissolve parliament; and end judicial monitoring of election. Anger over Egypt vote timetable BBC News. As opposition members of parliament withdrew from voting on the proposed changes, it was expected that the referendum will be boycotted by a great number of Egyptians in protest of what has been considered a breach of democratic practices. Eventually it was reported that only 27% of the registered voters went to the polling stations under heavy police presence and tight political control of the ruling National Democratic Party. It was officially announced on March 27,2007 that 75.9% of those who participated in the referendum approved of the constitutional amendments introduced by President Mubarak and was endorsed by opposition free parliament, thus allowing the introduction of laws that curbs the activity of certain opposition elements particularly Islamists. [[Image:Kefaya demo.jpg\|thumb\|Members of the Kifaya democracy movement protesting a fifth term for President Hosni Mubarak. See also video.]] Several local and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have for many years criticized Egypt's human rights record as poor. In 2005, President Hosni Mubarak faced unprecedented public criticism when he clamped down on democracy activists challenging his rule. Some of the most serious human rights violations according to HRW's 2006 report on Egypt are routine torture, arbitrary detentions and trials before military and state security courts. Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005 Discriminatory personal status laws governing marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance which put women at a disadvantage have also been cited. Laws concerning Christians which place restrictions on church building and open worship have been recently eased, but major constructions still require governmental approval and persecution of Christianity by underground radical groups remains a problem. Church Building Regulations Eased In addition, intolerance of Baha'is and unorthodox Muslim sects remains a problem. In 2005, the Freedom House rated political rights in Egypt as "6" (1 representing the most free and 7 the least free rating), civil liberties as "5" and gave it the freedom rating of "Not Free." See also Freedom in the World 2006, List of indices of freedom It however noted that "Egypt witnessed its most transparent and competitive presidential and legislative elections in more than half a century and an increasingly unbridled public debate on the country's political future in 2005." Freedom House. Freedom in the World - Egypt. 2006 In 2007, human rights group Amnesty International released a report criticizing Egypt for torture and illegal detention. The report alleges that Egypt has become an international center for torture, where other nations send suspects for interrogation, often as part of the War on Terror. The report calls on Egypt to bring its anti-terrorism laws into accordance with international human rights statutes and on other nations to stop sending their detainees to Egypt. Egypt torture centre, report says. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-11. Accessed 2007-4-11. Egypt's foreign ministry quickly issued a rebuttal to this report, claiming that it was inaccurate and unfair, as well as causing deep offense to the Egyptian government. Egypt rejects torture criticism. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-13. Accessed 2007-4-13. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is one of the longest-standing bodies for the defence of human rights in Egypt. Egyptian Organization for Human Rights In 2003, the government established the National Council for Human Rights, headquartered in Cairo and headed by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who directly reports to the president. Official page of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights. The council has come under heavy criticism by local NGO activists, who contend it undermines human rights work in Egypt by serving as a propaganda tool for the government to excuse its violations Egyptian National Council for Human Rights Against Human Rights NGOs. EOHR. June 3, 2003. and to provide legitimacy to repressive laws such as the recently renewed Emergency Law. Qenawy, Ahmed. The Egyptian Human Rights Council: The Apple Falls Close to the Tree. ANHRI. 2004 Egypt has recently announced that it is in the process of abolishing the Emergency Law. Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006. However, in March 2007 President Mubarak approved several constitutional amendments to include "an anti-terrorism clause that appears to enshrine sweeping police powers of arrest and surveillance", suggesting that the Emergency Law is here to stay for the long haul. Egypt parliament approves changes in constitution. Reuters. March 20, 2007. The high court of Egypt has outlawed all religions and belief except Islam, Christianity and Judaism. (For more information see Egyptian Identification Card Controversy.) Egypt's foreign policy operates along moderate lines. Factors such as population size, historical events, military strength, diplomatic expertise and a strategic geographical position give Egypt extensive political influence in Africa and the Middle East. Cairo has been a crossroads of regional commerce and culture for centuries, and its intellectual and Islamic institutions are at the center of the region's social and cultural development. The permanent Headquarters of the Arab League are located in Cairo and the Secretary General of the Arab League has traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa is the current Secretary General. The Arab League briefly moved from Egypt to Tunis in 1978, as a protest to the signing by Egypt of a peace treaty with Israel, but returned in 1989. Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, with the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979. Egypt has a major influence amongst other Arab states, and has historically played an important role as a mediator in resolving disputes between various Arab states, and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Most Arab states still give credence to Egypt playing that role, though its effects are often limited and recently challenged by Saudi Arabia and oil rich Gulf States. It is also reported that due to Egypt's indulgence in internal problems and its reluctance to play a positive role in regional matters had lost the country great influence in Africa and the neighbouring countries. Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996. Map of Egypt, showing the 26 capitals of governorates, in addition to the self-governing city of Luxor Egypt is divided into twenty-six governorates (muhafazat, singular muhafazah). The governorates are further divided into regions (markazes). \| \|style="padding-top:8px;"\| \|} The Nile River at the ancient city of Aswan, a popular destination for vacationersEgypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than three million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly-growing population, limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress the economy. The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investments in communications and physical infrastructure. Egypt has been receiving U.S. foreign aid (since 1979, an average of $2.2 billion per year) and is the third-largest recipient of such funds from the United States following the Iraq war. Its main revenues however come from tourism as well as traffic that goes through the Suez Canal. Egypt has a developed energy market based on coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro power. Substantial coal deposits are in the north-east Sinai, and are mined at the rate of about per year. Oil and gas are produced in the western desert regions, the Gulf of Suez, and the Nile Delta. Egypt has huge reserves of gas, estimated at over in the 1990s, and LNG is exported to many countries. Economic conditions have started to improve considerably after a period of stagnation from the adoption of more liberal economic policies by the government, as well as increased revenues from tourism and a booming stock market. In its annual report, the IMF has rated Egypt as one of the top countries in the world undertaking economic reforms. Some major economic reforms taken by the new government since 2003 include a dramatic slashing of customs and tariffs. A new taxation law implemented in 2005 decreased corporate taxes from 40% to the current 20%, resulting in a stated 100% increase in tax revenue by the year 2006. FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into Egypt has increased considerably in the past few years due to the recent economic liberalization measures taken by minister of investment Mahmoud Mohieddin, exceeding $6 billion in 2006. Egypt is slated to overcome South Africa as the highest earner of FDI on the African continent in 2007. Although one of the main obstacles still facing the Egyptian economy is the trickle down of the wealth to the average population, many Egyptians criticize their government for higher prices of basic goods while their standards of living or purchasing power remains relatively stagnant. Often corruption is blamed by Egyptians as the main impediment to feeling the benefits of the newly attained wealth. Major reconstruction of the country's infrastructure is promised by the government, with a large portion of the sum paid for the newly acquired 3rd mobile license ($3 billion) by Etisalat. This is slated to be pumped into the country's railroad system, in response to public outrage against the government for disasters in 2006 that claimed more than 100 lives. The best known examples of Egyptian companies that have expanded regionally and globally are the Orascom Group and Raya. The IT sector has been expanding rapidly in the past few years, with many new start-ups conducting outsourcing business to North America and Europe, operating with companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and other major corporations, as well as numerous SME's. Some of these companies are the Xceed Contact Center, Raya Contact Center, E Group Connections and C3 along with other start ups in that country. The sector has been stimulated by new Egyptian entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on their country's huge potential in the sector, as well as constant government encouragement. Egyptian farm Egypt is the most populated country in the Middle East and the second-most populous on the African continent, with an estimated 78 million people. Almost all the population is concentrated along the banks of the Nile (notably Cairo and Alexandria), in the Delta and near the Suez Canal. Approximately 80-90% of the population adheres to Islam and most of the remainder to Christianity, primarily the Coptic Orthodox denomination. Apart from religious affiliation, Egyptians can be divided demographically into those who live in the major urban centers and the fellahin or farmers of rural villages. The last 40 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity, BBC NEWS \| The limits of a Green Revolution? made by the Green Revolution. Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy Egyptians are by far the largest ethnic group in Egypt at 94% (about 72.5 million) of the total population. Ethnic minorities include the Bedouin Arab tribes living in the eastern deserts and the Sinai Peninsula, the Berber-speaking Siwis (Amazigh) of the Siwa Oasis, and the ancient Nubian communities clustered along the Nile. There are also tribal communities of Beja concentrated in the south-eastern-most corner of the country, and a number of Dom clans mostly in the Nile Delta and Faiyum who are progressively becoming assimilated as urbanization increases. Egypt also hosts an unknown number of refugees and asylum seekers. According to the UNDP's 2004 Human Development Report, there were 89,000 refugees in the country, UNDP, p. 75. though this number may be an underestimate. There are some 70,000 Palestinian refugees, and about 150,000 recently arrived Iraqi refugees, Iraq: from a Flood to a Trickle: Egypt but the number of the largest group, the Sudanese, is contested. See The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants for a lower estimate. The The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights states on its web site that in 2000 the World Council of Churches claimed that "between two and five million Sudanese have come to Egypt in recent years". Most Sudanese refugees come to Egypt in the hope of resettling in Europe or the US. The once-vibrant Jewish community in Egypt has virtually disappeared, with only a small number remaining in the country, but many Egyptian Jews visit on religious occasions and for tourism. Several important Jewish archaeological and historical sites are found in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities. Cairo's unique cityscape with its ancient mosques Religion plays a central role in most Egyptians' lives. The rolling calls to prayer that are heard five times a day have the informal effect of regulating the pace of everything from business to entertainment. Cairo is famous for its numerous mosque minarets and church towers. This religious landscape has been marred by a record of religious extremism. Most recently, a December 16 2006 judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of Egypt insisted on a clear demarcation between "recognized religions"âIslam, Christianity and Judaismâand all other religious beliefsâthus effectively delegitimatizing and forbidding practice of all but these aforementioned religions. This judgment has led to the requirement for communities to either commit perjury or be subjected to denial of identification cards. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, at 80-90% of the population, with the majority being adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam. A significant number of Muslim Egyptians also follow native Sufi orders, Hoffman, Valerie J. Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern Egypt. University of South Carolina Press, 1995. and a minority of Shi'a. Christians represent 10-20% of the population, Wahington Institute (Citing pop. estimates) more than 95% of whom belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Other native Egyptian Christians are adherents of the Coptic Catholic Church, the Coptic Evangelical Church and various Coptic Protestant denominations. Non-native Christian communities are largely found in the urban regions of Alexandria and Cairo, and are members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Maronite Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, or the Syriac Orthodox Church. According to the Constitution of Egypt, any new legislation must at least implicitly agree with Islamic laws. The mainstream Hanafi school of Sunni Islam is largely organised by the state, through Wizaret Al-Awkaf (Ministry of Religious Affairs). Al-Awkaf controls all mosques and overviews Muslim clerics. Imams are trained in Imam vocational schools and at Al-Azhar University. The department supports Sunni Islam and has commissions authorised to give Fatwa judgements on Islamic issues. Egypt hosts two major religious institutions. Al-Azhar University ( ) is the oldest Islamic institution of higher studies (founded around 970 A.D) and considered by many to be the oldest extant university. The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, headed by the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, attests to Egypt's strong Christian heritage. It has a following of approximately 15 million Christians worldwide; affiliated sister churches are located in Armenia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Lebanon and Syria. Religious freedom in Egypt is hampered to varying degrees by extremist Islamist groups and by discriminatory and restrictive government policies. Being the largest religious minority in Egypt, Coptic Christians are the most negatively affected community. Copts have faced increasing marginalization after the 1952 coup d'Ã©tat led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Until recently, Christians were required to obtain presidential approval for even minor repairs in churches. Although the law was eased in 2005 by handing down the authority of approval to the governors, Copts continue to face many obstacles in building new or repairing existing churches. These obstacles are not found in building mosques. WorldWide Religious News. Church Building Regulations Eased. December 13, 2005. Compass Direct News. Church Building Regulations Eased. December 13, 2005. In addition, Copts complain of being minimally represented in law enforcement, state security and public office, and of being discriminated against in the workforce on the basis of their religion. Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005 The Coptic community, as well as several human rights activists and intellectuals (such as Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Tarek Heggy), maintain that the number of Christians occupying government posts is not proportional to the number of Copts in Egypt, who constitute between 10 and 15% of the population in Egypt. Of the 32 cabinet ministers, two are Copts: Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali and Minister of Environment Magued George; and of the 25 local governors, only one is a Copt (in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Qena). However, Copts have demonstrated great success in Egypt's private business sector; Naguib Sawiris, an extremely successful businessman and one of the world's wealthiest 100 people is a Copt. In 2002, under the Mubarak government, Coptic Christmas (January 7) was recognized as an official holiday. ArabicNews.com. Copts welcome Presidential announcement on Eastern Christmas Holiday. December 20, 2002. Nevertheless, the Coptic community has occasionally been the target of hate crimes and physical assaults. The most significant was the 2000-2001 El Kosheh attacks , in which 21 Copts and one Muslim were killed. A 2006 attack on three churches in Alexandria left one dead and 17 injured, although the attacker was not linked to any organisation. BBC. Egypt church attacks spark anger, April 15 2006. Egypt was once home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. Egyptian Jews, who were mostly Karaites, partook of all aspects of Egypt's social, economic and political life; one of the most ardent Egyptian nationalists, Yaqub Sanu' (Abu Naddara), was a Jew, as were famous musician Dawoud Husni, popular singer Leila Mourad, and prominent filmmaker Togo Mizrahi. For a while, Jews from across the Ottoman Empire and Europe were attracted to Egypt due to the relative harmony that characterized the local religious landscape in the 19th and early 20th centuries. After the 1956 Suez Crisis, a great number of Jews were expelled by Gamal Abdel Nasser, many of whom holding official Egyptian citizenship. Their Egyptian citizenship was revoked and their property was confiscated. A steady stream of migration of Egyptian Jews followed, reaching a peak after the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967. Today, Jews in Egypt number less than 500. Jewish Community Council (JCC) of Cairo. Bassatine News. 2006. Over ten million Egyptians follow the Christian faith as members of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. BahÃ¡'Ãs in Egypt, whose population is estimated to be a couple of thousands, have long been persecuted, having their institutions and community activities banned. Since their faith is not officially recognized by the state, they are also not allowed to use it on their national identity cards (conversely, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are officially recognized); hence most of them do not hold national identity cards. In April 2006 a court case recognized the BahÃ¡'Ã Faith, but the government appealed the court decision and succeeded in having it suspended on May 15, 2006. On December 16, 2006, only after one hearing, the Supreme Administrative Council of Egypt ruled against the BahÃ¡'Ãs, stating that the government may not recognize the BahÃ¡'Ã Faith in official identification documents. There are Egyptians who identify as atheist and agnostic, but their numbers are largely unknown as openly advocating such positions risks legal sanction on the basis of apostasy (if a citizen takes the step of suing the 'apostating' person, though not automatically by the general prosecutor). In 2000, an openly atheist Egyptian writer, who called for the establishment of a local association for atheists, was tried on charges of insulting Islam in four of his books. While freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Egyptian constitution, according to Human Rights Watch, "Egyptians are able to convert to Islam generally without difficulty, but Muslims who convert to Christianity face difficulties in getting new identity papers and some have been arrested for allegedly forging such documents. Human Rights Watch. World report 2007: Egypt. The Coptic community, however, takes pains to prevent conversions from Christianity to Islam due to the ease with which Christians can often become Muslim. EGYPT: NATIONAL UNITY AND THE COPTIC ISSUE. 2004 Public officials, being conservative themselves, intensify the complexity of the legal procedures required to recognize the religion change as required by law. Security agencies will sometimes claim that such conversions from Islam to Christianity (or occasionally vice versa) may stir social unrest, and thereby justify themselves in wrongfully detaining the subjects, insisting that they are simply taking steps to prevent likely social troubles from happening. Egypt: Egypt Arrests 22 Muslim converts to Christianity. 03 November, 2003 Recently, a Cairo administrative court denied 45 citizens the right to obtain identity papers documenting their reversion to Christianity after converting to Islam. Shahine, Gihan. "Fraud, not Freedom". Ahram Weekly, 3 - 9 May 2007 Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a commemoration of the ancient Library of Alexandria in Egypt's second largest city. Egyptian culture has five thousand years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations and for millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Hellenism, Christianity, and Islamic culture. Today, many aspects of Egypt's ancient culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the influence of modern Western culture, itself with roots in ancient Egypt. Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's largest city and has been renowned for centuries as a center of learning, culture and commerce. Egypt has the highest number of Nobel Laureates in Africa and the Arab World. Some Egyptian born politicians were or are currently at the helm of major international organizations like Boutros Boutros-Ghali of the United Nations and Mohamed ElBaradei of the IAEA. The work of early nineteenth-century scholar Rifa'a et-Tahtawi gave rise to the Egyptian Renaissance, marking the transition from Medieval to Early Modern Egypt. His work renewed interest in Egyptian antiquity and exposed Egyptian society to Enlightenment principles. Tahtawi co-founded with education reformer Ali Mubarak a native Egyptology school that looked for inspiration to medieval Egyptian scholars, such as Suyuti and Maqrizi, who themselves studied the history, language and antiquities of Egypt. El-Daly, op cit., p. 29 Egypt's renaissance peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the work of people like Muhammad Abduh, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, Qasim Amin, Salama Moussa, Taha Hussein and Mahmoud Mokhtar. They forged a liberal path for Egypt expressed as a commitment to individual freedom, secularism and faith in science to bring progress. Jankowski, op cit., p. 130 Eighteenth dynasty painting from the tomb of Theban governor Ramose in Deir el-Madinah. The Egyptians were one of the first major civilizations to codify design elements in art. The wall paintings done in the service of the Pharaohs followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings. Modern and contemporary Egyptian art can be as diverse as any works in the world art scene. The Cairo Opera House serves as the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. Egypt's media and arts industry has flourished since the late nineteenth century, today with more than thirty satellite channels and over one hundred motion pictures produced each year. Cairo has long been known as the "Hollywood of the Middle East;" its annual film festival, the Cairo International Film Festival, has been rated as one of 11 festivals with a top class rating worldwide by the International Federation of Film Producers' Associations. Cairo Film Festival information. To bolster its media industry further, especially with the keen competition from the Persian Gulf Arab States and Lebanon, a large media city was built. Some Egyptian actors, like Omar Sharif, have achieved worldwide fame. Literature constitutes an important cultural element in the life of Egypt. Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated throughout the Middle East. The first modern Egyptian novel Zaynab by Muhammad Husayn Haykal was published in 1913 in the Egyptian vernacular. Vatikiotis, op cit. Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Egyptian women writers include Nawal El Saadawi, well known for her feminist activism, and Alifa Rifaat who also writes about women and tradition. Vernacular poetry is perhaps the most popular literary genre amongst Egyptians, represented by such luminaries as Ahmed Fuad Nigm (Fagumi), Salah Jaheen and Abdel Rahman el-Abnudi. Upper Egyptian folk musicians from Kom Ombo. Egyptian music is a rich mixture of indigenous, Mediterranean, African and Western elements. In antiquity, Egyptians were playing harps and flutes, including two indigenous instruments: the ney and the oud. Percussion and vocal music also became an important part of the local music tradition ever since. Contemporary Egyptian music traces its beginnings to the creative work of people such as Abdu-l Hamuli, Almaz and Mahmud Osman, who influenced the later work of Egyptian music giants such as Sayed Darwish, Umm Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim Hafez. These prominent artists were followed later by Amr Diab. He is seen by many as the new age "Musical Legend", whose fan base stretches all over the Middle East and Europe. From the 1970s onwards, Egyptian pop music has become increasingly important in Egyptian culture, while Egyptian folk music continues to be played during weddings and other festivities. Egypt is famous for its many festivals and religious carnivals, also known as mulids or Mawlid. They are usually associated with a particular Coptic or Sufi saint, but are often celebrated by all Egyptians irrespective of creed or religion. Ramadan has a special flavor in Egypt, celebrated with sounds, lights (local lanterns known as fawanees) and much flare that many Muslim tourists from the region flock to Egypt during Ramadan to witness the spectacle. The ancient spring festival of Sham en Nisim (Coptic: shom en nisim) has been celebrated by Egyptians for thousands of years, typically between the Egyptian months of Paremoude (April) and Pashons (May), following Easter Sunday. Cairo International Stadium during the 2006 African Cup of Nations Football (soccer) is the de facto national sport of Egypt. Egyptian Soccer clubs El Ahly and El Zamalek are the two most popular teams and enjoy the reputation of long-time regional champions. The great rivalries keep the streets of Egypt energized as people fill the streets when their favourite team wins. Egypt is rich in soccer history as soccer has been around for over 100 years. The country is home to many African championships such as the African Cup of Nations. However, Egypt's national team has not qualified for the FIFA World Cup since 1990. Squash and tennis are other favourite sports. The Egyptian squash team has been known for its fierce competition in international championships since the 1930s. The Egyptian Armed forces have a combined troop strength of around 450,000 active personnel. Egypt Military Strength According to the Israeli chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuval Steinitz, the Egyptian Air Force has roughly the same number of modern warplanes as the Israeli Air Force and far more Western tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft batteries and warships than the IDF. Steinitz, Yuval. Not the peace we expected. Haaretz. December 05, 2006. The Egyptian military has recently undergone massive military modernization mostly in their Air Force. Other than Israel, Egypt is the first country in the region with a spy satellite, EgyptSat 1, and is planning to launch 3 more spy satellites (DesertSat1, EgyptSat2, DesertSat2) over the next two years. Katz, Yaacov. "Egypt to launch first spy satellite," Jerusalem Post, January 15, 2007. White Desert, Farafra At , World Factbook area rank order Egypt is the world's 38th-largest country (after Mauritania). It is comparable in size to Tanzania, twice the size of France, four times the size of the United Kingdom, and is more than half the size of the US state of Alaska. Nevertheless, due to the aridity of Egypt's climate, population centres are concentrated along the narrow Nile Valley and Delta, meaning that approximately 99% of the population uses only about 5.5% of the total land area. Hamza, Waleed. Land use and Coastal Management in the Third Countries: Egypt as a case. Accessed= 2007-06-10. Egypt is bordered by Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. Egypt's important role in geopolitics stems from its strategic position: a transcontinental nation, it possesses a land bridge (the Isthmus of Suez) between Africa and Asia, which in turn is traversed by a navigable waterway (the Suez Canal) that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea. Apart from the Nile Valley, the majority of Egypt's landscape is a sandy desert. The winds blowing can create sand dunes over high. Egypt includes parts of the Sahara Desert and of the Libyan Desert. These deserts were referred to as the "red land" in ancient Egypt, and they protected the Kingdom of the Pharaohs from western threats. Towns and cities include Alexandria, one of the greatest ancient cities, Aswan, Asyut, Cairo, the modern Egyptian capital, El-Mahalla El-Kubra, Giza, the site of the Pyramid of Khufu, Hurghada, Luxor, Kom Ombo, Port Safaga, Port Said, Sharm el Sheikh, Suez, where the Suez Canal is located, Zagazig, and Al-Minya. Oases include Bahariya, el Dakhla, Farafra, el Kharga and Siwa. Protectorates include Ras Mohamed National Park, Zaranik Protectorate and Siwa. See Egyptian Protectorates for more information. Egypt receives the least rainfall in the world. South of Cairo, rainfall averages only around 2 to 5 mm (0.1 to 0.2 in) per year and at intervals of many years. On a very thin strip of the northern coast the rainfall can be as high as , all between November and March. Snow falls on Sinai's mountains and some of the north coastal cities such as Damietta, Baltim, Sidi Barrany, etc. and rarely in Alexandria, frost is also known in mid-Sinai and mid-Egypt. Temperatures average between and in summer, and up to on the Red Sea coast. Temperatures average between and in winter. A steady wind from the northwest helps hold down the temperature near the Mediterranean coast. The Khamaseen is a wind that blows from the south in Egypt in spring, bringing sand and dust, and sometimes raises the temperature in the desert to more than . * List of Rulers and heads of state of Egypt * List of writers from Egypt * List of Egyptian companies * List of Egypt-related topics * List of Egyptians * List of Egyptian universities General references * * * Leonard William King, History of Egypt, ChaldÃ¦a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery, Project Gutenberg. * Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, History of Egypt, ChaldÃ¦a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, in 12 volumes, Project Gutenberg. * Ancient Egyptian Civilization - Aldokkan * Rural poverty in Egypt (IFAD) * Encyclopaedia Britannica's Egypt Country Page * Egyptian Government Services Portal * New Projects in Egypt * Egypt State Information Services * Egypt Information Portal - available in Arabic and English * BBC News Country Profile - Egypt * CIA World Factbook - Egypt * Amnesty International's 2005 Report on Egypt. * US State Department - Egypt includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports * Business Anti-Corruption Portal Egypt Country Profile * Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Egypt * * * Egypt Maps - Perry-CastaÃ±eda Map Collection * Egyptian History (urdu) * By Nile and Tigris, a narrative of journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on behalf of the British museum between the years 1886 and 1913, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, 1920 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDF format) * Egypt Online Directory * The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights * PortSaid Free-zone forums Related Wikipedia Articles Bilady, Bilady, Bilady Arabic language Cairo Semi-presidential system republic President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister of Egypt Ahmed Nazif History of Egypt First dynasty of Egypt Circa United Kingdom February 28 1922 June 18 1953 CIA World Factbook Egyptian pound Eastern European Summer Time .eg Egyptian Arabic Egyptian language Coptic language Egyptian Arabic North Africa Sinai Peninsula land bridge Asia Libya Sudan Gaza Strip Israel Mediterranean Sea Cyprus Red Sea Africa Nile River arable Sahara Desert Cairo Alexandria Nile Delta Ancient Egypt Giza pyramid complex Great Sphinx of Giza Luxor Karnak Valley of the Kings Middle East Egyptian language Coptic language Upper and Lower Egypt Arabic language Egyptian Arabic Semitic cognate Hebrew language Latin ancient Greek Copt Late Egyptian Egyptian language Egyptian soul Ptah Memphis, Egypt Strabo folk etymology Nile River Nile Valley Paleolithic Petroglyph Nile 10th millennium BC hunter-gatherer fishing cereal culture Sahara agriculture Economic system society Neolithic Predynastic Egypt Upper and Lower Egypt Badarian Naqada Ancient Egypt Egyptian hieroglyphs Naqada Before Christ Menes List of Egyptian dynasties Egyptians Coptic language Culture of Egypt Ancient Egyptian religion Art of Ancient Egypt Egyptian language Protodynastic Period of Egypt Old Kingdom Egyptian pyramids Third dynasty of Egypt pyramid of Djoser Fourth dynasty of Egypt Giza pyramid complex Great Sphinx of Giza Giza pyramid complex Old Kingdom First Intermediate Period of Egypt Middle Kingdom of Egypt Amenemhat III Second Intermediate Period of Egypt Semitic Hyksos Avaris Ahmose I Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt Memphis, Egypt Thebes, Egypt New Kingdom Power in international relations Jebel Barkal Nubia 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Empire World War I protectorate Khedive Abbas II Husayn Kamil Sultan of Egypt Egyptian revolution of 1919 Saad Zaghlul Dinshaway Incident British Empire Saad Zaghlul Wafd Party Legislative Assembly Malta March 8 1919 Egyptian revolution of 1919 February 22 1922 1923 Constitution of Egypt Parliamentary system Prime Minister of Egypt Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 coup d'Ã©tat Egyptian Revolution of 1952 Free Officers Movement Farouk of Egypt Fuad II of Egypt Cairo Africa Middle East Cairo Opera House 18 June 1953 Muhammad Naguib Gamal Abdel Nasser house arrest Political power United Kingdom June 18 1956 nationalization Suez Canal July 26 1956 Suez Crisis Six Day War Israel Sinai Anwar Sadat Cold War Soviet Union United States Infitah Yom Kippur War Golan Heights US USSR Ceasefire Yom Kippur war Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty Arab world Hosni Mubarak Kifaya democracy civil liberties Mahmoud Mokhtar Cairo University Ancient Egypt History of Egypt Culture of Egypt Egyptians Christianity Islam Arabic language Egyptian Arabic collective identity nationalism Pharaonism Arab nationalism pan-Arabism Islamism Egyptians Arab Sati' al-Husri Arab League University of Oxford Gamal Abdel Nasser Zionism Syria United Arab Republic Six-Day War Anwar Al Sadat Israel 1958 Islamic countries Hindustan Times Imbaba Arabian Gulf Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass Sub-Saharan Africa Osama Anwar Okasha Leila Ahmed 18 June 1953 Hosni Mubarak President of Egypt October 14 1981 Anwar Sadat National Democratic Party (Egypt) Heads of government of Egypt Ahmed Nazif 9 July 2004 Atef Ebeid Multi-party system semi-presidential system Prime Minister of Egypt Egyptian presidential election, 2005 Free Officers Movement Ayman Nour March 27 2006 The Christian Science Monitor May 26, 2005 democratization San Francisco Chronicle September 13 2005 December 5 2006 March 19 2007 BBC constitutional amendment Kifaya Hosni Mubarak Amnesty International Human Rights Watch Hosni Mubarak Kifaya Christian Christianity Freedom House political rights civil liberties Freedom House 2005-12-16 Freedom in the World 2006 List of indices of freedom Amnesty International torture War on Terror Anti-terrorism legislation bbc.co.uk 4-11 bbc.co.uk 4-13 human rights in Egypt United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali June 3 2003 December 5 2006 Judaism Egyptian Identification Card Controversy population size Africa Middle East Cairo Islam Sociocultural evolution Headquarters of the Arab League Cairo Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa Israel Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty Israeli-Palestinian conflict Saudi Arabia Gulf States Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali United Nations Luxor governorate muhafazah markaz Al Iskandariyah Governorate Alexandria Aswan Governorate Aswan Asyut Governorate Asyut Al Buhayrah Governorate Damanhur Bani Suwayf Governorate Beni Suef Al Qahirah Governorate Cairo Ad Daqahliyah Governorate Mansura Domyat Governorate Damietta Al Fayyum Governorate 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Egypt	Does Egypt have political influence in the Middle East?	yes	data/set2/a6	Egypt Egypt (Egyptian: Kemet; Coptic: KÄ«mi; ; Egyptian Arabic: ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country in North Africa that includes the Sinai Peninsula, a land bridge to Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. The northern coast borders the Mediterranean Sea and the island of Cyprus; the eastern coast borders the Red Sea. Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa. The great majority of its estimated 78 million people (2007) live near the banks of the Nile River in an area of about where the only arable agricultural land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the densely populated centers of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta. Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments, including the Giza pyramid complex and the Great Sphinx. The southern city of Luxor contains numerous ancient artifacts, such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and cultural nation of the Middle East. One of the ancient Egyptian names of the country, Kemet ( ), or "black land" (from kem "black"), is derived from the fertile black soils deposited by the Nile floods, distinct from the deshret, or "red land" ( ), of the desert. The name is realized as and in the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as ( ). Another name was "land of the riverbank". The names of Upper and Lower Egypt were Ta-Sheme'aw ( ) "sedgeland" and Ta-Mehew ( ) "northland", respectively. , the Arabic and modern official name of Egypt (Egyptian Arabic: ), is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew ( ), literally meaning "the two straits" (a reference to the dynastic separation of upper and lower Egypt). Biblical Hebrew E-Magazine. January, 2005 The word originally connoted "metropolis" or "civilization" and also means "country", or "frontier-land". The English name "Egypt" came via the Latin word derived from the ancient Greek word AÃgyptos ( ). The adjective aigÃ½pti, aigÃ½ptios was borrowed into Coptic as gyptios, kyptios, and from there into Arabic as , back formed into , whence English Copt. The term is derived from Late Egyptian Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name Hat-ka-Ptah ( ), meaning "home of the ka (soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god Ptah at Memphis. Strabo provided a folk etymology according to which AÃgyptos ( ) had evolved as a compound from ( ), meaning "below the Aegean". The Nile River in Egypt The Nile has been a site of continuous human habitation since at least the Paleolithic era. Evidence of this appears in the form of artifacts and rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in the desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers replaced a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. Midant-Reynes, BÃ©atrix. The Prehistory of Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the First Kings. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. By about 6000 BC, organized agriculture and large building construction had appeared in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to Dynastic Egyptian civilization. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining somewhat culturally separate, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC. Bard, Kathryn A. Ian Shaw, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. p. 69. A unified kingdom was founded circa 3150 BC by King Menes, giving rise to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptians subsequently referred to their unified country as tawy, meaning "two lands", and later kemet (Coptic: kÄ«mi), the "black land", a reference to the fertile black soil deposited by the Nile river. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs. The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom period, c.2700â2200 BC., famous for its many pyramids, most notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza Pyramids. The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, built during the Old Kingdom, are modern national icons that are at the heart of Egypt's thriving tourism industry. The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about 150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilization of government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for the country in the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, reaching a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III. A second period of disunity heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos. The Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BC and founded a new capital at Avaris. They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes. The New Kingdom (c.1550â1070 BC) began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Jebel Barkal in Nubia, and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well-known Pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first known self-conscious expression of monotheism came during this period in the form of Atenism. Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The country was later invaded by Libyans, Nubians and Assyrians, but native Egyptians drove them out and regained control of their country. First built in the third or fourth century AD, the Hanging Church is Cairo's most famous Coptic church. The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Persians in 343 BC after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle. Later, Egypt fell to the Greeks and Romans, beginning over two thousand years of foreign rule. Before Egypt became part of the Byzantine realm, Christianity had been brought by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the AD first century. Diocletian's reign marked the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established. Kamil, Jill. Coptic Egypt: History and Guide. Cairo: American University in Cairo, 1997. p. 39 The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief Persian invasion early in the seventh century, until in AD 639, Egypt was invaded by the Muslim Arabs. The form of Islam the Arabs brought to Egypt was Sunni. Early in this period, Egyptians began to blend their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices that had survived through Coptic Christianity, giving rise to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day. El-Daly, Okasha. Egyptology: The Missing Millennium. London: UCL Press, 2005. p. 140 Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, including a period for which it was the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about AD 1250. They continued to govern even after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Mosque of Mohamed Ali built in the early nineteenth century within the Cairo Citadel. The brief French Invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 had a great social impact on the country and its culture. Native Egyptians became exposed to the principles of the French Revolution and had a chance to exercise self-governance. Vatikiotis, P.J. The History of Modern Egypt. 4th edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1992, p. 39 A series of civil wars took place between the Ottoman Turks, the Mamluks, and Albanian mercenaries following the evacuation of French troops, resulting in the Albanian Muhammad Ali (Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasha) taking control of Egypt. He was appointed as the Ottoman viceroy in 1805. He led a modernization campaign of public works, including irrigation projects, agricultural reforms and increased industrialization, which were then taken up and further expanded by his grandson and successor Isma'il Pasha. Following the completion of the Suez Canal by Ismail in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation and trading hub. In 1866, the Assembly of Delegates was founded to serve as an advisory body for the government. Its members were elected from across Egypt. They came to have an important influence on governmental affairs. Jankowski, James. Egypt: A Short History. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2000. p. 83 The country fell heavily into debt to European powers. Ostensibly to protect its investments, the United Kingdom seized control of Egypt's government in 1882. Egypt gave nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire until 1914. As a result of the declaration of war with the Ottoman Empire, Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt and deposed the Khedive Abbas II, replacing him with his uncle, Husayn Kamil, who was appointed Sultan. Public riot during the 1919 Revolution sparked by the British exile of nationalist leader Saad Zaghlul.Between 1882 and 1906, a local nationalist movement for independence was taking shape. The Dinshaway Incident prompted Egyptian opposition to take a stronger stand against British occupation. The first political parties were founded. After the First World War, Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement, gaining a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on March 8, 1919, the country arose in its first modern revolution. Constant revolting by the Egyptian people throughout the country led Great Britain to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence on February 22, 1922. Jankowski, op cit., p. 112 The new Egyptian government drafted and implemented a new constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary representative system. Saad Zaghlul was popularly-elected as Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. In 1936 the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. Continued instability in the government due to remaining British control and increasing political involvement by the king led to the ouster of the monarchy and the dissolution of the parliament in a military coup d'Ã©tat known as the 1952 Revolution. The officers, known as the Free Officers Movement, forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his son Fuad. View of Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East. The Cairo Opera House (bottom-right) is the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. On June 18 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser the real architect of the 1952 movement and was later put under house arrest. Nasser assumed power as President and declared the full independence of Egypt from the United Kingdom on June 18 1956. His nationalization of the Suez Canal on July 26 1956 prompted the 1956 Suez Crisis. Three years after the 1967 Six Day War, during which Israel had invaded and occupied Sinai, Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972. He launched the Infitah economic reform policy, while violently clamping down on religious and secular opposition alike. In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the October War, a surprise attack against the Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. It was an attempt to liberate the territory Israel had captured 6 years earlier. Both the US and the USSR intervened and a cease-fire was reached. Despite not being a complete military success, most historians agree that the October War presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him to pursue peace with Israel. In 1977, Sadat made a historic visit to Israel, which led to the 1979 peace treaty in exchange for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat's initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League, but it was supported by the vast majority of Egyptians. Vatikiotis, p. 443 A fundamentalist military soldier assassinated Sadat in Cairo in 1981. He was succeeded by the incumbent Hosni Mubarak. In 2003, the Egyptian Movement for Change, popularly known as Kifaya, was launched to seek a return to democracy and greater civil liberties. Mahmoud Mokhtar's Egypt's Renaissance 1919-1928, Cairo University. The Egyptian Nile Valley was home to one of the oldest cultures in the world, spanning three thousand years of continuous history. When Egypt fell under a series of foreign occupations after 343 BC, each left an indelible mark on the country's cultural landscape. Egyptian identity evolved in the span of this long period of occupation to accommodate, in principle, two new religions, Christianity and Islam; and a new language, Arabic, and its spoken descendant, Egyptian Arabic. The degree to which different groups in Egypt identify with these factors in articulating a sense of collective identity can vary. Questions of identity came to fore in the last century as Egypt sought to free itself from foreign occupation for the first time in two thousand years. Three chief ideologies came to head: ethno-territorial Egyptian nationalism and by extension Pharaonism, secular Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism, and Islamism. Egyptian nationalism predates its Arab counterpart by many decades, having roots in the nineteenth century and becoming the dominant mode of expression of Egyptian anti-colonial activists of the pre- and inter-war periods. It was nearly always articulated in exclusively Egyptian terms: In 1931, following a visit to Egypt, Syrian Arab nationalist Sati' al-Husri remarked that "[Egyptians] did not possess an Arab nationalist sentiment; did not accept that Egypt was a part of the Arab lands, and would not acknowledge that the Egyptian people were part of the Arab nation." qtd in Dawisha, Adeed. Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century. Princeton University Press. 2003, p. 99 The later 1930s would become a formative period for Arab nationalism in Egypt, in large part due to efforts by Syrian/Palestinian/Lebanese intellectuals. Jankowski, "Egypt and Early Arab Nationalism," p. 246 Nevertheless, a year after the establishment of the League of Arab States in 1945, to be headquartered in Cairo, Oxford University historian H. S. Deighton was still writing: It was not until the Nasser era more than a decade later that Arab nationalism became a state policy and a means with which to define Egypt's position in the Middle East and the world. "Before Nasser, Egypt, which had been ruled by Britain since 1882, was more in favor of territorial, Egyptian nationalism and distant from the pan-Arab ideology. Egyptians generally did not identify themselves as Arabs, and it is revealing that when the Egyptian nationalist leader [Saad Zaghlul] met the Arab delegates at Versailles in 1918, he insisted that their struggles for statehood were not connected, claiming that the problem of Egypt was an Egyptian problem and not an Arab one." Makropoulou, Ifigenia. Pan - Arabism: What Destroyed the Ideology of Arab Nationalism?. Hellenic Center for European Studies. January 15, 2007. usually articulated vis-Ã -vis Zionism in the neighboring Jewish state. For a while Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic. When the union was dissolved, the current official name of Egypt was adopted, the Arab Republic of Egypt. Egypt's attachment to Arabism, however, was particularly questioned after its defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War. Thousands of Egyptians had lost their lives and the country become disillusioned with Arab politics. Dawisha, p. 237 Nasser's successor Sadat, both by policy and through his peace initiative with Israel, revived an uncontested Egyptian orientation, unequivocally asserting that only Egypt was his responsibility. The terms "Arab", "Arabism" and "Arab unity", save for the new official name, became conspicuously absent. Dawisha, pp. 264-65, 267 Indeed, as professor of Egyptian history P. J. Vatikiotis explains: Egyptian Flag Until 1958. The question of identity continues to be debated today. Many Egyptians feel that Egyptian and Arab identities are linked and not necessarily incompatible. Many others continue to believe that Egypt and Egyptians are simply not Arab. They emphasize indigenous Egyptian heritage, culture and independent polity; point to the failures of Arab nationalist policies; and publicly voice objection to the present official name of the country. Ordinary Egyptians frequently express this sentiment. For example, a foreign tourist said after visiting Egypt,"Although an avowedly Islamic country and now part and parcel of the Arab world, Egyptians are very proud of their distinctiveness and their glorious Pharaonic past dating back to 3500 BC... 