Canada Study the map of Canada, find these places and write them in your empty map: water

Capital: Ottawa

Area: 10 million sq. km

Number of provinces: 10, number of territories: 3

Population: more than 30 million

Official languages: English, French

Flag: red stripes on the sides symbolize Canada`s position between two oceans, white square in the middle with a simple red maple leaf – red symbolizes the blood of Canadians who died in WWI, white represents the snow of the north

Form of government: federal parliamentary democracy

Head of state: Queen Elisabeth II, represented by Governor General

Head of government: Prime Minister

Legislative power: Federal Parliament: House of Commons (5 years), Senate

Currency: Canadian dollar

Canada can be divided into seven regions:

a) the Pacific Coast – the coast of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, moderate climate influenced by the Pacific

b) the Cordillera – made up of the Rocky Mts., the Coast Mts. and other ranges running north to south, alpine snowfields, deep valleys, desert-like conditions

c) the Prairies – Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, plains, the richest grain-producing region in the world, deposits of oil, natural gas, potash (potaš – uhličitan draselný)

d) the Canadian Shield – around the Hudson Bay, deposits of gold, silver, zinc, copper and uranium

e) the Great Lakes – southern Quebec, Ontario, 50% of Canadians live here, 70% of manufactured goods is produced here, sugar maple (javor cukrový), grapes, peaches, pears, fruit, ship-building, paper mills, timber (almost half the area of Canada is covered by forests)

f) the Atlantic Provinces – New Brinswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland – first lands to be settles by Europeans, wheat, fishing

g) the Arctic – no longer inaccessible, can be reached by road or air, most communities have electricity, health service, long and bitterly cold winters, short summers with continuous daylight (temperatures can reach 30°C), tundra
Explorers of Canada

name	time	place	extra info
JOHN CABOT (1450-1499)	1497 1498	Labrador, Newfoundland, Cape Breton Island second expedition, maybe reached America	Italian-born English explorer and navigator, sailed on ship called Matthew, wanted to find a northwest passage to Asia, claimed the land for England, explored the coastline and named many islands
JACQUES CARTIER (1491-1557)	1534 1535 1541	1.000 miles up to St. Lawrence River tried to start a settlement in Quebec, but abandoned after a terribly cold winter	French explorer, looking for a northwest passage to the Pacific, named the land Canada (kanata means village in Huron-Iroquois language), Huron-Iroquois Indians gave him directions, claimed the land for France
HENRY HUDSON (1565-1611)	1609 1610-1611	150 miled up to today`s Hudson River (flows to St. Lawrence), discovered today`s New York City the Hudson Strait, the Hudson Bay	English explorer and navigator, sailed there four times, looking for the northwest passage to Asia, encouraged Dutch settlements died on this trip
GEORGE VANCOUVER (1758-1798)	1792	Strait of Juan de Fuca (today`s US-Canada border), Puget Sound (Vancouver), Vancouver Island	English explorer and navigator, two ships Discovery and Chatham
ALEXANDER MACKENZIE (1755-1820)	1789 1793	the Mackenzie River from Great Slave Lake to the mouth in the Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean second expedition: from Fort Chipewyan across the Rocky Mts. to the Pacific coast across Peace, Parsnip, McGregor and Fraser Rivers	Scottish-born fur trader and explorer, 1779 emigrated to Canada, 1788-96 commanded the trade in Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca, the first European to cross the North American continent north of Mexico (2x), retired in Scotland
ROALD AMUNDSEN (1872-1928)	1899 1900 1903 1904 1926 1905	started the expedition to the North Magnetic Pole bought a ship Gjoa sailed from Oslo around Greenland, through Baffin Island to King William Island, here he spent two years building 2 ships, observatory and huts, Netsilik Indians taught him Arctic survival techniques continued to the Pole – had moved 30 miles since it was originally located in 1831 – the first time anyone realized that the magnetic poles move the first person to fly over the North Pole the first person to sail around the world through the northeast and northwest passage	Norwegian polar explorer, the first person to reach both North and South Pole

History

Match the dates and events:

date	event
cca 30.000 years ago	the first inhabitants (American Indians) came across the Bering Strait from Asia, some of them settled in Canada, the others continued to the south; later the Inuits came to live in the Arctic regions
10th century	the first Europeans were the Vikings from Norway, they settled for a short time on Newfoundland island
1497	John Cabot searching for the northern route to the Orient reached the land and claimed it for the English crown
1534	Jacques Cartier claimed the land for the French
1763	the rivalry between England and France because of fish and fur trade ended by the Treaty of Paris, which gave all the French territory east of the Mississippi River to the British
1867	the Dominion of Canada was established (Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick), later other provinces joined
1931	the Statute of Westminster gave Canada constitutional autonomy from Britain
World War II	Canadian forces fought in Italy and the Atlantic
1947	Canada was declared to be of equal status with Great Britain within the Commonwealth
1980	a referendum on the separation of Quebec was defeated
1999	the territory of Nunavut was formed as the first territory in Canada to have the majority of indigenous people