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Land Area: 9,984,670 sq km
Population: 33 million (April 2007 est.)
Capital City: Ottawa
Religion: Predominantly Christian
Language: English, French (official)
Currency Canadian dollar: (CAD)
Exchange Rate: NZ$1.00 = C$0.77 (December 2007)
Last election: 24 January 2006
Next election: due January 2011
Head of State: Queen Elizabeth II represented by the Governor General, Ms Michaelle Jean, who took office on 27 September 2005.
Head of Government: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (since 6 February 2006).
Leader of the Government in the House of Commons: Robert Nicholson
Foreign Affairs: Maxime Bernier
National Defence: Peter MacKay
Labour: Jean-Pierre Blackburn
Agriculture and Agri-Food: Gerry Ritz
International Trade: David Emerson
Finance: James Flaherty
Environment: John Baird
Health: Tony Clement
Conservative Party: (124)
Liberal Party: (103)
Bloc Québecois: (51)
New Democratic Party: (29)
1 Independent seat
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GDP: (purchasing power parity) US$1.178 trillion (2006 est.)
GDP by sector: (2007 est.) Services 68.5%
Industry: 29.2%
Agriculture: 2.3%
GDP growth: 2.8% (2007 est.)
GDP per capita: US$35,600 (2006 est.)
Exports (f.o.b): US$356.5 billion (fob 2007 est.)
Imports (f.o.b): US$356.5 billion (fob 2007 est.)
Main exports: Machinery and equipment; telecommunications equipment; automotive products; metals, chemicals and plastics; natural gas and crude petroleum; forestry products; agriculture and fish products.
Current account balance: US$20.56 billion surplus (2006 est)
Unemployment Rate: 6.1% (June 2007)
(Source: CIA World Factbook, Canadian Economy online, Canada’s Annual Report on the State of Trade, Economist Intelligence Unit, Statistics Canada)
NZ Exports (FOB): NZ$553 million (year to Dec 2006)
Main Exports: Frozen beef; sheep meat; milk powder; agricultural/horticultural machinery; whey and products; butter; wine; food preparations; iron or non-alloy steel; chilled beef.
NZ Imports (CIF): NZ$691 million (year to Dec 2006)
Main Imports: Aircraft; fertilisers; chilled swine; timber; sulphur; telephone equipment; medicaments; turbo-jets; caviar; wheat.
(Source: Statistics NZ)
top of pageNew Zealand and Canada enjoy close and friendly relations. Our shared Commonwealth heritage, parliamentary, legal and defence traditions, as well as people to people contacts engender a similar world view and we tend to identify with each other’s interests and concerns.
New Zealand and Canada work together in a number of international forums particularly in the United Nations where New Zealand, Canada and Australia work together as the CANZ subgroup to deal with issues of relevance to all three countries. New Zealand and Canada also work together in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum, APEC, OECD, WTO, and the Cairns Group of agricultural exporters. Canada is also a Pacific Islands Forum Dialogue Partner.
Bilateral Trade
Canada was our 12th largest export destination and 14th largest trading partner in the year ended December 2006 with exports of NZ$553 million. Primary products dominate New Zealand exports to Canada, mainly beef, sheep meat, and milk powder but there is also a diverse range of other products including agricultural machinery, iron or non alloy steel and wine. Some New Zealand exports (dairy and beef) can face high Canadian tariffs and quota restrictions (dairy in particular faces strict quotas, with some of the quota tariffs exceeding 300%).
Imports from Canada were worth $NZ691 million in the year ending December 2006. Major items in 2006 included aircraft engines, polymers, fertilizers, sulphur, timber, telephone equipment, chilled swine and medicaments.
There are significant Canadian investments in New Zealand, particularly CanWest, McCains and communications company Stratos Global Corporation. New Zealand companies in Canada include Tait Electronics, Michael Hill Jewellers, Peace Software and Glidepath. Glidepath, Tait Electronics and Michael Hill Jewellers have their North American operations based out of Toronto. New Zealand figures estimate Canadian direct investment in New Zealand at NZ$1.04 billion (March 2006).
