July 1st is Canada Day, the national day of Canada.

Learn more about Canada Day on Wikipedia.

A beaver:

photo credit: gainesp2003

A dam:

photo credit: BobWeaver4

photo credit: Sentrawoods.

The world’s biggest beaver dam has been found in northern Alberta, in Canada. It is so large, it’s visible from space. Read the article on Yahoo News.

photo credit: Andy.Burgess

Of course, you can well imagine I would never write an article which discredits Canada or Toronto. I have lived and worked in Toronto for a year and visited the city several times as my husband is a Torontonian so I have been able to appreciate all that Toronto has to offer and I am more than ready to defend it!

“Let’s all hate Toronto” is the title of a one-hour film in the form of a road documentary in which you can follow ‘Mr Toronto’ on a tour of Canada. He will try to find out whether Toronto is actually hated by Canadians who don’t live there. It is a tongue-and-cheek (= à prendre au deuxième degré) documentary, don’t take it literally!

Watch it on HotDocs and browse (= parcourez) this website on which you can find documentaries by Canadian filmmakers.

(The) YUKON is the westernmost and smallest of Canada’s three federal territories, the other two being the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. It is next to the American State of Alaska. It was named after the Yukon River. It has a little bit more than 30,000 inhabitants.

The capital and largest city of Yukon is Whitehorse (20,500 inhabitants).

In Yukon, you can admire beautiful landscapes with  lakes and  snow-capped mountains. Mount Logan (5,959 meters) can be found in Yukon. It is the highest mountain in Canada and the second highest in North America after Mount McKinley (6,194 meters) in Alaska. The climate is arctic and subarctic and very dry, with long, cold winters and short summers with long sunshine hours. Here you can see the midnight sun.

photo credit: John M (2007)

photo credit: Medmoiselle T

photo credit: Medmoiselle T

Dawson City, more than 530 kilometers to the North West of Whitehorse, developped thanks to the Klondike Gold Rush. Gold was found in 1896 in Bonanza Creek, a watercourse (= un cours d’eau) in Yukon  and ten of thousands of prospectors were attracted to the area. The city which used to be a First Nations camp boomed to 40,000 inhabitants in 1898. It counts now a little bit more than 1,300 inhabitants but it attracts more than 60,000 visitors every year. The average temperature in February is -22°C.

If you walk in the town center, you can see very old-fashioned buildings which give the town a very special atmosphere. It brings you back to the time of the gold rush and you can have a drink in a saloon watching can-can dansers (= des danseuses de French Cancan).

photo credit: deckhand

photo credit: J. Stephen Conn

In winter, you can see the beautiful Northern lights (a common name for Aurora Borealis):

photo credit: Studiolit

The Yukon Quest is a 1,000 mile sled (or sledge = traîneau)  dog race run every February between Fairbanks, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon. Because of the harsh winter conditions, difficult trail, and the limited support that competitors are allowed, it is considered the “most difficult sled dog race in the world”, or even the “toughest race in the world”.

photo credit: Yukon White Light

Snow sculpture:

photo credit: Yukon White Light

At Watson Lake, a town on the Alaska Highway, there is a very peculiar place called Sign post forest where you can see a collection of 65,000 signs left by visitors from all over the world. It was started in 1942 by a GI called Carl Lindley.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a sign or license plate (= plaque d’immatriculation [US]/ [GB]= registration plate/ number plate) to add when I went there!

photo credit: janet.powell

photo credit: fboosman

Dans un mois, avec les jeux olympiques d’hiver, tout le monde connaitra Vancouver, ville située en Colombie Britannique, sur la côte ouest du Canada. Je vous propose de découvrir Vancouver un mois à l’avance avec ces deux vidéos qui présentent cette ville classée plusieurs années au premier rang mondial en terme de qualité de vie.

Vancouver est associée à Whistler, station de ski très réputée. Voici une vidéo de promotion de Whistler pour les JO:

Le logo des jeux est un inukshuk:

photo credit: keepitsurreal

Les inukshuks sont des empilements de pierres , symboles de la culture des Inuits. Ils sont utilisés comme point de repère dans les étendues glacées du nord du Canada. Ils ont différentes formes et tailles (celle qui a été choisie pour les jeux est la plus connue mais pas forcément la plus fréquente).