'We are not Arabs, we are Egyptians,' said tour guide Shayma, who is a devout Muslim." In Egypt, India is Big B!. Hindustan Times. December 25, 2006. In late 2007, el-Masri el-Yom daily newspaper conducted an interview at a bus stop in the working-class district of Imbaba to ask citizens what Arab nationalism (el-qawmeyya el-'arabeyya) represented for them. One Egyptian Muslim youth responded, "Arab nationalism means that the Egyptian Foreign Minister in Jerusalem gets humiliated by the Palestinians, that Arab leaders dance upon hearing of Sadat's death, that Egyptians get humiliated in the Arab Gulf States, and of course that Arab countries get to fight Israel until the last Egyptian soldier." Ragab, Ahmed. El-Masry el-Yom Newspaper. "What is the definition of 'Arab Nationalism': Question at a bus stop in Imbaba". May 21, 2007. Another felt that,"Arab countries hate Egyptians," and that unity with Israel may even be more of a possibility than Arab nationalism, because he believes that Israelis would at least respect Egyptians. Some contemporary prominent Egyptians who oppose Arab nationalism or the idea that Egyptians are Arabs include Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass. In an audio interview on Egypt's links with Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, Hawass believes that "even today Egyptians are Egyptians. It really doesn't mean that because we speak Arabic that we can be Arabs. We are...really, I feel personally that we are related even today to the Pharaohs." , popular writer Osama Anwar Okasha, Egyptian-born Harvard University Professor Leila Ahmed, Member of Parliament Suzie Greiss An Interculturalist in Cairo. InterCultures Magazine. January 2007. , in addition to different local groups and intellectuals. Kimit Sagi We are Egyptians, not Arabs. ArabicNews.com. 11/06.2003. Ghobrial, Kamal. Egypt, the Arabs and Arabism. el-Ahali. August 31-September 6, 2005. Said Habeeb's Masreyat. Egyptian national group This understanding is also expressed in other contexts, Egyptian people section from Arab.Net Princeton Alumni Weekly such as Neil DeRosa's novel Joseph's Seed in his depiction of an Egyptian character "who declares that Egyptians are not Arabs and never will be." Review by Michelle Fram Cohen. The Atlasphere. Jan. 17, 2005. Egyptian critics of Arab nationalism contend that it has worked to erode and/or relegate native Egyptian identity by superimposing only one aspect of Egypt's culture. These views and sources for collective identification in the Egyptian state are captured in the words of a linguistic anthropologist who conducted fieldwork in Cairo: Egypt has been a republic since June 18 1953. President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has been the President of the Republic since October 14 1981, following the assassination of former-President Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat. Mubarak is currently serving his fifth term in office. He is the leader of the ruling National Democratic Party. Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 July 2004, following the resignation of Dr. Atef Ebeid from his office. Although power is ostensibly organized under a multi-party semi-presidential system, whereby the executive power is theoretically divided between the President and the Prime Minister, in practice it rests almost solely with the President who traditionally has been elected in single-candidate elections for more than fifty years. Egypt also holds regular multi-party parliamentary elections. The last presidential election, in which Mubarak won a fifth consecutive term, was held in September 2005. In late February 2005, President Mubarak announced in a surprise television broadcast that he had ordered the reform of the country's presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential election. For the first time since the 1952 movement, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader from a list of various candidates. The President said his initiative came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy." Business TodayEGYPT. Mubarak throws presidential race wide open. March 2005. However, the new law placed draconian restrictions on the filing for presidential candidacies, designed to prevent well-known candidates such as Ayman Nour from standing against Mubarak, and paved the road for his easy re-election victory. Lavin, Abigail. Democracy on the Nile: The story of Ayman Nour and Egypt's problematic attempt at free elections. March 27, 2006. Concerns were once again expressed after the 2005 presidential elections about government interference in the election process through fraud and vote-rigging, in addition to police brutality and violence by pro-Mubarak supporters against opposition demonstrators. Murphy, Dan. Egyptian vote marred by violence. Christian Science Monitor. May 26, 2005. After the election, Egypt imprisoned Nour, and the U.S. Government stated the âconviction of Mr. Nour, the runner-up in Egypt's 2005 presidential elections, calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom, and the rule of law.â United States "Deeply Troubled" by Sentencing of Egypt's Nour. U.S. Department of State, Published December 24, 2005 As a result, most Egyptians are skeptical about the process of democratization and the role of the elections. Less than 25 percent of the country's 32 million registered voters (out of a population of more than 78 million) turned out for the 2005 elections. Gomez, Edward M. Hosni Mubarak's pretend democratic election. San Francisco Chronicle. September 13, 2005. A proposed change to the constitution would limit the president to two seven-year terms in office. Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006. Thirty-four constitutional changes voted on by parliament on March 19, 2007 prohibit parties from using religion as a basis for political activity; allow the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law to replace the emergency legislation in place since 1981, giving police wide powers of arrest and surveillance; give the president power to dissolve parliament; and end judicial monitoring of election. Anger over Egypt vote timetable BBC News. As opposition members of parliament withdrew from voting on the proposed changes, it was expected that the referendum will be boycotted by a great number of Egyptians in protest of what has been considered a breach of democratic practices. Eventually it was reported that only 27% of the registered voters went to the polling stations under heavy police presence and tight political control of the ruling National Democratic Party. It was officially announced on March 27,2007 that 75.9% of those who participated in the referendum approved of the constitutional amendments introduced by President Mubarak and was endorsed by opposition free parliament, thus allowing the introduction of laws that curbs the activity of certain opposition elements particularly Islamists. [[Image:Kefaya demo.jpg\|thumb\|Members of the Kifaya democracy movement protesting a fifth term for President Hosni Mubarak. See also video.]] Several local and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have for many years criticized Egypt's human rights record as poor. In 2005, President Hosni Mubarak faced unprecedented public criticism when he clamped down on democracy activists challenging his rule. Some of the most serious human rights violations according to HRW's 2006 report on Egypt are routine torture, arbitrary detentions and trials before military and state security courts. Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005 Discriminatory personal status laws governing marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance which put women at a disadvantage have also been cited. Laws concerning Christians which place restrictions on church building and open worship have been recently eased, but major constructions still require governmental approval and persecution of Christianity by underground radical groups remains a problem. Church Building Regulations Eased In addition, intolerance of Baha'is and unorthodox Muslim sects remains a problem. In 2005, the Freedom House rated political rights in Egypt as "6" (1 representing the most free and 7 the least free rating), civil liberties as "5" and gave it the freedom rating of "Not Free." See also Freedom in the World 2006, List of indices of freedom It however noted that "Egypt witnessed its most transparent and competitive presidential and legislative elections in more than half a century and an increasingly unbridled public debate on the country's political future in 2005." Freedom House. Freedom in the World - Egypt. 2006 In 2007, human rights group Amnesty International released a report criticizing Egypt for torture and illegal detention. The report alleges that Egypt has become an international center for torture, where other nations send suspects for interrogation, often as part of the War on Terror. The report calls on Egypt to bring its anti-terrorism laws into accordance with international human rights statutes and on other nations to stop sending their detainees to Egypt. Egypt torture centre, report says. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-11. Accessed 2007-4-11. Egypt's foreign ministry quickly issued a rebuttal to this report, claiming that it was inaccurate and unfair, as well as causing deep offense to the Egyptian government. Egypt rejects torture criticism. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-13. Accessed 2007-4-13. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is one of the longest-standing bodies for the defence of human rights in Egypt. Egyptian Organization for Human Rights In 2003, the government established the National Council for Human Rights, headquartered in Cairo and headed by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who directly reports to the president. Official page of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights. The council has come under heavy criticism by local NGO activists, who contend it undermines human rights work in Egypt by serving as a propaganda tool for the government to excuse its violations Egyptian National Council for Human Rights Against Human Rights NGOs. EOHR. June 3, 2003. and to provide legitimacy to repressive laws such as the recently renewed Emergency Law. Qenawy, Ahmed. The Egyptian Human Rights Council: The Apple Falls Close to the Tree. ANHRI. 2004 Egypt has recently announced that it is in the process of abolishing the Emergency Law. Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006. However, in March 2007 President Mubarak approved several constitutional amendments to include "an anti-terrorism clause that appears to enshrine sweeping police powers of arrest and surveillance", suggesting that the Emergency Law is here to stay for the long haul. Egypt parliament approves changes in constitution. Reuters. March 20, 2007. The high court of Egypt has outlawed all religions and belief except Islam, Christianity and Judaism. (For more information see Egyptian Identification Card Controversy.) Egypt's foreign policy operates along moderate lines. Factors such as population size, historical events, military strength, diplomatic expertise and a strategic geographical position give Egypt extensive political influence in Africa and the Middle East. Cairo has been a crossroads of regional commerce and culture for centuries, and its intellectual and Islamic institutions are at the center of the region's social and cultural development. The permanent Headquarters of the Arab League are located in Cairo and the Secretary General of the Arab League has traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa is the current Secretary General. The Arab League briefly moved from Egypt to Tunis in 1978, as a protest to the signing by Egypt of a peace treaty with Israel, but returned in 1989. Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, with the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979. Egypt has a major influence amongst other Arab states, and has historically played an important role as a mediator in resolving disputes between various Arab states, and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Most Arab states still give credence to Egypt playing that role, though its effects are often limited and recently challenged by Saudi Arabia and oil rich Gulf States. It is also reported that due to Egypt's indulgence in internal problems and its reluctance to play a positive role in regional matters had lost the country great influence in Africa and the neighbouring countries. Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996. Map of Egypt, showing the 26 capitals of governorates, in addition to the self-governing city of Luxor Egypt is divided into twenty-six governorates (muhafazat, singular muhafazah). The governorates are further divided into regions (markazes). \| \|style="padding-top:8px;"\| \|} The Nile River at the ancient city of Aswan, a popular destination for vacationersEgypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than three million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly-growing population, limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress the economy. The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investments in communications and physical infrastructure. Egypt has been receiving U.S. foreign aid (since 1979, an average of $2.2 billion per year) and is the third-largest recipient of such funds from the United States following the Iraq war. Its main revenues however come from tourism as well as traffic that goes through the Suez Canal. Egypt has a developed energy market based on coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro power. Substantial coal deposits are in the north-east Sinai, and are mined at the rate of about per year. Oil and gas are produced in the western desert regions, the Gulf of Suez, and the Nile Delta. Egypt has huge reserves of gas, estimated at over in the 1990s, and LNG is exported to many countries. Economic conditions have started to improve considerably after a period of stagnation from the adoption of more liberal economic policies by the government, as well as increased revenues from tourism and a booming stock market. In its annual report, the IMF has rated Egypt as one of the top countries in the world undertaking economic reforms. Some major economic reforms taken by the new government since 2003 include a dramatic slashing of customs and tariffs. A new taxation law implemented in 2005 decreased corporate taxes from 40% to the current 20%, resulting in a stated 100% increase in tax revenue by the year 2006. FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into Egypt has increased considerably in the past few years due to the recent economic liberalization measures taken by minister of investment Mahmoud Mohieddin, exceeding $6 billion in 2006. Egypt is slated to overcome South Africa as the highest earner of FDI on the African continent in 2007. Although one of the main obstacles still facing the Egyptian economy is the trickle down of the wealth to the average population, many Egyptians criticize their government for higher prices of basic goods while their standards of living or purchasing power remains relatively stagnant. Often corruption is blamed by Egyptians as the main impediment to feeling the benefits of the newly attained wealth. Major reconstruction of the country's infrastructure is promised by the government, with a large portion of the sum paid for the newly acquired 3rd mobile license ($3 billion) by Etisalat. This is slated to be pumped into the country's railroad system, in response to public outrage against the government for disasters in 2006 that claimed more than 100 lives. The best known examples of Egyptian companies that have expanded regionally and globally are the Orascom Group and Raya. The IT sector has been expanding rapidly in the past few years, with many new start-ups conducting outsourcing business to North America and Europe, operating with companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and other major corporations, as well as numerous SME's. Some of these companies are the Xceed Contact Center, Raya Contact Center, E Group Connections and C3 along with other start ups in that country. The sector has been stimulated by new Egyptian entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on their country's huge potential in the sector, as well as constant government encouragement. Egyptian farm Egypt is the most populated country in the Middle East and the second-most populous on the African continent, with an estimated 78 million people. Almost all the population is concentrated along the banks of the Nile (notably Cairo and Alexandria), in the Delta and near the Suez Canal. Approximately 80-90% of the population adheres to Islam and most of the remainder to Christianity, primarily the Coptic Orthodox denomination. Apart from religious affiliation, Egyptians can be divided demographically into those who live in the major urban centers and the fellahin or farmers of rural villages. The last 40 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity, BBC NEWS \| The limits of a Green Revolution? made by the Green Revolution. Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy Egyptians are by far the largest ethnic group in Egypt at 94% (about 72.5 million) of the total population. Ethnic minorities include the Bedouin Arab tribes living in the eastern deserts and the Sinai Peninsula, the Berber-speaking Siwis (Amazigh) of the Siwa Oasis, and the ancient Nubian communities clustered along the Nile. There are also tribal communities of Beja concentrated in the south-eastern-most corner of the country, and a number of Dom clans mostly in the Nile Delta and Faiyum who are progressively becoming assimilated as urbanization increases. Egypt also hosts an unknown number of refugees and asylum seekers. According to the UNDP's 2004 Human Development Report, there were 89,000 refugees in the country, UNDP, p. 75. though this number may be an underestimate. There are some 70,000 Palestinian refugees, and about 150,000 recently arrived Iraqi refugees, Iraq: from a Flood to a Trickle: Egypt but the number of the largest group, the Sudanese, is contested. See The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants for a lower estimate. The The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights states on its web site that in 2000 the World Council of Churches claimed that "between two and five million Sudanese have come to Egypt in recent years". Most Sudanese refugees come to Egypt in the hope of resettling in Europe or the US. The once-vibrant Jewish community in Egypt has virtually disappeared, with only a small number remaining in the country, but many Egyptian Jews visit on religious occasions and for tourism. Several important Jewish archaeological and historical sites are found in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities. Cairo's unique cityscape with its ancient mosques Religion plays a central role in most Egyptians' lives. The rolling calls to prayer that are heard five times a day have the informal effect of regulating the pace of everything from business to entertainment. Cairo is famous for its numerous mosque minarets and church towers. This religious landscape has been marred by a record of religious extremism. Most recently, a December 16 2006 judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of Egypt insisted on a clear demarcation between "recognized religions"âIslam, Christianity and Judaismâand all other religious beliefsâthus effectively delegitimatizing and forbidding practice of all but these aforementioned religions. This judgment has led to the requirement for communities to either commit perjury or be subjected to denial of identification cards. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, at 80-90% of the population, with the majority being adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam. A significant number of Muslim Egyptians also follow native Sufi orders, Hoffman, Valerie J. Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern Egypt. University of South Carolina Press, 1995. and a minority of Shi'a. Christians represent 10-20% of the population, Wahington Institute (Citing pop. estimates) more than 95% of whom belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Other native Egyptian Christians are adherents of the Coptic Catholic Church, the Coptic Evangelical Church and various Coptic Protestant denominations. Non-native Christian communities are largely found in the urban regions of Alexandria and Cairo, and are members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Maronite Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, or the Syriac Orthodox Church. According to the Constitution of Egypt, any new legislation must at least implicitly agree with Islamic laws. The mainstream Hanafi school of Sunni Islam is largely organised by the state, through Wizaret Al-Awkaf (Ministry of Religious Affairs). Al-Awkaf controls all mosques and overviews Muslim clerics. Imams are trained in Imam vocational schools and at Al-Azhar University. The department supports Sunni Islam and has commissions authorised to give Fatwa judgements on Islamic issues. Egypt hosts two major religious institutions. Al-Azhar University ( ) is the oldest Islamic institution of higher studies (founded around 970 A.D) and considered by many to be the oldest extant university. The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, headed by the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, attests to Egypt's strong Christian heritage. It has a following of approximately 15 million Christians worldwide; affiliated sister churches are located in Armenia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Lebanon and Syria. Religious freedom in Egypt is hampered to varying degrees by extremist Islamist groups and by discriminatory and restrictive government policies. Being the largest religious minority in Egypt, Coptic Christians are the most negatively affected community. Copts have faced increasing marginalization after the 1952 coup d'Ã©tat led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Until recently, Christians were required to obtain presidential approval for even minor repairs in churches. Although the law was eased in 2005 by handing down the authority of approval to the governors, Copts continue to face many obstacles in building new or repairing existing churches. These obstacles are not found in building mosques. WorldWide Religious News. Church Building Regulations Eased. December 13, 2005. Compass Direct News. Church Building Regulations Eased. December 13, 2005. In addition, Copts complain of being minimally represented in law enforcement, state security and public office, and of being discriminated against in the workforce on the basis of their religion. Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005 The Coptic community, as well as several human rights activists and intellectuals (such as Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Tarek Heggy), maintain that the number of Christians occupying government posts is not proportional to the number of Copts in Egypt, who constitute between 10 and 15% of the population in Egypt. Of the 32 cabinet ministers, two are Copts: Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali and Minister of Environment Magued George; and of the 25 local governors, only one is a Copt (in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Qena). However, Copts have demonstrated great success in Egypt's private business sector; Naguib Sawiris, an extremely successful businessman and one of the world's wealthiest 100 people is a Copt. In 2002, under the Mubarak government, Coptic Christmas (January 7) was recognized as an official holiday. ArabicNews.com. Copts welcome Presidential announcement on Eastern Christmas Holiday. December 20, 2002. Nevertheless, the Coptic community has occasionally been the target of hate crimes and physical assaults. The most significant was the 2000-2001 El Kosheh attacks , in which 21 Copts and one Muslim were killed. A 2006 attack on three churches in Alexandria left one dead and 17 injured, although the attacker was not linked to any organisation. BBC. Egypt church attacks spark anger, April 15 2006. Egypt was once home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. Egyptian Jews, who were mostly Karaites, partook of all aspects of Egypt's social, economic and political life; one of the most ardent Egyptian nationalists, Yaqub Sanu' (Abu Naddara), was a Jew, as were famous musician Dawoud Husni, popular singer Leila Mourad, and prominent filmmaker Togo Mizrahi. For a while, Jews from across the Ottoman Empire and Europe were attracted to Egypt due to the relative harmony that characterized the local religious landscape in the 19th and early 20th centuries. After the 1956 Suez Crisis, a great number of Jews were expelled by Gamal Abdel Nasser, many of whom holding official Egyptian citizenship. Their Egyptian citizenship was revoked and their property was confiscated. A steady stream of migration of Egyptian Jews followed, reaching a peak after the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967. Today, Jews in Egypt number less than 500. Jewish Community Council (JCC) of Cairo. Bassatine News. 2006. Over ten million Egyptians follow the Christian faith as members of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. BahÃ¡'Ãs in Egypt, whose population is estimated to be a couple of thousands, have long been persecuted, having their institutions and community activities banned. Since their faith is not officially recognized by the state, they are also not allowed to use it on their national identity cards (conversely, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are officially recognized); hence most of them do not hold national identity cards. In April 2006 a court case recognized the BahÃ¡'Ã Faith, but the government appealed the court decision and succeeded in having it suspended on May 15, 2006. On December 16, 2006, only after one hearing, the Supreme Administrative Council of Egypt ruled against the BahÃ¡'Ãs, stating that the government may not recognize the BahÃ¡'Ã Faith in official identification documents. There are Egyptians who identify as atheist and agnostic, but their numbers are largely unknown as openly advocating such positions risks legal sanction on the basis of apostasy (if a citizen takes the step of suing the 'apostating' person, though not automatically by the general prosecutor). In 2000, an openly atheist Egyptian writer, who called for the establishment of a local association for atheists, was tried on charges of insulting Islam in four of his books. While freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Egyptian constitution, according to Human Rights Watch, "Egyptians are able to convert to Islam generally without difficulty, but Muslims who convert to Christianity face difficulties in getting new identity papers and some have been arrested for allegedly forging such documents. Human Rights Watch. World report 2007: Egypt. The Coptic community, however, takes pains to prevent conversions from Christianity to Islam due to the ease with which Christians can often become Muslim. EGYPT: NATIONAL UNITY AND THE COPTIC ISSUE. 2004 Public officials, being conservative themselves, intensify the complexity of the legal procedures required to recognize the religion change as required by law. Security agencies will sometimes claim that such conversions from Islam to Christianity (or occasionally vice versa) may stir social unrest, and thereby justify themselves in wrongfully detaining the subjects, insisting that they are simply taking steps to prevent likely social troubles from happening. Egypt: Egypt Arrests 22 Muslim converts to Christianity. 03 November, 2003 Recently, a Cairo administrative court denied 45 citizens the right to obtain identity papers documenting their reversion to Christianity after converting to Islam. Shahine, Gihan. "Fraud, not Freedom". Ahram Weekly, 3 - 9 May 2007 Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a commemoration of the ancient Library of Alexandria in Egypt's second largest city. Egyptian culture has five thousand years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations and for millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Hellenism, Christianity, and Islamic culture. Today, many aspects of Egypt's ancient culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the influence of modern Western culture, itself with roots in ancient Egypt. Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's largest city and has been renowned for centuries as a center of learning, culture and commerce. Egypt has the highest number of Nobel Laureates in Africa and the Arab World. Some Egyptian born politicians were or are currently at the helm of major international organizations like Boutros Boutros-Ghali of the United Nations and Mohamed ElBaradei of the IAEA. The work of early nineteenth-century scholar Rifa'a et-Tahtawi gave rise to the Egyptian Renaissance, marking the transition from Medieval to Early Modern Egypt. His work renewed interest in Egyptian antiquity and exposed Egyptian society to Enlightenment principles. Tahtawi co-founded with education reformer Ali Mubarak a native Egyptology school that looked for inspiration to medieval Egyptian scholars, such as Suyuti and Maqrizi, who themselves studied the history, language and antiquities of Egypt. El-Daly, op cit., p. 29 Egypt's renaissance peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the work of people like Muhammad Abduh, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, Qasim Amin, Salama Moussa, Taha Hussein and Mahmoud Mokhtar. They forged a liberal path for Egypt expressed as a commitment to individual freedom, secularism and faith in science to bring progress. Jankowski, op cit., p. 130 Eighteenth dynasty painting from the tomb of Theban governor Ramose in Deir el-Madinah. The Egyptians were one of the first major civilizations to codify design elements in art. The wall paintings done in the service of the Pharaohs followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings. Modern and contemporary Egyptian art can be as diverse as any works in the world art scene. The Cairo Opera House serves as the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. Egypt's media and arts industry has flourished since the late nineteenth century, today with more than thirty satellite channels and over one hundred motion pictures produced each year. Cairo has long been known as the "Hollywood of the Middle East;" its annual film festival, the Cairo International Film Festival, has been rated as one of 11 festivals with a top class rating worldwide by the International Federation of Film Producers' Associations. Cairo Film Festival information. To bolster its media industry further, especially with the keen competition from the Persian Gulf Arab States and Lebanon, a large media city was built. Some Egyptian actors, like Omar Sharif, have achieved worldwide fame. Literature constitutes an important cultural element in the life of Egypt. Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated throughout the Middle East. The first modern Egyptian novel Zaynab by Muhammad Husayn Haykal was published in 1913 in the Egyptian vernacular. Vatikiotis, op cit. Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Egyptian women writers include Nawal El Saadawi, well known for her feminist activism, and Alifa Rifaat who also writes about women and tradition. Vernacular poetry is perhaps the most popular literary genre amongst Egyptians, represented by such luminaries as Ahmed Fuad Nigm (Fagumi), Salah Jaheen and Abdel Rahman el-Abnudi. Upper Egyptian folk musicians from Kom Ombo. Egyptian music is a rich mixture of indigenous, Mediterranean, African and Western elements. In antiquity, Egyptians were playing harps and flutes, including two indigenous instruments: the ney and the oud. Percussion and vocal music also became an important part of the local music tradition ever since. Contemporary Egyptian music traces its beginnings to the creative work of people such as Abdu-l Hamuli, Almaz and Mahmud Osman, who influenced the later work of Egyptian music giants such as Sayed Darwish, Umm Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim Hafez. These prominent artists were followed later by Amr Diab. He is seen by many as the new age "Musical Legend", whose fan base stretches all over the Middle East and Europe. From the 1970s onwards, Egyptian pop music has become increasingly important in Egyptian culture, while Egyptian folk music continues to be played during weddings and other festivities. Egypt is famous for its many festivals and religious carnivals, also known as mulids or Mawlid. They are usually associated with a particular Coptic or Sufi saint, but are often celebrated by all Egyptians irrespective of creed or religion. Ramadan has a special flavor in Egypt, celebrated with sounds, lights (local lanterns known as fawanees) and much flare that many Muslim tourists from the region flock to Egypt during Ramadan to witness the spectacle. The ancient spring festival of Sham en Nisim (Coptic: shom en nisim) has been celebrated by Egyptians for thousands of years, typically between the Egyptian months of Paremoude (April) and Pashons (May), following Easter Sunday. Cairo International Stadium during the 2006 African Cup of Nations Football (soccer) is the de facto national sport of Egypt. Egyptian Soccer clubs El Ahly and El Zamalek are the two most popular teams and enjoy the reputation of long-time regional champions. The great rivalries keep the streets of Egypt energized as people fill the streets when their favourite team wins. Egypt is rich in soccer history as soccer has been around for over 100 years. The country is home to many African championships such as the African Cup of Nations. However, Egypt's national team has not qualified for the FIFA World Cup since 1990. Squash and tennis are other favourite sports. The Egyptian squash team has been known for its fierce competition in international championships since the 1930s. The Egyptian Armed forces have a combined troop strength of around 450,000 active personnel. Egypt Military Strength According to the Israeli chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuval Steinitz, the Egyptian Air Force has roughly the same number of modern warplanes as the Israeli Air Force and far more Western tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft batteries and warships than the IDF. Steinitz, Yuval. Not the peace we expected. Haaretz. December 05, 2006. The Egyptian military has recently undergone massive military modernization mostly in their Air Force. Other than Israel, Egypt is the first country in the region with a spy satellite, EgyptSat 1, and is planning to launch 3 more spy satellites (DesertSat1, EgyptSat2, DesertSat2) over the next two years. Katz, Yaacov. "Egypt to launch first spy satellite," Jerusalem Post, January 15, 2007. White Desert, Farafra At , World Factbook area rank order Egypt is the world's 38th-largest country (after Mauritania). It is comparable in size to Tanzania, twice the size of France, four times the size of the United Kingdom, and is more than half the size of the US state of Alaska. Nevertheless, due to the aridity of Egypt's climate, population centres are concentrated along the narrow Nile Valley and Delta, meaning that approximately 99% of the population uses only about 5.5% of the total land area. Hamza, Waleed. Land use and Coastal Management in the Third Countries: Egypt as a case. Accessed= 2007-06-10. Egypt is bordered by Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. Egypt's important role in geopolitics stems from its strategic position: a transcontinental nation, it possesses a land bridge (the Isthmus of Suez) between Africa and Asia, which in turn is traversed by a navigable waterway (the Suez Canal) that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea. Apart from the Nile Valley, the majority of Egypt's landscape is a sandy desert. The winds blowing can create sand dunes over high. Egypt includes parts of the Sahara Desert and of the Libyan Desert. These deserts were referred to as the "red land" in ancient Egypt, and they protected the Kingdom of the Pharaohs from western threats. Towns and cities include Alexandria, one of the greatest ancient cities, Aswan, Asyut, Cairo, the modern Egyptian capital, El-Mahalla El-Kubra, Giza, the site of the Pyramid of Khufu, Hurghada, Luxor, Kom Ombo, Port Safaga, Port Said, Sharm el Sheikh, Suez, where the Suez Canal is located, Zagazig, and Al-Minya. Oases include Bahariya, el Dakhla, Farafra, el Kharga and Siwa. Protectorates include Ras Mohamed National Park, Zaranik Protectorate and Siwa. See Egyptian Protectorates for more information. Egypt receives the least rainfall in the world. South of Cairo, rainfall averages only around 2 to 5 mm (0.1 to 0.2 in) per year and at intervals of many years. On a very thin strip of the northern coast the rainfall can be as high as , all between November and March. Snow falls on Sinai's mountains and some of the north coastal cities such as Damietta, Baltim, Sidi Barrany, etc. and rarely in Alexandria, frost is also known in mid-Sinai and mid-Egypt. Temperatures average between and in summer, and up to on the Red Sea coast. Temperatures average between and in winter. A steady wind from the northwest helps hold down the temperature near the Mediterranean coast. The Khamaseen is a wind that blows from the south in Egypt in spring, bringing sand and dust, and sometimes raises the temperature in the desert to more than . * List of Rulers and heads of state of Egypt * List of writers from Egypt * List of Egyptian companies * List of Egypt-related topics * List of Egyptians * List of Egyptian universities General references * * * Leonard William King, History of Egypt, ChaldÃ¦a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery, Project Gutenberg. * Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, History of Egypt, ChaldÃ¦a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, in 12 volumes, Project Gutenberg. * Ancient Egyptian Civilization - Aldokkan * Rural poverty in Egypt (IFAD) * Encyclopaedia Britannica's Egypt Country Page * Egyptian Government Services Portal * New Projects in Egypt * Egypt State Information Services * Egypt Information Portal - available in Arabic and English * BBC News Country Profile - Egypt * CIA World Factbook - Egypt * Amnesty International's 2005 Report on Egypt. * US State Department - Egypt includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports * Business Anti-Corruption Portal Egypt Country Profile * Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Egypt * * * Egypt Maps - Perry-CastaÃ±eda Map Collection * Egyptian History (urdu) * By Nile and Tigris, a narrative of journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on behalf of the British museum between the years 1886 and 1913, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, 1920 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDF format) * Egypt Online Directory * The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights * PortSaid Free-zone forums Related Wikipedia Articles Bilady, Bilady, Bilady Arabic language Cairo Semi-presidential system republic President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister of Egypt Ahmed Nazif History of Egypt First dynasty of Egypt Circa United Kingdom February 28 1922 June 18 1953 CIA World Factbook Egyptian pound Eastern European Summer Time .eg Egyptian Arabic Egyptian language Coptic language Egyptian Arabic North Africa Sinai Peninsula land bridge Asia Libya Sudan Gaza Strip Israel Mediterranean Sea Cyprus Red Sea Africa Nile River arable Sahara Desert Cairo Alexandria Nile Delta Ancient Egypt Giza pyramid complex Great Sphinx of Giza Luxor Karnak Valley of the Kings Middle East Egyptian language Coptic language Upper and Lower Egypt Arabic language Egyptian Arabic Semitic cognate Hebrew language Latin ancient Greek Copt Late Egyptian Egyptian language Egyptian soul Ptah Memphis, Egypt Strabo folk etymology Nile River Nile Valley Paleolithic Petroglyph Nile 10th millennium BC hunter-gatherer fishing cereal culture Sahara agriculture Economic system society Neolithic Predynastic Egypt Upper and Lower Egypt Badarian Naqada Ancient Egypt Egyptian hieroglyphs Naqada Before Christ Menes List of Egyptian dynasties Egyptians Coptic language Culture of Egypt Ancient Egyptian religion Art of Ancient Egypt Egyptian language Protodynastic Period of Egypt Old Kingdom Egyptian pyramids Third dynasty of Egypt pyramid of Djoser Fourth dynasty of Egypt Giza pyramid complex Great Sphinx of Giza Giza pyramid complex Old Kingdom First Intermediate Period of Egypt Middle Kingdom of Egypt Amenemhat III Second Intermediate Period of Egypt Semitic Hyksos Avaris Ahmose I Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt Memphis, Egypt Thebes, Egypt New Kingdom Power in international relations Jebel Barkal Nubia Levant Pharaoh Hatshepsut Thutmose III Akhenaten Nefertiti Tutankhamun Ramesses II monotheism Atenism Ancient Libya Kush Assyria Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria Thirtieth dynasty of Egypt History of Egypt under Achaemenid Persian domination Nectanebo II Ptolemaic Egypt Aegyptus (Roman province) Aegyptus (Roman province)#Byzantine Egypt Saint Mark the Evangelist Diocletian Roman Empire Byzantine Empire New Testament Council of Chalcedon Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria Aegyptus (Roman province)#Persian and Arab conquests Muslim conquest of Egypt Muslim Arabs Sunni Islam Coptic Christianity Sufism Islamic Caliphate History of Arab Egypt Fatimid Ayyubid dynasty Mamluk Turkish people Circassians History of Ottoman Egypt Ottoman Turks Muhammad Ali of Egypt Cairo Citadel French Invasion of Egypt Napoleon I of France French Revolution self-governance Muhammad Ali of Egypt Muhammad Ali's seizure of power viceroy Isma'il Pasha Suez Canal United Kingdom Scramble for Africa Ottoman Empire World War I protectorate Khedive Abbas II Husayn Kamil Sultan of Egypt Egyptian revolution of 1919 Saad Zaghlul Dinshaway Incident British Empire Saad Zaghlul Wafd Party Legislative Assembly Malta March 8 1919 Egyptian revolution of 1919 February 22 1922 1923 Constitution of Egypt Parliamentary system Prime Minister of Egypt Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 coup d'Ã©tat Egyptian Revolution of 1952 Free Officers Movement Farouk of Egypt Fuad II of Egypt Cairo Africa Middle East Cairo Opera House 18 June 1953 Muhammad Naguib Gamal Abdel Nasser house arrest Political power United Kingdom June 18 1956 nationalization Suez Canal July 26 1956 Suez Crisis Six Day War Israel Sinai Anwar Sadat Cold War Soviet Union United States Infitah Yom Kippur War Golan Heights US USSR Ceasefire Yom Kippur war Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty Arab world Hosni Mubarak Kifaya democracy civil liberties Mahmoud Mokhtar Cairo University Ancient Egypt History of Egypt Culture of Egypt Egyptians Christianity Islam Arabic language Egyptian Arabic collective identity nationalism Pharaonism Arab nationalism pan-Arabism Islamism Egyptians Arab Sati' al-Husri Arab League University of Oxford Gamal Abdel Nasser Zionism Syria United Arab Republic Six-Day War Anwar Al Sadat Israel 1958 Islamic countries Hindustan Times Imbaba Arabian Gulf Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass Sub-Saharan Africa Osama Anwar Okasha Leila Ahmed 18 June 1953 Hosni Mubarak President of Egypt October 14 1981 Anwar Sadat National Democratic Party (Egypt) Heads of government of Egypt Ahmed Nazif 9 July 2004 Atef Ebeid Multi-party system semi-presidential system Prime Minister of Egypt Egyptian presidential election, 2005 Free Officers Movement Ayman Nour March 27 2006 The Christian Science Monitor May 26, 2005 democratization San Francisco Chronicle September 13 2005 December 5 2006 March 19 2007 BBC constitutional amendment Kifaya Hosni Mubarak Amnesty International Human Rights Watch Hosni Mubarak Kifaya Christian Christianity Freedom House political rights civil liberties Freedom House 2005-12-16 Freedom in the World 2006 List of indices of freedom Amnesty International torture War on Terror Anti-terrorism legislation bbc.co.uk 4-11 bbc.co.uk 4-13 human rights in Egypt United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali June 3 2003 December 5 2006 Judaism Egyptian Identification Card Controversy population size Africa Middle East Cairo Islam Sociocultural evolution Headquarters of the Arab League Cairo Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa Israel Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty Israeli-Palestinian conflict Saudi Arabia Gulf States Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali United Nations Luxor governorate muhafazah markaz Al Iskandariyah Governorate Alexandria Aswan Governorate Aswan Asyut Governorate Asyut Al Buhayrah Governorate Damanhur Bani Suwayf Governorate Beni Suef Al Qahirah Governorate Cairo Ad Daqahliyah Governorate Mansura Domyat Governorate Damietta Al Fayyum Governorate 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Egypt	Does Egypt have political influence in the Middle East?	Yes	data/set2/a6	Egypt Egypt (Egyptian: Kemet; Coptic: KÄ«mi; ; Egyptian Arabic: ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country in North Africa that includes the Sinai Peninsula, a land bridge to Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. The northern coast borders the Mediterranean Sea and the island of Cyprus; the eastern coast borders the Red Sea. Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa. The great majority of its estimated 78 million people (2007) live near the banks of the Nile River in an area of about where the only arable agricultural land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the densely populated centers of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta. Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments, including the Giza pyramid complex and the Great Sphinx. The southern city of Luxor contains numerous ancient artifacts, such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and cultural nation of the Middle East. One of the ancient Egyptian names of the country, Kemet ( ), or "black land" (from kem "black"), is derived from the fertile black soils deposited by the Nile floods, distinct from the deshret, or "red land" ( ), of the desert. The name is realized as and in the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as ( ). Another name was "land of the riverbank". The names of Upper and Lower Egypt were Ta-Sheme'aw ( ) "sedgeland" and Ta-Mehew ( ) "northland", respectively. , the Arabic and modern official name of Egypt (Egyptian Arabic: ), is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew ( ), literally meaning "the two straits" (a reference to the dynastic separation of upper and lower Egypt). Biblical Hebrew E-Magazine. January, 2005 The word originally connoted "metropolis" or "civilization" and also means "country", or "frontier-land". The English name "Egypt" came via the Latin word derived from the ancient Greek word AÃgyptos ( ). The adjective aigÃ½pti, aigÃ½ptios was borrowed into Coptic as gyptios, kyptios, and from there into Arabic as , back formed into , whence English Copt. The term is derived from Late Egyptian Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name Hat-ka-Ptah ( ), meaning "home of the ka (soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god Ptah at Memphis. Strabo provided a folk etymology according to which AÃgyptos ( ) had evolved as a compound from ( ), meaning "below the Aegean". The Nile River in Egypt The Nile has been a site of continuous human habitation since at least the Paleolithic era. Evidence of this appears in the form of artifacts and rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in the desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers replaced a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. Midant-Reynes, BÃ©atrix. The Prehistory of Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the First Kings. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. By about 6000 BC, organized agriculture and large building construction had appeared in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to Dynastic Egyptian civilization. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining somewhat culturally separate, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC. Bard, Kathryn A. Ian Shaw, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. p. 69. A unified kingdom was founded circa 3150 BC by King Menes, giving rise to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptians subsequently referred to their unified country as tawy, meaning "two lands", and later kemet (Coptic: kÄ«mi), the "black land", a reference to the fertile black soil deposited by the Nile river. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs. The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom period, c.2700â2200 BC., famous for its many pyramids, most notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza Pyramids. The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, built during the Old Kingdom, are modern national icons that are at the heart of Egypt's thriving tourism industry. The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about 150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilization of government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for the country in the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, reaching a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III. A second period of disunity heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos. The Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BC and founded a new capital at Avaris. They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes. The New Kingdom (c.1550â1070 BC) began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Jebel Barkal in Nubia, and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well-known Pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first known self-conscious expression of monotheism came during this period in the form of Atenism. Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The country was later invaded by Libyans, Nubians and Assyrians, but native Egyptians drove them out and regained control of their country. First built in the third or fourth century AD, the Hanging Church is Cairo's most famous Coptic church. The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Persians in 343 BC after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle. Later, Egypt fell to the Greeks and Romans, beginning over two thousand years of foreign rule. Before Egypt became part of the Byzantine realm, Christianity had been brought by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the AD first century. Diocletian's reign marked the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established. Kamil, Jill. Coptic Egypt: History and Guide. Cairo: American University in Cairo, 1997. p. 39 The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief Persian invasion early in the seventh century, until in AD 639, Egypt was invaded by the Muslim Arabs. The form of Islam the Arabs brought to Egypt was Sunni. Early in this period, Egyptians began to blend their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices that had survived through Coptic Christianity, giving rise to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day. El-Daly, Okasha. Egyptology: The Missing Millennium. London: UCL Press, 2005. p. 140 Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, including a period for which it was the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about AD 1250. They continued to govern even after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Mosque of Mohamed Ali built in the early nineteenth century within the Cairo Citadel. The brief French Invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 had a great social impact on the country and its culture. Native Egyptians became exposed to the principles of the French Revolution and had a chance to exercise self-governance. Vatikiotis, P.J. The History of Modern Egypt. 4th edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1992, p. 39 A series of civil wars took place between the Ottoman Turks, the Mamluks, and Albanian mercenaries following the evacuation of French troops, resulting in the Albanian Muhammad Ali (Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasha) taking control of Egypt. He was appointed as the Ottoman viceroy in 1805. He led a modernization campaign of public works, including irrigation projects, agricultural reforms and increased industrialization, which were then taken up and further expanded by his grandson and successor Isma'il Pasha. Following the completion of the Suez Canal by Ismail in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation and trading hub. In 1866, the Assembly of Delegates was founded to serve as an advisory body for the government. Its members were elected from across Egypt. They came to have an important influence on governmental affairs. Jankowski, James. Egypt: A Short History. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2000. p. 83 The country fell heavily into debt to European powers. Ostensibly to protect its investments, the United Kingdom seized control of Egypt's government in 1882. Egypt gave nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire until 1914. As a result of the declaration of war with the Ottoman Empire, Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt and deposed the Khedive Abbas II, replacing him with his uncle, Husayn Kamil, who was appointed Sultan. Public riot during the 1919 Revolution sparked by the British exile of nationalist leader Saad Zaghlul.Between 1882 and 1906, a local nationalist movement for independence was taking shape. The Dinshaway Incident prompted Egyptian opposition to take a stronger stand against British occupation. The first political parties were founded. After the First World War, Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement, gaining a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on March 8, 1919, the country arose in its first modern revolution. Constant revolting by the Egyptian people throughout the country led Great Britain to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence on February 22, 1922. Jankowski, op cit., p. 112 The new Egyptian government drafted and implemented a new constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary representative system. Saad Zaghlul was popularly-elected as Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. In 1936 the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. Continued instability in the government due to remaining British control and increasing political involvement by the king led to the ouster of the monarchy and the dissolution of the parliament in a military coup d'Ã©tat known as the 1952 Revolution. The officers, known as the Free Officers Movement, forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his son Fuad. View of Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East. The Cairo Opera House (bottom-right) is the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. On June 18 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser the real architect of the 1952 movement and was later put under house arrest. Nasser assumed power as President and declared the full independence of Egypt from the United Kingdom on June 18 1956. His nationalization of the Suez Canal on July 26 1956 prompted the 1956 Suez Crisis. Three years after the 1967 Six Day War, during which Israel had invaded and occupied Sinai, Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972. He launched the Infitah economic reform policy, while violently clamping down on religious and secular opposition alike. In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the October War, a surprise attack against the Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. It was an attempt to liberate the territory Israel had captured 6 years earlier. Both the US and the USSR intervened and a cease-fire was reached. Despite not being a complete military success, most historians agree that the October War presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him to pursue peace with Israel. In 1977, Sadat made a historic visit to Israel, which led to the 1979 peace treaty in exchange for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat's initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League, but it was supported by the vast majority of Egyptians. Vatikiotis, p. 443 A fundamentalist military soldier assassinated Sadat in Cairo in 1981. He was succeeded by the incumbent Hosni Mubarak. In 2003, the Egyptian Movement for Change, popularly known as Kifaya, was launched to seek a return to democracy and greater civil liberties. Mahmoud Mokhtar's Egypt's Renaissance 1919-1928, Cairo University. The Egyptian Nile Valley was home to one of the oldest cultures in the world, spanning three thousand years of continuous history. When Egypt fell under a series of foreign occupations after 343 BC, each left an indelible mark on the country's cultural landscape. Egyptian identity evolved in the span of this long period of occupation to accommodate, in principle, two new religions, Christianity and Islam; and a new language, Arabic, and its spoken descendant, Egyptian Arabic. The degree to which different groups in Egypt identify with these factors in articulating a sense of collective identity can vary. Questions of identity came to fore in the last century as Egypt sought to free itself from foreign occupation for the first time in two thousand years. Three chief ideologies came to head: ethno-territorial Egyptian nationalism and by extension Pharaonism, secular Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism, and Islamism. Egyptian nationalism predates its Arab counterpart by many decades, having roots in the nineteenth century and becoming the dominant mode of expression of Egyptian anti-colonial activists of the pre- and inter-war periods. It was nearly always articulated in exclusively Egyptian terms: In 1931, following a visit to Egypt, Syrian Arab nationalist Sati' al-Husri remarked that "[Egyptians] did not possess an Arab nationalist sentiment; did not accept that Egypt was a part of the Arab lands, and would not acknowledge that the Egyptian people were part of the Arab nation." qtd in Dawisha, Adeed. Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century. Princeton University Press. 2003, p. 99 The later 1930s would become a formative period for Arab nationalism in Egypt, in large part due to efforts by Syrian/Palestinian/Lebanese intellectuals. Jankowski, "Egypt and Early Arab Nationalism," p. 246 Nevertheless, a year after the establishment of the League of Arab States in 1945, to be headquartered in Cairo, Oxford University historian H. S. Deighton was still writing: It was not until the Nasser era more than a decade later that Arab nationalism became a state policy and a means with which to define Egypt's position in the Middle East and the world. "Before Nasser, Egypt, which had been ruled by Britain since 1882, was more in favor of territorial, Egyptian nationalism and distant from the pan-Arab ideology. Egyptians generally did not identify themselves as Arabs, and it is revealing that when the Egyptian nationalist leader [Saad Zaghlul] met the Arab delegates at Versailles in 1918, he insisted that their struggles for statehood were not connected, claiming that the problem of Egypt was an Egyptian problem and not an Arab one." Makropoulou, Ifigenia. Pan - Arabism: What Destroyed the Ideology of Arab Nationalism?. Hellenic Center for European Studies. January 15, 2007. usually articulated vis-Ã -vis Zionism in the neighboring Jewish state. For a while Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic. When the union was dissolved, the current official name of Egypt was adopted, the Arab Republic of Egypt. Egypt's attachment to Arabism, however, was particularly questioned after its defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War. Thousands of Egyptians had lost their lives and the country become disillusioned with Arab politics. Dawisha, p. 237 Nasser's successor Sadat, both by policy and through his peace initiative with Israel, revived an uncontested Egyptian orientation, unequivocally asserting that only Egypt was his responsibility. The terms "Arab", "Arabism" and "Arab unity", save for the new official name, became conspicuously absent. Dawisha, pp. 264-65, 267 Indeed, as professor of Egyptian history P. J. Vatikiotis explains: Egyptian Flag Until 1958. The question of identity continues to be debated today. Many Egyptians feel that Egyptian and Arab identities are linked and not necessarily incompatible. Many others continue to believe that Egypt and Egyptians are simply not Arab. They emphasize indigenous Egyptian heritage, culture and independent polity; point to the failures of Arab nationalist policies; and publicly voice objection to the present official name of the country. Ordinary Egyptians frequently express this sentiment. For example, a foreign tourist said after visiting Egypt,"Although an avowedly Islamic country and now part and parcel of the Arab world, Egyptians are very proud of their distinctiveness and their glorious Pharaonic past dating back to 3500 BC... 'We are not Arabs, we are Egyptians,' said tour guide Shayma, who is a devout Muslim." In Egypt, India is Big B!. Hindustan Times. December 25, 2006. In late 2007, el-Masri el-Yom daily newspaper conducted an interview at a bus stop in the working-class district of Imbaba to ask citizens what Arab nationalism (el-qawmeyya el-'arabeyya) represented for them. One Egyptian Muslim youth responded, "Arab nationalism means that the Egyptian Foreign Minister in Jerusalem gets humiliated by the Palestinians, that Arab leaders dance upon hearing of Sadat's death, that Egyptians get humiliated in the Arab Gulf States, and of course that Arab countries get to fight Israel until the last Egyptian soldier." Ragab, Ahmed. El-Masry el-Yom Newspaper. "What is the definition of 'Arab Nationalism': Question at a bus stop in Imbaba". May 21, 2007. Another felt that,"Arab countries hate Egyptians," and that unity with Israel may even be more of a possibility than Arab nationalism, because he believes that Israelis would at least respect Egyptians. Some contemporary prominent Egyptians who oppose Arab nationalism or the idea that Egyptians are Arabs include Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass. In an audio interview on Egypt's links with Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, Hawass believes that "even today Egyptians are Egyptians. It really doesn't mean that because we speak Arabic that we can be Arabs. We are...really, I feel personally that we are related even today to the Pharaohs." , popular writer Osama Anwar Okasha, Egyptian-born Harvard University Professor Leila Ahmed, Member of Parliament Suzie Greiss An Interculturalist in Cairo. InterCultures Magazine. January 2007. , in addition to different local groups and intellectuals. Kimit Sagi We are Egyptians, not Arabs. ArabicNews.com. 11/06.2003. Ghobrial, Kamal. Egypt, the Arabs and Arabism. el-Ahali. August 31-September 6, 2005. Said Habeeb's Masreyat. Egyptian national group This understanding is also expressed in other contexts, Egyptian people section from Arab.Net Princeton Alumni Weekly such as Neil DeRosa's novel Joseph's Seed in his depiction of an Egyptian character "who declares that Egyptians are not Arabs and never will be." Review by Michelle Fram Cohen. The Atlasphere. Jan. 17, 2005. Egyptian critics of Arab nationalism contend that it has worked to erode and/or relegate native Egyptian identity by superimposing only one aspect of Egypt's culture. These views and sources for collective identification in the Egyptian state are captured in the words of a linguistic anthropologist who conducted fieldwork in Cairo: Egypt has been a republic since June 18 1953. President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has been the President of the Republic since October 14 1981, following the assassination of former-President Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat. Mubarak is currently serving his fifth term in office. He is the leader of the ruling National Democratic Party. Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 July 2004, following the resignation of Dr. Atef Ebeid from his office. Although power is ostensibly organized under a multi-party semi-presidential system, whereby the executive power is theoretically divided between the President and the Prime Minister, in practice it rests almost solely with the President who traditionally has been elected in single-candidate elections for more than fifty years. Egypt also holds regular multi-party parliamentary elections. The last presidential election, in which Mubarak won a fifth consecutive term, was held in September 2005. In late February 2005, President Mubarak announced in a surprise television broadcast that he had ordered the reform of the country's presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential election. For the first time since the 1952 movement, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader from a list of various candidates. The President said his initiative came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy." Business TodayEGYPT. Mubarak throws presidential race wide open. March 2005. However, the new law placed draconian restrictions on the filing for presidential candidacies, designed to prevent well-known candidates such as Ayman Nour from standing against Mubarak, and paved the road for his easy re-election victory. Lavin, Abigail. Democracy on the Nile: The story of Ayman Nour and Egypt's problematic attempt at free elections. March 27, 2006. Concerns were once again expressed after the 2005 presidential elections about government interference in the election process through fraud and vote-rigging, in addition to police brutality and violence by pro-Mubarak supporters against opposition demonstrators. Murphy, Dan. Egyptian vote marred by violence. Christian Science Monitor. May 26, 2005. After the election, Egypt imprisoned Nour, and the U.S. Government stated the âconviction of Mr. Nour, the runner-up in Egypt's 2005 presidential elections, calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom, and the rule of law.â United States "Deeply Troubled" by Sentencing of Egypt's Nour. U.S. Department of State, Published December 24, 2005 As a result, most Egyptians are skeptical about the process of democratization and the role of the elections. Less than 25 percent of the country's 32 million registered voters (out of a population of more than 78 million) turned out for the 2005 elections. Gomez, Edward M. Hosni Mubarak's pretend democratic election. San Francisco Chronicle. September 13, 2005. A proposed change to the constitution would limit the president to two seven-year terms in office. Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006. Thirty-four constitutional changes voted on by parliament on March 19, 2007 prohibit parties from using religion as a basis for political activity; allow the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law to replace the emergency legislation in place since 1981, giving police wide powers of arrest and surveillance; give the president power to dissolve parliament; and end judicial monitoring of election. Anger over Egypt vote timetable BBC News. As opposition members of parliament withdrew from voting on the proposed changes, it was expected that the referendum will be boycotted by a great number of Egyptians in protest of what has been considered a breach of democratic practices. Eventually it was reported that only 27% of the registered voters went to the polling stations under heavy police presence and tight political control of the ruling National Democratic Party. It was officially announced on March 27,2007 that 75.9% of those who participated in the referendum approved of the constitutional amendments introduced by President Mubarak and was endorsed by opposition free parliament, thus allowing the introduction of laws that curbs the activity of certain opposition elements particularly Islamists. [[Image:Kefaya demo.jpg\|thumb\|Members of the Kifaya democracy movement protesting a fifth term for President Hosni Mubarak. See also video.]] Several local and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have for many years criticized Egypt's human rights record as poor. In 2005, President Hosni Mubarak faced unprecedented public criticism when he clamped down on democracy activists challenging his rule. Some of the most serious human rights violations according to HRW's 2006 report on Egypt are routine torture, arbitrary detentions and trials before military and state security courts. Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005 Discriminatory personal status laws governing marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance which put women at a disadvantage have also been cited. Laws concerning Christians which place restrictions on church building and open worship have been recently eased, but major constructions still require governmental approval and persecution of Christianity by underground radical groups remains a problem. Church Building Regulations Eased In addition, intolerance of Baha'is and unorthodox Muslim sects remains a problem. In 2005, the Freedom House rated political rights in Egypt as "6" (1 representing the most free and 7 the least free rating), civil liberties as "5" and gave it the freedom rating of "Not Free." See also Freedom in the World 2006, List of indices of freedom It however noted that "Egypt witnessed its most transparent and competitive presidential and legislative elections in more than half a century and an increasingly unbridled public debate on the country's political future in 2005." Freedom House. Freedom in the World - Egypt. 2006 In 2007, human rights group Amnesty International released a report criticizing Egypt for torture and illegal detention. The report alleges that Egypt has become an international center for torture, where other nations send suspects for interrogation, often as part of the War on Terror. The report calls on Egypt to bring its anti-terrorism laws into accordance with international human rights statutes and on other nations to stop sending their detainees to Egypt. Egypt torture centre, report says. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-11. Accessed 2007-4-11. Egypt's foreign ministry quickly issued a rebuttal to this report, claiming that it was inaccurate and unfair, as well as causing deep offense to the Egyptian government. Egypt rejects torture criticism. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-13. Accessed 2007-4-13. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is one of the longest-standing bodies for the defence of human rights in Egypt. Egyptian Organization for Human Rights In 2003, the government established the National Council for Human Rights, headquartered in Cairo and headed by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who directly reports to the president. Official page of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights. The council has come under heavy criticism by local NGO activists, who contend it undermines human rights work in Egypt by serving as a propaganda tool for the government to excuse its violations Egyptian National Council for Human Rights Against Human Rights NGOs. EOHR. June 3, 2003. and to provide legitimacy to repressive laws such as the recently renewed Emergency Law. Qenawy, Ahmed. The Egyptian Human Rights Council: The Apple Falls Close to the Tree. ANHRI. 2004 Egypt has recently announced that it is in the process of abolishing the Emergency Law. Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006. However, in March 2007 President Mubarak approved several constitutional amendments to include "an anti-terrorism clause that appears to enshrine sweeping police powers of arrest and surveillance", suggesting that the Emergency Law is here to stay for the long haul. Egypt parliament approves changes in constitution. Reuters. March 20, 2007. The high court of Egypt has outlawed all religions and belief except Islam, Christianity and Judaism. (For more information see Egyptian Identification Card Controversy.) Egypt's foreign policy operates along moderate lines. Factors such as population size, historical events, military strength, diplomatic expertise and a strategic geographical position give Egypt extensive political influence in Africa and the Middle East. Cairo has been a crossroads of regional commerce and culture for centuries, and its intellectual and Islamic institutions are at the center of the region's social and cultural development. The permanent Headquarters of the Arab League are located in Cairo and the Secretary General of the Arab League has traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa is the current Secretary General. The Arab League briefly moved from Egypt to Tunis in 1978, as a protest to the signing by Egypt of a peace treaty with Israel, but returned in 1989. Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, with the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979. Egypt has a major influence amongst other Arab states, and has historically played an important role as a mediator in resolving disputes between various Arab states, and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Most Arab states still give credence to Egypt playing that role, though its effects are often limited and recently challenged by Saudi Arabia and oil rich Gulf States. It is also reported that due to Egypt's indulgence in internal problems and its reluctance to play a positive role in regional matters had lost the country great influence in Africa and the neighbouring countries. Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996. Map of Egypt, showing the 26 capitals of governorates, in addition to the self-governing city of Luxor Egypt is divided into twenty-six governorates (muhafazat, singular muhafazah). The governorates are further divided into regions (markazes). \| \|style="padding-top:8px;"\| \|} The Nile River at the ancient city of Aswan, a popular destination for vacationersEgypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than three million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly-growing population, limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress the economy. The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investments in communications and physical infrastructure. Egypt has been receiving U.S. foreign aid (since 1979, an average of $2.2 billion per year) and is the third-largest recipient of such funds from the United States following the Iraq war. Its main revenues however come from tourism as well as traffic that goes through the Suez Canal. Egypt has a developed energy market based on coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro power. Substantial coal deposits are in the north-east Sinai, and are mined at the rate of about per year. Oil and gas are produced in the western desert regions, the Gulf of Suez, and the Nile Delta. Egypt has huge reserves of gas, estimated at over in the 1990s, and LNG is exported to many countries. Economic conditions have started to improve considerably after a period of stagnation from the adoption of more liberal economic policies by the government, as well as increased revenues from tourism and a booming stock market. In its annual report, the IMF has rated Egypt as one of the top countries in the world undertaking economic reforms. Some major economic reforms taken by the new government since 2003 include a dramatic slashing of customs and tariffs. A new taxation law implemented in 2005 decreased corporate taxes from 40% to the current 20%, resulting in a stated 100% increase in tax revenue by the year 2006. FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into Egypt has increased considerably in the past few years due to the recent economic liberalization measures taken by minister of investment Mahmoud Mohieddin, exceeding $6 billion in 2006. Egypt is slated to overcome South Africa as the highest earner of FDI on the African continent in 2007. Although one of the main obstacles still facing the Egyptian economy is the trickle down of the wealth to the average population, many Egyptians criticize their government for higher prices of basic goods while their standards of living or purchasing power remains relatively stagnant. Often corruption is blamed by Egyptians as the main impediment to feeling the benefits of the newly attained wealth. Major reconstruction of the country's infrastructure is promised by the government, with a large portion of the sum paid for the newly acquired 3rd mobile license ($3 billion) by Etisalat. This is slated to be pumped into the country's railroad system, in response to public outrage against the government for disasters in 2006 that claimed more than 100 lives. The best known examples of Egyptian companies that have expanded regionally and globally are the Orascom Group and Raya. The IT sector has been expanding rapidly in the past few years, with many new start-ups conducting outsourcing business to North America and Europe, operating with companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and other major corporations, as well as numerous SME's. Some of these companies are the Xceed Contact Center, Raya Contact Center, E Group Connections and C3 along with other start ups in that country. The sector has been stimulated by new Egyptian entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on their country's huge potential in the sector, as well as constant government encouragement. Egyptian farm Egypt is the most populated country in the Middle East and the second-most populous on the African continent, with an estimated 78 million people. Almost all the population is concentrated along the banks of the Nile (notably Cairo and Alexandria), in the Delta and near the Suez Canal. Approximately 80-90% of the population adheres to Islam and most of the remainder to Christianity, primarily the Coptic Orthodox denomination. Apart from religious affiliation, Egyptians can be divided demographically into those who live in the major urban centers and the fellahin or farmers of rural villages. The last 40 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity, BBC NEWS \| The limits of a Green Revolution? made by the Green Revolution. Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy Egyptians are by far the largest ethnic group in Egypt at 94% (about 72.5 million) of the total population. Ethnic minorities include the Bedouin Arab tribes living in the eastern deserts and the Sinai Peninsula, the Berber-speaking Siwis (Amazigh) of the Siwa Oasis, and the ancient Nubian communities clustered along the Nile. There are also tribal communities of Beja concentrated in the south-eastern-most corner of the country, and a number of Dom clans mostly in the Nile Delta and Faiyum who are progressively becoming assimilated as urbanization increases. Egypt also hosts an unknown number of refugees and asylum seekers. According to the UNDP's 2004 Human Development Report, there were 89,000 refugees in the country, UNDP, p. 75. though this number may be an underestimate. There are some 70,000 Palestinian refugees, and about 150,000 recently arrived Iraqi refugees, Iraq: from a Flood to a Trickle: Egypt but the number of the largest group, the Sudanese, is contested. See The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants for a lower estimate. The The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights states on its web site that in 2000 the World Council of Churches claimed that "between two and five million Sudanese have come to Egypt in recent years". Most Sudanese refugees come to Egypt in the hope of resettling in Europe or the US. The once-vibrant Jewish community in Egypt has virtually disappeared, with only a small number remaining in the country, but many Egyptian Jews visit on religious occasions and for tourism. Several important Jewish archaeological and historical sites are found in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities. Cairo's unique cityscape with its ancient mosques Religion plays a central role in most Egyptians' lives. The rolling calls to prayer that are heard five times a day have the informal effect of regulating the pace of everything from business to entertainment. Cairo is famous for its numerous mosque minarets and church towers. This religious landscape has been marred by a record of religious extremism. Most recently, a December 16 2006 judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of Egypt insisted on a clear demarcation between "recognized religions"âIslam, Christianity and Judaismâand all other religious beliefsâthus effectively delegitimatizing and forbidding practice of all but these aforementioned religions. This judgment has led to the requirement for communities to either commit perjury or be subjected to denial of identification cards. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, at 80-90% of the population, with the majority being adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam. A significant number of Muslim Egyptians also follow native Sufi orders, Hoffman, Valerie J. Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern Egypt. University of South Carolina Press, 1995. and a minority of Shi'a. Christians represent 10-20% of the population, Wahington Institute (Citing pop. estimates) more than 95% of whom belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Other native Egyptian Christians are adherents of the Coptic Catholic Church, the Coptic Evangelical Church and various Coptic Protestant denominations. Non-native Christian communities are largely found in the urban regions of Alexandria and Cairo, and are members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Maronite Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, or the Syriac Orthodox Church. According to the Constitution of Egypt, any new legislation must at least implicitly agree with Islamic laws. The mainstream Hanafi school of Sunni Islam is largely organised by the state, through Wizaret Al-Awkaf (Ministry of Religious Affairs). Al-Awkaf controls all mosques and overviews Muslim clerics. Imams are trained in Imam vocational schools and at Al-Azhar University. The department supports Sunni Islam and has commissions authorised to give Fatwa judgements on Islamic issues. Egypt hosts two major religious institutions. Al-Azhar University ( ) is the oldest Islamic institution of higher studies (founded around 970 A.D) and considered by many to be the oldest extant university. The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, headed by the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, attests to Egypt's strong Christian heritage. It has a following of approximately 15 million Christians worldwide; affiliated sister churches are located in Armenia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Lebanon and Syria. Religious freedom in Egypt is hampered to varying degrees by extremist Islamist groups and by discriminatory and restrictive government policies. Being the largest religious minority in Egypt, Coptic Christians are the most negatively affected community. Copts have faced increasing marginalization after the 1952 coup d'Ã©tat led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Until recently, Christians were required to obtain presidential approval for even minor repairs in churches. Although the law was eased in 2005 by handing down the authority of approval to the governors, Copts continue to face many obstacles in building new or repairing existing churches. These obstacles are not found in building mosques. WorldWide Religious News. Church Building Regulations Eased. December 13, 2005. Compass Direct News. Church Building Regulations Eased. December 13, 2005. In addition, Copts complain of being minimally represented in law enforcement, state security and public office, and of being discriminated against in the workforce on the basis of their religion. Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005 The Coptic community, as well as several human rights activists and intellectuals (such as Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Tarek Heggy), maintain that the number of Christians occupying government posts is not proportional to the number of Copts in Egypt, who constitute between 10 and 15% of the population in Egypt. Of the 32 cabinet ministers, two are Copts: Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali and Minister of Environment Magued George; and of the 25 local governors, only one is a Copt (in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Qena). However, Copts have demonstrated great success in Egypt's private business sector; Naguib Sawiris, an extremely successful businessman and one of the world's wealthiest 100 people is a Copt. In 2002, under the Mubarak government, Coptic Christmas (January 7) was recognized as an official holiday. ArabicNews.com. Copts welcome Presidential announcement on Eastern Christmas Holiday. December 20, 2002. Nevertheless, the Coptic community has occasionally been the target of hate crimes and physical assaults. The most significant was the 2000-2001 El Kosheh attacks , in which 21 Copts and one Muslim were killed. A 2006 attack on three churches in Alexandria left one dead and 17 injured, although the attacker was not linked to any organisation. BBC. Egypt church attacks spark anger, April 15 2006. Egypt was once home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. Egyptian Jews, who were mostly Karaites, partook of all aspects of Egypt's social, economic and political life; one of the most ardent Egyptian nationalists, Yaqub Sanu' (Abu Naddara), was a Jew, as were famous musician Dawoud Husni, popular singer Leila Mourad, and prominent filmmaker Togo Mizrahi. For a while, Jews from across the Ottoman Empire and Europe were attracted to Egypt due to the relative harmony that characterized the local religious landscape in the 19th and early 20th centuries. After the 1956 Suez Crisis, a great number of Jews were expelled by Gamal Abdel Nasser, many of whom holding official Egyptian citizenship. Their Egyptian citizenship was revoked and their property was confiscated. A steady stream of migration of Egyptian Jews followed, reaching a peak after the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967. Today, Jews in Egypt number less than 500. Jewish Community Council (JCC) of Cairo. Bassatine News. 2006. Over ten million Egyptians follow the Christian faith as members of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. BahÃ¡'Ãs in Egypt, whose population is estimated to be a couple of thousands, have long been persecuted, having their institutions and community activities banned. Since their faith is not officially recognized by the state, they are also not allowed to use it on their national identity cards (conversely, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are officially recognized); hence most of them do not hold national identity cards. In April 2006 a court case recognized the BahÃ¡'Ã Faith, but the government appealed the court decision and succeeded in having it suspended on May 15, 2006. On December 16, 2006, only after one hearing, the Supreme Administrative Council of Egypt ruled against the BahÃ¡'Ãs, stating that the government may not recognize the BahÃ¡'Ã Faith in official identification documents. There are Egyptians who identify as atheist and agnostic, but their numbers are largely unknown as openly advocating such positions risks legal sanction on the basis of apostasy (if a citizen takes the step of suing the 'apostating' person, though not automatically by the general prosecutor). In 2000, an openly atheist Egyptian writer, who called for the establishment of a local association for atheists, was tried on charges of insulting Islam in four of his books. While freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Egyptian constitution, according to Human Rights Watch, "Egyptians are able to convert to Islam generally without difficulty, but Muslims who convert to Christianity face difficulties in getting new identity papers and some have been arrested for allegedly forging such documents. Human Rights Watch. World report 2007: Egypt. The Coptic community, however, takes pains to prevent conversions from Christianity to Islam due to the ease with which Christians can often become Muslim. EGYPT: NATIONAL UNITY AND THE COPTIC ISSUE. 2004 Public officials, being conservative themselves, intensify the complexity of the legal procedures required to recognize the religion change as required by law. Security agencies will sometimes claim that such conversions from Islam to Christianity (or occasionally vice versa) may stir social unrest, and thereby justify themselves in wrongfully detaining the subjects, insisting that they are simply taking steps to prevent likely social troubles from happening. Egypt: Egypt Arrests 22 Muslim converts to Christianity. 03 November, 2003 Recently, a Cairo administrative court denied 45 citizens the right to obtain identity papers documenting their reversion to Christianity after converting to Islam. Shahine, Gihan. "Fraud, not Freedom". Ahram Weekly, 3 - 9 May 2007 Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a commemoration of the ancient Library of Alexandria in Egypt's second largest city. Egyptian culture has five thousand years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations and for millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Hellenism, Christianity, and Islamic culture. Today, many aspects of Egypt's ancient culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the influence of modern Western culture, itself with roots in ancient Egypt. Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's largest city and has been renowned for centuries as a center of learning, culture and commerce. Egypt has the highest number of Nobel Laureates in Africa and the Arab World. Some Egyptian born politicians were or are currently at the helm of major international organizations like Boutros Boutros-Ghali of the United Nations and Mohamed ElBaradei of the IAEA. The work of early nineteenth-century scholar Rifa'a et-Tahtawi gave rise to the Egyptian Renaissance, marking the transition from Medieval to Early Modern Egypt. His work renewed interest in Egyptian antiquity and exposed Egyptian society to Enlightenment principles. Tahtawi co-founded with education reformer Ali Mubarak a native Egyptology school that looked for inspiration to medieval Egyptian scholars, such as Suyuti and Maqrizi, who themselves studied the history, language and antiquities of Egypt. El-Daly, op cit., p. 29 Egypt's renaissance peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the work of people like Muhammad Abduh, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, Qasim Amin, Salama Moussa, Taha Hussein and Mahmoud Mokhtar. They forged a liberal path for Egypt expressed as a commitment to individual freedom, secularism and faith in science to bring progress. Jankowski, op cit., p. 130 Eighteenth dynasty painting from the tomb of Theban governor Ramose in Deir el-Madinah. The Egyptians were one of the first major civilizations to codify design elements in art. The wall paintings done in the service of the Pharaohs followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings. Modern and contemporary Egyptian art can be as diverse as any works in the world art scene. The Cairo Opera House serves as the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. Egypt's media and arts industry has flourished since the late nineteenth century, today with more than thirty satellite channels and over one hundred motion pictures produced each year. Cairo has long been known as the "Hollywood of the Middle East;" its annual film festival, the Cairo International Film Festival, has been rated as one of 11 festivals with a top class rating worldwide by the International Federation of Film Producers' Associations. Cairo Film Festival information. To bolster its media industry further, especially with the keen competition from the Persian Gulf Arab States and Lebanon, a large media city was built. Some Egyptian actors, like Omar Sharif, have achieved worldwide fame. Literature constitutes an important cultural element in the life of Egypt. Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated throughout the Middle East. The first modern Egyptian novel Zaynab by Muhammad Husayn Haykal was published in 1913 in the Egyptian vernacular. Vatikiotis, op cit. Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Egyptian women writers include Nawal El Saadawi, well known for her feminist activism, and Alifa Rifaat who also writes about women and tradition. Vernacular poetry is perhaps the most popular literary genre amongst Egyptians, represented by such luminaries as Ahmed Fuad Nigm (Fagumi), Salah Jaheen and Abdel Rahman el-Abnudi. Upper Egyptian folk musicians from Kom Ombo. Egyptian music is a rich mixture of indigenous, Mediterranean, African and Western elements. In antiquity, Egyptians were playing harps and flutes, including two indigenous instruments: the ney and the oud. Percussion and vocal music also became an important part of the local music tradition ever since. Contemporary Egyptian music traces its beginnings to the creative work of people such as Abdu-l Hamuli, Almaz and Mahmud Osman, who influenced the later work of Egyptian music giants such as Sayed Darwish, Umm Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim Hafez. These prominent artists were followed later by Amr Diab. He is seen by many as the new age "Musical Legend", whose fan base stretches all over the Middle East and Europe. From the 1970s onwards, Egyptian pop music has become increasingly important in Egyptian culture, while Egyptian folk music continues to be played during weddings and other festivities. Egypt is famous for its many festivals and religious carnivals, also known as mulids or Mawlid. They are usually associated with a particular Coptic or Sufi saint, but are often celebrated by all Egyptians irrespective of creed or religion. Ramadan has a special flavor in Egypt, celebrated with sounds, lights (local lanterns known as fawanees) and much flare that many Muslim tourists from the region flock to Egypt during Ramadan to witness the spectacle. The ancient spring festival of Sham en Nisim (Coptic: shom en nisim) has been celebrated by Egyptians for thousands of years, typically between the Egyptian months of Paremoude (April) and Pashons (May), following Easter Sunday. Cairo International Stadium during the 2006 African Cup of Nations Football (soccer) is the de facto national sport of Egypt. Egyptian Soccer clubs El Ahly and El Zamalek are the two most popular teams and enjoy the reputation of long-time regional champions. The great rivalries keep the streets of Egypt energized as people fill the streets when their favourite team wins. Egypt is rich in soccer history as soccer has been around for over 100 years. The country is home to many African championships such as the African Cup of Nations. However, Egypt's national team has not qualified for the FIFA World Cup since 1990. Squash and tennis are other favourite sports. The Egyptian squash team has been known for its fierce competition in international championships since the 1930s. The Egyptian Armed forces have a combined troop strength of around 450,000 active personnel. Egypt Military Strength According to the Israeli chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuval Steinitz, the Egyptian Air Force has roughly the same number of modern warplanes as the Israeli Air Force and far more Western tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft batteries and warships than the IDF. Steinitz, Yuval. Not the peace we expected. Haaretz. December 05, 2006. The Egyptian military has recently undergone massive military modernization mostly in their Air Force. Other than Israel, Egypt is the first country in the region with a spy satellite, EgyptSat 1, and is planning to launch 3 more spy satellites (DesertSat1, EgyptSat2, DesertSat2) over the next two years. Katz, Yaacov. "Egypt to launch first spy satellite," Jerusalem Post, January 15, 2007. White Desert, Farafra At , World Factbook area rank order Egypt is the world's 38th-largest country (after Mauritania). It is comparable in size to Tanzania, twice the size of France, four times the size of the United Kingdom, and is more than half the size of the US state of Alaska. Nevertheless, due to the aridity of Egypt's climate, population centres are concentrated along the narrow Nile Valley and Delta, meaning that approximately 99% of the population uses only about 5.5% of the total land area. Hamza, Waleed. Land use and Coastal Management in the Third Countries: Egypt as a case. Accessed= 2007-06-10. Egypt is bordered by Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. Egypt's important role in geopolitics stems from its strategic position: a transcontinental nation, it possesses a land bridge (the Isthmus of Suez) between Africa and Asia, which in turn is traversed by a navigable waterway (the Suez Canal) that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea. Apart from the Nile Valley, the majority of Egypt's landscape is a sandy desert. The winds blowing can create sand dunes over high. Egypt includes parts of the Sahara Desert and of the Libyan Desert. These deserts were referred to as the "red land" in ancient Egypt, and they protected the Kingdom of the Pharaohs from western threats. Towns and cities include Alexandria, one of the greatest ancient cities, Aswan, Asyut, Cairo, the modern Egyptian capital, El-Mahalla El-Kubra, Giza, the site of the Pyramid of Khufu, Hurghada, Luxor, Kom Ombo, Port Safaga, Port Said, Sharm el Sheikh, Suez, where the Suez Canal is located, Zagazig, and Al-Minya. Oases include Bahariya, el Dakhla, Farafra, el Kharga and Siwa. Protectorates include Ras Mohamed National Park, Zaranik Protectorate and Siwa. See Egyptian Protectorates for more information. Egypt receives the least rainfall in the world. South of Cairo, rainfall averages only around 2 to 5 mm (0.1 to 0.2 in) per year and at intervals of many years. On a very thin strip of the northern coast the rainfall can be as high as , all between November and March. Snow falls on Sinai's mountains and some of the north coastal cities such as Damietta, Baltim, Sidi Barrany, etc. and rarely in Alexandria, frost is also known in mid-Sinai and mid-Egypt. Temperatures average between and in summer, and up to on the Red Sea coast. Temperatures average between and in winter. A steady wind from the northwest helps hold down the temperature near the Mediterranean coast. The Khamaseen is a wind that blows from the south in Egypt in spring, bringing sand and dust, and sometimes raises the temperature in the desert to more than . * List of Rulers and heads of state of Egypt * List of writers from Egypt * List of Egyptian companies * List of Egypt-related topics * List of Egyptians * List of Egyptian universities General references * * * Leonard William King, History of Egypt, ChaldÃ¦a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery, Project Gutenberg. * Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, History of Egypt, ChaldÃ¦a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, in 12 volumes, Project Gutenberg. * Ancient Egyptian Civilization - Aldokkan * Rural poverty in Egypt (IFAD) * Encyclopaedia Britannica's Egypt Country Page * Egyptian Government Services Portal * New Projects in Egypt * Egypt State Information Services * Egypt Information Portal - available in Arabic and English * BBC News Country Profile - Egypt * CIA World Factbook - Egypt * Amnesty International's 2005 Report on Egypt. * US State Department - Egypt includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports * Business Anti-Corruption Portal Egypt Country Profile * Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Egypt * * * Egypt Maps - Perry-CastaÃ±eda Map Collection * Egyptian History (urdu) * By Nile and Tigris, a narrative of journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on behalf of the British museum between the years 1886 and 1913, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, 1920 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDF format) * Egypt Online Directory * The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights * PortSaid Free-zone forums Related Wikipedia Articles Bilady, Bilady, Bilady Arabic language Cairo Semi-presidential system republic President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister of Egypt Ahmed Nazif History of Egypt First dynasty of Egypt Circa United Kingdom February 28 1922 June 18 1953 CIA World Factbook Egyptian pound Eastern European Summer Time .eg Egyptian Arabic Egyptian language Coptic language Egyptian Arabic North Africa Sinai Peninsula land bridge Asia Libya Sudan Gaza Strip Israel Mediterranean Sea Cyprus Red Sea Africa Nile River arable Sahara Desert Cairo Alexandria Nile Delta Ancient Egypt Giza pyramid complex Great Sphinx of Giza Luxor Karnak Valley of the Kings Middle East Egyptian language Coptic language Upper and Lower Egypt Arabic language Egyptian Arabic Semitic cognate Hebrew language Latin ancient Greek Copt Late Egyptian Egyptian language Egyptian soul Ptah Memphis, Egypt Strabo folk etymology Nile River Nile Valley Paleolithic Petroglyph Nile 10th millennium BC hunter-gatherer fishing cereal culture Sahara agriculture Economic system society Neolithic Predynastic Egypt Upper and Lower Egypt Badarian Naqada Ancient Egypt Egyptian hieroglyphs Naqada Before Christ Menes List of Egyptian dynasties Egyptians Coptic language Culture of Egypt Ancient Egyptian religion Art of Ancient Egypt Egyptian language Protodynastic Period of Egypt Old Kingdom Egyptian pyramids Third dynasty of Egypt pyramid of Djoser Fourth dynasty of Egypt Giza pyramid complex Great Sphinx of Giza Giza pyramid complex Old Kingdom First Intermediate Period of Egypt Middle Kingdom of Egypt Amenemhat III Second Intermediate Period of Egypt Semitic Hyksos Avaris Ahmose I Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt Memphis, Egypt Thebes, Egypt New Kingdom Power in international relations Jebel Barkal Nubia 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Empire World War I protectorate Khedive Abbas II Husayn Kamil Sultan of Egypt Egyptian revolution of 1919 Saad Zaghlul Dinshaway Incident British Empire Saad Zaghlul Wafd Party Legislative Assembly Malta March 8 1919 Egyptian revolution of 1919 February 22 1922 1923 Constitution of Egypt Parliamentary system Prime Minister of Egypt Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 coup d'Ã©tat Egyptian Revolution of 1952 Free Officers Movement Farouk of Egypt Fuad II of Egypt Cairo Africa Middle East Cairo Opera House 18 June 1953 Muhammad Naguib Gamal Abdel Nasser house arrest Political power United Kingdom June 18 1956 nationalization Suez Canal July 26 1956 Suez Crisis Six Day War Israel Sinai Anwar Sadat Cold War Soviet Union United States Infitah Yom Kippur War Golan Heights US USSR Ceasefire Yom Kippur war Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty Arab world Hosni Mubarak Kifaya democracy civil liberties Mahmoud Mokhtar Cairo University Ancient Egypt History of Egypt Culture of Egypt Egyptians Christianity Islam Arabic language Egyptian Arabic collective identity nationalism Pharaonism Arab nationalism pan-Arabism Islamism Egyptians Arab Sati' al-Husri Arab League University of Oxford Gamal Abdel Nasser Zionism Syria United Arab Republic Six-Day War Anwar Al Sadat Israel 1958 Islamic countries Hindustan Times Imbaba Arabian Gulf Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass Sub-Saharan Africa Osama Anwar Okasha Leila Ahmed 18 June 1953 Hosni Mubarak President of Egypt October 14 1981 Anwar Sadat National Democratic Party (Egypt) Heads of government of Egypt Ahmed Nazif 9 July 2004 Atef Ebeid Multi-party system semi-presidential system Prime Minister of Egypt Egyptian presidential election, 2005 Free Officers Movement Ayman Nour March 27 2006 The Christian Science Monitor May 26, 2005 democratization San Francisco Chronicle September 13 2005 December 5 2006 March 19 2007 BBC constitutional amendment Kifaya Hosni Mubarak Amnesty International Human Rights Watch Hosni Mubarak Kifaya Christian Christianity Freedom House political rights civil liberties Freedom House 2005-12-16 Freedom in the World 2006 List of indices of freedom Amnesty International torture War on Terror Anti-terrorism legislation bbc.co.uk 4-11 bbc.co.uk 4-13 human rights in Egypt United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali June 3 2003 December 5 2006 Judaism Egyptian Identification Card Controversy population size Africa Middle East Cairo Islam Sociocultural evolution Headquarters of the Arab League Cairo Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa Israel Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty Israeli-Palestinian conflict Saudi Arabia Gulf States Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali United Nations Luxor governorate muhafazah markaz Al Iskandariyah Governorate Alexandria Aswan Governorate Aswan Asyut Governorate Asyut Al Buhayrah Governorate Damanhur Bani Suwayf Governorate Beni Suef Al Qahirah Governorate Cairo Ad Daqahliyah Governorate Mansura Domyat Governorate Damietta Al Fayyum Governorate 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A. Wallis Budge DjVu
Egypt	When was the Six Day War?	1967	data/set2/a6	Egypt Egypt (Egyptian: Kemet; Coptic: KÄ«mi; ; Egyptian Arabic: ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country in North Africa that includes the Sinai Peninsula, a land bridge to Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. The northern coast borders the Mediterranean Sea and the island of Cyprus; the eastern coast borders the Red Sea. Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa. The great majority of its estimated 78 million people (2007) live near the banks of the Nile River in an area of about where the only arable agricultural land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with the majority spread across the densely populated centers of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta. Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments, including the Giza pyramid complex and the Great Sphinx. The southern city of Luxor contains numerous ancient artifacts, such as the Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and cultural nation of the Middle East. One of the ancient Egyptian names of the country, Kemet ( ), or "black land" (from kem "black"), is derived from the fertile black soils deposited by the Nile floods, distinct from the deshret, or "red land" ( ), of the desert. The name is realized as and in the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as ( ). Another name was "land of the riverbank". The names of Upper and Lower Egypt were Ta-Sheme'aw ( ) "sedgeland" and Ta-Mehew ( ) "northland", respectively. , the Arabic and modern official name of Egypt (Egyptian Arabic: ), is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew ( ), literally meaning "the two straits" (a reference to the dynastic separation of upper and lower Egypt). Biblical Hebrew E-Magazine. January, 2005 The word originally connoted "metropolis" or "civilization" and also means "country", or "frontier-land". The English name "Egypt" came via the Latin word derived from the ancient Greek word AÃgyptos ( ). The adjective aigÃ½pti, aigÃ½ptios was borrowed into Coptic as gyptios, kyptios, and from there into Arabic as , back formed into , whence English Copt. The term is derived from Late Egyptian Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name Hat-ka-Ptah ( ), meaning "home of the ka (soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god Ptah at Memphis. Strabo provided a folk etymology according to which AÃgyptos ( ) had evolved as a compound from ( ), meaning "below the Aegean". The Nile River in Egypt The Nile has been a site of continuous human habitation since at least the Paleolithic era. Evidence of this appears in the form of artifacts and rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in the desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers replaced a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society. Midant-Reynes, BÃ©atrix. The Prehistory of Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the First Kings. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. By about 6000 BC, organized agriculture and large building construction had appeared in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to Dynastic Egyptian civilization. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining somewhat culturally separate, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC. Bard, Kathryn A. Ian Shaw, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. p. 69. A unified kingdom was founded circa 3150 BC by King Menes, giving rise to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptians subsequently referred to their unified country as tawy, meaning "two lands", and later kemet (Coptic: kÄ«mi), the "black land", a reference to the fertile black soil deposited by the Nile river. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs. The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom period, c.2700â2200 BC., famous for its many pyramids, most notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza Pyramids. The Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, built during the Old Kingdom, are modern national icons that are at the heart of Egypt's thriving tourism industry. The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about 150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilization of government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for the country in the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, reaching a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III. A second period of disunity heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos. The Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BC and founded a new capital at Avaris. They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes. The New Kingdom (c.1550â1070 BC) began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Jebel Barkal in Nubia, and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well-known Pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first known self-conscious expression of monotheism came during this period in the form of Atenism. Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The country was later invaded by Libyans, Nubians and Assyrians, but native Egyptians drove them out and regained control of their country. First built in the third or fourth century AD, the Hanging Church is Cairo's most famous Coptic church. The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Persians in 343 BC after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle. Later, Egypt fell to the Greeks and Romans, beginning over two thousand years of foreign rule. Before Egypt became part of the Byzantine realm, Christianity had been brought by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the AD first century. Diocletian's reign marked the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established. Kamil, Jill. Coptic Egypt: History and Guide. Cairo: American University in Cairo, 1997. p. 39 The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief Persian invasion early in the seventh century, until in AD 639, Egypt was invaded by the Muslim Arabs. The form of Islam the Arabs brought to Egypt was Sunni. Early in this period, Egyptians began to blend their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices that had survived through Coptic Christianity, giving rise to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day. El-Daly, Okasha. Egyptology: The Missing Millennium. London: UCL Press, 2005. p. 140 Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, including a period for which it was the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about AD 1250. They continued to govern even after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Mosque of Mohamed Ali built in the early nineteenth century within the Cairo Citadel. The brief French Invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798 had a great social impact on the country and its culture. Native Egyptians became exposed to the principles of the French Revolution and had a chance to exercise self-governance. Vatikiotis, P.J. The History of Modern Egypt. 