Canada and Germany enjoy close relations, underpinned by active
international cooperation, healthy trade and investment relations, and
long-standing people-to-people ties. Roughly 3.2 million residents, or
9.8 per cent of Canada's population, indicate “German” as their
ethnicity.
With bilateral merchandise trade totalling
$19.1 billion in 2014, Germany was Canada’s thirteenth-largest
merchandise export market, and ranked fourth among Canada’s suppliers of
merchandise imports.
Germany is an important ally and
multilateral player within the G-7, the G-20, the United Nations, the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO), the International Atomic Energy Agency, the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the World
Trade Organization.
Chancellor Merkel attended the June 2010 G-8
and G-20 summits in Muskoka and Toronto. She also took part in a
bilateral visit to Ottawa in August 2012.
Prime Minister Harper attended the Canada-EU
Summit in Berlin and the G-8 Summit in Heiligendamm in June 2007. He
participated in a bio-diversity conference in Bonn in 2008 and the NATO
Strasbourg-Kehl Summit held in France and Germany in 2009. He also
visited Berlin in May 2010 and Munich and Berlin in March 2014.
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“Canada and Germany enjoy a very strong and stable friendship,
underpinned by common interests, shared values and robust commercial
ties. Chancellor Merkel and I had highly productive discussions today,
focused on the international community’s response to the crisis in
Ukraine, the global fight against terrorism, and preparations underway
for the upcoming G-7 Summit. We also discussed bilateral relations,
including tapping into the enormous potential of the Canada-EU Trade
Agreement. I look forward to continuing to work alongside Chancellor
Merkel to tackle these and other pressing issues.” – Prime Minister
Stephen Harper
It seems that Waterloo
in Ontario was at the heart of the German immigration to Canada. I have
found an old book about the history of Waterloo which describes their
coming to Canada and the role played by the Menonites along with many
biographical sketches.
