Describing Canada - geography, food and language.

Canada has adapted two national languages, English and French. French is mostly spoken in Quebec, while the rest of the country speaks English. The American media also heavily influences the language we speak in Canada so the language we all speak is very similar to the standard American. However, we do spell things differently, as we use the Queen’s English. For example when we write colour, we add a “U” after the o, while Americans do not. Or when we write flavour we add the u after the o while Americans do not.

Canada today has no official church, and the government is officially committed to religious pluralism. Christmas and Easter are nationwide holidays. Jews, Muslims, and other groups are allowed to take their holy days off work however, do not share the same official recognition. In some parts of the country Sunday shopping is even banned, but this is steadily becoming less common. Christianity is the most common religion in Canada, followed by Islam.

Canada is divided into 10 provinces and 3 territories; and is bounded by oceans on three sides - the Pacific, The Arctic and The Atlantic. It is a country of outstanding natural beauty, and has a wide variety of landscapes; the mountains, the prairies, lakes and rivers with many national and provincial parks, making Canada the 2nd largest country in the world. There are more lakes in Canada than any other country. These pictures here are mostly are from The Rocky Mountains in Banff and Jasper, Alberta. Tourism around the Rocky Mountains is a large part of the economy in Canada as it is surrounded by an abundant of beautiful natural resources.

Canada has many famous professional painters who are known world-wide for their exquisite work. Artists like Emily Carr and the “The Group of Seven” were all Canadian known painters. Emily Carr did not get much recognition of her work until she passed away in 1945. One of her most famous paintings is her portrait “Autumn in France” which was painted in 1911. The group of Seven were most famous for their paintings inspired by the Canadian landscape, such as the bay of the Islands, painted in 1931.

Canadians dress like almost everybody else in the world with the typical jeans and t-shirt type of clothing. The climate chnage year long affects the costume as people need to wear warm clothing such as long winter coats and sweaters in the inter, or shorts and tank tops for the summer. Many Canadians are seen wearing Uggs or Canada Goose jackets. We were everything imaginable. We have to dress very warm in the winter because it can get very cold. We have Old Navy, Sears, Zellers, and many other stores. Because we are also a very diverse country you can see many different religious or cultural outfits everywhere you go. Like some Jewish people would wear long skirts and shirts that cover their shoulders, or some Islam people would wear a turban or a hijab.