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About Canada

     Canada (IPA: /ˈkænədə/) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest.

    The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada became a federal dominion. A gradual process of independence from the United Kingdom moved Canada towards statehood and culminated in the Canada Act 1982, severing the last vestiges of dependence on the British parliament.

     A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon trade—particularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship.

About Dryden

     Dryden (2006 population 8,195) is the second largest city in the Kenora District of Northwestern Ontario, Canada located on Wabigoon Lake. It is currently the smallest community in the province of Ontario designated as a city.

    Dryden is one of only two cities in Ontario located in the Central Standard Time Zone. The other is Kenora.

    The Dryden area was part of the Ojibwe nation, which covered a large area from Lake Huron in the east to Lake of the Woods and beyond, disputed by Cree from the north, and Sioux from the south. The Ojibwe was a nomadic culture, groups from family to village size moving over the land with the seasons and the availability of game or the necessities of life, so that permanent or lasting settlements were not made.

     It is believed that the Bending Lake/Turtle River area was a meeting place for aboriginal peoples ranging from as far away as the southern US and much of central Canada, for trade and cultural exchange, and there is still evidence of ancient occupancy there in the form of pictographs, artifacts, burial grounds, and one might consider this our prehistoric centre. Bending Lake is in the triangle between Dryden, Ignace, and Atikokan.

     The settlement was founded as an agricultural community by John Dryden, then Ontario's Minister of Agriculture in 1895. While his train was stopped at what was then known as Barclay Tank to re-water, he noticed clover growing at the side of the tracks and decided to found an experimental farm the following year. The success of the farm brought settlers from the Uxbridge area of southern Ontario as well as the Bruce Peninsula and the community came to be known as New Prospect. It became a town in 1910 and a city in 1998 after merging with the neighbouring township of Barclay. Dryden's eastern boundary is located near Aaron Provincial Park on Thunder Lake.

     Pulp and Paper came to the town in 1910 which today is its main industry though agriculture, tourism and some mining are also important segments of the local economy.

    The town came onto the national consciousness in the early 1970's when natives at the community of Grassy Narrows became sick with Minamata disease (mercury poisoning). Investigation determined that a chloralkali plant located at the Dryden mill was the source of the mercury in the Wabigoon and English river systems.

     Dryden is known by people passing by as the home of "Max the Moose", Dryden's 5.6m high mascot on the Trans-Canada Highway.

     The city holds an annual Moosefest festival, during which a fishing tournament, The Walleye Masters, is held.