Canada Passport

[Country Name] Canada.

【 Area 】 9.98 million square kilometers, including 9.09 million square kilometers of land and 890000 square kilometers of freshwater coverage.

Population: 40 million (as of June 2023). Mainly of European descent such as English and French, indigenous residents account for about 5%, and the rest are of Asian, Latin American, African descent, etc. English and French are both official languages. 67.3% of residents believe in Christianity, while 7.2% believe in Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism.

【 Capital 】 Ottawa, located in Ontario province. The population of the Capital Region (including Ottawa, Ontario, Gatineau, Quebec, and surrounding towns) is 1.324 million, with an area of 4715 square kilometers. The annual average maximum temperature is 15-26 ℃ (July), and the minimum temperature is -16~-6 ℃ (January).

[Head of State] King Charles III of England. The governor appointed by the king acts on behalf of the king. The governor is nominated by the prime minister and appointed by the king. The current Governor Mary Simon took office in July 2021.

National Day (Canada Day): July 1st.

【 Overview 】 Located in the northern part of North America. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Pacific Ocean to the west, Alaska to the northwest, the mainland of the United States to the south, and the Arctic Ocean to the north. The coastline is about 240000 kilometers long. The temperature in the east is slightly lower, the climate in the south is moderate, the climate in the west is mild and humid, and the climate in the north is cold tundra. The highest temperature in the central and western regions reaches over 40 ℃, while the lowest temperature in the northern region is as low as -60 ℃.

Originally inhabited by Native Americans and Inuit people. In the early 17th century, it became a French colony and was later ceded to Britain. On July 1, 1867, Britain merged the provinces of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia into a federation, becoming the earliest self-governing territory in Britain. Afterwards, other provinces also joined the federation one after another. In 1926, Canada gained diplomatic independence. In 1931, it became a member of the Commonwealth and its parliament was granted equal legislative power as the British parliament, but still did not have the power to amend the constitution. In 1982, the Queen of England signed the Canadian Constitution Act, granting the Canadian Parliament full constitutional and constitutional powers.

Since the establishment of the federation in 1867, it has been mainly governed alternately by the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party (formerly known as the Progressive Conservative Party). In 1993, the Liberal Party won the federal election and Jean Chr é tien became Prime Minister. In the 1997 and 2000 general elections, the Liberal Party won consecutive victories and regained control of the government. In December 2003, Chr é tien announced his retirement and Paul Martin succeeded him as Prime Minister. In 2004, a general election was held and the Liberal Party won again, with Martin re elected as Prime Minister. In 2006, the Conservative Party defeated the Liberal Party in the general election and came to power, with their leader Stephen Harper serving as Prime Minister. In October 2008 and May 2011, the Conservative Party won two elections and Harper was re elected as Prime Minister. In 2015, the Liberal Party won the general election with a significant advantage, and its leader Justin Trudeau became the Prime Minister. In October 2019, Trudeau led the Liberal Party to win the 43rd general election and was re elected as Prime Minister. In September 2021, Canada held its 44th federal election ahead of schedule, with the Liberal Party winning again and Trudeau beginning his third term as prime minister.

There is currently no complete constitution, mainly composed of constitutional bills passed at different historical periods, including the British North America Act passed by the British Parliament in 1867. According to the bill, Canada will implement a federal parliamentary system, with the British monarch as the head of state, the governor general as the representative of the British monarch in Canada, and both English and French as official languages. The purpose of the Constitution is peace, order, and good governance.

The Parliament is composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and bills passed by both houses are signed into law by the Governor General. The governor has the power to convene and dissolve parliament.

The Senate has a total of 105 seats, which are allocated according to the population ratio of each province and historical conventions. Senators are nominated by the Prime Minister, appointed by the Governor General, and retire at the age of 75. The current Speaker of the Senate is Raymond Gagn é, who will take office in May 2023.

The House of Representatives has a total of 338 seats, and its members are directly elected from federal constituencies based on the population ratio of each province, with a term of 4 years. The current Speaker of the House is Greg Fergus of the Liberal Party, who will take office in October 2023.

Cabinet system of government. The leader of the political party holding the majority of seats in the House of Representatives shall serve as the Prime Minister and form a government. The current Liberal government was sworn in on October 26, 2021, with a total of 39 cabinet members, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, Foreign Minister M é lanie Joly, Defense Minister Bill Blair, Innovation, Science and Industry Minister Fran ç ois Philippe Champagne, and Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development Mary F Y. Ng, etc.

[Administrative divisions] The country is divided into 10 provinces and 3 regions. The 10 provinces are British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the 3 regions are Yukon, Northwest, and Nunavut. Each province has a provincial governor, provincial governor, provincial speaker, and provincial cabinet. Corresponding positions and institutions are also established in the region.

The judicial system consists of three levels of courts: federal, provincial, and local (generally referring to cities). Federal courts generally handle financial, maritime, and related economic cases. The Supreme Court is composed of one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices, primarily adjudicating major political, legal, constitutional issues, as well as major civil and criminal cases appealed by the federal and provincial governments. The ruling of the Supreme Court is final. The judges of the Supreme Court are nominated by the Prime Minister, appointed by the Governor General, and retire at the age of 75. Chief Justice Richard Wagner took office in December 2017. Arif Virani, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, will assume office in July 2023. Each province has its own provincial high court and provincial court, which mainly hear criminal cases and other important cases related to the province, but there are also some provincial courts that hear civil cases. Local courts generally hear civil cases.

