Canadian Facts

 

Languages: Canada has two official languages: English and French.

 

20 most spoken languages in order of number of speakers:

English, French, Italian, German, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch, Punjabi, Arabic, Greek, Taglog, Vietnamese, Hindi, Hungarian, Cree, Russian, Gujarati

 

Religion: 80% Christian, Catholics 46 % Protestants 36 %, Other religions 7.5% including Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism, no religion 12.5 %

 

Government:

 

Head of State: Queen Elizabeth II

Prime Minister: Jean Cretien

 

Economy:

 

Currency: 1.00CDN$ = 0.65US$, 80 Yen

Resources: natural gas, oil, gold, coal, copper, iron ore, nickel, potash, uranium and zinc, wood, water.

Exports: automobile vehicles and parts, machinery and equipment, high-technology products, oil, natural gas, metals, and forest and farm products.

Industry: automobile manufacturing, pulp and paper, iron and steel work, machinery and equipment manufacturing, mining, extraction of fossil fuels, forestry and agriculture.

 

Living Standard: For seven consecutive years, the United Nations has chosen Canada as the best country in the world in which to live.

Canada ranks sixth in the world in standard of living behind only the United States, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany and Japan.

 

Sports: Canada’s National Sports are Lacrosse and Ice Hockey. Popular Sports include swimming, cross-country and alpine skiing, baseball, tennis, basketball and golf.

 

Multiculturalism: Multiculturalism is a fundamental characteristic of Canadian society.

Canadian society has always been pluralist and diverse and is bound to become even more

 so. Already approximately two-fifths of the Canadian population have one origin other

than British, French or Aboriginal. In 1971, Canada became the first country in the world

to adopt a multiculturalism policy.