Canada Day

Canada Day is the national day of Canada. A federal statutory holiday, it celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation which occurred on July 1, 1867, when the three separate colonies of the United Canadas (Ontario and Quebec), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united into a single dominion within the British Empire called Canada. Originally called Dominion Day, the holiday was renamed on October 27, 1982, the same year that the Canadian constitution was patriated by the Canada Act, 1982, which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada Day celebrations take place throughout the country, as well as in various locations around the world attended by Canadians living abroad. Economically and technologically the nation has developed in parallel with the US, it's neighbor to the south across an unfortified border. In 1535 explorer Jacques Cartier heard the word "kanata". It was used to refer to the site of present day Quebec City. "Kanata" was a Huron-Iroquois word for "village" or "settlement". The first time "Canada" was used as an official name was in 1791 describing the colonies of Upper and Lower Canada. In 1867, at the time of Confederation, the new country became known as Canada. Canada is the second-largest country in world (after Russia) with ten Provinces, three Territories, and 33,100,000 people.