Description of Canada

Presentation of the theme:
Description of Canada

Contents
 
1. AboutCanada
2. Peopleof Canada
3. Etymology
4. History
5. Europeancolonization
6. Confederationand expansion
7. Early20th century
8. Moderntimes
9. Governmentand politics
10. Law
11. Foreignrelations and military
12. Provincesand territories
13. Geographyand climate
14. Scienceand technology
15. Economy
16. Culture
17. Language
18. Ottawa
19. AboutOttawa
20. Ottawaas the capital
21. History

Canada
/>
/>

Flag Arms
 
Motto: A Mari Usque Ad Mare (Latin)
 «FromSea to Sea»
Anthem: «O Canada»
Royalanthem: «GodSave the Queen»
CapitalOttawa
45°24′N75°40′W
LargestcityToronto
Officiallanguage(s)English and French
DemonymCanadian
GovernmentFederal parliamentarydemocracy and constitutional monarchy
MonarchHMQueen Elizabeth II
GovernorGeneralMichaëlle Jean
PrimeMinisterStephen Harper
LegislatureParliament
UpperHouseSenate
LowerHouseHouse of Commons
Establishment
British NorthAmerica ActsJuly 1, 1867
Statute ofWestminsterDecember 11, 1931
CanadaActApril 17, 1982
Area
Total9,984,670km2 (2nd)
3,854,085 sqmi
Water (%)8.92(891,163 km2/344,080 mi2)
Population
2010estimate34,073,000 [3] (36th)
2006census31,241,030[4]
Density3.41/km2(228th)
Driveson the Right
 
Canada (pronounced /ˈkænədə/)is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from theAtlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward intothe 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 thelongest in the world.
Peopleof Canada
 
