Ancient vikings came to east coast of labrador, newfoundland and possibly nova scotia with some theories of more extensive explorations. Fishermen came for the fish and started over wintering on coast while french explorers went up st. lawrence river to settle inland while british and dutch established colonies on americas east coast.
French and british and dutch all fought and used indian allies and british finally conquered new france and received the colony of lower canada as settlement in late 1700's.
During the american revolution against the british, loyalist brits were driven out of the new england colonies and most went north to settle in upper canada(ontario)
Intermittent wars as americans tried to drive british out of north america with invasions from the late 1700's to early 1800's. Americans occupied and looted york(toronto) and killed many civilians in war of 1812 while the british occupied washington and burnt the white house.
Central canada was ceded to the hudsons bay trading company for trading purposes with no settlement allowed and explorers went all the way to the west coast during the fur trade. Canada kept good relations with its natives as a priority and sheltered many escaped slaves who came north during the underground railway days of mid 1800's.
With american expansion westward, british decided they had to settle inland to keep the country from the americans so many irish and scots were given land and free passage. Many french and mixed indian/french lived throughout the west.
In 1867, the british amalgamated the origonal colonies into a confederation although ultimate power still rested in london.
Head of state is queen but has no power, parliamentary system with an elected parliament governed by the leader of the major party so that power is more concentrated at the top than in the us federal system.
We have an appointed senate that is fairly powerless and used to reward old cronies with lifetime jobs
We brew great beer, make canadian bacon and jam and enjoy friendly relations with cuba. About 25% of the countrys 30 million people have french as a mother tongue while we have a large immigrant population.
We have universal health care, a small military and a population that resides mostly within 100 miles of the american border where prescription drugs are much cheaper than in the US. We measure our temperature in celsius and not fahrenheit.
We spell the british way, pronounce aunt as ant and say leftenat not lootenat and our national symbol is the beaver, the biggest rodent in north america and WE ARE CANADIAN.
We look like you, we talk like you and many of us have infiltrated and live among you!