.-.: Canada

> Canada is a country, consisting of ten provinces and three territories, in the northern part of the continent of North America. It extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres (3.85 million square miles) in total, making it the world's second-largest country by total area and the fourth-largest country by land area. Canada's common border with the United States forms the world's longest land border.
The land now called Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonies were established on the region's Atlantic coast. As a consequence of various conflicts, the United Kingdom gained and lost North American territories until left, in the late 18th century, with what mostly comprises Canada today. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1, 1867, three colonies joined to form the autonomous federal Dominion of Canada. This began an accretion of provinces and territories to the new self-governing Dominion. In 1931, Britain granted Canada near total independence with the Statute of Westminster 1931 and full sovereignty was attained when the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament.
Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, Queen Elizabeth II being the current head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries, with a population of approximately 35 million as of 2015. Its advanced economy is one of the largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Canada's long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture.
Canada is a developed country and one of the wealthiest in the world, with the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally, and the eighth highest ranking in theHuman Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, and education. Canada is a Commonwealth Realm member of the Commonwealth of Nations, and is furthermore part of several major international and intergovernmental institutions or groupings, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the G8, the Group of Ten, the G20, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Etymology

Main article: Name of Canada

The name Canada comes from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word kanata, meaning "village" or "settlement".^[9] In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona.^[10] Cartier later used the wordCanada to refer not only to that particular village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona (the chief at Stadacona);^[10] by 1545, European books and maps had begun referring to this region as Canada.^[10]
In the 17th and early 18th centuries, "Canada" referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River.^[11] In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas; until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841.^[12] Upon Confederation in 1867,Canada was adopted as the legal name for the new country, and the word Dominion was conferred as the country's title.^[13] The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, which refers only to Canada. Later that year, the national holiday was renamed from Dominion Day to Canada Day.^[14] The term "Dominion' is also used to distinguish the federal government from the provinces, though after the Second World War the term "federal" had replaced "dominion".^[15]

History

Main article: History of Canada

Further information: List of years in Canada

Aboriginal peoples

Aboriginal peoples in present-day Canada include the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis,^[16] the latter being a mixed-blood people who originated in the mid-17th century when First Nations and Inuit people married European settlers.^[16] Archaeological studies and genetic analyses have indicated a human presence in the northern Yukonregion from 13,000–12,000 BC and in southern Ontario from 7500 BC.^[17]^[18] These first settlers entered Canada through Beringia by way of the Bering land bridge.^[19]The Paleo-Indian archeological sites at Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are two of the oldest sites of human habitation in Canada.^[20] The characteristics of Canadian Aboriginal societies included permanent settlements, agriculture, complex societal hierarchies, and trading networks.^[21]^[22] Some of these cultures had collapsed by the time European explorers arrived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries and have only been discovered through archeological investigations.^[23]
The aboriginal population at the time of the first European settlements is estimated to have been between 200,000^[24] and two million,^[25] with a figure of 500,000 accepted by Canada's Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.^[26] As a consequence of the European colonization, Canada's aboriginal peoples suffered from repeated outbreaks of newly introduced infectious diseases, such as influenza, measles, and smallpox (to which they had no natural immunity), resulting in a forty to eighty percent population decrease in the centuries after the European arrival.^[24]^[27]
Although not without conflict, European Canadians' early interactions with First Nations and Inuit populations were relatively peaceful.^[28] The Crown and Aboriginal peoples began interactions during the European colonialization period, though, the Inuit, in general, had more limited interaction with European settlers.^[29] From the late 18th century, European Canadians encouraged Aboriginals to assimilate into their own culture.^[30] These attempts reached a climax in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with forced integration and relocations.^[31]

European colonization

The first known attempt at European colonization began when Norsemen settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland around 1000 AD.^[32]No further European exploration occurred until 1497, when Italian seafarer John Cabot explored Canada's Atlantic coast for England.^[33] Then Basque and Portuguese mariners established seasonal whaling and fishing outposts along the Atlantic coast in the early 16th century.^[34] In 1534, French explorer Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence River, where, on July 24, he planted a 10-metre (33 ft) cross bearing the words "Long Live the King of France" and took possession of the territory in the name of King Francis I.^[35]
In 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, by the royal prerogative of Queen Elizabeth I, founded St. John's, Newfoundland, as the first North American English colony.^[36] French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal (in 1605) and Quebec City (in 1608).^[37] Among the colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley andAcadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay, and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana.^[38] The Beaver Wars broke out in the mid-17th century over control of the North American fur trade.^[39]
The English established additional colonies in Cupids and Ferryland, Newfoundland, beginning in 1610.^[40] The Thirteen Colonies to the south were founded soon after.^[34] A series of four wars erupted in colonial North America between 1689 and 1763; the later wars of the period constituted the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War.^[41] Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the 1713 Treaty of Utrechtand the 1763 Treaty of Paris ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain after the Seven Years' War.^[42]