Canada is agood example of the way peoples of different ways of life and differentlanguages can live side by side under one government. The population of Canadahas risen from 11,5 million in 1941 to 25 million in 1980. Most of thenew-comers are from Europe, Asia and the USA, so that today less than 44% ofCanada’s population is of British origin. Quebec Province is still 90% French.There are some groups of French Canadians in Ontario and Manitoba, but thenumbers are quite small. There are many Indians, Pakistanis and Chinese, and also blacks from theUSA, among the immigrants who are pouring into Canada now. Some Canadians areafraid that before long Canada will have colored citizens that white. OtherCanadians are disturbed by the growing racism in their country. Canada, like somany countries, has only just begun to treat her own non-white citizens,Eskimos (or Inuit) and the Indians, as generously as they deserve. The Indianand Eskimo populations have grown quite a lot in the last few years. Thegovernment is at last realizing that it has a duty towards this people that ithas neglected for so long. All Canadian children have to learn both French and English at school,but Franco phones and Anglophones do not enjoy learning each other’s language.Still, most Quebecois middle class families, living in Montreal are bilingual — they speak English and French equally well. Until the Second World War, everyCanadian province except Quebec was overwhelmingly British. Some Canadians weremore patriotic than the British them-selves and were really angry if anyonewalked out of a cinema while ‘God Save the King’ was being played. NowCanadians think of themselves as a people in their own right, not tied to eitherBritain or the USA. The USA has not been a threat to Canada for almost twohundred years. In fact, the 6,416 km US-Canadian frontier is the longestcontinuous frontier in the world, has no wire fence, no soldiers, no guns oneither side. It is called ‘The Border’. The land occupied by Canada wasinhabited for millennia by various groups of Aboriginal people. Beginning inthe late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored, and latersettled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies inNorth America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union ofthree British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formedas a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provincesand territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom.This widening autonomy was highlighted by the Statute of Westminster of 1931and culminated in the Canada Act of 1982, which severed the vestiges of legaldependence on the British parliament. A federation consisting of ten provinces and threeterritories, Canada is governed as a parliamentary democracy and aconstitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is abilingual nation with both English and French as official languages at thefederal level. One of the world's highly developed countries, Canada has adiversified economy that is reliant upon its abundant natural resources andupon trade—particularly with the United States, with which Canada has had along and complex relationship. It is a member of the G8, G-20, NATO, OECD, WTO,Commonwealth, Franco phone, OAS, APEC, and UN.
Etymology
The nameCanada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word, Kanata, meaning«village» or «settlement». In 1535, indigenous inhabitantsof the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorerJacques Cartier towards the village of Stadacona. Cartier later used the wordCanada to refer not only to that particular village, but also the entire areasubject to Donnacona (the chief at Stadacona); by 1545, European books and mapshad begun referring to this region as Canada. From the early 17th century onwards,that part of New France that lay along the Saint Lawrence River and thenorthern shores of the Great Lakes was known as Canada. The area was latersplit into two British colonies, Upper Canada and Lower Canada. They werere-unified as the Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the nameCanada was adopted as the legal name for the new country, and Dominion wasconferred as the country's title. Combined, the term Dominion of Canada was incommon usage until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy fromthe United Kingdom, the federal government increasingly used simply Canada onstate documents and treaties, a change that was reflected in the renaming ofthe national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day in 1982.
History
Aboriginalpeoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Thedescriptors «Indian» and «Eskimo» are falling into disuse.Archaeological and Indigenous genetic studies support a human presence in thenorthern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 yearsago. Old Crow Flats andBluefish Caves are the earliest archaeological sites of human (Paleo-Indians)habitation in Canada. Among the First Nations peoples, there are eight uniquestories of creation and their adaptations. These are the earth diver, worldparent, emergence, conflict, robbery, rebirth of corpse, two creators and theircontests, and the brother myth. The characteristics of Canadian Aboriginalcivilizations included permanent or urban settlements, agriculture, civic andmonumental architecture, and complex societal hierarchies. Some of these civilizationshad long faded by the time of the first permanent European arrivals (c. late15th–early 16th centuries), and have been discovered through archaeologicalinvestigations. The aboriginal population is estimated to have been between200,000 and two million in the late 1400s. Repeated outbreaks of Europeaninfectious diseases such as influenza, measles and smallpox (to which they hadno natural immunity), combined with other effects of European contact, resultedin an eighty-five to ninety-five percent aboriginal population decreasepost-contact. The Métis culture of mixed blood originated in themid-17th century when First Nation and Inuit married European settlers. TheInuit had more limited interaction with European settlers during the earlyperiods.]
Europeancolonization
Europeansfirst arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows inNewfoundland around AD 1000; after the failure of that colony, there was noknown further attempt at Canadian exploration until 1497, when Italian seafarerGiovanni Caboto (John Cabot) explored Canada's Atlantic coast for England. In1534 Jacques Cartier explored Canada for France. French explorer Samuel deChamplain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent Europeansettlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. Among Frenchcolonists of New France, Canadians extensively settled the Saint Lawrence Rivervalley and Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur tradersand Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay, and theMississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out overcontrol of the fur trade. Benjamin West's The Death of General Wolfe (1771) dramatizesWolfe's death during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759. Thebattle was part of the Seven Years' War. The English established fishingoutposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and established the Thirteen Colonies tothe south. A series of four Inter colonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763.Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713);the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain afterthe Seven Years' War. The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of NewFrance and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. St. John's Island (nowPrince Edward Island) became a separate colony in 1769. To avert conflict inQuebec, the British passed the Quebec Act of 1774, expanding Quebec's territoryto the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley. It re-established the French language,Catholic faith, and French civil law there. This angered many residents of theThirteen Colonies and helped to fuel the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognizedAmerican independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to theUnited States. Around 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States toCanada. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization ofLoyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speakingLoyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province intoFrench-speaking Lower Canada (later the province of Quebec) andEnglish-speaking Upper Canada (later Ontario), granting each its own electedLegislative Assembly. Canada (Upper and Lower) was the main front in the War of 1812 betweenthe United States and the British Empire. Following the war, large-scaleimmigration to Canada from Britain and Ireland began in 1815. From 1825 to 1846,626,628 European immigrants landed at Canadian ports. Between one-quarter andone-third of all Europeans who immigrated to Canada before 1891 died ofinfectious diseases. The timber industry surpassed the fur trade in economicimportance in the early nineteenth century. The desire for responsible governmentresulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report subsequentlyrecommended responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadiansinto British culture. The Act of Union 1840 merged The Canadas into a unitedProvince of Canada. Responsible government was established for all BritishNorth American provinces by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49thparallel. This paved the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849)and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of exploratoryexpeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region.
Confederationand expansion
RobertHarris's Fathers of Confederation, an amalgamation of the Charlottetown andQuebec conferences. WhenCanada was formed in 1867 its provinces were a relatively narrow strip in thesoutheast, with vast territories in the interior. It grew by adding BritishColumbia in 1871, P.E.I. in 1873, the British Arctic Islands in 1880, andNewfoundland in 1949, Its provinces grew both in size and number at the expenseof its territories. Followingseveral constitutional conferences, the Constitution Act, 1867 brought aboutConfederation, creating «one Dominion under the name of Canada» onJuly 1, 1867, with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and NewBrunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-WesternTerritory to form the Northwest Territories, where the Métis' grievancesignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba inJuly 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) andthe colony of Prince Edward Island joined the Confederation in 1871 and 1873,respectively. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative governmentestablished a national policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadianmanufacturing industries.
/>
An animatedmap, exhibiting the growth and change of Canada's provinces and territoriessince Confederation. Toopen the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continentalrailways (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies tosettlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North-West MountedPolice to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, after the KlondikeGold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government created theYukon territory. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier, continentalEuropean immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan becameprovinces in 1905.
 
