Portal:Canada

Monday, April 7, 2025

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Introduction

Flag and Arms of Canada

Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's second-largest country by total area, with the world's longest coastline. Its border with the United States is the world's longest international land border. The country is characterized by a wide range of both meteorologic and geological regions. With a population of just over 41 million people, it has widely varying population densities, with the majority residing in urban areas and large areas of the country being sparsely populated. Canada's capital is Ottawa and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.

A developed country, Canada has a high nominal per capita income globally and its advanced economy ranks among the largest in the world by nominal GDP, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Recognized as a middle power, Canada's strong support for multilateralism and internationalism has been closely related to its foreign relations policies of peacekeeping and aid for developing countries. Canada promotes its domestically shared values through participation in multiple international organizations and forums. (Full article...)

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A sculpture in the form of an open book. The text of the poem "In Flanders Fields" is written within and a small red poppy lies on top. — Inscription of the complete poem in a bronze book at the John McCrae memorial at his birthplace in Guelph, Ontario

"In Flanders Fields" is a war poem in the form of a rondeau, written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of friend and fellow soldier Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. According to legend, fellow soldiers retrieved the poem after McCrae, initially dissatisfied with his work, discarded it. "In Flanders Fields" was first published on December 8 of that year in the London magazine Punch. Flanders Fields is a common English name of the World War I battlefields in Belgium and France. (Full article...)

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Current events

April 3, 2025 – Tariffs in the second Trump administration: Multinational car manufacturer Stellantis announces it will lay off 900 workers across five of its U.S. factories and will pause production at assembly plants in Canada and Mexico in response to the tariffs. (Reuters)
April 3, 2025 – Canada convoy protests: The Ontario Court of Justice in Ontario, Canada, convicts Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, two leaders of the truck driver protest movement against COVID-19 vaccination in Canada, of criminal mischief. (AP)
April 2, 2025 – Tariffs in the second Trump administration: China–United States trade war, 2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico; Exceptions include Canada, Cuba, Mexico, North Korea, and Russia. Canada and Mexico had tariffs placed on them in February, while Cuba, North Korea, and Russia are under U.S. sanctions. (BBC News) (France 24) (India Today); The United States Senate votes 51–48 on a non-binding resolution to rebuke and reverse tariffs on Canada, with Republicans Rand Paul, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitch McConnell voting for the resolution. (NPR)
March 29, 2025 – Protests against Donald Trump: Protests are held at Tesla dealerships across the United States, Canada, and Europe to protest against DOGE chief and Tesla CEO Elon Musk's role in the second Trump administration. (Taipei Times) (AP)

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Niagara Falls, view from Canada, with American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls on the left, Horseshoe Falls on the right

Panoramic view of Niagara Falls

Credit: MamaGeek

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Men's field lacrosse game between North Carolina and Duke in April 2009

Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively modified by European colonists, reducing the violence, to create its current collegiate and professional form. (Full article...)

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The History of women in Canada is the study of the historical experiences of women living in Canada and the laws and legislation affecting Canadian women. In colonial period of Canadian history, Indigenous women's roles were often challenged by Christian missionaries, and their marriages to European fur traders often brought their communities into greater contact with the outside world. Throughout the colonial period, European women were encouraged to immigrate to Canadian colonies and expand the white population. After Confederation in 1867, women's experiences were shaped by federal laws and by legislation passed in Canada's provincial legislatures. (Full article...)

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Canadian peacekeeper in 1976 wearing the distinctive blue helmet
Credit: HoCComms

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Arthur Lewis Watkins Sifton PC PC (Can) KC (October 26, 1858 – January 21, 1921) was a Canadian lawyer, judge and politician who served as the second premier of Alberta from 1910 until 1917. He became a minister in the federal cabinet of Canada thereafter. Born in Canada West (now Ontario), he grew up there and in Winnipeg, where he became a lawyer. He subsequently practised law with his brother Clifford Sifton in Brandon, where he was also active in municipal politics. He moved west to Prince Albert in 1885 and to Calgary in 1889. There, he was elected to the 4th and 5th North-West Legislative Assemblies; he served as a minister in the government of premier Frederick Haultain. In 1903, the federal government, at the instigation of his brother (who was then one of its ministers), made Sifton the Chief Justice of the Northwest Territories. After Alberta was created out of a portion of the Northwest Territories in 1905, Sifton became the first Chief Justice of Alberta in 1907 and served until 1910. (Full article...)

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... that up to 129,000 Canadian federal workers went on strike?
... that the United States won the 2023 CONCACAF Nations League final and extended a home unbeaten streak against Canada that dates back to 1957?
... that the mainland portion of Lake of the Woods Provincial Park in northwestern Ontario, Canada, was deregulated as part of a First Nations land claim settlement?
... that Carrie Jenkins Harris, the North American writer who died in 1903, should not be confused with Carrie Jenkins Harris, the North American writer and editor who died in 1903?
... that Canadian poets Milton Acorn, Margaret Atwood, and Gwendolyn MacEwen performed at the Bohemian Embassy on the same bill as burlesque dancer Libby Jones?
... that before the House of Commons of Canada considers a taxation or spending bill, a royal recommendation has to be given by the governor general?
... that in 1819 Michael O'Sullivan, a member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, fought a duel in Montreal with William Caldwell over a proposal to create the Montreal General Hospital?

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Like most major cities, Montreal needs easy highway access from its suburbs and surrounding areas. However, because Montreal was built on an island surrounded by three rivers, it can be entered by land only on a bridge or through a tunnel. Although the city was founded in 1642, it was not until 1847 that the first fixed link to the outside was established when a wooden bridge was built across Rivière des Prairies to Île Jésus, on the site of what is now Ahuntsic Bridge. Another bridge was built immediately afterward, a few kilometers west, which became Lachapelle Bridge, and another in 1849, Pont des Saints-Anges, to the east. The latter bridge collapsed in the 1880s and was never rebuilt. (Full article...)

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