4th edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1992, p. 39 A series of civil wars took place between the Ottoman Turks, the Mamluks, and Albanian mercenaries following the evacuation of French troops, resulting in the Albanian Muhammad Ali (Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasha) taking control of Egypt. He was appointed as the Ottoman viceroy in 1805. He led a modernization campaign of public works, including irrigation projects, agricultural reforms and increased industrialization, which were then taken up and further expanded by his grandson and successor Isma'il Pasha. Following the completion of the Suez Canal by Ismail in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation and trading hub. In 1866, the Assembly of Delegates was founded to serve as an advisory body for the government. Its members were elected from across Egypt. They came to have an important influence on governmental affairs. Jankowski, James. Egypt: A Short History. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2000. p. 83 The country fell heavily into debt to European powers. Ostensibly to protect its investments, the United Kingdom seized control of Egypt's government in 1882. Egypt gave nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire until 1914. As a result of the declaration of war with the Ottoman Empire, Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt and deposed the Khedive Abbas II, replacing him with his uncle, Husayn Kamil, who was appointed Sultan. Public riot during the 1919 Revolution sparked by the British exile of nationalist leader Saad Zaghlul.Between 1882 and 1906, a local nationalist movement for independence was taking shape. The Dinshaway Incident prompted Egyptian opposition to take a stronger stand against British occupation. The first political parties were founded. After the First World War, Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement, gaining a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on March 8, 1919, the country arose in its first modern revolution. Constant revolting by the Egyptian people throughout the country led Great Britain to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence on February 22, 1922. Jankowski, op cit., p. 112 The new Egyptian government drafted and implemented a new constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary representative system. Saad Zaghlul was popularly-elected as Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. In 1936 the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. Continued instability in the government due to remaining British control and increasing political involvement by the king led to the ouster of the monarchy and the dissolution of the parliament in a military coup d'Ã©tat known as the 1952 Revolution. The officers, known as the Free Officers Movement, forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his son Fuad. View of Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East. The Cairo Opera House (bottom-right) is the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. On June 18 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser the real architect of the 1952 movement and was later put under house arrest. Nasser assumed power as President and declared the full independence of Egypt from the United Kingdom on June 18 1956. His nationalization of the Suez Canal on July 26 1956 prompted the 1956 Suez Crisis. Three years after the 1967 Six Day War, during which Israel had invaded and occupied Sinai, Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972. He launched the Infitah economic reform policy, while violently clamping down on religious and secular opposition alike. In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the October War, a surprise attack against the Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. It was an attempt to liberate the territory Israel had captured 6 years earlier. Both the US and the USSR intervened and a cease-fire was reached. Despite not being a complete military success, most historians agree that the October War presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him to pursue peace with Israel. In 1977, Sadat made a historic visit to Israel, which led to the 1979 peace treaty in exchange for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat's initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League, but it was supported by the vast majority of Egyptians. Vatikiotis, p. 443 A fundamentalist military soldier assassinated Sadat in Cairo in 1981. He was succeeded by the incumbent Hosni Mubarak. In 2003, the Egyptian Movement for Change, popularly known as Kifaya, was launched to seek a return to democracy and greater civil liberties. Mahmoud Mokhtar's Egypt's Renaissance 1919-1928, Cairo University. The Egyptian Nile Valley was home to one of the oldest cultures in the world, spanning three thousand years of continuous history. When Egypt fell under a series of foreign occupations after 343 BC, each left an indelible mark on the country's cultural landscape. Egyptian identity evolved in the span of this long period of occupation to accommodate, in principle, two new religions, Christianity and Islam; and a new language, Arabic, and its spoken descendant, Egyptian Arabic. The degree to which different groups in Egypt identify with these factors in articulating a sense of collective identity can vary. Questions of identity came to fore in the last century as Egypt sought to free itself from foreign occupation for the first time in two thousand years. Three chief ideologies came to head: ethno-territorial Egyptian nationalism and by extension Pharaonism, secular Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism, and Islamism. Egyptian nationalism predates its Arab counterpart by many decades, having roots in the nineteenth century and becoming the dominant mode of expression of Egyptian anti-colonial activists of the pre- and inter-war periods. It was nearly always articulated in exclusively Egyptian terms: In 1931, following a visit to Egypt, Syrian Arab nationalist Sati' al-Husri remarked that "[Egyptians] did not possess an Arab nationalist sentiment; did not accept that Egypt was a part of the Arab lands, and would not acknowledge that the Egyptian people were part of the Arab nation." qtd in Dawisha, Adeed. Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century. Princeton University Press. 2003, p. 99 The later 1930s would become a formative period for Arab nationalism in Egypt, in large part due to efforts by Syrian/Palestinian/Lebanese intellectuals. Jankowski, "Egypt and Early Arab Nationalism," p. 246 Nevertheless, a year after the establishment of the League of Arab States in 1945, to be headquartered in Cairo, Oxford University historian H. S. Deighton was still writing: It was not until the Nasser era more than a decade later that Arab nationalism became a state policy and a means with which to define Egypt's position in the Middle East and the world. "Before Nasser, Egypt, which had been ruled by Britain since 1882, was more in favor of territorial, Egyptian nationalism and distant from the pan-Arab ideology. Egyptians generally did not identify themselves as Arabs, and it is revealing that when the Egyptian nationalist leader [Saad Zaghlul] met the Arab delegates at Versailles in 1918, he insisted that their struggles for statehood were not connected, claiming that the problem of Egypt was an Egyptian problem and not an Arab one." Makropoulou, Ifigenia. Pan - Arabism: What Destroyed the Ideology of Arab Nationalism?. Hellenic Center for European Studies. January 15, 2007. usually articulated vis-Ã -vis Zionism in the neighboring Jewish state. For a while Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic. When the union was dissolved, the current official name of Egypt was adopted, the Arab Republic of Egypt. Egypt's attachment to Arabism, however, was particularly questioned after its defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War. Thousands of Egyptians had lost their lives and the country become disillusioned with Arab politics. Dawisha, p. 237 Nasser's successor Sadat, both by policy and through his peace initiative with Israel, revived an uncontested Egyptian orientation, unequivocally asserting that only Egypt was his responsibility. The terms "Arab", "Arabism" and "Arab unity", save for the new official name, became conspicuously absent. Dawisha, pp. 264-65, 267 Indeed, as professor of Egyptian history P. J. Vatikiotis explains: Egyptian Flag Until 1958. The question of identity continues to be debated today. Many Egyptians feel that Egyptian and Arab identities are linked and not necessarily incompatible. Many others continue to believe that Egypt and Egyptians are simply not Arab. They emphasize indigenous Egyptian heritage, culture and independent polity; point to the failures of Arab nationalist policies; and publicly voice objection to the present official name of the country. Ordinary Egyptians frequently express this sentiment. For example, a foreign tourist said after visiting Egypt,"Although an avowedly Islamic country and now part and parcel of the Arab world, Egyptians are very proud of their distinctiveness and their glorious Pharaonic past dating back to 3500 BC... 'We are not Arabs, we are Egyptians,' said tour guide Shayma, who is a devout Muslim." In Egypt, India is Big B!. Hindustan Times. December 25, 2006. In late 2007, el-Masri el-Yom daily newspaper conducted an interview at a bus stop in the working-class district of Imbaba to ask citizens what Arab nationalism (el-qawmeyya el-'arabeyya) represented for them. One Egyptian Muslim youth responded, "Arab nationalism means that the Egyptian Foreign Minister in Jerusalem gets humiliated by the Palestinians, that Arab leaders dance upon hearing of Sadat's death, that Egyptians get humiliated in the Arab Gulf States, and of course that Arab countries get to fight Israel until the last Egyptian soldier." Ragab, Ahmed. El-Masry el-Yom Newspaper. "What is the definition of 'Arab Nationalism': Question at a bus stop in Imbaba". May 21, 2007. Another felt that,"Arab countries hate Egyptians," and that unity with Israel may even be more of a possibility than Arab nationalism, because he believes that Israelis would at least respect Egyptians. Some contemporary prominent Egyptians who oppose Arab nationalism or the idea that Egyptians are Arabs include Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass. In an audio interview on Egypt's links with Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, Hawass believes that "even today Egyptians are Egyptians. It really doesn't mean that because we speak Arabic that we can be Arabs. We are...really, I feel personally that we are related even today to the Pharaohs." , popular writer Osama Anwar Okasha, Egyptian-born Harvard University Professor Leila Ahmed, Member of Parliament Suzie Greiss An Interculturalist in Cairo. InterCultures Magazine. January 2007. , in addition to different local groups and intellectuals. Kimit Sagi We are Egyptians, not Arabs. ArabicNews.com. 11/06.2003. Ghobrial, Kamal. Egypt, the Arabs and Arabism. el-Ahali. August 31-September 6, 2005. Said Habeeb's Masreyat. Egyptian national group This understanding is also expressed in other contexts, Egyptian people section from Arab.Net Princeton Alumni Weekly such as Neil DeRosa's novel Joseph's Seed in his depiction of an Egyptian character "who declares that Egyptians are not Arabs and never will be." Review by Michelle Fram Cohen. The Atlasphere. Jan. 17, 2005. Egyptian critics of Arab nationalism contend that it has worked to erode and/or relegate native Egyptian identity by superimposing only one aspect of Egypt's culture. These views and sources for collective identification in the Egyptian state are captured in the words of a linguistic anthropologist who conducted fieldwork in Cairo: Egypt has been a republic since June 18 1953. President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has been the President of the Republic since October 14 1981, following the assassination of former-President Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat. Mubarak is currently serving his fifth term in office. He is the leader of the ruling National Democratic Party. Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 July 2004, following the resignation of Dr. Atef Ebeid from his office. Although power is ostensibly organized under a multi-party semi-presidential system, whereby the executive power is theoretically divided between the President and the Prime Minister, in practice it rests almost solely with the President who traditionally has been elected in single-candidate elections for more than fifty years. Egypt also holds regular multi-party parliamentary elections. The last presidential election, in which Mubarak won a fifth consecutive term, was held in September 2005. In late February 2005, President Mubarak announced in a surprise television broadcast that he had ordered the reform of the country's presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential election. For the first time since the 1952 movement, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader from a list of various candidates. The President said his initiative came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy." Business TodayEGYPT. Mubarak throws presidential race wide open. March 2005. However, the new law placed draconian restrictions on the filing for presidential candidacies, designed to prevent well-known candidates such as Ayman Nour from standing against Mubarak, and paved the road for his easy re-election victory. Lavin, Abigail. Democracy on the Nile: The story of Ayman Nour and Egypt's problematic attempt at free elections. March 27, 2006. Concerns were once again expressed after the 2005 presidential elections about government interference in the election process through fraud and vote-rigging, in addition to police brutality and violence by pro-Mubarak supporters against opposition demonstrators. Murphy, Dan. Egyptian vote marred by violence. Christian Science Monitor. May 26, 2005. After the election, Egypt imprisoned Nour, and the U.S. Government stated the âconviction of Mr. Nour, the runner-up in Egypt's 2005 presidential elections, calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom, and the rule of law.â United States "Deeply Troubled" by Sentencing of Egypt's Nour. U.S. Department of State, Published December 24, 2005 As a result, most Egyptians are skeptical about the process of democratization and the role of the elections. Less than 25 percent of the country's 32 million registered voters (out of a population of more than 78 million) turned out for the 2005 elections. Gomez, Edward M. Hosni Mubarak's pretend democratic election. San Francisco Chronicle. September 13, 2005. A proposed change to the constitution would limit the president to two seven-year terms in office. Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006. Thirty-four constitutional changes voted on by parliament on March 19, 2007 prohibit parties from using religion as a basis for political activity; allow the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law to replace the emergency legislation in place since 1981, giving police wide powers of arrest and surveillance; give the president power to dissolve parliament; and end judicial monitoring of election. Anger over Egypt vote timetable BBC News. As opposition members of parliament withdrew from voting on the proposed changes, it was expected that the referendum will be boycotted by a great number of Egyptians in protest of what has been considered a breach of democratic practices. Eventually it was reported that only 27% of the registered voters went to the polling stations under heavy police presence and tight political control of the ruling National Democratic Party. It was officially announced on March 27,2007 that 75.9% of those who participated in the referendum approved of the constitutional amendments introduced by President Mubarak and was endorsed by opposition free parliament, thus allowing the introduction of laws that curbs the activity of certain opposition elements particularly Islamists. [[Image:Kefaya demo.jpg\|thumb\|Members of the Kifaya democracy movement protesting a fifth term for President Hosni Mubarak. See also video.]] Several local and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have for many years criticized Egypt's human rights record as poor. In 2005, President Hosni Mubarak faced unprecedented public criticism when he clamped down on democracy activists challenging his rule. Some of the most serious human rights violations according to HRW's 2006 report on Egypt are routine torture, arbitrary detentions and trials before military and state security courts. Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005 Discriminatory personal status laws governing marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance which put women at a disadvantage have also been cited. Laws concerning Christians which place restrictions on church building and open worship have been recently eased, but major constructions still require governmental approval and persecution of Christianity by underground radical groups remains a problem. Church Building Regulations Eased In addition, intolerance of Baha'is and unorthodox Muslim sects remains a problem. In 2005, the Freedom House rated political rights in Egypt as "6" (1 representing the most free and 7 the least free rating), civil liberties as "5" and gave it the freedom rating of "Not Free." See also Freedom in the World 2006, List of indices of freedom It however noted that "Egypt witnessed its most transparent and competitive presidential and legislative elections in more than half a century and an increasingly unbridled public debate on the country's political future in 2005." Freedom House. Freedom in the World - Egypt. 2006 In 2007, human rights group Amnesty International released a report criticizing Egypt for torture and illegal detention. The report alleges that Egypt has become an international center for torture, where other nations send suspects for interrogation, often as part of the War on Terror. The report calls on Egypt to bring its anti-terrorism laws into accordance with international human rights statutes and on other nations to stop sending their detainees to Egypt. Egypt torture centre, report says. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-11. Accessed 2007-4-11. Egypt's foreign ministry quickly issued a rebuttal to this report, claiming that it was inaccurate and unfair, as well as causing deep offense to the Egyptian government. Egypt rejects torture criticism. bbc.co.uk. Written 2007-4-13. Accessed 2007-4-13. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is one of the longest-standing bodies for the defence of human rights in Egypt. Egyptian Organization for Human Rights In 2003, the government established the National Council for Human Rights, headquartered in Cairo and headed by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who directly reports to the president. Official page of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights. The council has come under heavy criticism by local NGO activists, who contend it undermines human rights work in Egypt by serving as a propaganda tool for the government to excuse its violations Egyptian National Council for Human Rights Against Human Rights NGOs. EOHR. June 3, 2003. and to provide legitimacy to repressive laws such as the recently renewed Emergency Law. Qenawy, Ahmed. The Egyptian Human Rights Council: The Apple Falls Close to the Tree. ANHRI. 2004 Egypt has recently announced that it is in the process of abolishing the Emergency Law. Egypt to begin process of lifting emergency laws. December 5, 2006. However, in March 2007 President Mubarak approved several constitutional amendments to include "an anti-terrorism clause that appears to enshrine sweeping police powers of arrest and surveillance", suggesting that the Emergency Law is here to stay for the long haul. Egypt parliament approves changes in constitution. Reuters. March 20, 2007. The high court of Egypt has outlawed all religions and belief except Islam, Christianity and Judaism. (For more information see Egyptian Identification Card Controversy.) Egypt's foreign policy operates along moderate lines. Factors such as population size, historical events, military strength, diplomatic expertise and a strategic geographical position give Egypt extensive political influence in Africa and the Middle East. Cairo has been a crossroads of regional commerce and culture for centuries, and its intellectual and Islamic institutions are at the center of the region's social and cultural development. The permanent Headquarters of the Arab League are located in Cairo and the Secretary General of the Arab League has traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa is the current Secretary General. The Arab League briefly moved from Egypt to Tunis in 1978, as a protest to the signing by Egypt of a peace treaty with Israel, but returned in 1989. Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, with the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979. Egypt has a major influence amongst other Arab states, and has historically played an important role as a mediator in resolving disputes between various Arab states, and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Most Arab states still give credence to Egypt playing that role, though its effects are often limited and recently challenged by Saudi Arabia and oil rich Gulf States. It is also reported that due to Egypt's indulgence in internal problems and its reluctance to play a positive role in regional matters had lost the country great influence in Africa and the neighbouring countries. Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996. Map of Egypt, showing the 26 capitals of governorates, in addition to the self-governing city of Luxor Egypt is divided into twenty-six governorates (muhafazat, singular muhafazah). The governorates are further divided into regions (markazes). \| \|style="padding-top:8px;"\| \|} The Nile River at the ancient city of Aswan, a popular destination for vacationersEgypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than three million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly-growing population, limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress the economy. The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investments in communications and physical infrastructure. Egypt has been receiving U.S. foreign aid (since 1979, an average of $2.2 billion per year) and is the third-largest recipient of such funds from the United States following the Iraq war. Its main revenues however come from tourism as well as traffic that goes through the Suez Canal. Egypt has a developed energy market based on coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro power. Substantial coal deposits are in the north-east Sinai, and are mined at the rate of about per year. Oil and gas are produced in the western desert regions, the Gulf of Suez, and the Nile Delta. Egypt has huge reserves of gas, estimated at over in the 1990s, and LNG is exported to many countries. Economic conditions have started to improve considerably after a period of stagnation from the adoption of more liberal economic policies by the government, as well as increased revenues from tourism and a booming stock market. In its annual report, the IMF has rated Egypt as one of the top countries in the world undertaking economic reforms. Some major economic reforms taken by the new government since 2003 include a dramatic slashing of customs and tariffs. A new taxation law implemented in 2005 decreased corporate taxes from 40% to the current 20%, resulting in a stated 100% increase in tax revenue by the year 2006. FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into Egypt has increased considerably in the past few years due to the recent economic liberalization measures taken by minister of investment Mahmoud Mohieddin, exceeding $6 billion in 2006. Egypt is slated to overcome South Africa as the highest earner of FDI on the African continent in 2007. Although one of the main obstacles still facing the Egyptian economy is the trickle down of the wealth to the average population, many Egyptians criticize their government for higher prices of basic goods while their standards of living or purchasing power remains relatively stagnant. Often corruption is blamed by Egyptians as the main impediment to feeling the benefits of the newly attained wealth. Major reconstruction of the country's infrastructure is promised by the government, with a large portion of the sum paid for the newly acquired 3rd mobile license ($3 billion) by Etisalat. This is slated to be pumped into the country's railroad system, in response to public outrage against the government for disasters in 2006 that claimed more than 100 lives. The best known examples of Egyptian companies that have expanded regionally and globally are the Orascom Group and Raya. The IT sector has been expanding rapidly in the past few years, with many new start-ups conducting outsourcing business to North America and Europe, operating with companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and other major corporations, as well as numerous SME's. Some of these companies are the Xceed Contact Center, Raya Contact Center, E Group Connections and C3 along with other start ups in that country. The sector has been stimulated by new Egyptian entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on their country's huge potential in the sector, as well as constant government encouragement. Egyptian farm Egypt is the most populated country in the Middle East and the second-most populous on the African continent, with an estimated 78 million people. Almost all the population is concentrated along the banks of the Nile (notably Cairo and Alexandria), in the Delta and near the Suez Canal. Approximately 80-90% of the population adheres to Islam and most of the remainder to Christianity, primarily the Coptic Orthodox denomination. Apart from religious affiliation, Egyptians can be divided demographically into those who live in the major urban centers and the fellahin or farmers of rural villages. The last 40 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity, BBC NEWS \| The limits of a Green Revolution? made by the Green Revolution. Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy Egyptians are by far the largest ethnic group in Egypt at 94% (about 72.5 million) of the total population. Ethnic minorities include the Bedouin Arab tribes living in the eastern deserts and the Sinai Peninsula, the Berber-speaking Siwis (Amazigh) of the Siwa Oasis, and the ancient Nubian communities clustered along the Nile. There are also tribal communities of Beja concentrated in the south-eastern-most corner of the country, and a number of Dom clans mostly in the Nile Delta and Faiyum who are progressively becoming assimilated as urbanization increases. Egypt also hosts an unknown number of refugees and asylum seekers. According to the UNDP's 2004 Human Development Report, there were 89,000 refugees in the country, UNDP, p. 75. though this number may be an underestimate. There are some 70,000 Palestinian refugees, and about 150,000 recently arrived Iraqi refugees, Iraq: from a Flood to a Trickle: Egypt but the number of the largest group, the Sudanese, is contested. See The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants for a lower estimate. The The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights states on its web site that in 2000 the World Council of Churches claimed that "between two and five million Sudanese have come to Egypt in recent years". Most Sudanese refugees come to Egypt in the hope of resettling in Europe or the US. The once-vibrant Jewish community in Egypt has virtually disappeared, with only a small number remaining in the country, but many Egyptian Jews visit on religious occasions and for tourism. Several important Jewish archaeological and historical sites are found in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities. Cairo's unique cityscape with its ancient mosques Religion plays a central role in most Egyptians' lives. The rolling calls to prayer that are heard five times a day have the informal effect of regulating the pace of everything from business to entertainment. Cairo is famous for its numerous mosque minarets and church towers. This religious landscape has been marred by a record of religious extremism. Most recently, a December 16 2006 judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of Egypt insisted on a clear demarcation between "recognized religions"âIslam, Christianity and Judaismâand all other religious beliefsâthus effectively delegitimatizing and forbidding practice of all but these aforementioned religions. This judgment has led to the requirement for communities to either commit perjury or be subjected to denial of identification cards. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, at 80-90% of the population, with the majority being adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam. A significant number of Muslim Egyptians also follow native Sufi orders, Hoffman, Valerie J. Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern Egypt. University of South Carolina Press, 1995. and a minority of Shi'a. Christians represent 10-20% of the population, Wahington Institute (Citing pop. estimates) more than 95% of whom belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Other native Egyptian Christians are adherents of the Coptic Catholic Church, the Coptic Evangelical Church and various Coptic Protestant denominations. Non-native Christian communities are largely found in the urban regions of Alexandria and Cairo, and are members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Maronite Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, or the Syriac Orthodox Church. According to the Constitution of Egypt, any new legislation must at least implicitly agree with Islamic laws. The mainstream Hanafi school of Sunni Islam is largely organised by the state, through Wizaret Al-Awkaf (Ministry of Religious Affairs). Al-Awkaf controls all mosques and overviews Muslim clerics. Imams are trained in Imam vocational schools and at Al-Azhar University. The department supports Sunni Islam and has commissions authorised to give Fatwa judgements on Islamic issues. Egypt hosts two major religious institutions. Al-Azhar University ( ) is the oldest Islamic institution of higher studies (founded around 970 A.D) and considered by many to be the oldest extant university. The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, headed by the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, attests to Egypt's strong Christian heritage. It has a following of approximately 15 million Christians worldwide; affiliated sister churches are located in Armenia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Lebanon and Syria. Religious freedom in Egypt is hampered to varying degrees by extremist Islamist groups and by discriminatory and restrictive government policies. Being the largest religious minority in Egypt, Coptic Christians are the most negatively affected community. Copts have faced increasing marginalization after the 1952 coup d'Ã©tat led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Until recently, Christians were required to obtain presidential approval for even minor repairs in churches. Although the law was eased in 2005 by handing down the authority of approval to the governors, Copts continue to face many obstacles in building new or repairing existing churches. These obstacles are not found in building mosques. WorldWide Religious News. Church Building Regulations Eased. December 13, 2005. Compass Direct News. Church Building Regulations Eased. December 13, 2005. In addition, Copts complain of being minimally represented in law enforcement, state security and public office, and of being discriminated against in the workforce on the basis of their religion. Human Rights Watch. Egypt: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt. 2005 The Coptic community, as well as several human rights activists and intellectuals (such as Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Tarek Heggy), maintain that the number of Christians occupying government posts is not proportional to the number of Copts in Egypt, who constitute between 10 and 15% of the population in Egypt. Of the 32 cabinet ministers, two are Copts: Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali and Minister of Environment Magued George; and of the 25 local governors, only one is a Copt (in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Qena). However, Copts have demonstrated great success in Egypt's private business sector; Naguib Sawiris, an extremely successful businessman and one of the world's wealthiest 100 people is a Copt. In 2002, under the Mubarak government, Coptic Christmas (January 7) was recognized as an official holiday. ArabicNews.com. Copts welcome Presidential announcement on Eastern Christmas Holiday. December 20, 2002. Nevertheless, the Coptic community has occasionally been the target of hate crimes and physical assaults. The most significant was the 2000-2001 El Kosheh attacks , in which 21 Copts and one Muslim were killed. A 2006 attack on three churches in Alexandria left one dead and 17 injured, although the attacker was not linked to any organisation. BBC. Egypt church attacks spark anger, April 15 2006. Egypt was once home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. Egyptian Jews, who were mostly Karaites, partook of all aspects of Egypt's social, economic and political life; one of the most ardent Egyptian nationalists, Yaqub Sanu' (Abu Naddara), was a Jew, as were famous musician Dawoud Husni, popular singer Leila Mourad, and prominent filmmaker Togo Mizrahi. For a while, Jews from across the Ottoman Empire and Europe were attracted to Egypt due to the relative harmony that characterized the local religious landscape in the 19th and early 20th centuries. After the 1956 Suez Crisis, a great number of Jews were expelled by Gamal Abdel Nasser, many of whom holding official Egyptian citizenship. Their Egyptian citizenship was revoked and their property was confiscated. A steady stream of migration of Egyptian Jews followed, reaching a peak after the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967. Today, Jews in Egypt number less than 500. Jewish Community Council (JCC) of Cairo. Bassatine News. 2006. Over ten million Egyptians follow the Christian faith as members of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. BahÃ¡'Ãs in Egypt, whose population is estimated to be a couple of thousands, have long been persecuted, having their institutions and community activities banned. Since their faith is not officially recognized by the state, they are also not allowed to use it on their national identity cards (conversely, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are officially recognized); hence most of them do not hold national identity cards. In April 2006 a court case recognized the BahÃ¡'Ã Faith, but the government appealed the court decision and succeeded in having it suspended on May 15, 2006. On December 16, 2006, only after one hearing, the Supreme Administrative Council of Egypt ruled against the BahÃ¡'Ãs, stating that the government may not recognize the BahÃ¡'Ã Faith in official identification documents. There are Egyptians who identify as atheist and agnostic, but their numbers are largely unknown as openly advocating such positions risks legal sanction on the basis of apostasy (if a citizen takes the step of suing the 'apostating' person, though not automatically by the general prosecutor). In 2000, an openly atheist Egyptian writer, who called for the establishment of a local association for atheists, was tried on charges of insulting Islam in four of his books. While freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Egyptian constitution, according to Human Rights Watch, "Egyptians are able to convert to Islam generally without difficulty, but Muslims who convert to Christianity face difficulties in getting new identity papers and some have been arrested for allegedly forging such documents. Human Rights Watch. World report 2007: Egypt. The Coptic community, however, takes pains to prevent conversions from Christianity to Islam due to the ease with which Christians can often become Muslim. EGYPT: NATIONAL UNITY AND THE COPTIC ISSUE. 2004 Public officials, being conservative themselves, intensify the complexity of the legal procedures required to recognize the religion change as required by law. Security agencies will sometimes claim that such conversions from Islam to Christianity (or occasionally vice versa) may stir social unrest, and thereby justify themselves in wrongfully detaining the subjects, insisting that they are simply taking steps to prevent likely social troubles from happening. Egypt: Egypt Arrests 22 Muslim converts to Christianity. 03 November, 2003 Recently, a Cairo administrative court denied 45 citizens the right to obtain identity papers documenting their reversion to Christianity after converting to Islam. Shahine, Gihan. "Fraud, not Freedom". Ahram Weekly, 3 - 9 May 2007 Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a commemoration of the ancient Library of Alexandria in Egypt's second largest city. Egyptian culture has five thousand years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations and for millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the influence of Hellenism, Christianity, and Islamic culture. Today, many aspects of Egypt's ancient culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the influence of modern Western culture, itself with roots in ancient Egypt. Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's largest city and has been renowned for centuries as a center of learning, culture and commerce. Egypt has the highest number of Nobel Laureates in Africa and the Arab World. Some Egyptian born politicians were or are currently at the helm of major international organizations like Boutros Boutros-Ghali of the United Nations and Mohamed ElBaradei of the IAEA. The work of early nineteenth-century scholar Rifa'a et-Tahtawi gave rise to the Egyptian Renaissance, marking the transition from Medieval to Early Modern Egypt. His work renewed interest in Egyptian antiquity and exposed Egyptian society to Enlightenment principles. Tahtawi co-founded with education reformer Ali Mubarak a native Egyptology school that looked for inspiration to medieval Egyptian scholars, such as Suyuti and Maqrizi, who themselves studied the history, language and antiquities of Egypt. El-Daly, op cit., p. 29 Egypt's renaissance peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the work of people like Muhammad Abduh, Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, Qasim Amin, Salama Moussa, Taha Hussein and Mahmoud Mokhtar. They forged a liberal path for Egypt expressed as a commitment to individual freedom, secularism and faith in science to bring progress. Jankowski, op cit., p. 130 Eighteenth dynasty painting from the tomb of Theban governor Ramose in Deir el-Madinah. The Egyptians were one of the first major civilizations to codify design elements in art. The wall paintings done in the service of the Pharaohs followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings. Modern and contemporary Egyptian art can be as diverse as any works in the world art scene. The Cairo Opera House serves as the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. Egypt's media and arts industry has flourished since the late nineteenth century, today with more than thirty satellite channels and over one hundred motion pictures produced each year. Cairo has long been known as the "Hollywood of the Middle East;" its annual film festival, the Cairo International Film Festival, has been rated as one of 11 festivals with a top class rating worldwide by the International Federation of Film Producers' Associations. Cairo Film Festival information. To bolster its media industry further, especially with the keen competition from the Persian Gulf Arab States and Lebanon, a large media city was built. Some Egyptian actors, like Omar Sharif, have achieved worldwide fame. Literature constitutes an important cultural element in the life of Egypt. Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated throughout the Middle East. The first modern Egyptian novel Zaynab by Muhammad Husayn Haykal was published in 1913 in the Egyptian vernacular. Vatikiotis, op cit. Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Egyptian women writers include Nawal El Saadawi, well known for her feminist activism, and Alifa Rifaat who also writes about women and tradition. Vernacular poetry is perhaps the most popular literary genre amongst Egyptians, represented by such luminaries as Ahmed Fuad Nigm (Fagumi), Salah Jaheen and Abdel Rahman el-Abnudi. Upper Egyptian folk musicians from Kom Ombo. Egyptian music is a rich mixture of indigenous, Mediterranean, African and Western elements. In antiquity, Egyptians were playing harps and flutes, including two indigenous instruments: the ney and the oud. Percussion and vocal music also became an important part of the local music tradition ever since. Contemporary Egyptian music traces its beginnings to the creative work of people such as Abdu-l Hamuli, Almaz and Mahmud Osman, who influenced the later work of Egyptian music giants such as Sayed Darwish, Umm Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim Hafez. These prominent artists were followed later by Amr Diab. He is seen by many as the new age "Musical Legend", whose fan base stretches all over the Middle East and Europe. From the 1970s onwards, Egyptian pop music has become increasingly important in Egyptian culture, while Egyptian folk music continues to be played during weddings and other festivities. Egypt is famous for its many festivals and religious carnivals, also known as mulids or Mawlid. They are usually associated with a particular Coptic or Sufi saint, but are often celebrated by all Egyptians irrespective of creed or religion. Ramadan has a special flavor in Egypt, celebrated with sounds, lights (local lanterns known as fawanees) and much flare that many Muslim tourists from the region flock to Egypt during Ramadan to witness the spectacle. The ancient spring festival of Sham en Nisim (Coptic: shom en nisim) has been celebrated by Egyptians for thousands of years, typically between the Egyptian months of Paremoude (April) and Pashons (May), following Easter Sunday. Cairo International Stadium during the 2006 African Cup of Nations Football (soccer) is the de facto national sport of Egypt. Egyptian Soccer clubs El Ahly and El Zamalek are the two most popular teams and enjoy the reputation of long-time regional champions. The great rivalries keep the streets of Egypt energized as people fill the streets when their favourite team wins. Egypt is rich in soccer history as soccer has been around for over 100 years. The country is home to many African championships such as the African Cup of Nations. However, Egypt's national team has not qualified for the FIFA World Cup since 1990. Squash and tennis are other favourite sports. The Egyptian squash team has been known for its fierce competition in international championships since the 1930s. The Egyptian Armed forces have a combined troop strength of around 450,000 active personnel. Egypt Military Strength According to the Israeli chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuval Steinitz, the Egyptian Air Force has roughly the same number of modern warplanes as the Israeli Air Force and far more Western tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft batteries and warships than the IDF. Steinitz, Yuval. Not the peace we expected. Haaretz. December 05, 2006. The Egyptian military has recently undergone massive military modernization mostly in their Air Force. Other than Israel, Egypt is the first country in the region with a spy satellite, EgyptSat 1, and is planning to launch 3 more spy satellites (DesertSat1, EgyptSat2, DesertSat2) over the next two years. Katz, Yaacov. "Egypt to launch first spy satellite," Jerusalem Post, January 15, 2007. White Desert, Farafra At , World Factbook area rank order Egypt is the world's 38th-largest country (after Mauritania). It is comparable in size to Tanzania, twice the size of France, four times the size of the United Kingdom, and is more than half the size of the US state of Alaska. Nevertheless, due to the aridity of Egypt's climate, population centres are concentrated along the narrow Nile Valley and Delta, meaning that approximately 99% of the population uses only about 5.5% of the total land area. Hamza, Waleed. Land use and Coastal Management in the Third Countries: Egypt as a case. Accessed= 2007-06-10. Egypt is bordered by Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. Egypt's important role in geopolitics stems from its strategic position: a transcontinental nation, it possesses a land bridge (the Isthmus of Suez) between Africa and Asia, which in turn is traversed by a navigable waterway (the Suez Canal) that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea. Apart from the Nile Valley, the majority of Egypt's landscape is a sandy desert. The winds blowing can create sand dunes over high. Egypt includes parts of the Sahara Desert and of the Libyan Desert. These deserts were referred to as the "red land" in ancient Egypt, and they protected the Kingdom of the Pharaohs from western threats. Towns and cities include Alexandria, one of the greatest ancient cities, Aswan, Asyut, Cairo, the modern Egyptian capital, El-Mahalla El-Kubra, Giza, the site of the Pyramid of Khufu, Hurghada, Luxor, Kom Ombo, Port Safaga, Port Said, Sharm el Sheikh, Suez, where the Suez Canal is located, Zagazig, and Al-Minya. Oases include Bahariya, el Dakhla, Farafra, el Kharga and Siwa. Protectorates include Ras Mohamed National Park, Zaranik Protectorate and Siwa. See Egyptian Protectorates for more information. Egypt receives the least rainfall in the world. South of Cairo, rainfall averages only around 2 to 5 mm (0.1 to 0.2 in) per year and at intervals of many years. On a very thin strip of the northern coast the rainfall can be as high as , all between November and March. Snow falls on Sinai's mountains and some of the north coastal cities such as Damietta, Baltim, Sidi Barrany, etc. and rarely in Alexandria, frost is also known in mid-Sinai and mid-Egypt. Temperatures average between and in summer, and up to on the Red Sea coast. Temperatures average between and in winter. A steady wind from the northwest helps hold down the temperature near the Mediterranean coast. The Khamaseen is a wind that blows from the south in Egypt in spring, bringing sand and dust, and sometimes raises the temperature in the desert to more than . * List of Rulers and heads of state of Egypt * List of writers from Egypt * List of Egyptian companies * List of Egypt-related topics * List of Egyptians * List of Egyptian universities General references * * * Leonard William King, History of Egypt, ChaldÃ¦a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery, Project Gutenberg. * Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, History of Egypt, ChaldÃ¦a, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, in 12 volumes, Project Gutenberg. * Ancient Egyptian Civilization - Aldokkan * Rural poverty in Egypt (IFAD) * Encyclopaedia Britannica's Egypt Country Page * Egyptian Government Services Portal * New Projects in Egypt * Egypt State Information Services * Egypt Information Portal - available in Arabic and English * BBC News Country Profile - Egypt * CIA World Factbook - Egypt * Amnesty International's 2005 Report on Egypt. * US State Department - Egypt includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports * Business Anti-Corruption Portal Egypt Country Profile * Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Egypt * * * Egypt Maps - Perry-CastaÃ±eda Map Collection * Egyptian History (urdu) * By Nile and Tigris, a narrative of journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on behalf of the British museum between the years 1886 and 1913, by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, 1920 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDF format) * Egypt Online Directory * The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights * PortSaid Free-zone forums Related Wikipedia Articles Bilady, Bilady, Bilady Arabic language Cairo Semi-presidential system republic President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister of Egypt Ahmed Nazif History of Egypt First dynasty of Egypt Circa United Kingdom February 28 1922 June 18 1953 CIA World Factbook Egyptian pound Eastern European Summer Time .eg Egyptian Arabic Egyptian language Coptic language Egyptian Arabic North Africa Sinai Peninsula land bridge Asia Libya Sudan Gaza Strip Israel Mediterranean Sea Cyprus Red Sea Africa Nile River arable Sahara Desert Cairo Alexandria Nile Delta Ancient Egypt Giza pyramid complex Great Sphinx of Giza Luxor Karnak Valley of the Kings Middle East Egyptian language Coptic language Upper and Lower Egypt Arabic language Egyptian Arabic Semitic cognate Hebrew language Latin ancient Greek Copt Late Egyptian Egyptian language Egyptian soul Ptah Memphis, Egypt Strabo folk etymology Nile River Nile Valley Paleolithic Petroglyph Nile 10th millennium BC hunter-gatherer fishing cereal culture Sahara agriculture Economic system society Neolithic Predynastic Egypt Upper and Lower Egypt Badarian Naqada Ancient Egypt Egyptian hieroglyphs Naqada Before Christ Menes List of Egyptian dynasties Egyptians Coptic language Culture of Egypt Ancient Egyptian religion Art of Ancient Egypt Egyptian language Protodynastic Period of Egypt Old Kingdom Egyptian pyramids Third dynasty of Egypt pyramid of Djoser Fourth dynasty of Egypt Giza pyramid complex Great Sphinx of Giza Giza pyramid complex Old Kingdom First Intermediate Period of Egypt Middle Kingdom of Egypt Amenemhat III Second Intermediate Period of Egypt Semitic Hyksos Avaris Ahmose I Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt Memphis, Egypt Thebes, Egypt New Kingdom Power in international relations Jebel Barkal Nubia 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Empire World War I protectorate Khedive Abbas II Husayn Kamil Sultan of Egypt Egyptian revolution of 1919 Saad Zaghlul Dinshaway Incident British Empire Saad Zaghlul Wafd Party Legislative Assembly Malta March 8 1919 Egyptian revolution of 1919 February 22 1922 1923 Constitution of Egypt Parliamentary system Prime Minister of Egypt Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 coup d'Ã©tat Egyptian Revolution of 1952 Free Officers Movement Farouk of Egypt Fuad II of Egypt Cairo Africa Middle East Cairo Opera House 18 June 1953 Muhammad Naguib Gamal Abdel Nasser house arrest Political power United Kingdom June 18 1956 nationalization Suez Canal July 26 1956 Suez Crisis Six Day War Israel Sinai Anwar Sadat Cold War Soviet Union United States Infitah Yom Kippur War Golan Heights US USSR Ceasefire Yom Kippur war Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty Arab world Hosni Mubarak Kifaya democracy civil liberties Mahmoud Mokhtar Cairo University Ancient Egypt History of Egypt Culture of Egypt Egyptians Christianity Islam Arabic language Egyptian Arabic collective identity nationalism Pharaonism Arab nationalism pan-Arabism Islamism Egyptians Arab Sati' al-Husri Arab League University of Oxford Gamal Abdel Nasser Zionism Syria United Arab Republic Six-Day War Anwar Al Sadat Israel 1958 Islamic countries Hindustan Times Imbaba Arabian Gulf Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass Sub-Saharan Africa Osama Anwar Okasha Leila Ahmed 18 June 1953 Hosni Mubarak President of Egypt October 14 1981 Anwar Sadat National Democratic Party (Egypt) Heads of government of Egypt Ahmed Nazif 9 July 2004 Atef Ebeid Multi-party system semi-presidential system Prime Minister of Egypt Egyptian presidential election, 2005 Free Officers Movement Ayman Nour March 27 2006 The Christian Science Monitor May 26, 2005 democratization San Francisco Chronicle September 13 2005 December 5 2006 March 19 2007 BBC constitutional amendment Kifaya Hosni Mubarak Amnesty International Human Rights Watch Hosni Mubarak Kifaya Christian 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Ancient Egypt Age of Enlightenment Ali Mubarak Egyptology Suyuti Maqrizi History of ancient Egypt Egyptian language Ancient Egyptian architecture Muhammad Abduh Qasim Amin Salama Moussa Taha Hussein Mahmoud Mokhtar liberalism secularism Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt Thebes, Egypt Ramose Deir el-Madinah Pharaoh Cairo Opera House Cairo International Film Festival Persian Gulf Arab States Lebanon Omar Sharif Literature Arabic literature Zaynab (novel) Muhammad Husayn Haykal Egyptian Arabic Naguib Mahfouz Nobel Prize in Literature Nawal El Saadawi feminism activism Alifa Rifaat literary genre Salah Jaheen Abdel Rahman el-Abnudi Kom Ombo Music of Egypt Ancient Egypt ney oud Percussion Sayed Darwish Umm Kulthum Mohammed Abdel Wahab Abdel Halim Hafez Amr Diab Mawlid Ramadan Sham El Nessim Coptic language Egyptian calendar Paremoude Pashons Easter Cairo International Stadium 2006 African Cup of Nations Football (soccer) national sport Al-Ahly El Zamalek African Cup of Nations FIFA World Cup Squash (sport) tennis Egyptian Army Yuval Steinitz Egyptian Air Force Israeli Air Force Israel Defense Forces December 05 2006 spy satellite EgyptSat 1 Jerusalem Post January 15 2007 Farafra, Egypt Mauritania Tanzania France United Kingdom Alaska Libya Sudan Gaza Strip Israel transcontinental nation Africa Asia Suez Canal Indian Ocean Red Sea Dune Sahara Desert Libyan Desert Alexandria Aswan Asyut Cairo El-Mahalla El-Kubra Giza Hurghada Luxor Kom Ombo Port Safaga Port Said Sharm el Sheikh Suez Zagazig Minya, Egypt Oasis Bahariya Oasis Dakhla Oasis Farafra, Egypt Kharga Oasis Siwa Oasis Protectorates Egyptian Protectorates Cairo average year coastal Red Sea coast Mediterranean Khamaseen desert Ancient Egypt Canal of the Pharoahs' Capital of Egypt Communications in Egypt Copt Egyptian language Ancient Egyptian religion Egyptian pyramids Egyptians Armenians in Egypt History of Egypt Italians in Egypt History of the Jews in Egypt Egyptian Arabic Public holidays in Egypt Red Sea Riviera Egyptian Federation for Scouts and Girl Guides Transport in Egypt Holy Family in Egypt Rulers and heads of state of Egypt List of African writers (by country)#Egypt List of Egyptian companies List of Egypt-related topics List of Egyptians List of Egyptian universities Gaston Maspero IFAD E. A. Wallis Budge DjVu

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