Early20th century
Canadiansoldiers won the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Britain's declaration of war in 1914automatically brought Canada into World War I. Volunteers sent to the WesternFront later became part of the Canadian Corps. The Corps played a substantialrole in the Battle of Vimy Ridge and other major battles of the war. Out ofapproximately 625,000 who served, about 60,000 were killed and another 173,000were wounded. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when conservative PrimeMinister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over theobjection of French-speaking Quebecers. In 1919, Canada joined the League ofNations independently of Britain and in 1931, the Statute of Westminsteraffirmed Canada's independence. The Great Depression brought economic hardship all over Canada. Inresponse, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta andSaskatchewan enacted many measures of a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglasin the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently duringWorld War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, threedays after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain inDecember 1939.Canadiantroops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, the D-Day landings, theBattle of Normandy, and the Battle of the Scheldt in 1944. Canada providedasylum and protection for the monarchy of the Netherlands while that countrywas occupied, and is credited by the latter country for leadership and major contributionto its liberation from Nazi Germany. The Canadian economy boomed as industrymanufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China, and the SovietUnion. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the warwith one of the largest armed forces in the world. In 1945, during the war,Canada became one of the founding members of the United Nations.
Moderntimes
The Dominionof Newfoundland (now Newfoundland and Labrador), at the time equivalent instatus to Canada and Australia as a Dominion, joined Canada in 1949. Canada'sgrowth, combined with the policies of successive Liberal governments, led tothe emergence of a new Canadian identity, marked by the adoption of the currentMaple Leaf Flag in 1965, the implementation of official bilingualism (Englishand French) in 1969, and official multiculturalism in 1971. There was also thefounding of socially democratic programs, such as universal health care, theCanada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans, though provincial governments,particularly Quebec and Alberta, opposed many of these as incursions into theirjurisdictions. Finally, another series of constitutional conferences resultedin the partition of Canada's constitution from the United Kingdom, concurrentwith the creation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. At the same time, Quebec wasundergoing profound social and economic changes through the Quiet Revolution,giving birth to a nationalist movement in the province and the more radicalFront de liberation du Québec (FLQ), whose actions ignited the OctoberCrisis in 1970. A decade later, an unsuccessful referendum on sovereignty-associationwas held in 1980, after which attempts at constitutional amendment failed in 1990. A second referendum followed in 1995, in which sovereignty was rejected by a slimmer margin ofjust 50.6% to 49.4%. In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that unilateral secessionby a province would be unconstitutional, and the Clarity Act was passed byparliament, outlining the terms of a negotiated departure from Confederation.
 
Governmentand politics
ParliamentHill, Ottawa
Canada has aparliamentary government with strong democratic traditions. Parliament iscomposed of The Crown, an elected House of Commons, and an appointed Senate.Each Member of Parliament in the House of Commons is elected by simpleplurality in an electoral district or riding. General elections must be calledby the prime minister within five years of the previous election, or may betriggered by the government losing a confidence vote in the House. Members of the Senate, whose seatsare apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the prime minister andformally appointed by the Governor General and serve until age 75. Four partieshad representatives elected to the federal parliament in the 2008 elections:the Conservative Party of Canada (governing party), the Liberal Party of Canada(the Official Opposition), the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the BlocQuébécois. The list of historical parties with electedrepresentation is substantial. Canada's federal structure divides government responsibilities between thefederal government and the ten provinces. Provincial legislatures areunicameral and operate in parliamentary fashion similar to the House ofCommons. Canada's three territories also have legislatures, but with fewerconstitutional responsibilities than the provinces and with some structuraldifferences (for example, the legislative assemblies of the NorthwestTerritories and Nunavut have no parties and operate on consensus). The Senate chamber within the CentreBlock on Parliament Hill. Canada is also a constitutional monarchy, with The Crown acting as asymbolic or ceremonial executive. The Crown consists of Queen Elizabeth II(legal head of state) and her appointed viceroys, the governor general (actinghead of state), and provincial lieutenant-governors, who perform most of themonarch's ceremonial roles. The political executive consists of the primeminister (head of government) and the Cabinet and carries out the day-to-daydecisions of government. The Cabinet is made up of ministers usually selected fromthe House of Commons and headed by the prime minister, who is normally theleader of the party that holds the confidence of the House of Commons. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) isone of the most powerful institutions in government, initiating mostlegislation for parliamentary approval and selecting, besides other Cabinetmembers, senators, federal court judges, heads of Crown corporations andgovernment agencies, and the governor general. The Crown formally approvesparliamentary legislation and the prime minister's appointments. The leader ofthe party with the second-most seats usually becomes the Leader of theOpposition, and is part of an adversarial parliamentary system intended to keepthe government in check. Michaëlle Jean has served as Governor Generalsince September 27, 2005; Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, hasbeen prime minister since February 6, 2006; and Michael Ignatieff, leader ofthe Liberal Party, has been Leader of the Opposition since December 10, 2008.
Law
TheConstitution of Canada is the supreme law of the country, and consists ofwritten text and unwritten conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (known asthe British North America Act prior to 1982) affirmed governance based onparliamentary precedent «similar in principle to that of the UnitedKingdom» and divided powers between the federal and provincialgovernments; the Statute of Westminster, 1931 granted full autonomy; and theConstitution Act, 1982 added the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, whichguarantees basic rights and freedoms that usually cannot be overridden by anylevel of government—though a notwithstanding clause allows the federalparliament and provincial legislatures to override certain sections of theCharter for a period of five years—and added a constitutional amending formula. The Indian Chiefs Medal, presented tocommemorate Treaties 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, bearing the effigy of Queen Victoria. Although not without conflict,European Canadians' early interactions with First Nations and Inuit populationswere relatively peaceful. Combined with Canada's late economic development inmany regions, this peaceful history has allowed Canadian Indigenous peoples tohave a relatively strong influence on the national culture while preserving theirown identity. The Canadian Crown and Aboriginal peoples began interactionsduring the European colonialisation period. Numbered treaties, the Indian Act,the Constitution Act of 1982 and case laws were established. A series of eleventreaties were signed between Aboriginals in Canada and the reigning Monarch ofCanada from 1871 to 1921. These treaties are agreements with the Government ofCanada administered by Canadian Aboriginal law and overseen by the Minister ofIndian Affairs and Northern Development. The role of the treaties wasreaffirmed by Section Thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982, which«recognizes and affirms existing Aboriginal and treaty rights». Theserights may include provision of services such as health care, and exemptionfrom taxation. The legal and policy framework within which Canada and FirstNations operate was further formalized in 2005, through the First Nations–Federal Crown Political Accord, which established cooperation as «acornerstone for partnership between Canada and First Nations». The Supreme Court ofCanada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill. Canada's judiciary plays an importantrole in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violatethe Constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and finalarbiter and has been led by the Right Honorable Madam Chief Justice BeverleyMcLachlin, P.C. (the first female Chief Justice) since 2000. Its nine membersare appointed by the governor general on the advice of the Prime Minister and Ministerof Justice. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed afterconsultation with nongovernmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet alsoappoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels.Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled bytheir respective governments. Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil lawpredominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniformthroughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincialresponsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec,policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
 