[Political Party]

(1) Liberal Party: The ruling party. Established in 1873. Representing the interests of industrial monopoly capital groups while taking into account the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises. The leader is Justin Trudeau, the eldest son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who was elected in April 2013.

(2) Conservative Party: The official opposition party, a right-wing political party. Formed by the merger of the Alliance Party and the Progressive Conservative Party in December 2003, it represents the interests of the banking and insurance industry, railway transportation industry, energy industry monopoly capital, and large farmers. The leader is Pierre Poilievre, who was elected in September 2022.

(3) New Democratic Party: The opposition party. In 1961, it was formed by the merger of the Civilian Cooperative Alliance and the Canadian Labour Conference. Belonging to the nature of the Social Democratic Party, representing the interests of the middle and lower working classes, advocating for the government to provide more public goods to compensate for market deficiencies. The leader is Jagmeet Singh, who was elected in October 2017.

(4) Bloc Quebecois: opposition party. Established in 1991. Representing the interests of Quebecers. The leader is Yves Fran ç ois Blanchet, who was elected in January 2019.

Other political parties include the Green Party.

Mary Simon: Governor. Female, born in August 1947 in Quebec, Canada. In the 1970s, he worked as a broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. From 1994 to 2003, he served as Canada's first ambassador for polar affairs. From 1999 to 2001, he served as the Canadian Ambassador to Denmark. In 2016, he was appointed as the Special Representative for Arctic Issues under the Canadian government's Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs. Appointed as the 30th Governor General of Canada in July 2021, becoming the first Indigenous Governor General in Canada's history.

Justin Trudeau: Prime Minister. Born in December 1971 in Ottawa, Canada, Bachelor of Arts and Master of Environmental Geology from McGill University, Bachelor of Education from the University of British Columbia. He was first elected as a federal congressman in 2008 and was re elected in 2011. Elected as the leader of the Liberal Party in April 2013. In October 2015, he led the Liberal Party to win the general election and became the 23rd Prime Minister in November. In October 2019 and September 2021, he led the Liberal Party to win two elections and was re elected as Prime Minister.

Canada is one of the seven major industrialized countries in the West. The manufacturing, high-tech, and service industries are well-developed, while the resource industry, primary manufacturing, and agriculture are the main pillars of the national economy. Establishing a country through trade and relying heavily on foreign trade, the economy is deeply influenced by the United States. The main economic indicators are as follows:

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): CAD 2.17 trillion (2022)

Per capita Gross Domestic Product: 54000 Canadian dollars (2022)

GDP growth rate: 3.4% (2022)

Unemployment rate: 5.0% (March 2023)

(Source: The website of the National Bureau of Statistics. Unless otherwise specified, the same applies below.)

【 Resources 】 The region is vast, with abundant forests and mineral resources. There are more than 60 types of minerals, mainly including potassium, uranium, tungsten, cadmium, nickel, lead, etc. Crude oil reserves rank third in the world after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, with 97% of them existing in the form of oil sands. The proven crude oil reserves are 166.7 billion barrels, accounting for 10% of the world's proven crude oil reserves. The forest area is over 400 million hectares (ranking third in the world, second only to Russia and Brazil), with a timber forest area of 2.86 million square kilometers, accounting for 44% and 29% of the country's territory, respectively; The total volume of timber is approximately 19 billion cubic meters. About 890000 square kilometers of the country are covered by freshwater, accounting for 7% of the world's sustainable freshwater resources.

In 2021, the total output value of the manufacturing industry in Canada was CAD 186.9 billion, accounting for approximately 9% of the gross domestic product. There were about 1.735 million employees, accounting for approximately 9.1% of the country's employed population. The total output value of the construction industry is 148.8 billion Canadian dollars, accounting for approximately 7.5% of the gross domestic product, with approximately 1.43 million employees and 7.6% of the country's employed population.

The total output value of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in 2021 was 39.83 billion Canadian dollars, accounting for approximately 2% of the gross domestic product. Mainly planting crops such as wheat, barley, flax, oats, rapeseed, corn, and forage grass. The arable land area accounts for about 16% of the national land area, of which the cultivated land area is about 68 million hectares, accounting for 7.4% of the national land area. Canada has a developed fishing industry, with 75% of its fishery products for export, making it one of the world's largest exporters of fishery products.

The main tourist cities include Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, etc.

Transportation is well-developed, with convenient water, land, and air transportation, and the per capita share of transportation lines ranks among the top in the world. The total output value of the transportation industry in 2022 is CAD 84.3 billion, accounting for approximately 3.9% of the gross domestic product. The specific situation is as follows:

Railway: The total length is about 72200 kilometers.

Highway: The total length is about 1.4089 million kilometers. The Trans Canada Highway runs from Victoria on the east coast of the Pacific Ocean to St. John's on the west coast of the Atlantic Ocean, with a total length of approximately 7821 kilometers, making it the longest national highway in the world.

Water transportation: The Saint Lawrence Canal has a total length of 3769 kilometers, making it the longest canal in the world. Ships can navigate from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes water system. There are a total of 25 large deep-water ports and 650 small ports in Canada, with Vancouver Port being the largest among them.

Air freight: The main airports include international airports such as Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, etc.

After taking office as Prime Minister in November 2015, Trudeau proposed to increase government spending and stimulate economic growth through deficit finance. In April 2021, the Canadian House of Representatives voted to pass the 2021 federal budget, introducing a three-year economic stimulus plan totaling CAD 101.4 billion. In March 2023, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Freeland submitted the 2023/2024 fiscal year budget to the Federal Parliament.

The recent fiscal budget situation is as follows (in billions of Canadian dollars):