Canada is the second largest country in the world, spanning 6 time zones and home to some of the nicest people around. They have good reason to be nice, they live in one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
The name "Canada" is derived from the Huron-Iroquois word for village. It came to regular parlance in 1534 after Jacques Cartier, an early coloniser, heard it often used by locals to refer to their homes - good old Jacques thought that the whole place was called "Kanata".
Politically, Canada is broken down into 10 provinces and 3 territories. Provinces have a lot of autonomy, and enjoy jurisdiction over such matters as driving, roads, health care, education and even the judiciary. The territories take up the northern part of the country and do not have as many powers as the provinces, but they have a big say in how they are run.
So - 10 provinces, 3 territories and 33 million people speaking over 100 languages (1 in 6 report speaking a language other than English or French as their mother tongue) in a space roughly the size of all of Europe (stretching from the Ural mountains in Russia to Iceland!). Think about Europe's 710 million people - that's 21 Europeans to every one Canadian.
Roughly 20% of the population is bilingual (English and French), with the vast majority of these people being located in Quebec and Ontario. The Ottawa region (the capital) is very bilingual with people typically slipping in and out of French without any gap in speech.
Because of its size, the country is broken down into regions just for sake of proximity and shared climate and economies. Here is a synopsis:
Atlantic Canada comprises Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. These are the easternmost provinces and economically, have a lot in common. Aside from tourism, they rely quite heavily on fisheries and forestry. These provinces also share a strong Celtic identity, having been colonised by the Irish and Scottish (Gaelic is still spoken in Nova Scotia!).
Central Canada is home to the bulk of the population of the country. Quebec is the largest province and Ontario, the 2nd largest, has the most people. The nation's capital, Ottawa, is located on the Ontario-Quebec border on the Gatineau river. Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as the capital in order to symbolically marry French and English Canada. To an extent, this has proven successful, with many federal institutions being located on the Quebec side of the river.
The beaver is officially one of Canada's symbols, along with the maple leaf, the moose, etc. There was an act passed in 1975 decreeing the beaver as an official symbol, but this has a rather morbid history. The beaver was a major commodity in Canada's infancy, being traded in Europe by the Hudson's Bay Company since the 17th century. During the peak of trading, 100,000 beaver pelts were being shipped to Europe every year. The Hudson's Bay Company is still around, widely being recognised as the world's oldest department store! And not surprisingly, the beaver has smartened up and hides deep in the forest - not many Canadians have actually ever seen one (well, not alive anyway!)