Foreignrelations and military
A CanadianCF-18 Hornet in La Baie (Bagotville), Quebec. CF-18s have supported NORAD airsovereignty patrols and participated in combat during the Gulf War of 1991 andKosovo and Bosnia in the late 1990s. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border,co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largesttrading partner. Canada nevertheless has an independent foreign policy, mostnotably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining to participate in theIraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and Franceand to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership inthe Commonwealth of Nations and the Franco phone. Canada is noted for having astrong and positive relationship with the Netherlands, and the Dutch governmenttraditionally gives tulips, a symbol of the Netherlands, to Canada each year inremembrance of the latter country's contribution to its liberation. Canada currently employs aprofessional, volunteer military force of about 67,000 regular and 26,000reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy,and air force. Major CF equipment holdings include 1,400 armored fightingvehicles, 33 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft. Strong attachment to the BritishEmpire and Commonwealth led to major participation in British military effortsin the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Sincethen, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts toresolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Canada was afounding member of the United Nations in 1945 and of NATO in 1949. During theCold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War andfounded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperationwith the United States to defend against potential aerial attacks from theSoviet Union.Two warshipsof the Canadian Navy—the Halifax-class frigate HMCS Vancouver (FFH 331)(centre) and the Iroquois-class destroyer HMCS Algonquin (DDG 283)—at PearlHarbor upon departing to participate in RIMPAC, the world's largestinternational maritime exercise. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, future Prime Minister Lester B. Pearsoneased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations PeacekeepingForce, for which he was awarded the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. As this was thefirst UN peacekeeping mission, Pearson is often credited as the inventor of theconcept. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including everyUN peacekeeping effort until 1989, and has since maintained forces ininternational missions in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. Thenumber of Canadian military personnel participating in peacekeeping missionshas decreased greatly in the past two decades. As of June 30, 2006, 133Canadians served on United Nations peacekeeping missions worldwide, including55 Canadian military personnel, compared with 1044 military personnel as ofDecember 31, 1996. Canadajoined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990 and hosted the OASGeneral Assembly in Windsor, Ontario, in June 2000 and the third Summit of theAmericas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties toPacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation forum (APEC). Canadian Leopard 1C2(1A5) during a live fire exercise in Fort Bliss,Texas. Since 2001, Canada has hadtroops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the U.S. stabilization force and theUN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canadahas committed to withdraw from Kandahar Province by 2011, by which time it willhave spent an estimated total of $11.3 billion on the mission. Canada and theU.S. continue to integrate state and provincial agencies to strengthen securityalong the Canada-United States border through the Western Hemisphere TravelInitiative. In February 2007, Canada,Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments tolaunch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could savemillions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. In August2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged after a Russianexpedition that planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canadahas considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925.
 
Provincesand territories
Canada is afederation composed of ten provinces and three territories. In turn, these maybe grouped into regions: Western Canada, Central Canada, Atlantic Canada, andNorthern Canada (the latter made up of the three territories Yukon, NorthwestTerritories, and Nunavut). Eastern Canada refers to Central Canada and AtlanticCanada together. Provinces have more autonomy than territories. The provincesare responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care,education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federalgovernment, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Usingits spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies inprovincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out ofthese, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by thefederal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services andtaxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. A clickable map of Canada exhibitingits ten provinces and three territories, and their capitals.
/>
Geographyand climate
 
Canadaoccupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders withthe contiguous United States to the south and the U.S. state of Alaska to thenorthwest, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Oceanin the west; to the north lies the Arctic Ocean. By total area (including itswaters), Canada is the second-largest country in the world—after Russia—and thelargest on the continent. By land area, Canada ranks fourth (land area is totalarea minus the area of lakes and rivers).
/>
A satellitecomposite image of Canada
Since 1925,Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60°W and 141°W longitude,but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement inCanada (and in the world) is Canadian Forces Station Alert on the northern tipof Ellesmere Island—latitude 82.5°N—817 kilometers (450 nautical miles, 508 miles) from the North Pole. Much of the Canadian Arctic is covered by ice and permafrost. Canadaalso has the longest coastline in the world: 202,080 kilometers (125,570 mi). The population density,3.3 inhabitants per square kilometer (8.5/sq mi), is among the lowest in theworld. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City –Windsor Corridor, (situated in Southern Quebec and Southern Ontario) along theGreat Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River in the southeast. The Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls,Ontario is one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls. It is renowned forboth its beauty and as a valuable source of hydroelectric power. Canada has an extensive coastline onits north, east, and west, and since the last glacial period it has consistedof eight distinct forest regions, including extensive boreal forest on theCanadian Shield. The vastness and variety of Canada's geography, ecology,vegetation and landforms have given rise to a wide variety of climatesthroughout the country. Because of its vast size, Canada has more lakes thanany other country, containing much of the world's fresh water. There are alsofresh-water glaciers in the Canadian Rockies and the Coast Mountains. Average winter and summer hightemperatures across Canada vary according to the location. Winters can be harshin many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairieprovinces, which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperaturesare near −15 °C (5 °F) but can drop below −40 °C (−40.0 °F)with severe wind chills. In no coastal regions, snow can cover the groundalmost six months of the year (more in the north). Coastal British Columbiaenjoys a temperate climate, with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and westcoasts, average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s °C (70s °F),while between the coasts, the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 °C (77 to 86 °F), with occasional extreme heat in some interior locationsexceeding 40 °C (104 °F). Canada is also geologically active, having many earthquakes andpotentially active volcanoes, notably Mount Meager, Mount Garibaldi, MountCayley, and the Mount Edziza volcanic complex. The volcanic eruption of TseaxCone in 1775 caused a catastrophic disaster, killing 2,000 Nisga'a people andthe destruction of their village in the Nass River valley of northern BritishColumbia; the eruption produced a 22.5-kilometre (14.0 mi) lava flow, and according to legend of the Nisga'a people, it blocked the flow of the NassRiver.
 
