Canada (
IPA
:
/ˈkænədə/
) is a
country
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
. It is the
world's second largest country
by total area,
and shares
land borders
with the
United States
to the south and northwest.
The lands have been inhabited for millennia by various groups of
aboriginal peoples
. Beginning in the late th century,
British
and
French
expions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of
its colonies in North America
in after the
Seven Years War
. In , with the union of three
British North American
colonies through
Confederation
, Canada was formed as a
federal
dominion
of four provinces.
disputed
This began an
accretion of additional provinces and territories
and a process of increasing autonomy from the
United Kingdom
, highlighted by the
Statute of Westminster in
and culminating in the
Canada Act in
which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament.
A
federation
now comprising
ten provinces and three territories
, Canada is a
parliamentary democracy
and a
constitutional monarchy
, with
Queen Elizabeth II
as its head of state. It is a
bilingual
and
multicultural
country, with both
English
and
French
as official languages at the federal level.
Technologically advanced and industrialized
, 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 a
long and complex relationship
. |