Ethnic origins of Canadians, generally, are strongly Western European, especially English, French, Scottish, Irish, German, Italian, and Ukrainian. Of the ten most populous ethnic groups in Canada not from Europe are Native peoples and people of Asian heritage. Two-thirds of Canada's Native peoples live in provinces and territories west and north of Ontario today.

There are two official languages in Canada - English and French. This status recognizes the fact that 40% of Canadians have ancestry in the United Kingdom, while 27% have ancestry in France. According to the most recent Canadian census, taken in 1996, the mother tongue of 60% of Canadians is English, and of 24% it is French. Also in 1996, 0.3% of Canadians spoke Cree as their first language - the most widely spoken of the Native peoples' languages - and 0.1% spoke Inuktitut, the language of Canadian Inuit (formerly known as Eskimos).

Canadians enjoy a land of vast distances and rich natural resources. Economically and technologically, Canada has developed in parallel with the USA, its neighbour to the south, across a border that has no permanent military presence. Canada's paramount political problems are internal, not external:

• the relationship between the province of Québec, with its largely French-speaking residents and unique culture, to the remainder of the country; and
• the relationship between Native peoples, who, generally, experience a much lower standard of living than other Canadians, and the remainder of the citizens.