Et voici une vidéo avec les mascottes des J.O. (il y a  peu de texte mais vous pourrez remarquer quand même que tout est bilingue, comme tout ce qui est officiel au Canada). Les organisateurs des Jeux olympiques d’hiver de 2010 se sont inspirés des créatures mythologiques autochtones de la Colombie-Britannique pour concevoir leur trio de mascottes.  Quatchi est un jeune sasquatch avec une longue barbe brune et des cache-oreilles bleus alors que Miga est  mi-épaulard – mi-ours.  Sumi est un esprit animal qui porte un chapeau qui représente un épaulard et vole avec les ailes du grand Oiseau-Tonnerre.  Avec ces trois mascottes, on retrouve un ami du nom de Mukmuk, une marmotte rare unique aux montagnes de l’île de Vancouver.

Vous pouvez bien sûr retrouver les sites olympiques sur ‘Google maps’ sur lequel j’avais écrit un article il y a peu de temps. Les caméras ont même été installées sur des motos-neige pour pouvoir dévaler les futures pistes olympiques.

Vous pouvez retrouver l’article que j’avais écrit le 1 novembre en cliquant ICI.

Here are photos of a few animals which you can encounter in Canada:

A caribou/ a reindeer (un renne) in Northern British Columbia:

photo credit: CanadaGood

A moose (un orignal) in Ontario:

photo credit: Pembleton

A raccoon (un raton-laveur) in Vancouver:

photo credit: Hayley_Bouchard

A beaver (un castor):

photo credit: dpmitchell

A black bear in Alberta:

photo credit: Lee Coursey

A grizzly bear:

photo credit: Macpablo_Campbell_River

Canadian geese (singular: a goose):

photo credit: ceasol

You can see some of these animals on Canadian coins (= pièces de monnaie): click on this LINK.

Toronto is the most populated city in Canada and the provincial capital of the province of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America. The Greater Toronto Area had a population of 5,555,912 in the 2006 census.

As Canada’s economic capital, Toronto is considered a global city and is one of the top financial centres in the world. Toronto’s leading economic sectors include finance, business services, telecommunications, aerospace, transportation, media, arts, film, television production, publishing, software production, medical research, education, tourism and sports industries. The Toronto Stock Exchange, the world’s seventh largest, is headquartered in the city, along with a majority of Canada’s corporations.

Toronto’s population is cosmopolitan and international, reflecting its role as an important destination for immigrants to Canada. Toronto is one of the world’s most diverse cities by percentage of non-native-born residents, as about 49% of the population were born outside of Canada. Because of the city’s low crime rates, clean environment, high standard of living, and friendly attitude to diversity, Toronto is consistently rated as one of the world’s most livable cities. Residents of Toronto are called Torontonians.

Here are a few famous sights in Toronto:

The famous CN Tower:

photo credit: Sweet One

Toronto’s skyscrapers:

photo credit: BinoCanada

photo credit: perk2008

Chinatown:

photo credit: jadiela

Casa Loma:

photo credit: SenzEnina

photo credit: MSVG

Vancouver is a coastal city and major seaport located in  southwestern British Columbia. Vancouver is named after Captain George Vancouver, a British explorer.

As of July 2009, the city’s estimated population surpassed 615,000 and that of the metropolitan area exceeded 2.3 million. Vancouver is the largest metropolitan area in Western Canada.Vancouver is ethically diverse, with 52% of city residents having a first language other than English .

Vancouver ranks as one of the most livable cities in the world, and has done so for more than a decade. The 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics will be held in Vancouver and nearby Whistler, a resort community 125 km north of the city.

Here are a few famous sights in Vancouver:

Canada Place:

photo credit: thornj

Stanley Park:

photo credit: thornj

photo credit: ecstaticist

Gastown:

photo credit: andI611

The Chinese Heritage Gardens in Chinatown:

photo credit: lilDeMented

The impressive Capilano Suspension Bridge:

photo credit: netsnake

Local wildlife:

Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, a province in Western Canada. Located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, Victoria is a tourism destination.

Here are a few famous sights in Victoria:

The Empress Hotel:

photo credit: Brandon (Vic Fan)

The houseboats in Victoria Harbour:

photo credit: palestrina55

The Totem Poles:

photo credit: DavidQuick

The lagoon in Butchart Gardens:

photo credit: terratrekking

The Legislative Buildings:

photo credit: ecstaticist

Chinatown:

photo credit: comawe

Ottawa is the capital of Canada. It is situated in the province of Ontario. It is a bilingual city. Everything is written in English and in French.

Here are a few famous sights in Ottawa:

The Parliament:

photo credit: coffeego

Canal Rideau:

photo credit: pulsman

In winter, the canal becomes the world’s biggest open-air skating rink:

photo credit: Greencolander

The totem poles in the Canadian Museum of Civilization:

photo credit: Djof