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Special Report — CANADA

Canada covers most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Arctic Ocean in the north. It is the world’s second largest country in total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest. This land has been inhabited from the beginning by three recognized groups of aboriginal peoples – Indians, Metis, and Inuit – with many areas still occupied by primarily aboriginal peoples. Adding to that early influence, some of the eastern coasts were settled and explored by Vikings.  

A federation now embracing ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. As well as being multicultural, it is a bilingual country, with both English and French as official languages. Canada maintains a diversified economy that is greatly reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon trade.

For visitors, Canada is not terribly different from the U.S. Even in French-speaking Quebec, most Canadians speak English. They drive on the right (but headlights are on at all times). Their currency (the Canada Dollar) is usually close in value to the U.S. Dollar. But don’t think for a moment this is just U.S.A. Light. Canadians are proud of their differences from Americans – and justifiably so. We’ve generally found Canadians to be friendly, easy-going, and with a great sense of the wealth they live amongst.

All photos copyright © Ken & Francesca Hulick

Canada is a country famous for its natural environment. People from all over the world visit this kingdom to enjoy its expansive space and extraordinary range of land and waterscapes. The Canadian range of the magnificent Rocky Mountains stretches along the British Columbia/Alberta border, and includes five national parks that attract millions of visitors each year for hiking, biking, skiing, fishing, or just plain relaxing. With more than six million cubic feet of water falling over its brink per minute, Niagara Falls (on the border between Canada and New York) is the most powerful waterfall in North America, maybe in the world.

One of the first natural heritage locations to be designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the Nahanni Park in Canada’s Northwest Territories encompasses the South Nahanni River, Virginia Falls, sulpher hotsprings, alpine tundra, mountain ranges, and forests of spruce and aspen. Just east of Calgary is one of Canada’s most unique Parks – Dinosaur Provincial Park, full of dinosaur history, pinnacles, serpentine spires, and other sculptural land formations protrude from these Alberta badlands. The northern lights (aurora borealis) is a phenomenon seen in northern skies where solar particles collide with atmospheric gases. Green, white, red, blue, and/or violet colors create a light show in the sky over an immense portion of Canada.

Canada is on the metric system, with weights in kilograms and distances in centimeters and kilometers. As for weather, while areas of Canada can be warm in summer, the country is generally cool even then, and cold in winter – with most of the country snow-covered for several months of the year.

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