In French, why is the name of the country “The Canada” in certain constructions, instead of just Canada? For instance, on the banknotes you have “Banque du Canada”, which would be “Bank Of The Canada”, literally translated. And I’m fairly sure one says “Allons au Canada” (“Let’s go to The Canada”) instead of “Allons a Canada”. Since Canada has two official languages, I’m curious as to why the name is constructed differently.
Inspired by the concurrent thread here.
Simply put, it’s not supposed to be translated literally in those particular examples. It’s just an artifact of construction. The name of Canada in French is, in fact, “Canada.” A much more fascinating linguistic mystery is why Quebec’s provincial motto is “I Remember Myself,” or why French people never thought to come up with words for “seventy,” “eighty,” or “ninety.”
Lots of things in old languages don’t make a lot of sense. English has about a zillion of these.
I don’t think that one is so mysterious. Many languages use reflexive constructions for nontransitive verbs. For instance, German has non-reflexive erinnern (to remind (someone of something), and reflexive sich erinnern, meaning to remember (i.e., to remind oneself).
[nagging voice]The french did come up with words for “seventy”, “eighty” and “ninety” : they are soixante-dix, quatre-vingt and quatre-vingt-dix respectively. The germans number things differently too, saying " one and thirty" " two and thirty" etc. I suspect it isn’t uncommon in other languages either. [/nagging voice]
They do exist in French : septante (70), octante (80) and nonante (90). They are an archaic form that is only found nowadays (I think) in Swiss French.
I think it’s just a result of the fact that French makes far more use of the definite article than English does. In English we can say I like cats, but in French the definite article is required: j’aime les chats. Similarly, when talking about countries, in English we can say Canada is a beautiful country, whereas in French it would have to be: le Canada est un beau pays.
It’s because Canada is officially bilingual, so neither language predominates. In French, the name of a country is preceded by a definite article in the situations that you mention, therefore we use a definite article. If we followed your suggestion, we would be using English grammatical rules in French, thereby giving priority to English.
To flip it around, we similarly don’t say: “Bank of the Canada” in English on the banknotes, because that would be using the French grammatical rules in English, giving priority to French.
Bear in mind that the construction in French of “à [place name]” means that you’re referring to a city or town or similar place; the construction “à la [place name]” or “au [place name]” means that you’re referring to a country or similar large geographical division, such as a state or province. For example, the sentence: “Je vais aller au Québec” means “I’m going to the Province of Quebec.” The sentence “Je vais aller à Québec” means “I’m going to the City of Quebec.”
So the statement “Je vais aller à Canada” would mean “I’m going to a town or city named Canada”, which would be grammatically incorrect if you’re actually referring to the nation of Canada.
Right. This is strictly a matter of French grammar - it’s not the same as the way certain countries have “the” in them - the Ukraine and the Sudan being the only ones that come to mind in English (and both countries prefer that the article be omitted.)
[Hijack]Except, it seems, for Israel – my French teachers in H.S. told me the we were “the exception to the rule.” None knew why one must say “J’aime la France” and “J’aime les Etats-Unis”, but “J’aime Israel” (without the definite article)
Anyone know the reason for this exception?
[/Hijack]
Dani
I don’t think we covered this in my French classes. Perhaps it’s because Israel was originally a personal name (given by God to Jacob), so it doesn’t need a definite article.
As Spectre of Pithecanthropus kind of mentioned, Je me souviens means “I remember”, not “I remember myself.” The significance:
From here.
Huitante may also be used in place of quatre-vingts, and those forms are also used in Belgian French.
Je me souviens is an example of a common french construct known as a reflexive verb. Not always do they refer to the person in question, but are simply the nature of the verb. Reflexive verbs are commonly introduced in teaching as referring to doing something to oneself, which is probably the source of your misconception (e.g. Je me lave is “I wash myself”). Often verbs have reflexive and non-reflexive forms, leading to slightly (or completely) different meanings.
They are strange creatures that I cannot claim to fully understand yet.
…including use of base-20 which is comparable to French: "Four Score and seven years ago…"
The Philippines
The Congo (both of 'em)
The United Kingdom
The United States 
The Vatican
Stop making me look foolish!
(Actually, I deliberately left out the US and the UK because grammatically, it’s sorta necessary. Whereas there’s no reason “The Congo” or “The Philippines” need it grammatically. Those are good examples.)
It’s pretty common (but not invariable) with nations/states made up of a group of islands:
The Marshall Islands
The Seychelles
The Solomon Islands
The Bahamas
The Virgin Islands
and then conversely:
Hawaii
Tuvalu
Fiji
Vanuatu
Kiribati
New Zealand
The Gambia. 
But with NZ, you have this for the two main islands: The North Island and the South Island, although North and South Island is what they’re called, not their description.
The Ukraine and The Sudan are larger regions; Ukraine and Sudan are countries. So I think the reason the countries prefer that the article be dropped is that it’s confusing.