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Canada

From Wikipedia (excerpt), the free encyclopedia

National Flag: Vertical triband (red, white, red) with a red maple leaf in the centre of the white

Motto: A Mari Usque Ad Mare (Latin) "From Sea to Sea"

Anthem: "O Canada"

Royal anthem: "God Save the Queen"

Capital: Ottawa

Official language(s): English and French

Area
- Total 9,984,670 km2 (2nd) 3,854,085 sq mi
Population
- 2010 estimate 34,103,000 (36th)
- 2006 census 31,241,030
- Density 3.41/km2 (228th)8.3/sq mi

Canada is the world's second largest country by total area, 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. Canada's common border with the United States to the south and northwest is the longest in the world.

The land occupied by Canada was inhabited for millennia by various groups of Aboriginal people. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored, and later settled, along 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 dominion of four provinces.[8][9] This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom. This widening autonomy was highlighted by the Statute of Westminster of 1931 and culminated in the Canada Act of 1982, which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament.

A federation consisting of ten provinces and three territories, Canada is governed as a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual nation with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. One of the world's highly developed countries, Canada has a diversified economy that is reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon trade—particularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. It is a member of the G8, G-20, NATO, OECD, WTO, Commonwealth, Francophonie, OAS, APEC, and UN.