Scienceand technology
 
Canada is anindustrial nation with a highly-developed science and technology sector. Nearly1.88% of Canada's GDP is allocated to research & development (R&D). Thecountry has eighteen Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry and medicine. Canadais one of the world’s biggest publishers, publishing the highest number ofscientific publications in the fields of medical science, natural science andengineering in 2005. Canada ranks as 12 in the world for Internet usage with 28.0 million users, 84.3% of the total population.
The Canadarmin action on the Space Shuttle Discovery during STS-116
The CanadianSpace Agency conducts space, planetary, and aviation research, as well asdevelops rockets and satellites. In 1984, Marc Garneau became Canada's firstastronaut, serving as payload specialist of STS-41-G. Canada is a participantin the International Space Station and one of the world's pioneers in spacerobotics with the Canadarm, Canadarm2 and Dexter. Canada was ranked third among20 top countries in space sciences. Since the 1960s, Canada AerospaceIndustries have designed and built 10 satellites, including RADARSAT-1,RADARSAT-2 and MOST. Canada also produced one of the most successful soundingrockets, the Black Brant; over 1000 have been launched since they wereinitially produced in 1961. Universities across Canada are working on the firstdomestic landing spacecraft: the Northern Light, designed to search for life onMars and investigate Martian electromagnetic radiation environment andatmospheric properties. If the Northern Light is successful, Canada will be thethird country to land on another planet.
 
Economy
CurrentCanadian banknotes, depicting (top to bottom) Wilfrid Laurier, John A.Macdonald, Queen of Canada (Queen Elizabeth II), William Lyon Mackenzie King,and Robert Borden. Canadais one of the world's wealthiest nations, with a high per-capita income, and itis a member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) and the G8. It is one of the world's top ten trading nations. Canada isa mixed market, ranking lower than the U.S. on the Heritage Foundation's indexof economic freedom but higher than most western European nations. The largestforeign importers of Canadian goods are the United States, the United Kingdom,and Japan. In 2008, Canada's imported goods were worth over $442.9 billion, ofwhich $280.8 billion was from the United States, $11.7 billion from Japan, and$11.3 billion from the United Kingdom. As of October 2009, Canada's national unemployment rate was8.6%. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 5.8% in Manitoba to ahigh of 17% in Newfoundland and Labrador. As of 2008, Canada’s total governmentdebt burden is the lowest among the G8. The OECD projects that Canada'sdebt-to-GDP ratio will decline to 19.5% in 2009, which is less than half of theprojected average of 51.9% for all G8 countries. According to theseprojections, Canada's debt burden will have fallen by more than 50 percentagepoints from its peak in 1995, when it was the second-highest in the G8. In2008–09, the federal debt increased by $6.1 billion to $463.7 billion. In thepast century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors hastransformed the nation from a largely rural economy to a more industrial andurban one. Like other First World nations, the Canadian economy is dominated bythe service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians. Canada isunusual among developed countries in the importance of its primary sector, inwhich the logging and petroleum industries are two of the most important. Canada is one of the few developednations that are net exporters of energy. Atlantic Canada has vast offshoredeposits of natural gas, and Alberta has large oil and gas resources. Theimmense Athabasca Oil Sands give Canada the world's second-largest oilreserves, behind Saudi Arabia. Canada is one of the world's largest suppliers of agricultural products;the Canadian Prairies are one of the most important producers of wheat, canola,and other grains. Canada is the largest producer of zinc and uranium, and is aglobal source of many other natural resources, such as gold, nickel, aluminum,and lead. Many towns in northern Canada, where agriculture is difficult, aresustainable because of nearby mines or sources of timber. Canada also has asizable manufacturing sector centered in southern Ontario and Quebec, withautomobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. Representatives of the Canadian,Mexican, and United States governments sign the North American Free TradeAgreement in 1992. Economicintegration with the United States has increased significantly since World WarII. This has drawn the attention of Canadian nationalists, who are concernedabout cultural and economic autonomy in an age of globalization, as Americangoods and media products have become ubiquitous. The Automotive Products TradeAgreement of 1965 opened the borders to trade in the auto manufacturingindustry. In the 1970s, concerns over energy self-sufficiency and foreignownership in the manufacturing sectors prompted Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau'sLiberal government to enact the National Energy Program (NEP) and the Foreign InvestmentReview Agency (FIRA). In the 1980s, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservativesabolished the NEP and changed the name of FIRA to «Investment Canada»in order to encourage foreign investment. The Canada – United States Free TradeAgreement (FTA) of 1988 eliminated tariffs between the two countries, while theNorth American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) expanded the free-trade zone to includeMexico in the 1990s. In the mid-1990s, the Liberal government under JeanChrétien began to post annual budgetary surpluses and steadily paid downthe national debt. The 2008 global financial crisis caused a recession, whichcould boost the country's unemployment rate to 10%.
 
