Portal:Canada/Selected article/3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Canada (IPA: /kæn.ə.də/) is a federal country composed of ten provinces and three territories. Occupying most of northern North America, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Canada shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. By total area, it is the second largest country in the world.[1]
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, Canada was formed through an act of union of three British North American colonies. A gradual process of independence from the United Kingdom culminated in the Canada Act 1982, severing the last vestiges of dependence on the British parliament; the country remains a Commonwealth Realm.
Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. With both English and French as official languages at the federal level, Canada is a bilingual and multicultural country. A technologically advanced and industrialized nation, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon trade—particularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship.
