CANADA (reálie Kanady)

• The second largest country in the world (its area covers about 9,900 000 kilometres)
• It occupies the northern part of the North American continent, bordered by the USA in the south, the Pacific Ocean and Alaska in the west, the Artic Ocean in the north and the Atlantic Ocean in the east
• Although it is the second largest country it is relatively thinly populated (the population is about 33 millions)
• 2 official languages: English + French

HISTORY

• The original inhabitants were Indians and Eskymos and the first settlers arrived there as early as in the ice age, but the coast of Canada was for Europe re-discovered in the 15th century, after that the first permanent European settlers were the French in the 17 the century, which later resulted (vyustílilo) in the Anglo-French rivalry and the following (následnou) defeat (porážku) of the French
• In the 19th century Canada was granted self-government and it became the first Dominion in the British Empire and in 1931 it became independent

Podívejte se na „motivační video o Kanadě“ ať máte chuť se učit

RELIEF AND GEOGRAPHY

• The western part is mountainous and the biggest range there is the Cordilleras , its highest peak (vrchol) reaches the height of 6050 m
• Between the eastern lowlands and the Cordilleras there is a region of prairies (prérie) with rich fertile soil (velmi úrodnou půdou), which is especially suitable for wheat-growing, this is the principal (hlavní) agricultural area of Canada
• The Appalachian Mountains occupy s relatively small area at the southern frontier

RIVERS AND LAKES

• The principals rivers are: the Mackenzie, the ST. Lawrence and the Fraser River
• All rivers in Canada can be divided into three systems

1. the Atlantic system – is represented by the St Lawrence river which makes te longest waterway system in the inner part of C
2. the Pacific system – is made up (tvořený) mainly by the Columbia and the Yulon rivers
3. the Artic system – the backbone (páteř) of this system is the Mackenzie

• Lakes and rivers in the north are ice-covered a great part of the year
• Canada owns the northern part of the Great Lakes with the exception of Lake Michigan; the southern part of these lakes belong to the USA
• Also the interior (vnitřní část) of Canada has a lot of great lakes such as Great Slave Lake
• Due to the fact that lakes are frozen for at least 6 months of the year, the use of them for transport is very limited

CLIMATE

• Most of the inhabited (obydlená) part of Canada has a continental (kontinentální) climate, which means warm and sunny summers and long and cold winters
• On the Pacific coast the climate is milder (mírnější)
• Uninhabited (neobydlený) North has artic climate so the winters are very severe (kruté)

NATURAL RESOURCES

• Canada posses (má) various and abundant (hojný) natural resources
• Due to the fact that almost one third of the country is covered with forests, C is a great source of timber (= stavební dříví)
• Uranium, zinc, coal, iron, old, oil, natural gas

INDUSTRY

• The main industries are wood and paper industry (see natural resources)
• Also, engineering, mining, food industry and machine building industry
• An important part of Canada’s income is composed by agriculture (main products are wheat (pšenice), oats (oves), tobacco and fishing (the principal fishing area is the coast of Newfloundland)

POLITICAL SYSTEM

• Head of the state is Queen Elizabeth II represented by Governor General (so they have in fact 2 anthems – „O Canada“ and the royal anthem „God Save the Queen„
• Canada is a federation of ten provinces; it has a Federal Government for the whole of Canada (pro celou Kanadu) and Provincial Governments in each of the provinces
• The Federal Parliament consists of two houses: the House of Commons (members are elected for five years) and the Senate (nominated for life by Governor General)
• The seat of the Federal Parliament is Ottawa

OTTAWA

• Famous for its festivals, such as the Canada Cup East (curling festival) , Ottawa international Hockey Festival, Canadian Tulip Festival
• Ottawa as many other big cities (e.g. also Wasington D.C.) has restrictions about the skyline (jedná se o maximální výšku a výstavbu mrakodrapů) in order to keep the Parliament Hill visible from most of the city

PLACES OF INTEREST

• National parks – e.g. Jasper, Yoho
• Montreal – the second biggest city, official language if French