Easy Text: An introduction to Canada

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Image: panduh, Flickr

• Canada is the second-largest country in the world, but has a population of only 32.5 million people.
• Canada's mountains rise to 5,951 metres above sea level.
• The country has so much fresh water that it could probably turn the entire Sahara desert into a swamp. It is the country in the world with the largest number of inland lakes.
• The country produces beef, fruit and vegetables, and is the world’s number-one producer of wheat.
• Canada also ranks as one of the world’s biggest exporters of seafood – fish, shrimp, crabs and lobster, which are fished in the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.
• Canada is the world's third largest producer of natural gas and is a world leader in the production of oil.
• Baffin Island is almost as big as France.
• Ellesmere Island has a glacier the size of Switzerland.
• The Canadian prairie covers more land than India, Nepal and Pakistan together!

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Image: Peter Macdonald

Because of a small population, Canadian wildlife enjoy an undisturbed, natural habitat. This includes: black bear, grizzly bear, bison, raccoon, caribou, moose, bighorn sheep, wolf, musk ox, puma and lynx, not to mention the Arctic animals. The rivers and lakes are full of fish. The mosquito becomes a troublesome insect during the summer and autumn. They give a nasty bite that many non-Canadians react badly to.

50 % of Canada has winter temperatures of –60° Celsius. That is probably why 90% of the people live extremely close to the US border where it is much warmer. And by the way, this border is the longest border in the world between two countries.