The Canadian way of life

Canada is an immense country. It is very diverse in its people, its landscape, its
climate, and its way of life. However, Canadians do share the same important
values. These values guide and influence much of our everyday life. These are
values of pride, a belief in equality and diversity and respect for all individuals in
society. Women, men, children and seniors are all equally respected in Canada.
Canadians may be different from each other but it is these shared values that
make Canada a friendly, caring, peace loving and secure society in which to live.
For nine consecutive years (1994-2002), a United Nations survey found Canada to
be among the top three places in the world to live. Conducted every year, the
survey evaluates quality of life in 174 countries, using over 200 performance
indicators. Canada earned particularly high marks for its access to education, high
life expectancy (due to universal health care system); and low crime and violence
rates. Canada continues to remain in the top five on the list. In addition, Canada's
largest cities -- Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal -- have been recognized as
world-class cities in which to live and work, for their cleanliness and safety and for
their cultural activities and attractive lifestyles.

Geography
Canada is the worlds second-largest country (9,976,140 km2), surpassed only by
the Russian Federation. The country is encased by the worlds longest coastline.
Distances in Canada can be vast. Consider the Trans-Canada Highway, which at
7,821 km long is longer than the distance from London to Bombay. More than 50
percent of Canadas land is blanketed with rich forest ranges, accounting for 10
percent of the worlds remaining forests and 20 percent of the worlds remaining
wilderness areas.
Canada is made up of ten provinces and three territories. The provinces from west
to east are: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec,
New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and furthest east, the province
of Newfoundland and Labrador. The territories are the Yukon, the Northwest
Territories (NWT), and Nunavut, Canadas newest territory, formed in 1999 out of
the eastern part of the NWT and the homeland of the native Inuit.
Canadas terrain incorporates a number of mountain ranges: the Torngats,
Appalachians and Laurentians in the east; the Rocky, Coastal and Mackenzie
ranges in the west; and Mount St. Elias and the Pelly Mountains in the north. At
6,050 m, Mount Logan in the Yukon is Canadas tallest peak.
There are some two million lakes in Canada, covering about 7.6% of the Canadian
landmass. Canada shares four of the five Great Lakes, the largest sources of fresh
water in the world, with the United States. The largest lake situated entirely in
Canada is Great Bear Lake (31,326 km2) in the Northwest Territories.
At 3,058 km long, the St. Lawrence is Canadas most important river, providing a
seaway for ships from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. The longest
Canadian river is the Mackenzie, which flows 4,241 km through the Northwest
Territories.
Canada has six time zones. The easternmost, in Newfoundland, is three hours and
30 minutes behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The other time zones are the
Atlantic, the Eastern, the Central, the Rocky Mountain and, farthest west, the
Pacific, which is eight hours behind GMT.
Despite the enormous size of this country, approximately 80 percent of all the
people in Canada live in a concentrated area of cities and towns within 100
kilometres of the U.S. border.