Happy Birthday CANADA the land of Opportunity
I'm very lucky to be Canadian and in gratitude I wanted to celebrate Canada Day by sharing with you, some of the magnificent attributes in the history, people, places and opportunities of this great Nation. It's important that you know more about Canada and we about you; because no matter where you are, you or someone you know has a direct link to Canada, and we to you. More than 100,000 Canadians lost their lives fighting for peace in other lands during the world wars...More than 150 countries are represented in those who have come to Canada to live, become citizens and plant the roots of what has become our vibrant multi cultural society. As the world slips towards isolationism we need desperately to overcome tyranny by learning more about each other on a personal, individual level so that our impressions and perceptions are not tainted by the treacherous actions of a few in quests for power. To that end, here are some valuable things I like you to know about Canada...
HISTORY
The first inhabitants of Canada were native aborigines. The explorers from Western Europe settled in Canada during the 1500s and the country was named 'Canada' by Jacques Cartier in 1535. The name comes from the Huron and Iroquois word 'kanata' which literally means village
Canada became a country on July 1, 1867, when the British North America Act was passed by the British Parliament.
Democracy and Our Sacrifice
Canada is a democracy governed by a federal Parliament based in the Capital city, Ottawa. Canada is a fierce defender of democracy with a proud and honored military history. Canadian forces were a significant part of the Allied Forces in the First World War and Second World Wars and once again in the Korean War.
Canada's war effort in the great wars is widely regarded as remarkable. A total of 619,636 men and women served in the Canadian forces in the First World War, and of these 66,655 were killed and another 172,950 were wounded. In the Second World War, of a population approximately 11.5 million, 1.1 million Canadians served in the armed forces. Of these, an officially recorded total of 42,042 members of the armed forces gave their lives, and another 55,000 were wounded. Canada also chose to stay out of several wars, despite the participation of close allies, most notably the Vietnam War and the Second Iraq War.
With a commitment to our multi-cultural values we supported our neighbors in the Gulf War, Kosovo, and now Afghanistan. Canada has also played an important role in UN peacekeeping operations worldwide and has cumulatively committed more troops than any other country.
A Vast Rich and Beautiful Land
At 3,855,103 square miles, Canada is the second largest country in the world, behind Russia.
The border between Canada and the United States is officially known as the International Boundary and at 5,525 miles, including 1,538 miles between Canada and Alaska, it is the world's longest border between two nations.
Canada has the longest coastline of any country in the world at 151,600 miles, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west, Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Arctic ocean to the south.
The Trans-Canada Highway is over 7604 kilometres in length and is the worlds'longest national highway.
Canada is rich in natural resources...its lakes and rivers hold about one fourth of all the fresh water available in the world.
Canada is an exporter of net energy. It has large oil deposits and natural gas deposits in places like Alberta, Saskatchewan and and British Columbia. The Alberta Tar Sands have one of the world's largest natural gas reserves, and oil reserves second only to Saudi Arabia. Canada also uses the environment friendly hydroelectric power and is a large energy supplier to the U.S.
Apart from agriculture; the other important exports of Canada are potash, lead, zinc, uranium, gold and nickel.
Today, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service sector. Other important sectors in Canada are the oil, logging, mining, nuclear energy and the automobile industry
Canada...Land of Cultural Diversity and Opportunity
Although it’s the second-largest country in the world, Canada is one of the least densely populated.
The United Nations Human Development Index, rates Canada as having the highest quality of life in the world. Part of what makes Canada unique is the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, which recognizes and values a multi-cultural policy, and people from more than 150 countries move to Canada every year. This great range of ethnic and cultural communities plays a vital role in keeping the major cities Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and other urban centres vibrant and growing.
Canada...is Geographical Diversity and Warmer than You Think
People who have never been to Canada often think that it’s always cold, all across the land. The truth, however, is quite different. Canada has a wide range of climates and temperatures...our record high and low temperatures, 45c and -63c are extreme examples. Most of the country has four distinct seasons (winter, spring, summer and fall) and in fact there are 25 U.S. states at least partly North of the southernmost terriroty of Central Canada, including California.