Benjamin West's The Death of General Wolfe (1771) dramatizesJames Wolfe's death during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 created the Province of Quebec out of New France, and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia.^[14] St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony in 1769.^[43] To avert conflict in Quebec, the British parliament passed the Quebec Act of 1774, expanding Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley.^[44] It re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law there. This angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, fuelling anti-British sentiment in the years prior to the 1775 outbreak of the American Revolution.^[14]
The 1783 Treaty of Paris recognized American independence and ceded the newly added territories south (but not north) of the Great Lakes to the new United States.^[45] New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, theConstitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada (later Quebec) and English-speaking Upper Canada (later Ontario), granting each its own elected legislative assembly.^[46]

Robert Harris's Fathers of Confederation (1884), an amalgamation of the Charlottetown andQuebec conferences of 1864^{[n 1]}

The Canadas were the main front in the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain. Following the war, large-scale immigration to Canada from Britain and Ireland began in 1815.^[25] Between 1825 and 1846, 626,628 European immigrants reportedly landed at Canadian ports.^[47] These included Irish immigrants escaping the Great Irish Famine as well as Gaelic-speaking Scots displaced by theHighland Clearances.^[48] Infectious diseases killed between 25 and 33 per cent of Europeans who immigrated to Canada before 1891.^[24]
The desire for responsible government resulted in the abortive Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report subsequently recommended responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into English culture.^[14] The Act of Union 1840 merged the Canadas into a united Province of Canada and responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849.^[49] The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel. This paved the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858).^[50]

Confederation and expansion

An animated map showing the growth and change of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation in 1867

Following several constitutional conferences, the 1867 Constitution Act officially proclaimed Canadian Confederation on July 1, 1867, initially with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.^[51]^[52] Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form theNorthwest Territories, where the Métis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870.^[53]British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had been united in 1866) joined the confederation in 1871, while Prince Edward Island joined in 1873.^[54]
The Canadian parliament passed a bill introduced by the Conservative Cabinet that established a National Policy of tariffs to protect the nascent Canadian manufacturing industries.^[52] To open the West, parliament also approved sponsoring the construction of three transcontinental railways (including the Canadian Pacific Railway), opening the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and establishing the North-West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory.^[55]^[56] In 1898, during the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, parliament created the Yukon Territory. The Cabinet of Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier fostered continental European immigrants settling the prairies and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905.^[54]

Early 20th century

Canadian soldiers and a Mark II tank at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917

Because Britain still maintained control of Canada's foreign affairs under the Confederation Act, its declaration of war in 1914 automatically brought Canada into World War I.^[57] Volunteers sent to the Western Front later became part of the Canadian Corps, which played a substantial role in the Battle of Vimy Ridge and other major engagements of the war.^[58] Out of approximately 625,000 Canadians who served in World War I, some 60,000 were killed and another 172,000 were wounded.^[59] The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when the Unionist Cabinet's proposal to augment the military's dwindling number of active members with conscription was met with vehement objections from French-speaking Quebecers.^[60] The Military Service Act brought in compulsory military service, though, it, coupled with disputes over French language schools outside Quebec, deeply alienated Francophone Canadians and temporarily split the Liberal Party.^[60] In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain,^[58] and the 1931 Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence.^[2]

Canadian crew of a Sherman-tank, south ofVaucelles, France, during thebattle of Normandy in June 1944

The Great Depression in Canada during the early 1930s saw an economic downturn, leading to hardship across the country.^[61] In response to the downturn, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Saskatchewan introduced many elements of a welfare state (as pioneered by Tommy Douglas) in the 1940s and 1950s.^[62] On the advice of Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, King George VI declared war on Germany during World War II, seven days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939.^[58]
In all, over a million Canadians served in the armed forces during World War II and approximately 42,000 were killed and another 55,000 were wounded.^[63] Canadian troops played important roles in many key battles of the war, including the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid, the Allied invasion of Italy, the Normandy landings, the Battle of Normandy, and the Battle of the Scheldt in 1944.^[58] Canada provided asylum for the Dutch monarchy while that country was occupied and is credited by the Netherlands for major contributions to its liberation fromNazi Germany.^[64] The Canadian economy boomed during the war as its industries manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China, and the Soviet Union.^[58] Despite anotherConscription Crisis in Quebec in 1944, Canada finished the war with a large army and strong economy.^[65]

