Canada is the world's second-largest country by area and occupies most of northern North America. It extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean and shares land borders with the United States to the south and to the northwest (Alaska). Canada, first inhabited by aboriginal peoples, was founded as a union of British and former 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 with ten provinces and three territories. The country is a bilingual with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Canada's economy is diversified but is heavily reliant on international trade especially with the United States.

 

The Canadian economy benefits from its huge resources of energy and minerals. Growth suffered because of its dependency on merchandise trade for growth and trade with the U.S. A concerted effort to increase trade with other than the U.S. has led to increased exports to China. A big plus for Canada is the stability of its banking system — it did not have a financial crisis.