Canada ( / ˈ k æ n ə d ə /) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area. Canada's common border with the United States to the south and northwest is the longest in the world.

The land occupied by Canada was inhabited for millennia by various groups of Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored, and later settled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom. This widening autonomy was highlighted by the Statute of Westminster of 1931 and culminated in the Canada Act of 1982, which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament.

A federation consisting of ten provinces and three territories, Canada is governed as a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual nation with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. One of the world's highly developed countries, Canada has a diversified economy that is reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon trade—particularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship. It is a member of the G8, G-20, NATO, OECD, WTO, Commonwealth, Francophonie, OAS, APEC, and UN.

This article is for quotes about Canada.

By Canadians

• I am proud to be the first member of the Canadian Royal Family to be greeted in Canada's newest Territory.
  • Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Canada speaking in Iqaluit, Nunavut, from the Throne of the Territorial Legislature, 2002.

• I dedicate myself anew to the people and the nation I am proud to serve.
  • The Canadian Sovereign in 1977, Speech from the Throne, Ottawa.

• As we enter our centennial year we are still a young nation, very much in the formative stages. Our national condition is still flexible enough that we can make almost anything we wish of our nation. No other country is in a better position than Canada to go ahead with the evolution of a national purpose devoted to all that is good and noble and exellent in the human spirit.
  • Lester B. Pearson

• Canada is a country whose main exports are hockey players and cold fronts. Our main imports are baseball players and acid rain.
  • Pierre E. Trudeau

• We'll explain the appeal of curling to you if you explain the appeal of the National Rifle Association to us.
  • Andy Barrie

• Canada is like an old cow. The West feeds it. Ontario and Quebec milk it. And you can well imagine what it's doing in the Maritimes.
  • Former Saskatchewan premier Tommy Douglas

• Canadians are the people who learned to live without the bold accents of the natural ego-trippers of other lands.
  • Marshall McLuhan

• I am so excited about Canadians ruling the world.
  • Prime Minister John Diefenbaker

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Fri Sep 3 05:58:22 2010