Canada"Canada: A country devoid of cultural unity, linguistic unity, religious unity, economic unity, and geographical unity. All this constitutes its unity."
©Kenneth Boulding
Canada - The state is located in North America. It borders the United States to the south and northwest. In the north it is washed by the waters of the Arctic Ocean, in the west by the Pacific, in the east by the Atlantic Ocean. To the north are the numerous islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
Canada is among the ten most economically developed countries in the world.
Canada is a multinational country, but representatives of different peoples have formed into a single nation. Over the past 400 years, many immigrants have entered Canada, especially from Europe. The vast majority of the population is made up of two ethnic communities. The most numerous are Anglo-Canadians, descendants of immigrants from England and Scotland. They evenly inhabit the whole country, while the French Canadians - the descendants of the French colonists - are concentrated mainly in the province of Quebec. Later settlers are immigrants from other European countries: Italians, Germans, Poles, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, etc. The descendants of immigrants from Russia and Asian countries (Russians, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indians, Pakistanis), as well as African Americans, also live here - Canadian citizens whose distant ancestors lived in Africa. Especially many Canadians of Asian origin live in British Columbia. The first Chinese appeared in Canada in the second half of the 19th century. as workers on the construction of the Trans-Canada Railroad. Currently, most Canadians live in cities in the southern regions of the country. In the north, the population density is much lower.
History: In the XX century. the cultural diversity of various ethnic groups is disappearing and a single urban culture is being formed. French Canadians are more conservative than Anglo Canadians.
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Indian tribes, differing among themselves in culture, language, customs and occupation, are the indigenous people of Canada.
At present, the natives of Canada, to one degree or another, have lost their traditional way of life. Now they live settled in the villages. Aboriginal communities are self-governing and in some cases independent of the federal government. Among the Indians and Eskimos, lawyers, scientists, and businessmen appeared, but at the same time, a significant percentage of people engaged in hunting and fishing remained.
Ottawa was founded in the 20s. 19th century (capital - since 1867) in the province of Ontario on the river of the same name. Until 1854 it was known as Bytown. There are two universities in Ottawa - English and French, the National Center for the Arts and the National Gallery. The city of Toronto (3.9 million inhabitants) was founded in 1749 - a major commercial, industrial and financial center, famous for one of the largest universities in Canada.
Attractions: Most of the country's attractions are concentrated in the two oldest cities - Montreal and Quebec, located on the St. Lawrence River. Montreal (3.1 million inhabitants) arose on the site of the village of the Laurentian Iroquois of Hoshelag (“beaver dam”). Among the architectural monuments, the Church of Notre-Dame de Bosincourt (1657) and the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Montreal (1824), famous for their luxurious interior decoration, stand out. Attractions include Mont-Royal (Royal Mountain) in the city centre. From the top of this mountain, J. Cartier and his companions once opened magnificent views of Canadian landscapes - vast virgin forests and corn fields of the Indians.
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The 20th century left the buildings of the World Exhibition (1967) and the Olympics (1976) in Montreal.
Quebec (96% French-Canadian) retains more of the characteristics of old France than many French cities. Quebec has a medieval fortress wall, the only one in all of North America. Monument of architecture of the 17th century. - the ancient chambers of the Saint-Louis hospital. The tower clock, which became the symbol of the city, was installed in the 1920s. 19th century In the port area of the city, a church built by S. Champlain has been preserved, and on the island of Orleans, located at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, there is the Church of the Holy Family - a Canadian version of French Gothic. At the same time, Quebec has characteristics that are specific to Canadian culture, which you will not find in France. The city annually hosts a winter carnival - a phenomenon common to the Romanesque tradition as a whole, but at the same time unique, since other well-known carnivals (for example, Italian or Latin American) are associated with the southern regions and have nothing to do with winter. On the territory of Quebec is the famous "Plain of Abraham" - the field where in 1759 the decisive battle between the British and the French took place. On holidays, you can see a staging of this battle here.
Tourists are also shown a cantilever bridge 11 km long (1907 - 1917).
Canada is an open country. Every year it is visited by many tourists from all over the world. In summer, everyone wants to see the famous Niagara Falls - a powerful water stream that falls almost 50 meters high. National parks have been created in the country: Wood Buffalo (Lspring bison), located in Alberta and the Northwest Territories, Polar Bear (Polar Bear) - in Ontario, etc. Visitors can observe bears, beavers, bison and other animals in their natural habitat. Travel to some Indian and Eskimo communities is widespread. The steppe provinces are characterized by cowboy rodeos, which attract a huge number of spectators.
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The climate is temperate, with cold winters and relatively warm, but short summers in the north. In the south, climatic conditions are milder. On the rainy Pacific coast, the winter cold is weaker. The path of the winds from the ocean to the interior of the country is blocked by the Cordillera, which makes the climate more severe. Canada ranks first in the world in terms of fresh water reserves. On its territory there are lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior, which are part of the largest lake system on Earth. Not too long, but full-flowing St. Lawrence River played the same important role in the history of Canada as the Volga in the history of Russia. Most of Canada is occupied by the taiga, where coniferous trees (red and black spruce, fir, larch) are often replaced by white-trunked Canadian birch and aspen. In the southeast of the country, in the Great Lakes region, there are mixed broad-leaved forests (sugar maple, ash, yellow birch and oak). To the west are steppes adjoining rocky mountains. In the northern Arctic regions - tundra.
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The fauna of Canada is diverse. Of the ungulates in the taiga, moose predominate. Caribou make annual migrations. Wapiti - the American subspecies of the red deer inhabits mixed forests, and in the spurs of the Cordillera you can meet bighorn sheep. On the tundra on the west coast of Hudson Bay, the world's only natural population of musk oxen has survived. In national parks, the number of bison, almost completely exterminated by the end of the 19th century, has been restored. The same fate almost befell the Canadian beaver (a symbol of the country's wildlife). Three varieties of bears live in Canada: black, or baribal, is ubiquitous; the grizzly, the largest subspecies of the brown bear, in the western highlands; white - in the Arctic latitudes. Wolves, foxes, lynxes, martens, porcupines, etc. are also found in the forests.
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Canada is a parliamentary republic. Includes 10 provinces and 2 territories (Yukon and Northwest). Legislative power is vested in a bicameral parliament consisting of the Senate and the House of Commons. In 1982, the Canadian Constitution Act was adopted by the British Parliament. Now, despite the formal subordination to the British crown, all legislative activity in the country is carried out by Canadian government agencies.
Religion: Most of the population is Christian. French Canadians gravitate toward Catholicism, Anglo Canadians toward Protestantism. Aboriginal people are officially considered Catholics or Protestants, but their religious beliefs are a combination of traditional pagan beliefs and Christianity, borrowed from whites.
January 14, 2022