Canada, Australia and other English speaking countries

Canada

Geography
Canada is situated in North America. It borders on the USA in south and north. Canada is the second largest country in the world, but most of the territory is very thinly populated. Its area is almost 10 million square kilometres.
The western part of Canada is very mountainous a rocky. All the mountain rays (pásmo) are called Cordilleras that consist of the Rocky Mountains, the Mackenzie Mountains and the Melville Hills. The highest mountain is Mt. Logan (6050 m) in Alaska Region that borders on Alaska, which belongs to the USA.
On the east coast there are lowlands and between the mountains in the West and the eastern lowlands there are large prairies (prérie) with rich fertile soil (úrodná půda) especially suitable for wheat growing (pšenice). This is the principal agriculture area.
The longest river is the Mackenzie that flows from the Great Slave Lake in the Rocky Mountains to the Artic Ocean. The other important river is the Lawrence River, which flows from the Ontario Lake into the Atlantic Ocean. Other big rivers are Yukon, the Fraser, and the Columbia flows to the Pacific Ocean. Canadian rivers are powerful source of energy.
Canada is famous for its lakes. The Great Lakes are situated in the southern part of Canada. There are Lake Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario. The border of USA goes through these lakes. The southern part of these lakes and Lake Michigan belong to USA. The famous Niagara Falls is situated between Lake Erie and Ontario. The height of them is 49 m and are 1,3 km wide. Other beautiful lakes are the Lake Winnipeg, Athabasca etc. but the largest of them is the Great Slave Lake and the Great Bear Lake in the north.
There are large woods, forest, nice nature and wildlife.

Population
The original inhabitants came to Canada from Asia across a land bridge over what is now the Bering Strait. The first Europeans were the Vikings. The first permanent settlers were the French in the 17th century, who called their colony in St. Lawrence valley New France. Then came there the English. But the relations between the French and English were not good because the French were catholic and the English were protestant.
The population of Canada is about 25 mil. people. Most people are concentrated near the borders to USA. They live in large urban centres. The north of the country is not so populated because there are bad living conditions. The nations, which live in Canada, are mostly British, French, Eskimos and Indians. There are quite lot of minorities like Italian, German and Chinese. Lots of Czechoslovak emigrated in 1968 there because they had not many possibilities to go to other countries – only Canada and Australia. For example Josef Škvorecký emigrated to Canada and he found the well-known publisher Publishers 68 in Toronto.

Economy, industry
Canada is highly developed industrial and agrarian country. Canada’s natural resources are well known. There are gold, silver, iron, copper, uranium, oil, coal, zinc, lead (olovo), and nickel. Uranium from Canada makes 40 % of the world’s trade production of this ore (ruda). Almost half the land area of Canada is covered by forest so lots of trees are cut. The wood is provided for building, furniture and paper. The main industries are wood and paper industry, food industry, engineering and mining. Hydroelectric industry is highly developed especially in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The agriculture is highly productive. Although only about 7 % of the land is suitable for farming, Canada is the 5th largest producer of wheat and the 2nd largest wheat exporter. Wheat is grown on the prairies, interior of the country. Important place in economy takes fishery. The currency used in Canada is Canadian dollar.

Administration
Canada is part of the British Commonwealth. It is independent confederation with parliamentary democracy. The official head of state is the British Queen Elizabeth II. In Canada she is represented by the Governor General whose duties are formal. Canada is federation of 10 provinces and 2 territories (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia, Yukon Territory and Northwest Territory).
The prime minister is the head of the government. There are Federal Government and Federal Parliament (House of Commons and Senate)

Symbols + cities + others
The flag is red-white with the national symbol of maple leaf. Syrup is very popular in Canada. It is made from the maple tree.
The capital city is Ottawa. It is not the biggest city. It is the seat of government and parliament. The Quebec City is the oldest and was the capital of Canada. Toronto is the biggest city and it is the economical and cultural centre. Well-known is the high TV tower called CN-Tower. The other known cities are Vancouver and Calgary.
The famous Canadian is e.g. singer Brian Adams, Paul Anka (he composed the song Diana), the writer Arthur Hailey and Stephen Leacock.

Další zdroje o tomto tématu naleznete zde:
Australia
Australia and New Zealand
Články na hledaný výraz „Australia and Other Speaking Countries“ naleznete na bezuceni.cz