European Canadians

European Canadians (les Canadiens Européens), also known as Euro-Canadians are Canadians with ancestry from Europe. They form the largest panethnic group within Canada.

The French were the first Europeans to establish a continuous presence in what is now Canada. Hélène Desportes is considered the first white child born in New France. She was born circa 1620, to Pierre Desportes (born Lisieux, Normandie, France) and Françoise Langlois.

In the 2016 census, the largest European ancestry groups were British Isles origins (11,211,850 including 6,320,085 English), French (4,680,820), Scottish (4,799,005), Irish (4,627,000), German (3,322,405), Italian (1,587,965). However, the country's largest self-reported ethnic origin is "Canadian" (accounting for 11,135,965 of the population). Since 1996, "Canadian" as an ethnic group has been added to census questionnaires for possible ancestry, which likely caused English Canadians, British Canadians and French Canadians to become severely underrepresented. The grouping is similar to that of "American" in neighbouring United States and is most commonly espoused by European Canadians whose ancestors have been some of the earliest European settlers of what is now Canada, to the point where they no longer feel a connection to their countries of origin. In the 2011 National Household Survey Profile, 10,563,805 people (32.1%) chose "Canadian" as their ethnic group, making it the single largest group in the country.

Number of European Canadians
European Canadians' proportion of the total Canadian population has been decreasing gradually since the mid-twentieth century, and dropped from 61.4% (20,157,965) in the 2011 Census to just 53.0% (19,683,320) in the 2016 Census.

Today
Currently, European Canadians, despite their significant decrease in recent years, are still the largest ethnic group in Canada. Elements of Aboriginal, French, British and more recent immigrant customs, languages and religions have combined to form the culture of Canada and thus a Canadian identity. Canada has also been strongly influenced by its linguistic, geographic and economic neighbour, the United States.

The top ten cities as per population of European Canadians (not members of a visible minority and no Aboriginal status) are as follows (2016 Census): The top ten such Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) are as follows:
 * 1) Toronto 1,282,750
 * 2) Montreal 1,082,615
 * 3) Calgary 744,625
 * 4) Ottawa 652,650
 * 5) Edmonton 524,265
 * 6) Quebec City 475,720
 * 7) Hamilton 415,740
 * 8) Winnipeg 412,645
 * 9) Halifax 336,375
 * 10) Mississauga 302,375
 * 1) Montreal 3,070,210
 * 2) Toronto 2,804,630
 * 3) Vancouver 1,179,100
 * 4) Ottawa - Gatineau 981,630
 * 5) Calgary 869,555
 * 6) Edmonton 857,085
 * 7) Quebec City 729,310
 * 8) Hamilton 590,310
 * 9) Winnipeg 473,360
 * 10) Kitchener - Cambridge - Waterloo 407,460

Flag

 * Canadian flag - In 1964, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson formed a committee to resolve the issue, sparking a serious debate about a flag change to replace the Union Flag. Out of three choices, the maple leaf design by George Stanley, based on the flag of the Royal Military College of Canada, was selected. The flag made its first official appearance on February 15, 1965.

Music
Another area of cultural influence are Canadian Patriotic songs:
 * Canadian National Anthem - Two Canadians of French descent Adolphe-Basile Routhier wrote the lyrics and Calixa Lavallée composed the music in 1880. The English lyrics which is the official and most popular version were written in 1908 by Scottish-Canadian Robert Stanley Weir.
 * The Maple Leaf Forever - is an older but unofficial national anthem written by Scotsman Alexander Muir in 1867. It was in consideration for official national anthem, however, no French version was ever written, so, it was never popular with Francophones.

Sport

 * Ice Hockey - British soldiers and immigrants to Canada and the United States brought their stick-and-ball games with them and played them on the ice and snow of winter. Ice hockey was first played in Canada during the early nineteenth century, based on similar sports such as field hockey that were played in Europe. The sport was originally played with a stick and ball, but in 1860 a group of English veterans from the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment played a game in Kingston, Ontario, utilising a puck for what is believed to be the first time. This match, played on the frozen harbour by the city, is sometimes considered to be the birth of modern ice hockey.