Modern times

At Rideau Hall, Governor Generalthe Viscount Alexander of Tunis (centre) receives the bill finalizing the union ofNewfoundland and Canada on March 31, 1949

The financial crisis of the great depression had led the Dominion of Newfoundland to relinquish responsible government in 1934 and become acrown colony ruled by a British governor. After two bitter referendums, Newfoundlanders voted to join Canada in 1949 as a province.^[66]
Canada's post-war economic growth, combined with the policies of successive Liberal governments, led to the emergence of a new Canadian identity, marked by the adoption of the current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965,^[67] the implementation of official bilingualism (English and French) in 1969,^[68] and the institution of official multiculturalism in 1971.^[69] Socially democratic programs were also instituted, such as Medicare, theCanada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans, though provincial governments, particularly Quebec and Alberta, opposed many of these as incursions into their jurisdictions.^[70] Finally, another series of constitutional conferences resulted in the 1982 patriation of Canada's constitution from the United Kingdom, concurrent with the creation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.^[71] In 1999, Nunavut became Canada's third territory after a series of negotiations with the federal government.^[72]
At the same time, Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes through the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, giving birth to a modern nationalist movement. The radical Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) ignited the October Crisis with a series of bombings and kidnappings in 1970^[73] and the sovereignist Parti Québécois was elected in 1976, organizing an unsuccessful referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980. Attempts to accommodate Quebec nationalism constitutionally through the Meech Lake Accord failed in 1990.^[74] This led to the formation of the Bloc Québécois in Quebec and the invigoration of the Reform Party of Canada in the West.^[75]^[76] A second referendumfollowed in 1995, in which sovereignty was rejected by a slimmer margin of 50.6 to 49.4 percent.^[77] In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that unilateral secession by a province would be unconstitutional and the Clarity Act was passed by parliament, outlining the terms of a negotiated departure from Confederation.^[74]
In addition to the issues of Quebec sovereignty, a number of crises shook Canadian society in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These included the explosion of Air India Flight 182 in 1985, the largest mass murder in Canadian history;^[78] the École Polytechnique massacre in 1989, a university shooting targeting female students;^[79] and the Oka Crisis of 1990,^[80] the first of a number of violent confrontations between the government and Aboriginal groups.^[81] Canada also joined the Gulf War in 1990 as part of a US-led coalition force and was active in several peacekeeping missions in the 1990s, including the UNPROFOR mission in the former Yugoslavia.^[82]^[83] Canada sent troops to Afghanistan in 2001, but declined to join the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.^[84] In 2009, Canada's economy suffered in the worldwide Great Recession, but it has since largely rebounded.^[85]^[86] In 2011, Canadian forces participated in the NATO-led intervention into the Libyan civil war^[87] and also became involved in battling the Islamic State insurgency in Iraq in the mid-2010s.^[88]

Geography

Main article: Geography of Canada

Canada occupies most of the continent of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south (the longest border between two countries in the world) and the US state of Alaska to the northwest. Canada stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west; to the north lies the Arctic Ocean.^[89] Greenland is to the northeast, while Saint Pierre and Miquelon is south ofNewfoundland. By total area (including its waters), Canada is the second-largest country in the world, after Russia. By land area alone, Canada ranks fourth. The reason why Canada is in 4th place in terms of countries ranked by land area only is because Canada contains 60% of all the lakes in the world.^[89] The country lies between latitudes 41° and 84°N, and longitudes 52° and 141°W.

A satellite composite image containing all of Canada and part of the United States.Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield, while ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in theCanadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. The flat and fertile prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River in the southeast, where lowlands host much of Canada's population.

Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60° and 141°W longitude,^[90] but this claim is not universally recognized. Canada is home to the world's northernmost settlement, Canadian Forces Station Alert, on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island – latitude 82.5°N – which lies 817 kilometres (508 mi) from the North Pole.^[91] Much of the Canadian Arctic is covered by ice and permafrost. Canada has the longest coastline in the world, with a total length of 202,080 kilometres (125,570 mi);^[89] additionally, its border with the United States is the world's longest land border, stretching 8,891 kilometres (5,525 mi).^[92]
Since the end of the last glacial period, Canada has consisted of eight distinct forest regions, including extensive boreal forest on the Canadian Shield.^[93] Canada has around 31,700 large lakes,^[94] more than any other country, containing much of the world's fresh water.^[95] There are also fresh-water glaciers in the Canadian Rockies and the Coast Mountains. Canada is geologically active, having many earthquakes and potentially active volcanoes, notably Mount Meager, Mount Garibaldi, Mount Cayley, and the Mount Edziza volcanic complex.^[96] The volcanic eruption of the Tseax Cone in 1775 was among Canada's worst natural disasters, killing 2,000 Nisga'a people and destroying their village in the Nass River valley of northern British Columbia. The eruption produced a 22.5-kilometre (14.0 mi) lava flow, and, according to Nisga'a legend, blocked the flow of the Nass River.^[97]Canada's population density, at 3.3 inhabitants per square kilometre (8.5/sq mi), is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor, situated in Southern Quebec and Southern Ontario along the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River.^[98]
Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary from region to region. Winters can be harsh in many parts of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces, which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near −15 °C (5 °F), but can drop below −40 °C (−40 °F) with severe wind chills.^[99] In noncoastal regions, snow can cover the ground for almost six months of the year, while in parts of the north snow can persist year-round. Coastal British Columbia has a temperate climate, with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coasts, average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s °C (70s °F), while between the coasts, the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 °C (77 to 86 °F), with temperatures in some interior locations occasionally exceeding 40 °C (104 °F).^[100]

Government and politics

Main articles: Government of Canada and Politics of Canada

Parliament Hill in Canada's capital city, Ottawa

Canada has a parliamentary system within the context of a constitutional monarchy, the monarchy of Canada being the foundation of the executive, legislative, and judicialbranches.^[101]^[102]^[103]^[104] The sovereign is Queen Elizabeth II, who also serves as head of state of 15 other Commonwealth countries and each of Canada's ten provinces. As such, the Queen's representative, the Governor General of Canada (at present David Lloyd Johnston), carries out most of the federal royal duties in Canada.^[105]^[106]
The direct participation of the royal and viceroyal figures in areas of governance is limited.^[103]^[107]^[108] In practice, their use of the executive powers is directed by the Cabinet, a committee of ministers of the Crown responsible to the elected House of Commons and chosen and headed by the Prime Minister of Canada (at present Stephen Harper),^[109]the head of government. The governor general or monarch may, though, in certain crisis situations exercise their power without ministerial advice.^[107] To ensure the stability of government, the governor general will usually appoint as prime minister the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons.^[110] The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is thus one of the most powerful institutions in government, initiating most legislation for parliamentary approval and selecting for appointment by the Crown, besides the aforementioned, the governor general, lieutenant governors, senators, federal court judges, and heads of Crown corporations and government agencies.^[107] The leader of the party with the second-most seats usually becomes the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition (presentlyThomas Mulcair) and is part of an adversarial parliamentary system intended to keep the government in check.^[111]

The Senate chamber within theCentre Block on Parliament Hill

Each of the 308 members of parliament in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in an electoral district or riding. General elections must be called by the governor general, either on the advice of the prime minister, within four years of the previous election, or if the government loses a confidence vote in the House.^[112] The 105 members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, serve until age 75.^[113] Five parties had representatives elected to the federal parliament in the 2011 elections: the Conservative Party of Canada (governing party), the New Democratic Party (the Official Opposition), the Liberal Party of Canada, the Bloc Québécois, and the Green Party of Canada. The list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial.
Canada's federal structure divides government responsibilities between the federal government and the ten provinces. Provincial legislatures are unicameral and operate in parliamentary fashion similar to the House of Commons.^[108] Canada's three territories also have legislatures, but these are not sovereign and have fewer constitutional responsibilities than the provinces.^[114] The territorial legislatures also differ structurally from their provincial counterparts.^[115]
The Bank of Canada is the central bank of the country.^[116] In addition, the Minister of Finance and Minister of Industry utilize the Statistics Canada agency for financial planning and economic policy development.^[117]

