Canada has been around for a lot longer than you and me! In the beginning of the 1500s, French explorer Jacques Cartier called it “kanata,” meaning “village” in Odawa.
But even before Europeans came, First Nations groups populated Canada for thousands of years! Then, as time moved on, Vikings, Irish, Portuguese, French and English explorers came. Each of these different groups helped shape the country we call home to what it is today!