Kim Blackburn, age 13, of Alliston, Ontario, Canada, for her question:
HOW DID CANADA GET ITS NAME?
Canada is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Even though Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain reigns as the queen of Canada, the nation is actually an independent, self governing country. Ten provinces and two territories are bound by a federal government into a great democratic nation. Capital of the constitutional monarchy is Ottawa.
Canada has become a great nation through a gradual political process. During the 1500s and 1600s, European explorers, missionaries and fur trappers paddled their canoes along the rivers and lakes of Canada.
Then, after years of struggle with France, Great Britain gained the vast new territory. Following many years of work, the Dominion of Canada was created in 1867.
The word Canada comes from the Iroquoian Indian word Kanata or Kanada, which means a group of huts.
Canada is the second largest country in the world. Only Russia has more land area than this great northern neighbor of the United States.
Although Canada's land area is anout 176,000 square miles larger than the United States, the country has only about a tenth as much population. About 85 percent of the people of Canada live within 200 miles of their nation's 3,987 mile southern border.
Canada has two official languages: English and French. While there are more than 295,000 Indians and 18,000 Eskimos living in the nation, most of the other citizens trace their ancestry to Europe.
About 44 out of every 100 Canadians are of British descent while about 30 out of 100 are the descendants of early French settlers. It has been estimated that more than 12 percent of the people can speak both English and French.
Canada's population has been growing rapidly. Four times as many persons lived in Canada in the early 1970s as did during the early 1900s. Population of the United States only tripled during this same period of time. About 11 out of 100 persons now living in Canada arrived as immigrants since World War II.
Canada's vast and rich natural resources are among the best in the world.
The world's greatest supply of paper on which newspapers are printed comes from Canada, provided by enormous forests. Thick forests cover about a third of the nation's entire land area.
Canada's fishing grounds rank among the richest in the world and the country is also a giant treasure house of minerals including copper, gold, iron, lead, nickel, platinum, silver, uranium and zinc.