Culture
/>
Bill Reid'ssculpture Raven and The First Men, showing part of a Haida creation myth. TheRaven is a figure common to many mythologies in Aboriginal Culture. Canadian culture has historicallybeen influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions.There are distinctive Aboriginal cultures, languages, art, and music spreadacross Canada. Many North American Indigenous words, inventions and games havebecome an everyday part of Canadian language and use. The canoe, snowshoes, thetoboggan, lacrosse, tug of war, maple syrup and tobacco are examples of products,inventions and games. Some of the words include the barbecue, caribou,chipmunk, woodchuck, hammock, skunk, mahogany, hurricane and moose. Numerousareas, towns, cities and rivers of the Americas have names of Indigenousorigin. The province of Saskatchewan derives its name from the Cree languagename of the Saskatchewan River, «Kisiskatchewani Sipi». Canada'scapital city Ottawa comes from the Algonquin language term «adawe»meaning «to trade.» National Aboriginal Day recognizes the culturesand contributions of Aboriginal peoples of Canada. Canadian culture has been greatlyinfluenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians valuemulticulturalism and see Canada as being inherently multicultural. However, thecountry's culture has been heavily influenced by American culture because ofits proximity and the high rate of migration between the two countries. Thegreat majority of English-speaking immigrants to Canada between 1755 and 1815were Americans from the Thirteen Colonies; during and immediately after the Warof Independence, 46,000 Americans loyal to the British crown came to Canada.Between 1785 and 1812, more Americans emigrated to Canada in response topromises of land. Americanmedia and entertainment are popular, if not dominant, in English Canada;conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful inthe United States and worldwide. Many cultural products are marketed toward aunified «North American» or global market. The creation andpreservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal governmentprograms, laws, and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation(CBC), the National Film Board of Canada, and the Canadian Radio-television andTelecommunications Commission.
The Jack Pine,by Tom Thomson, 1916. Oil on Canvas, in the collection of the National Gallery ofCanada.
Canadianvisual art has been dominated by Tom Thomson — Canada's most famous painter —and by the Group of Seven. Thomson's brief career painting Canadian landscapesspanned just a decade up to his death in 1917 at age 39. The Group were painterswith a nationalistic and idealistic focus, who first exhibited theirdistinctive works in May 1920. Though referred to as having seven members, fiveartists — Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, andFrederick Varley — were responsible for articulating the Group's ideas. Theywere joined briefly by Frank Johnston, and by commercial artist FranklinCarmichael. A. J. Casson became part of the Group in 1926. Associated with theGroup was another prominent Canadian artist Emily Carr, known for herlandscapes and portrayals of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific NorthwestCoast.
Canada hasdeveloped a music infrastructure, that includes church halls, chamber halls,conservatories, academies, performing arts centers, record companies, radiostations, television music video channels and governing bodies. The Canadianmusic industry has produced internationally renowned composers, musicians andensembles such as; Portia White, Guy Lombardo, Murray Adaskin, Rush and CelineDion. The national anthem of Canada O Canada adopted in 1980, was originallycommissioned by the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, the HonourableThéodore Robitaille, for the 1880 St. Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony. Calixa Lavallée wrote the music, which was a setting of a patriotic poemcomposed by the poet and judge Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier. The text wasoriginally only in French, before it was translated to English in 1906.
A scene at the2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver seconds after Team Canada won gold in men'sice hockey. Canada's National symbolsare influenced by natural, historical, and Aboriginal sources. The use of themaple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates to the early 18th century. The maple leafis depicted on Canada's current and previous flags, on the penny, and on theCoat of Arms. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada Goose, CommonLoon, the Crown, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and more recently, thetotem pole and Inukshuk. Canada's official national sports are hockey in the winter and lacrossein the summer. Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectatorsport in the country. It is also the sport most played by Canadians, with 1.65million participants in 2004. Canada's six largest metropolitan areas—Toronto,Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton—have franchises in theNational Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the NHLthan from all other countries combined. Other popular spectator sports includecurling and football; the latter is played professionally in the CanadianFootball League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, andbasketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professionalleagues and franchises are not widespread. Canada has hosted severalhigh-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympicsin Montreal, the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 WorldCup. Canada was the host nation for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver andWhistler, British Columbia.
 
