In 1867, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia formed a confederation on July 1, 1867 the British North America act declared Canada a country. We celebrate Canada`s national day on July 1 as Canada day. In 1965, we adopted the red and white flag with the maple leaf as our official flag.

Canada is the second largest country in the world with 10 million square kilometers of land mass. The country has a population of approximately 30 million people. Three oceans border country – the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Arctic. Due to its size, there are many different geographical areas and regions. We divide these into the following: the Atlantic Region, Central Canada, the Prairie Provinces, the West Coast and the North. We divided the country into 10 provinces and 3 territories each with its own capital. The capital of Canada is Ottawa.

Canada is one the leading G-7 Nations. It is a highly developed country, with excellent working conditions, an outstanding education system, a very high standard of living and health care system ranked one of the best in the world.

Canada is a country composed of immigrants from practically every country in the world. Canada’s success is largely due to the contributions made by these immigrants. Each year, Canada welcomes more than 200,000 new immigrants. The diversified backgrounds and cultures are what makes Canada unique. Multicultural is promoted to help maintain this unique “melting pot”.

No matter where you come from, once you are a landed immigrant you have all the rights of a Canadian citizen. These rights are protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Should you wish to become a citizen, you can do so after you have lived in Canada for three years. As a Canadian citizen, you can apply for a Canadian passport and you are eligible to vote.

Canadian politics

Canada is an independent constitutional monarchy and has three tiers of government: federal, provincial, and municipal (for and cities).

Queen Elizabeth II of England is still Canada’s head of state, and until 1982 Canada could not make any changes to its constitution without the approval of the British government. In 1982 the Constitution Act came into effect, which allows Canada to make these changes without British approval. We made the Charter of Rights and Freedoms part of the Constitution in 1982. The Official language Act protects English and French, the two official languages in Canada.

The political party with the most elected members forms the federal government and its leader becomes the Prime Minister. The party with a second largest number of elected members becomes official opposition, and its role is to offer constructive criticism to the government.

The four main political parties are:

• The Progressive Conservative party
• The liberal party
• The new democratic
• The Canadian Alliance

The federal government is based in the capital city of Ottawa.

Geography

Located in the North of the continent North American, Canada is one of the world’s largest countries area. Canada has Atlantic Ocean on the its East Coast and Pacific Ocean on its West Coast.
Canada has 10 provinces and 3 territories. This include:

Immigration

Due to low population growth rate and abundance of available resources, Canada encourages immigration and skilled professionals and business people from all over the world to make Canada their homeland. Every year, Canada accepts 200,000 to 250,000 new immigrants.

Eligibility for Canadian citizenship within three years of arrival in Canada with permanent residence status.

Health

Canada has one of the world’s best health systems. Every citizen and permanent resident is covered by insurance plan of the province he/she lives in. the health plan funded by tax measures and provides the world’s best quality essential health services including doctors’ fee and hospital charges.

Quality of Education

Canada offers free primary and secondary education and subsidized post-secondary studies. Every child must attend school until the age of 16-17 years. 95% of the children goes to the public schools, which are free. The education is paid by the provinces. The choice of public schools according to where the child live. Canada spends more on education than any industrialized nation.

Social services

Canada is a welfare state. This means that the government takes care of its citizen’s basic social services. These services are being funded from the taxes. Some of these services are:

Business and industry

At 6.8%, Canada’s unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been since 1976, with hundreds of thousands of new jobs created each year.

Low tax in the Corporate Sector among all G-8 countries.

Unlimited opportunities for development exist in the natural resources, manufacturing, construction, import/export, commerce, high-tech and service industries. Access to the United States and Mexico markets on the NAFTA agreement.

Multiculturalism

Canada encourages immigrants to retain their unique culture.
Nowhere else is there such a diversity of cultures existing together in a highly tolerant and peaceful society.

The Justice System

The crime rates in Canada are among the lowest in the world, and continue to decline.

As a citizen or a landed immigrant, you have equal access to the justice system. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee every resident fundamental freedoms, legal rights and equality under the law.

• Kaplan