What do we really know about Canada?

Canada is the second largest country in the world and it is located in the Northern North America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean on the east, North Pacific Ocean on the west, and the Arctic Ocean on the north besides it is located on the north of the conterminous US.

Canada´s capital is Ottawa and some other important cities are:Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, among others.

In this presentation we will be discussing three main points about Canada: its history, its government and its culture.
Before we start I would like to give some extra information about this wonderful country:
Languages: English, FrenchMonetary unit: Canadian dollar
Population (2012 est.): 34,300,083
Infant mortality rate: 4.85/1000
Life expectancy: 81.48 years
Of all of the world's producers of natural gas, copper, zinc, nickel, aluminum, and gold, Canada is in the top five
Religions: Roman Catholic 44.4%, Protestant 29%, other Christian 4.2%,Muslim 2%, other 4%.

History:
The first inhabitants of Canada were native Indian peoples, primarily the Inuit (Eskimo). The Norse explorer Leif Eriksson probably reached the shores of Canada (Labrador or Nova Scotia) in 1000, but the history of the white man in the country actually began in 1497, when John Cabot, anItalian in the service of Henry VII of England, reached Newfoundland or Nova Scotia.
Canada was taken for France in 1534 by Jacques Cartier. The actual settlement of New France, as it was then called, began in 1604 at Port Royal in what is now Nova Scotia; in 1608, Quebec was founded. France's colonization efforts were not very successful, but French explorers by the end of the 17th century had penetrated beyond the Great Lakes to the western prairies and south along the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
Meanwhile, the English Hudson's Bay Company had been established in 1670. Because of the valuable fisheries and fur trade, a conflict developed between the French and English; in 1713, Newfoundland, Hudson Bay, and Nova Scotia (Acadia) were lost to England.During the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), England extended its conquest, and the British general James Wolfe won his famous victory over Gen. Louis Montcalm outside Quebec on Sept. 13, 1759. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 gave England control.
At that time the population of Canada was almost entirely French, but in the next few decades, thousands of British colonists emigrated to Canada from the British Isles and from the American colonies. In 1849, the right of Canada to self-government was recognized.

Government:
Sovereign: Queen Elizabeth II (1952)
Governor-General: DavidLloyd Johnston (since 2010)
Prime Minister: Stephen Harper (since 2006)
Canada is a federation of ten provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan) and three territories (Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut). Formally considered a constitutional monarchy, Canada is governed by its own House of Commons. While the governor-general is officially the representative of Queen Elizabeth II, in reality the governor-general acts only on the advice of the Canadian prime minister.

Culture:
Canada is culturally diverse. This goes back to the 1890s when it began inviting people from all over the world to settle in the country to help it develop and grow. Canadian immigration policy was historically open, welcoming and egalitarian in its philosophy. This has also manifest into the psyche of the nation where people are encouraged and to retain their cultural identities, traditions, languages and customs.
Canadians are generally a tolerant, polite and extremely community-oriented people. Although they are individualistic in terms of their basic cultural traits, they nevertheless place a great deal of emphasis on the individual's responsibility to the community. This is seen as giving balance and a good quality of life.