Canada

The Canadian nation was created by the 1867 confederation of provinces. Located in northern North America, Canada is a bicameral parliamentary democracy with its capital at Ottawa. English is the official language, and the legal system is based on British common law except in Quebec where a civil law system based on French law prevails. The Queen of Great Britain is the Chief of State represented by a Governor General and the Head of the Government is the Prime Minister. It is a member of the Commonwealth, the OECD, the UN, and the IMO.

An affluent, high-tech industrial society, Canada boasts an impressive economy with significant recent growth in manufacturing and mining. Its chief exports are newsprint, wood pulp, timber, crude petroleum and machinery, and its major trading partners are the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

The monetary unit is the Canadian dollar.

Canada's Register of Ships is well established and governed by the Canada Shipping Act.