Canada is made up of ten provinces and three territories within five geographic regions.
• The Atlantic Region — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador
• Central Canada — Ontario and Quebec
• The Prairies — Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta
• The West Coast — British Columbia
• The North — the Yukon and Northwest Territories and Nunavut
Our Capital City is Ottawa (pop. 1 million). Other major cities are; Toronto (5.3 million), Montreal (3.6 million), Vancouver (2.3 million). Toronto is the largest city of Canada, the center of Financial power and Toronto dwellers hold more university degrees than any other big city in the world.
Canada...Famous Inventors and Inventions
Alexander Bell emigrated to Canada at age 23 and developed the telephone and many other inventions throughout his life here.
Charles Fenerty, a poet from Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the first person to use wood fibers to make paper. He started experimenting in 1839 and produced paper from wood pulp in 1841.
Reginald Fessenden (1866-1932)-Radio inventor who made the first radio-transmitted audio transmission and the first two-way transatlantic radio transmission; also invented sonar and patented the first television system.
Canada is the home of many great inventions, including: the telephone, insulin, standard time, the television, the IMAX film system, sonar, the electric light bulb, the electric range, the electron microscope, the zipper, Trivial Pursuit, Basketball, Hockey, the snowmobile and the snowblower (gee,I wonder how we thought of the last 3)
Canada...AAAAA+...Famous Architects, Artists, Actors, Authors, Athletes
The late Arthur Erickson, Frank Gehry, Moshe Safdie, Bruce Mau and Karim Rashid have all achieved international status in the design science/arts and many other Canadians are deserving; Bruce Kuwabara, Peter Busby, Raymond Moriyama, just to name a few.
Canada...Supports the ARTS and protects Canadian content and it shows in the remarkable number of international stars by population. Our Music Artists include; Celine Dion, Michael Buble, Avril Lavigne, Dianna Krall, Shania Twain, K.D. Lang, Bryan Adams, Alanis Morissette, Barenaked Ladies, Arcade Fire,...And legends of popular music; Paul Anka, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot, Burton Cummings, Oscar Peterson (jazz), Glenn Gould (classical),David Foster(producer),The Band, the Guess Who, and hundreds more...
Our ACTORS specialize in funny and most notable are; Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Dan Ackroyd, the late great John Candy, Tommy Chong...Michael J. Fox...and the more serious; Keanu Reeves, William Shatner, Christopher Plummer, Donald Sutherland, Keifer Sutherland, Jason Priestly, Pamela Anderson,
Painters and Fine ARTS include Lawren Harris and The Group of Seven, Robert Bateman, Emily Carr, Alex Coleville, Douglas Coupland, Ken Danby, Betty Goodwin, Yousuf Karsh, William Kurelek, Frederick Varley, James Lumbers... just a few I'm sure you would enjoy.
Canadian Authors You should Know are; Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables), Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale), Alice Munro (Lives of Girls and Women)and most celebrated Mordecai Richler, Michael Ondaatje, Pierre Berton, Stephen Leacock, Farley Mowat...and a hundred I've missed.
Canadian ATHLETES dominate in our own game of Hockey and if you know Hockey you know them and if you don't you won't care...HOWEVER we also excel at other sports;
James Naismith invented BASKETBALL while teaching in the U.S. and STEVE NASH, is perhaps our most remarkable Canadian athlete in recent years because he's a comparatively short little guy, who has been the best player in the NBA (MVP, 2005, 2006, 2007 MVP runner-up)
Canadians notable in BASEBALL are Hall of Famer-Ferguson Jenkins, Larry Walker-1997 NL MVP, Jason Bay-2004 NL Rookie of the Year, Éric Gagné - 2003 NL CY Young Award, and Justin Morneau-2006 American League MVP
And we cannot forget 2003 Golf, Masters Winner, Mike Weir
OUR Brave and Beautiful Canadians include Norman Bethune, Laura Secord, Stephen Lewis, David Suzuki, Terry Fox, Tommy Douglas and the more than 100,000 who gave their lives fighting for freedom for other peoples in other lands...and some of the Smart are John Kenneth Galbraith, Marshall McLuhan, Roger Martin, Piere Elliot Trudeau...
