Jean Chrétien
Prime Minister

(pronounced "ZHAN KRIH-tyehn")

"I will try to bring us together by appealing not to what divides us, but what unites us."

Canada, which occupies the northern part of North America, is a vast but sparsely populated country. Canada's land area is 9.976,185 sq km (3,851,809 sq mi), and its population was estimated at 31.9 million in 2002. Most Canadians live in the country's southern region, within 161 km (100 mi) of the U.S. border. Reflecting its colonial heritage, the official languages are English and French. The largest religious denominations are Roman Catholicism (46%) and Protestantism, the latter represented mostly by the United Church of Canada (16%) and the Anglican Church of Canada (10%). The unit of currency is the Canadian dollar. The country's major trading partners are the United States, Japan, the European Community, South Korea, Taiwan, and Mexico...