Canada is the second-largest country in the world, and as a classic immigrant state is a prime example of multicultural co-existence. Today, 40% of Canada's population are of a different cultural origin than the first emigrants, who came from Britain and France. Among the European settlers, Germany, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands and the Ukraine are particularly strongly represented. Since the 1960's, immigrants have been arriving from India, Vietnam, China, Latin America and the Caribbean. Aboriginal Indians still make up 2% of the population. They made the journey more than 20,000 years ago, crossing the Bering Strait from Asia. Today there are approximately 600 different tribes in Canada, as well as about 30,000 Inuit.

More than a thousand years ago, the aboriginal population had their first encounters with Vikings who landed on the east coast of North America. Settlement of the land by the British and the French began at the turn of the 17th century. The French occupied the areas around the Saint Lawrence river, the Great Lakes and along the Mississippi, while the British settled round Hudson Bay and the Atlantic coast. 1867 is regarded as the founding year of the Federal State of Canada. However, political independence from Great Britain was only to come in 1931. In 1949, Newfoundland became Canada's 10th province.

Multiculturalism has been a political watchword in Canada since 1971. In 1988, the "Canadian Multiculturalism Act" was passed. This recognises and upholds the ethnic and cultural diversity of the population as an enrichment to society as a whole. However, the Constitution Act of 1982 defused the centuries-old rivalry between Franco-Canadians and Anglo-Canadians. As a result, English and French were made the official languages of Canada.