Emily's Canadiana page

An American's Guide to Canada is slowly replacing this page, which may have some dead links and outdated content. Please visit the new page too -- it's more up to date, and there's a lot more to it.

General Information

• There is an excellent page of general information about Canada available. It contains pictures and a lot of worthwhile links.
• The Department of Canadian Heritage maintains the Canadian Heritage Information Network.
• You can try the National Atlas Information Service for maps of Canada, and a quiz to find out how much you know about Canadian geography. (Hint for non-Canadians: Vancouver is not the capital of British Columbia.)
• There is some Canadian history available from the University of Kansas.
• If you want lots of numbers and facts about Canada, try the CIA's World Factbook.
• An interactive map of Canada, courtesy of Xerox.
• The list of frequently asked questions about Canada from the Usenet newsgroup soc.culture.canada.
• Canadian headlines from CBC Radio news briefs and the Canadian News Digest.

Government and law Web sites

• The University of British Columbia is sponsoring the Open Government project, an effort to make Canadian government more understandable and accessible. There's an image map of the House of Commons, where you can click on various parts of the room to see what they are. You can also find out the names and party affiliations of all the Members of Parliament. There's a lot of other interesting stuff there, too; it's worth a visit.
• There is a new quarterly journal available called Government Information in Canada.
• The Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographical Names and the Geographical Names section of Natural Resources Canada have collaborated to put together the Geo-Names Home Page.
• The text of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement among Canada, the US, and Mexico.
• A page for Canadian legal resources, maintained by a lawyer.
• Canada Post,the Canadian post office.
• Statistics Canada, useful for finding out demographic and statistical data.
• The CRTC (Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission) maintains an informative site about everything from upcoming hearings to their approaches to various social issues.
• Health Canada
• Industry Canada
• The Canadian Embassy in the United States
• Canadian Information Policy Resources
• The Privacy Commissioner of Canada

Places to see and things to do

• How to navigate the Toronto subway system. Also in French.
• For lots of information about Toronto, see my Toronto page.
• The home page for the Canadian Museum of Civilization, in Hull, Quebec, just across the river from Ottawa. I haven't been to the museum yet, but I'm told it's a really neat place.
• A guide to what's available and happening in Toronto (where I live): hype! Toronto.
• The Ontario Science Centre. This site has pictures of some of the exhibits, and maps of the building, and other neat stuff too.
• The National Library of Canada.
• For people who want to travel around Canada on the train: Canadian Passenger Rail Services.
• The home page of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. This museum is a wonderful place.
• Banff National Park and Parks Canada. The park includes Lake Louise, one of the most stunningly beautiful places on earth. Swoon.

Canadian culture

• The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has a big Web site. The CBC has some terrific radio shows, which you can generally pick up anywhere in Canada, and they make a lot of good television. How to tell you're watching a Canadian evening newscast: the balding anchorman isn't wearing a toupee.
• A rapidly growing site is the Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Resource Directory for Canada. If you know of any such resources, let them know: the site is a great idea, and seems to be expanding well with contributions from visitors.
• Shift Magazine is an excellent source of information about new media and culture.
• Frank Magazine is published anonymously every two weeks, and contains dirt, hot gossip, and general nastiness. Their rendering of Jean Chrétien's Quebecois accent never fails to make me giggle.
• A site calling itself Art & Artistry contains some work of Aboriginal and First Nations Canadian artists.
• The University of Calgary maintains a server called CultureNet, full of lots of great information.
• Canada Council is a private organization that gives grants to artists and writers who work on projects that help to promote and further Canadian heritage.

Canadian Internet resources

• The Canuck Site of the Day
• Here's a link to a comprehensive list of Canadian World Wide Web servers.
• The people who produce the Canadian Internet Handbook have put together a page to try to boost sales.

Scientific goings-on in Canada

• Just so you know: the Canadian Geodetic Long Baseline Interferometer.
• The National Research Council Canada.
• The Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information has a page describing research and projects going on in this country.