www.whyville.net May 7, 2007 Weekly Issue



rochrox
Whyville Columnist

Eh: The Canada Column

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This land is your land, this land is my land, from Bonavista, to Vancouver Island, from the Arctic Circle, to the Great Lake waters, this land was made for you and me.

Eh! It's rochrox again, with the third issue of "Eh: The Canada Column." This week: The Country, all the facts you should know about Canada!

Motto: Canada's motto is "A Mari Usque Ad Mare" which means "From Sea to Sea" when translated from Latin. Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley suggested it to the Father's of Confederation, after reading Psalm 72:8: "He shall have dominion from sea to sea." Personally, I love the motto and couldn't think of a better way to sum up Canada.

Land Division: Canada is made up of 10 provinces, and 3 territories. Below is the name of each province/territory, and their capital city.

ProvinceCapital City
British ColumbiaVictoria
AlbertaEdmonton
SaskatchewanRegina
ManitobaWinnipeg
OntarioToronto
QuebecQuebec City
Newfoundland & LabradorSt. John's
Nova ScotiaHalifax
Prince Edward IslandCharlottetown
New BrunswickFredericton

TerritoryCapital
YukonWhitehorse
North West TerritoriesYellowknife
NunavutIqaluit

Capital: The capital of Canada is Ottawa, which is located in Ontario. Queen Victoria chose Ottawa to be the capitol of Canada because of location, not beauty. Ottawa wasn't a very nice city at the time, but was in a very safe spot, defense-wise. Today Ottawa is very beautiful, and proves to be an excellent choice for the country's capital. Parliament Hill, where all the Parliament buildings are, is located in Ottawa.

Name: Before Canada had an official name, the country was called New France. Jaques Cartier, a French explorer in the early 1500's, met some Aboriginals who pointed out where Stadacona (Quebec City) was. They used the word "kanata" which was the Huron-Iroquois word for village. Eventually, the name Canada stuck, but it wasn't the official name until after confederation. A few hundred years later, when confederation took place, we were officially named the Dominion of Canada. Of course, Canada wasn't the only possible name. Other suggestions included Victorialand, Superior, Borealia and Norland.

Flag: The Canadian flag as we know it today was chosen on February 15, 1965. Canada's two official colours, chosen by King George V in 1921, were used for the flag. On both sides of the flag there is a large red stripe, with an 11-point red maple leaf in the center. The flag has been compared to a hockey arena, with the maple leaf as center ice lol.

More about Government: As many of you pointed out from my first issue, Canada is not fully a democracy. We have a Constitutional Monarchy, with a representative parliamentary system. That's a lot of information! Because Canada has a monarch (Queen Elizabeth II), we have a Constitutional Monarchy. However, the parliamentary system has more power over Canada, and they make a good deal of the decisions. Plus, we elect who we want in power, just like a democracy.

I hope you enjoyed my third article! Please let me know what you thought about it in the BBS.

This has been rochrox, at home sick :S.

 

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