Canadians are also are recipients of numerous Nobel awards in Sciences, Medicine, Engineering...I'm not as informed of those important people and their contributions as I should be as another very lucky Canadian...Something more for me to learn and appreciate about this great land.
Cheers All
HISTORY
The first inhabitants of Canada were native aborigines. The explorers from Western Europe settled in Canada during the 1500s and the country was named 'Canada' by Jacques Cartier in 1535. The name comes from the Huron and Iroquois word 'kanata' which literally means village
Canada became a country on July 1, 1867, when the British North America Act was passed by the British Parliament.
Democracy and Our Sacrifice
Canada is a democracy governed by a federal Parliament based in the Capital city, Ottawa. Canada is a fierce defender of democracy with a proud and honored military history. Canadian forces were a significant part of the Allied Forces in the First World War and Second World Wars and once again in the Korean War.
Canada's war effort in the great wars is widely regarded as remarkable. A total of 619,636 men and women served in the Canadian forces in the First World War, and of these 66,655 were killed and another 172,950 were wounded. In the Second World War, of a population approximately 11.5 million, 1.1 million Canadians served in the armed forces. Of these, an officially recorded total of 42,042 members of the armed forces gave their lives, and another 55,000 were wounded. Canada also chose to stay out of several wars, despite the participation of close allies, most notably the Vietnam War and the Second Iraq War.
With a commitment to our multi-cultural values we supported our neighbors in the Gulf War, Kosovo, and now Afghanistan. Canada has also played an important role in UN peacekeeping operations worldwide and has cumulatively committed more troops than any other country.
A Vast Rich and Beautiful Land
At 3,855,103 square miles, Canada is the second largest country in the world, behind Russia.
The border between Canada and the United States is officially known as the International Boundary and at 5,525 miles, including 1,538 miles between Canada and Alaska, it is the world's longest border between two nations.
Canada has the longest coastline of any country in the world at 151,600 miles, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west, Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Arctic ocean to the south.
The Trans-Canada Highway is over 7604 kilometres in length and is the worlds'longest national highway.
Canada is rich in natural resources...its lakes and rivers hold about one fourth of all the fresh water available in the world.
Canada is an exporter of net energy. It has large oil deposits and natural gas deposits in places like Alberta, Saskatchewan and and British Columbia. The Alberta Tar Sands have one of the world's largest natural gas reserves, and oil reserves second only to Saudi Arabia. Canada also uses the environment friendly hydroelectric power and is a large energy supplier to the U.S.
Apart from agriculture; the other important exports of Canada are potash, lead, zinc, uranium, gold and nickel.
Today, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service sector. Other important sectors in Canada are the oil, logging, mining, nuclear energy and the automobile industry
Canada...Land of Cultural Diversity and Opportunity
Although it’s the second-largest country in the world, Canada is one of the least densely populated.
The United Nations Human Development Index, rates Canada as having the highest quality of life in the world. Part of what makes Canada unique is the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, which recognizes and values a multi-cultural policy, and people from more than 150 countries move to Canada every year. This great range of ethnic and cultural communities plays a vital role in keeping the major cities Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and other urban centres vibrant and growing.
Canada...is Geographical Diversity and Warmer than You Think
People who have never been to Canada often think that it’s always cold, all across the land. The truth, however, is quite different. Canada has a wide range of climates and temperatures...our record high and low temperatures, 45c and -63c are extreme examples. Most of the country has four distinct seasons (winter, spring, summer and fall) and in fact there are 25 U.S. states at least partly North of the southernmost terriroty of Central Canada, including California.
Canada is made up of ten provinces and three territories within five geographic regions.
• The Atlantic Region — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador
• Central Canada — Ontario and Quebec
• The Prairies — Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta
• The West Coast — British Columbia
• The North — the Yukon and Northwest Territories and Nunavut
Our Capital City is Ottawa (pop. 1 million). Other major cities are; Toronto (5.3 million), Montreal (3.6 million), Vancouver (2.3 million). Toronto is the largest city of Canada, the center of Financial power and Toronto dwellers hold more university degrees than any other big city in the world.
