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Current Weather
in Canada:
General: Canada (pronounced
/'kæn?d?/ in English and /kanad?/ in Canadian
French[1]) is the world's second-largest country
by total area, occupying most of northern North
America. Extending from the Atlantic Ocean to
the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic
Ocean, Canada shares land borders with the United
States to the south and to the northwest.
Inhabited first by aboriginal
peoples, Canada was founded as a union of British
colonies (some of which were formerly French colonies).
Canada gained independence from the United Kingdom
in an incremental process that began in 1867 and
ended in 1982; it remains a Commonwealth Realm.
Canada is a federal constitutional
monarchy with parliamentary democracy. Comprising
ten provinces and three territories, Canada is
a bilingual and multicultural country, with both
English and French as official languages at the
federal level. A technologically advanced and
industrialized nation, Canada maintains a diversified
economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant
natural resources and upon trade — particularly
with the United States, with which Canada has
had a long and complex relationship.
Currency: The dollar
(currency code CAD) has been the currency of Canada
since 1858. It is normally abbreviated with the
dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other
dollar-denominated currencies.[1] It is divided
into 100 cents. The Canadian dollar is the monetary
basis for the Canadian economy, with all coins
minted by the Royal Canadian Mint and all banknotes
printed by the Canadian Bank Note Company and
BA International Inc on behalf of the Bank of
Canada.
Language: Canada's two
official languages, English and French, are the
mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population,
respectively. On July 7, 1969, under the Official
Languages Act, French was made commensurate to
English throughout the federal government. This
started a process that led to Canada redefining
itself as an officially "bilingual"
nation.
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