Canada, like New Zealand, believes innovation, including the successful commercialization of new products and services, is the key to a continuing successful economy. Canada has an Innovation Strategy and a host of supporting programmes comparable to New Zealand’s Growth and Innovation Framework.
There is a Canada New Zealand Business Association based in Auckland (www.canada-nz.org.nz). An informal grouping of Australian and New Zealand business interests exists in Vancouver; and there is a small grouping of New Zealand business people in Toronto.
In the year to March 2007, 46,680 Canadian tourists visited New Zealand, making Canada the eighth highest source of tourists. A successful bilateral working holiday scheme has been in existence since 1994, currently offering on a reciprocal basis 2,000 visas per annum. The scheme enables citizens of both countries aged between 18 and 30, holidaying for up to twelve months, to work.
The 1987 Agreement on Film and Video Relations between the two countries has been successful, and film and television co-operation has been growing, with particular interest in indigenous film linkages and co-productions. There is a recent but ongoing pattern of producers’ missions between Canada, New Zealand and Australia. “Whale Rider” won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival in 2002, and nine out of the ten top grossing centres in North America for “Lord of the Rings” were in Canada.
There is a Canada/New Zealand Air Transport Agreement, which was signed in 1985. In November 2007 Air New Zealand began a direct service between Auckland and Vancouver, this service operates three times a week. . Both Air New Zealand and Air Canada are members of the Star Alliance and both airlines currently operate via Hawaii and have code sharing arrangements on this route.
New Zealand and Canada enjoy a close and cordial defence relationship. Historically, our two armed forces have worked alongside each other in a number of international security operations. Recent strands to the defence relationship include co-operation in Timor Leste, Bosnia and Afghanistan, exercises and staff exchanges.
These positive and longstanding defence links with Canada have been enhanced by New Zealand’s purchase of 105 Light Armoured vehicles (LAV IIIs) from Canada.
There is a regular exchange of teachers with New Zealand organised through provincial authorities (Ontario and British Columbia). Wide ranges of tertiary institutions have relations with counterparts. These include formal university to-university agreements involving both staff and in some case the exchange of students for part of their tertiary courses. Both countries take a similar approach to marketing education overseas. There has been significant emigration from one country to the other – often through marriage. The numbers are not clearly known, as immigrants tend to blend into the host society.
top of pageOriginally constituted under the British North America Act of 1867, Canada was composed as a confederation of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada (now Ontario and Quebec), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The Act vested executive authority in the Sovereign, exercised by the Governor-General and Privy Council, with legislative power vested in the elected House of Commons and the appointed Senate. In 1982 an amended constitution replaced the British North America Act, at the same time as the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was introduced.
The status of Quebec (known as New France from 1534 to 1763) has long played an important part in the politics and history of Canada. In 1774, the Quebec Act guaranteed to the Quebec people security in their religion and language, their customs and tenures, under their own civil laws. Quebec maintains its distinct character, and calls for separation from Canada came to the fore with Quebec’s objection to the 1982 Constitution, a document with which it has still not formally associated itself. A referendum in Quebec in 1995 rejected the possibility of a more independent Quebec by a narrow margin (49.6 percent in favour). National unity has subsequently been a priority for the Federal Government.
Indigenous claims have resulted in important developments in Canada’s recent history. As a result of a claim in the Northwest Territories, the new territory of Nunavut (Canada’s largest) came into existence officially in 1993, with the first Legislative Assembly elections held in 1999. In British Columbia, the Nisga’a Treaty was signed in 1998, granting the people of the Nass Valley a form of self-government.
