take off, ya hosers!

let us turn our eyes to the north and what do we see? oh! canada?

the formal name of canada is... canada. go simplicity!

canada doesn't have states, it has 10 provinces and 3 territories*; Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories*, Nova Scotia, Nunavut*, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon Territory*. 13 in all. before i looked in the good ol' cia factbook, i guessed 12 provinces, so i was a wee bit closer on the divisions of canada than i was on mexico. as far as i know, the difference between provinces and states is semantic, which of course means "it's freaking colder up there". the canadians seem to have an affinity for naming their divisions after dog breeds and places in britain.

on 1 july 1867 canada became "the union of british north american colonies" and on 11 december 1931 this arrangement was formally recognized by the UK. canadians celebrate their national holiday on 1 july, so good on ya canada for having your national day on your own terms and not on the brits's. now, being the "union of british north american colonies" doesn't sound "independent" to me, however - i am not canadian. the Constitution Act of 17 April 1982 officially turned over control of the constitution from britain to canada. 1982!! that's like, recently. sha.

the head of state is the queen of britain, queen elizabeth. the queen's representative is governor general michaelle jean, and the head of the canadian government is prime minister stephen joseph harper. how do the head of state, the queen's rep, and the head of government interact? good question. why'nt you go look that up and give me a report?

canada's ambassador to the US is gary doer. wonder if he's really active... you know... since he's a DOER. haha. seriously, though, wonder if that's disappointing. "we would like you, mr doer, to be ambassador to...." [he's thinking OMG france! say france! or italy! yeah! ooo - australia! say australia!] "... the USA! congratulations!" [and he's all like - usa. whoop dee doo. i'll pack a lunch because i can freaking commute there every day. sha.] the USA ambassador to canada is david jacobson and he was probably very excited about going to canada because you know all us USAs are complete eejits about our nextdoors so to us canada is completely exotic and foreign.

canada's official colors are red and white. again, go simplicity! the flag is a white square bordered on the hoist and the fly sides by red bands. [how do you like that, "hoist and fly" sides? i just learned that from the cia factbook. i admire the clarity and plan to see if i can use it tomorrow, in normal convo. i'll let you know how that turns out. i will probably forget.] in the white square is a red, 11-pointed maple leaf.

2.3% of canada's gross domestic product is from agriculture, 26.4% from industry, and 71.3% from services. there are 21.455 million mobile cellular phones in use in canada and 1,404 aeroports but only 514 of these have paved runways. canada takes up 9,984,670sqkm which is the 2nd largest in the world. [russia is the largest at 17,098,242sqkm -- it's hugenormous!!] the population of canada is 33,487,208 which places is at 36th in the world. 2nd in land, 36th in people - lots of elbow room up there, eh?

yes, these relatively meaningless out-of-context statistics WILL be on the test, so study-up kids!