Law

Main article: Law of Canada

The Constitution of Canada is the supreme law of the country, and consists of written text and unwritten conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (known as the British North America Act prior to 1982), affirmed governance based on parliamentary precedent and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Statute of Westminster 1931 granted full autonomy and the Constitution Act, 1982, ended all legislative ties to the UK, as well as adding a constitutional amending formula and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Charter guarantees basic rights and freedoms that usually cannot be over-ridden by any government—though a notwithstanding clause allows the federal parliament and provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter for a period of five years.^[118]

The Indian Chiefs Medal, presented to commemorate the Numbered Treaties of 1871–1921

The Indian Act, various treaties and case laws were established to mediate relations between Europeans and native peoples.^[119] Most notably, a series of eleven treaties known as the Numbered Treaties were signed between Aboriginals in Canada and the reigning Monarch of Canada between 1871 and 1921.^[120] These treaties are agreements with the Canadian Crown-in-Council, administered by Canadian Aboriginal law, and overseen by the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. The role of the treaties and the rights they support were reaffirmed by Section Thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982.^[119] These rights may include provision of services such as health care, and exemption from taxation.^[121] The legal and policy framework within which Canada and First Nations operate was further formalized in 2005, through the First Nations–Federal Crown Political Accord.^[119]

The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill

Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down Acts of Parliament that violate the constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and has been led since 2000 by the Chief JusticeBeverley McLachlin (the first female Chief Justice).^[122] Its nine members are appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed after consultation with nongovernmental legal bodies. The federal Cabinet also appoints justices to superior courts in the provincial and territorial jurisdictions.^[123]
Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada.^[124] Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is officially a provincial responsibility, conducted by provincial and municipal police forces.^[125] However, in most rural areas and some urban areas, policing responsibilities are contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police.^[126]

Foreign relations and military

Main articles: Foreign relations of Canada and Military history of Canada

David Cameron and Stephen Harper (foreground) with Herman Van Rompuy, Dmitry Medvedev and Naoto Kan (background) at the 36th G8 summit in Muskoka District Municipality, Ontario on June 25, 2010.

Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of 68,250 active personnel and approximately 51,000 reserve personnel.^[127] The unified Canadian Forces(CF) comprise the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy, and Royal Canadian Air Force. In 2013, Canada's military expenditure totalled approximately C$19 billion, or around 1% of the country's GDP.^[128]^[129]
Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partner.^[130]^[131] Canada nevertheless has an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba from 1961–2014 and declining to officially participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and the Francophonie.^[132] Canada is noted for having a positive relationship with the Netherlands, owing, in part, to its contribution to the Dutch liberation during World War II.^[64]
Canada's strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations.^[133]^[134] Canada was a founding member of the United Nations in 1945 and of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in co-operation with the United States to defend against potential aerial attacks from the Soviet Union.^[135]

Canadian Army soldiers from theRoyal 22nd Regiment deploying inFlorida during UNITAS exercises in April 2009

During the Suez Crisis of 1956, future Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force, for which he was awarded the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize.^[136] As this was the first UN peacekeeping mission, Pearson is often credited as the inventor of the concept. Canada has since served in over 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989,^[58] and has since maintained forces in international missions in Rwanda, the formerYugoslavia, and elsewhere; Canada has sometimes faced controversy over its involvement in foreign countries, notably in the 1993 Somalia Affair.^[137]
Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990 and hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor, Ontario, in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001.^[138] Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC).^[139]

The Halifax-class frigate HMCSRegina, a warship of the Royal Canadian Navy, near Hawaii during the 2004 RIMPAC exercises

In 2001, Canada deployed troops to Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. In all, Canada lost 158 soldiers, one diplomat, two aid workers, and one journalist during the ten-year mission,^[140] which cost approximately C$11.3 billion.^[141]
In February 2007, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Russia announced their joint commitment to a $1.5-billion project to help develop vaccines for developing nations, and called on other countries to join them.^[142] In August 2007, Canada's territorial claims in the Arctic were challenged after aRussian underwater expedition to the North Pole; Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925.^[143]Between March and October 2011, Canadian forces participated in a UN-mandated NATO intervention into the 2011 Libyan civil war.^[144] In late 2014, Canadian ground and air units joined the international effort to defeat the Islamic State insurgency in Iraq.^[88]^[145]

International organizations

Canada is recognized as a middle power for its role in international affairs with a tendency to pursue multilateral solutions.^[146] As well as its membership of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G20 and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Canada is a member of various other international and regional organizations and forums for economic and cultural affairs.^[147] Canada acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1976.^[148]

Provinces and territories

Main article: Provinces and territories of Canada