Language
Notre-Dame-des-Victoriesin the historic Basse-Ville (Lower Town) of Quebec City, Quebec. The populationis mainly French-speaking, with a small English-speaking minority. Canada's two official languages areEnglish and French. Official bilingualism is defined in the Canadian Charter ofRights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official LanguageRegulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. Englishand French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federalinstitutions. Citizens have the right, where there is sufficient demand, toreceive federal government services in either English or French, andofficial-language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provincesand territories. Englishand French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the populationrespectively, and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of thepopulation respectively. 98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (67.5%speak English only, 13.3% speak French only, and 17.7% speak both). English andFrench Official Language Communities, defined by First Official LanguageSpoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population respectively. The Charter of the French Languagemakes French the official language in Quebec. Although more than 85% ofFrench-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophonepopulations in Ontario, Alberta, and southern Manitoba; Ontario has the largestFrench-speaking population outside Quebec. New Brunswick, the only officiallybilingual province, has a French-speaking Acadian minority constituting 33% ofthe population. There are also clusters of Acadians in southwestern NovaScotia, on Cape Breton Island, and through central and western Prince EdwardIsland. Other provinces have noofficial languages as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, incourts, and for other government services in addition to English. Manitoba,Ontario, and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in theprovincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario,French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. There are 11Aboriginal language groups, made up of more than 65 distinct dialects. Ofthese, only Cree, Inuktitut and Ojibway have a large enough population offluent speakers to be considered viable to survive in the long term. Severalaboriginal languages have official status in the Northwest Territories.Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three officiallanguages in the territory. Over six million people in Canada list a non-official language as theirmother tongue. Some of the most common non-official first languages includeChinese (mainly Cantonese; 1,012,065 first-language speakers), Italian(455,040), German (450,570), Punjabi (367,505) and Spanish (345,345).
 
Nickname(s): Bytown
Established1826 as «Town ofBytown»
Incorporated1855 as «City ofOttawa»
AmalgamatedJanuary 1, 2001
Government
MayorLarryO'Brien
CityCouncilOttawa City Council
MPsList ofMPs[show]
MPPsList ofMPPs[show]
Area
City2,778.64km2 (1,072.9 sq mi)
Urban512.29km2 (197.8 sq mi)
Metro5,318.36km2 (2,053.4 sq mi)
Population (2006[2][3][4])
City812,129(4th)
Density292.3/km2(757.1/sq mi)
Metro1,130,761(4th)
DemonymOttawan
 
