Key facts about Canada
5 to 10 facts that help explain what makes the country distinctive.
A capital that is not the largest city
Ottawa, chosen by Queen Victoria in 1857 as a compromise between Toronto and Montreal, is the federal capital, while Toronto, far more populous, remains the country's largest city and main economic centre.
The longest coastline in the world
With 243,042 km of coastline along three oceans (Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic), Canada has the longest national coastline in the world.
Two official languages since 1969
The Official Languages Act makes English and French the two official languages of the federal government, an institutional bilingualism unique among the major English-speaking powers.
A Canadian-designed nuclear reactor
The CANDU, a pressurised heavy-water reactor developed in Canada, can run on natural, unenriched uranium; it supplies about 13% of the country's electricity, more than 50% of it in Ontario.
Quebec has twice rejected sovereignty
The referendums of 1980 (59.56% No) and 1995 (50.58% No, a margin of just 54,288 votes) both saw Quebecers choose to remain in the Canadian federation.
A painful past with Indigenous peoples
Some 150,000 Indigenous children went through the residential school system (1830s–1990s); in 2015 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented the deaths of at least 4,100 of them and described the system as "cultural genocide".