Who discovered and explored the land we know as Canada? Was it the first inhabitants who entered North America over ten thousand years ago? Was it the Norse who established the first European settlement? Or was it John Cabot or Jacques Cartier who first claimed its shores for their respective nations? The answer is that the discovery and exploration of Canada was accomplished by many people and many nations, over thousands of years. Europeans rarely ventured anywhere in North America that First Nations and Inuit had not already been. Native people often acted as guides, informants, map-drawers, and even saviours to visitors who sought their help. It would be centuries before anyone understood the vastness of the continent, and Native peoples were crucial participants in the exploration of it. Since they left few records of their own, we know about them mostly from accounts written by others. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/explorers/index-e.html ERIKSSON, LEIF Leif Ericsson (also spelled Eriksson) the Lucky (980?-1020?) was a Viking (Norse) explorer who was possibly the first European to sail to North America. Leif sailed north from the southern tip of Greenland, then went south along the coast of Baffin Island down to Labrador, and then landed in what is now called Newfoundland (which he called Vinland). Ericsson sailed around the year 1000.

if you really think about it the portuguese descovered canada and america when they found brazil.because brazil is attached to canada and america.

i'm pretty sure i read the first non-native visitors to canada were the vikings

No one "discovered" Canada. It was here all along. Just like Columbus didn't "discover" America. Invaders, conquerors simply named it so they wouldn't have to keep calling it that big rock to the west of us, you know that one with beautiful brown skinned "savages" living in peace and harmony!

Maybe the Asians when they came across the Bering Sea temporary land bridge in prehistoric times?

The country of Canada as we know it was discovered by Jacques Cartier, French explorer in 1534. The city of Québec was further founded by Samuel de Champlain in 1608.