Canada...Famous Inventors and Inventions
Alexander Bell emigrated to Canada at age 23 and developed the telephone and many other inventions throughout his life here.
Charles Fenerty, a poet from Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the first person to use wood fibers to make paper. He started experimenting in 1839 and produced paper from wood pulp in 1841.
Reginald Fessenden (1866-1932)-Radio inventor who made the first radio-transmitted audio transmission and the first two-way transatlantic radio transmission; also invented sonar and patented the first television system.
Canada is the home of many great inventions, including: the telephone, insulin, standard time, the television, the IMAX film system, sonar, the electric light bulb, the electric range, the electron microscope, the zipper, Trivial Pursuit, Basketball, Hockey, the snowmobile and the snowblower (gee,I wonder how we thought of the last 3)
Canada...AAAAA+...Famous Architects, Artists, Actors, Authors, Athletes
The late Arthur Erickson, Frank Gehry, Moshe Safdie, Bruce Mau and Karim Rashid have all achieved international status in the design science/arts and many other Canadians are deserving; Bruce Kuwabara, Peter Busby, Raymond Moriyama, just to name a few.
Canada...Supports the ARTS and protects Canadian content and it shows in the remarkable number of international stars by population. Our Music Artists include; Celine Dion, Michael Buble, Avril Lavigne, Dianna Krall, Shania Twain, K.D. Lang, Bryan Adams, Alanis Morissette, Barenaked Ladies, Arcade Fire,...And legends of popular music; Paul Anka, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot, Burton Cummings, Oscar Peterson (jazz), Glenn Gould (classical),David Foster(producer),The Band, the Guess Who, and hundreds more...
Our ACTORS specialize in funny and most notable are; Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Dan Ackroyd, the late great John Candy, Tommy Chong...Michael J. Fox...and the more serious; Keanu Reeves, William Shatner, Christopher Plummer, Donald Sutherland, Keifer Sutherland, Jason Priestly, Pamela Anderson,
Painters and Fine ARTS include Lawren Harris and The Group of Seven, Robert Bateman, Emily Carr, Alex Coleville, Douglas Coupland, Ken Danby, Betty Goodwin, Yousuf Karsh, William Kurelek, Frederick Varley, James Lumbers... just a few I'm sure you would enjoy.
Canadian Authors You should Know are; Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables), Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale), Alice Munro (Lives of Girls and Women)and most celebrated Mordecai Richler, Michael Ondaatje, Pierre Berton, Stephen Leacock, Farley Mowat...and a hundred I've missed.
Canadian ATHLETES dominate in our own game of Hockey and if you know Hockey you know them and if you don't you won't care...HOWEVER we also excel at other sports;
James Naismith invented BASKETBALL while teaching in the U.S. and STEVE NASH, is perhaps our most remarkable Canadian athlete in recent years because he's a comparatively short little guy, who has been the best player in the NBA (MVP, 2005, 2006, 2007 MVP runner-up)
Canadians notable in BASEBALL are Hall of Famer-Ferguson Jenkins, Larry Walker-1997 NL MVP, Jason Bay-2004 NL Rookie of the Year, Éric Gagné - 2003 NL CY Young Award, and Justin Morneau-2006 American League MVP
And we cannot forget 2003 Golf, Masters Winner, Mike Weir
OUR Brave and Beautiful Canadians include Norman Bethune, Laura Secord, Stephen Lewis, David Suzuki, Terry Fox, Tommy Douglas and the more than 100,000 who gave their lives fighting for freedom for other peoples in other lands...and some of the Smart are John Kenneth Galbraith, Marshall McLuhan, Roger Martin, Piere Elliot Trudeau...
Canadians are also are recipients of numerous Nobel awards in Sciences, Medicine, Engineering...I'm not as informed of those important people and their contributions as I should be as another very lucky Canadian...Something more for me to learn and appreciate about this great land.
Cheers All
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Comment by Gautam Trivedi T on July 2, 2009 at 9:24am - Happy Canada Day, Michael!
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