Ottawa ( /ˈɒtəwə/ orsometimes /ˈɒtəwɑː/) is the capital ofCanada and a municipality within the Province of Ontario. Located in the OttawaValley in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario, the city lies on thesouthern banks of the Ottawa River, a major waterway forming the local boundarybetween the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Connected by several bridges to itsQuebec neighbour, the city of Gatineau on the northern shores of the OttawaRiver, the two cities and surrounding areas are designated the National CapitalRegion (NCR). Though governed by separate municipal governments, the federallands within the region are administered by the National Capital Commission (NCC),a federal crown corporation charged with the responsibility of planning andmanaging the federal government's interests in the NCR. In 2006, the city of Ottawa had apopulation of 812,129, making it the fourth-largest municipality in the countryand second-largest in Ontario. The Ottawa-Gatineau metropolitan area had a 2006population of 1,130,761, making it the fourth-largest census metropolitan area(CMA) in Canada. The National Capital Region which encompasses Ottawa, Gatineauand surrounding suburbs and towns has an estimated population of 1,451,415. In 2009 Ottawa-Gatineau's population was estimated at 1,220,674, making it thefifth-largest CMA in Canada. Ottawa is also considered the 4th cleanest city inthe world by Forbes magazine and the 18th most liveable city in the worldaccording to the «Mercer Human Resource Consulting Quality of LivingSurvey».As with othernational capitals, the word «Ottawa» is also used to refer bymetonymy to the country's federal government, especially as opposed toprovincial or municipal authorities.
Ottawaas the capital
The CentreBlock, on Parliament Hill. nDecember 31, 1857, Queen Victoria was asked to choose a common capital for theProvince of Canada (modern day Ontario and Quebec) and chose Ottawa. WhileOttawa is now a major metropolis and Canada's fourth largest city, at the timeit was a sometimes unruly logging town in the hinterland, far away from thecolony's main cities, Quebec City and Montreal in Canada East, and Kingston andToronto in Canada West. The Queen's advisers suggested she pick Ottawa for many importantreasons: first, it was the only settlement of any significant size locatedright on the border of Canada East and Canada West (today Quebec and Ontario),making it a compromise between the two colonies and their French and Englishpopulations;[citation needed] second, the War of 1812 had shown how vulnerablemajor Canadian cities were to American attack, since they were all located veryclose to the border, while Ottawa was then surrounded by dense forest far fromthe border; third, the government owned a large parcel of land on a spectacularspot overlooking the Ottawa River. Ottawa's position in the back country madeit more defensible, while still allowing easy transportation over the OttawaRiver to Canada East, and the Rideau Canal to Canada West. Two otherconsiderations were that Ottawa was at a point nearly exactly midway betweenToronto and Quebec City (~500 km/310 mi) and that the small size of the townmade it less likely that politically motivated mobs could go on a rampage anddestroy government buildings, as happened in the previous Canadian capitals.The Ottawa River and the Rideau Canal network meant that Ottawa could besupplied by water from Kingston and Montreal without going along thepotentially treacherous US-Canada border. In 1866, the legislature was finallymoved to Ottawa, after a few years of alternating between Toronto and QuebecCity. See also: Capitals of the Province of Canada.
NationalWar memorial
After WorldWar I much of the National Capital was in disrepair. Many of the wooden framestructured buildings had been neglected during the war and the area was in needof many upgrades.[citation needed]
The originalCentre Block of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa was destroyed by fire onFebruary 3, 1916. French urban planner Jacques Greber was hired to work on amaster plan for the National Capital Region (the Greber Plan). Jacques Greberwas the creator of the National Capital Greenbelt, as well as many otherprojects throughout the NCR. The House of Commons and Senate were temporarilyrelocated to the recently constructed Victoria Memorial Museum, currently theCanadian Museum of Nature, located about 1 km (1 mi) south of Parliament Hill on McLeod Street at Metcalfe Street. A new Centre Block wascompleted in 1922, the centrepiece of which is a dominant Gothic revival styledstructure known as the Peace Tower which has become a common emblem of thecity. On September 5, 1945, only weeks after the end of World War II, Ottawawas the site of the event that many people consider to be the official start ofthe Cold War. A Soviet cipher clerk, Igor Gouzenko, defected from the Sovietembassy with over 100 secret documents[16].
At first, theRoyal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) refused to take the documents, as theSoviets were still allies of Canada and Britain, and the newspapers were notinterested in the story. After hiding out for a night in a neighbour'sapartment, listening to his own home being searched, Gouzenko finally persuadedthe RCMP to look at his evidence, which provided proof of a massive Soviet spynetwork operating in western countries, and, indirectly, led to the discoverythat the Soviets were working on an atomic bomb to match that of the Americans.In 2001, the old city of Ottawa (estimated 2005 population 350,000) wasamalgamated with the suburbs of Nepean (135,000), Kanata (85,000), Gloucester(120,000), Rockcliffe Park (2,100), Vanier (17,000) and Cumberland (55,000),Orleans (84,695), and the rural townships of West Carleton (18,000), Osgoode(13,000), Rideau (18,000), and Goulbourn (24,000), along with the systems andinfrastructure of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton, to become onemunicipality. Before 1969 and the creation of Ottawa-Carleton, the city ofOttawa was part of Carleton County.
History
Sparks Streetin downtown Ottawa, 1954
The Ottawaregion was long the home of the Odawa or Odaawaa First Nations people. TheOdawa are an Algonquin people who called the river the Kichi Sibi orKichissippi meaning «Great River» or «Grand River».Historical evidence indicates that the Algonquins over time have occupiedportions of the lands of the Ottawa River watershed and travelled throughsurrounding territory as a hunting and gathering society. The Algonquins ofOntario assert that they never surrendered its territory by treaty, sale, orconquest and have made such claims since 1772. In 1983, the Algonquins of Golden Lake (Pikwàkanagàn) presented to the Governmentof Canada a claim to Aboriginal rights and title within the Ontario portion ofthe Ottawa and Mattawa River watersheds. Negotiations are ongoing.
1920 aerialview of the Parliament buildings (without the Peace Tower), and old Unionstation in the background
Early Europeanexplorers of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers sought new territories, claimedlands in the names of their kings and queens, and sought western passages toIndia and Asia as well as gold and other precious commodities. Among the firstof commercial enterprises to evolve in the New World after fishing, the furtrade industry, largely influenced by the Hudson Bay Company, used the OttawaRiver and its tributaries as the local conveyance for the delivery of furproducts to Europe through Montreal and Quebec City.
The firstsettlement in the region was led by Philemon Wright, a New Englander fromWoburn Massachusetts who, on March 7, 1800 arrived with his own and five otherfamilies along with twenty-five labourers to start an agricultural community onthe north bank of the Ottawa River at the portage to the ChaudièreFalls. Food crops were not sufficient to sustain the community and Wright beganharvesting trees as a cash crop when he determined that he could transporttimber by river from the Ottawa Valley to the Montreal and Quebec City markets,which also exported to Europe. His first raft of squared timber and sawn lumberarrived in Quebec City in 1806. Liked by many European nations for itsextremely straight and strong trunk in heavy construction for shipbuilding andhousing as well as for furniture, the white pine (Pinus strobus) was foundthroughout the Ottawa Valley, soon booming based almost exclusively upon thetimber trade. By 1812, the timber trade had overtaken the fur trade as theleading economic activity in the area as Ottawa became a centre for lumbermilling and square-cut lumber in Canada and North America. In the years following the War of1812, along with settling some military regiment families (such as the 100thRegiment of Foot (Prince Regent's County of Dublin Regiment) at Richmond,Ontario), the government began sponsored immigration schemes which brought overIrish Catholics and Irish Protestants to settle the Ottawa area, which began asteady stream of Irish immigration there in the next few decades. Along withFrench Canadians who crossed over from Quebec, these two groups provided thebulk of workers involved in the Rideau Canal project and the booming timbertrade, both instrumental in putting Ottawa on the map. The region's populationgrew significantly when the canal was completed by Colonel John By in 1832. Itwas intended to provide a secure route between Montreal and Kingston on LakeOntario, by-passing the stretch of the St. Lawrence River bordering New YorkState (the U.S invasions of Canada in the War of 1812 being a recent memory).Construction of the canal began at the northern end, where Colonel By set up amilitary barracks on what later became Parliament Hill, and laid out a townsitethat soon became known as Bytown. Original city leaders of Bytown include anumber of Wright's sons, most notably Ruggles Wright. Nicholas Sparks, BraddishBillings and Abraham Dow were the first to settle on the Ontario side of theOttawa river. The west side of the canal became known as «Uppertown»where the Parliament buildings are located, while the east side of the canal(wedged between the canal and Rideau River) was known as the«Lowertown». Lowertown was then a crowded, boisterous shanty town,frequently receiving the worst of disease epidemics, such as the Choleraoutbreak in 1832, and typhus in 1847.Bytown was renamed Ottawa in 1855, when itwas incorporated as a city.