Portal:Canada

Thursday, March 27, 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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The pyrocumulus cloud produced by the explosion

On the morning of 6 December 1917, the French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo in the harbour of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Mont-Blanc, laden with high explosives, caught fire and exploded, devastating the Richmond district of Halifax. At least 1,782 people were killed, largely in Halifax and Dartmouth, by the blast, debris, fires, or collapsed buildings, and an estimated 9,000 others were injured. The blast was the largest human-made explosion at the time. It released the equivalent energy of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT (12 TJ). (Full article...)

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Current events

March 27, 2025 – Tariffs in the second Trump administration: 2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico; Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says a 25% tariff on automotive imports to the United States is a "direct attack" on his country by the Trump administration and vows to respond. (AP)
March 22, 2025 – 2025 Trident Aviation DHC-5 crash: A de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo cargo plane en route from Dhobley Airport in Lower Juba, Jubaland, to Aden Adde International Airport in Somalia’s capital city, Mogadishu, crashes in the Ceel Xabaaloow settlement in Lower Shabelle, South West State, killing all five Kenyan crew members on board. (Somalia Civil Aviation Authority) (Idil News)
March 14, 2025 – 2025 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election: Mark Carney is sworn in as the 24th Prime Minister of Canada. (CBC News)
March 12, 2025 – 2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico, Canada–United States relations: Canadian finance minister Dominic LeBlanc announces retaliatory tariffs on CAD$29.8 billion (US$20.7 billion) of goods from the United States after U.S. president Donald Trump announced additional tariffs on Canadian metals. (DW)
March 11, 2025 – 2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico: U.S. President Donald Trump announces that he will raise tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium imports from 25% to 50%. (BBC News)

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Tuktoyaktuk in 2010 taken from ice road to Inuvik

Credit: Dlogic

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Adult in breeding plumage in Minocqua, Wisconsin

The common loon or great northern diver (Gavia immer) is a large member of the loon, or diver, family of birds. Breeding adults have a plumage that includes a broad black head and neck with a greenish, purplish, or bluish sheen, blackish or blackish-grey upperparts, and pure white underparts except some black on the undertail coverts and vent. Non-breeding adults are brownish with a dark neck and head marked with dark grey-brown. Their upperparts are dark brownish-grey with an unclear pattern of squares on the shoulders, and the underparts, lower face, chin, and throat are whitish. The sexes look alike, though males are significantly heavier than females. During the breeding season, loons live on lakes and other waterways in Canada, the northern United States (including Alaska), and southern parts of Greenland and Iceland. Small numbers breed on Svalbard and sporadically elsewhere in Arctic Eurasia. Common loons winter on both coasts of the US as far south as Mexico, and on the Atlantic coast of Europe. (Full article...)

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Healthcare in Canada is delivered through the provincial and territorial systems of publicly funded health care, informally called Medicare. It is guided by the provisions of the Canada Health Act of 1984, and is universal. The 2002 Royal Commission, known as the Romanow Report, revealed that Canadians consider universal access to publicly funded health services as a "fundamental value that ensures national health care insurance for everyone wherever they live in the country". (Full article...)

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Polar bear at Cape Churchill (Wapusk National Park, Manitoba)
Credit: Ansgar Walk

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Newman at the Canadian media delegation to China in 1974

Sydney Cecil Newman (né Nudelman; April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian producer and screenwriter who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, he was appointed acting director of the Broadcast Programs Branch for the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) and then head of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He also occupied senior positions at the Canadian Film Development Corporation and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and acted as an advisor to the Secretary of State. (Full article...)

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Did you know - (show another)

... that Michelle O'Bonsawin is the first Indigenous person appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada?
... that Rod Zaine scored his high school's championship-winning single in Canadian football before playing in the National Hockey League?
... that one Canadian football announcer refused to mention Tony Pajaczkowski in game broadcasts for several years?
... that as a teenager in a B'nai B'rith camp in Canada, Holocaust survivor and future Canadian ambassador Fred Bild learned English from his camp counselor, future actor William Shatner?
... that the Canadian journalist Bernard Descôteaux is credited with the economic revival of the independent newspaper Le Devoir?
... that after years of development, the British thin-wing Javelin interceptor aircraft was cancelled in favour of purchasing the Canadian Avro Arrow?
... that Princess Margriet of the Netherlands was born in Canada's capital, but outside the country's legal jurisdiction?

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The Prince of Wales Trophy, also known as the Wales Trophy, is a team award presented by the National Hockey League (NHL). Named for Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII and then Duke of Windsor), it has been awarded for different accomplishments throughout its history. (Full article...)

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