- published: 14 Aug 2013
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Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km2 (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.
Central Canada (sometimes the Central provinces) is a region consisting of Canada's two largest and most populous provinces: Ontario and Quebec. Due to their high populations, Ontario and Quebec have traditionally held a significant amount of political power in Canada, leading to some amount of resentment from other regions of the country. Before Confederation, the term 'Canada' specifically referred to Central Canada. Today, the term "Central Canada" is less often used than the names of the individual provinces.
The name of Central Canada alludes to the region being the median of economic and political power and not to the geographic median of Canada. The region's traditional boundaries were therefore determined by the population distribution which has been skewed to the east. In fact, the region is located entirely in the eastern half of the country, with Quebec extending further east than every province, except for Newfoundland and Labrador. Longitudinally, the middle of Canada is a meridian passing just east of Winnipeg, Manitoba; the geographic centre of Canada is located near Baker Lake, Nunavut.
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