Canada is a member of the United Nations, the G8 (which it hosted in 2002), the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the Organisation for Economic Co operation and Development (OECD), the Conference on Security and Co operation in Europe (CSCE), the Commonwealth, La Francophonie, the Organisation of American States (OAS), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum. It is a substantial aid donor and contributes to international peacekeeping operations.
top of pageCanada is the world’s twelfth largest economy, with a well developed infrastructure and transport network to service its farming, forestry, minerals, industrial and manufacturing sectors. In the year to January 2007, the Canadian economy grew 2.8%, slightly less than the projected 3.3% for 2006.
The Canadian economy is heavily dependant on trade. Canada is the world’s fifth largest exporter and importer – trade is equivalent to more than 70% of GDP. Exports account for almost 40% of the economy. External economic relations are dominated by the importance of the US market, which absorbs more than 80% of Canada’s exports. The major contribution to export led growth is from manufacturing rather than from resource based industry. Canada remains a major agricultural exporter, particularly grains and meat (both pork and beef), although its beef trade was affected by the discovery of BSE in May 2003 and January 2005. Canada’s supply managed poultry and dairy industries are heavily regulated and protected.
Overall the Canadian economy continues to impress. While economic growth for 2006 at 2.7% GDP represented a slight softening in the Canadian economy, robust performance in recent months (at a 3.7% annualised pace), suggests another solid year for Canada ahead, with continued growth predicted through 2008.
The Political system Canada is a confederation with a parliamentary democracy.
Federal government Minority Government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Conservative Party).
Federal legislature The bicameral Parliament (Parlement) consisting of a 308 member House of Commons (Chambre des Communes) elected on the basis of universal adult suffrage and a 105 appointed member Senate (Senat) members appointed by the Governor General with the advice of the PM.
The Political system Canada is a confederation with a parliamentary democracy. The Federal Minority Government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Conservative Party). Federal legislature The bicameral Parliament (Parlement) consisting of a 308 member House of Commons (Chambre des Communes) elected on the basis of universal adult suffrage and a 105 appointed member Senate (Senat) members appointed by the Governor General with the advice of the PM.
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Canadian Minister of National Defence Hon Gordon O’Connor made an official visit to New Zealand in September 2006. The Speaker of Canada’s House of Commons, the Honourable Peter Milliken MP, led a multi-party parliamentary delegation to New Zealand in July/August 2005. The Canadian Minister of National Revenue, John McCallum visited New Zealand in mid-January 2005. Minister of State (Research, Science and Technology), Joseph Fontana, visited in March 2004 for the APEC Science Ministers’ Meeting. Minister of State for Asia Pacific, David Kilgour, visited for the Pacific Islands Forum Post Forum Dialogue in August 2003 and made an official visit to New Zealand in 2002.
In early November 2007 the Minister of Trade, Hon Phil Goff, led a trade mission to Canada onboard the inaugural AirNZ Auckland-Vancouver flight. In September 2007 the Hon Peter Dunne, Minister of Revenue, visited Ottawa and met with three Canadian Ministers. Both the Hon Chris Carter, Minister for Housing and Ethnic Affairs, and the Hon Parekura Horomia, Minister of Maori Affairs, visited Canada in April 2007. The Hon David Benson Pope, Minister for Social Development, visited Toronto and Vancouver in June 2006. The Hon Phil Goff, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade made an official visit to Canada in June 2005. While other high level visits to Canada in 2005 include that of the Speaker, Hon Margaret Wilson, who led a parliamentary delegation to Ottawa and Toronto in April 2005 and Hon Ruth Dyson who visited Ottawa in late February 2005. Rt Hon Jonathan Hunt visited Montebello, Quebec, for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in January 2004. Minister for Trade Negotiations, Hon Jim Sutton made an official visit to Ottawa in January 2003. In 2002, Minister of Immigration and of Commerce, Hon Lianne Dalziel visited Canada in September; Minister for Science Research and Technology, Hon Pete Hodgson visited in June; and Minister of Social Services and Employment, Hon Steve Maharey in May.
The Safetravel website provides a travel advisory for travellers to Canada [external link].
