Misplaced Pages

#339660

104-635: After the Society was founded in 1929, the magazine was established the next year in May 1930 under the name Canadian Geographical Journal . The Society's objective was to produce a popular magazine primarily focusing on Canadian geography . The first editor was Charles Camsell , since 1915 a fellow of the British Royal Geographical Society , as well as a geologist who had been responsible for mapping large parts of Northern Ontario , Manitoba and

208-602: A land border with the contiguous United States to the south and the U.S. state of Alaska to the northwest. Canada stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west; to the north lies the Arctic Ocean . Greenland is to the northeast with a shared border on Hans Island . To the southeast Canada shares a maritime boundary with France's overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon ,

312-770: A base to the navy of an adversary), as well as to support amphibious operations throughout the region (such as the Chesapeake campaign during the American War of 1812 ). Bermuda was consequently the most important British naval and military base in the Americas. Canadian confederation resulted in the Canadian Militia becoming responsible for the defence of the Maritimes, the abolition of the British Army's commander-in-chief there, and

416-441: A clean, dependable source of energy. Air pollution and resulting acid rain severely affects lakes and damages forests. Metal smelting, coal-burning utilities, and vehicle emissions impact agricultural and forest productivity. Ocean waters are also becoming contaminated by agricultural, industrial, mining, and forestry activities. Global climate change and the warming of the polar region will likely cause significant changes to

520-514: A continental shelf of 370 km (200 nmi) or to the edge of the continental margin. Five per cent of Canada's land area is arable, none of which is for permanent crops. Three per cent of Canada's land area is covered by permanent pastures. Canada has 7,200 square kilometres (2,800 sq mi) of irrigated land (1993 estimate). Agricultural regions in Canada include the Canadian Prairies,

624-665: A great deal of power relative to the federal government, with jurisdiction over many public goods such as health care, education, welfare, and intra-provincial transportation. They receive " transfer payments " from the federal government to pay for these, as well as exacting their own taxes. In practice, however, the federal government can use these transfer payments to influence these provincial areas. For instance, in order to receive healthcare funding under Medicare , provinces must agree to meet certain federal mandates, such as universal access to required medical treatment. Provincial and territorial legislatures have no second chamber like

728-515: A lieutenant-general termed a general officer commanding and the Bermuda garrison becoming a command in its own right. Bermuda was consequently left out of the confederation of Canada, though it retained naval links with Halifax and the state church (or established church ), the Church of England , continued to place Bermuda under the bishop of Newfoundland until 1919 (Bermuda also remained linked to

832-566: A mix of conifers that provide valuable timber resources in areas such as the Central Canadian Shield forests ecoregion that covers much of Northern Ontario . The Canadian Shield is known for its vast mineral reserves such as emeralds , diamonds and copper , and is there also called the "mineral house". The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada)

936-631: A prolonged economic crisis , and the legislature turned over political control to the Newfoundland Commission of Government in 1933. Following Canada's participation in the Second World War , in a 1948 referendum , a narrow majority of Newfoundland citizens voted to join the Confederation, and on March 31, 1949, Newfoundland became Canada's tenth province. The province was officially renamed Newfoundland and Labrador in 2001. Bermuda ,

1040-750: A total area of 1,400,000 km (540,000 sq mi). The Coast Mountains in British Columbia run from the lower Fraser River and the Fraser Canyon northwestward, separating the Interior Plateau from the Pacific Ocean. Its southeastern end is separated from the North Cascades by the Fraser Lowland , where nearly a third of Western Canada 's population reside. The coastal flank of

1144-615: Is Boundary Peak 187 (60°18′22.929″N 141°00′7.128″W) at the southern end of the Yukon – Alaska border, which roughly follows 141°W but leans very slightly east as it goes North 60°18′04″N 141°00′36″W  /  60.301°N 141.010°W  / 60.301; -141.010  ( Boundary Peak 187 ) . The easternmost point is Cape Spear , Newfoundland (47°31′N 52°37′W) 47°31′23″N 52°37′08″W  /  47.523°N 52.619°W  / 47.523; -52.619  ( Cape Spear, Newfoundland ) . The easternmost point of

SECTION 10

#1733092540340

1248-625: Is a region in Western Canada . It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie provinces, namely Alberta , Saskatchewan , and Manitoba . These provinces are partially covered by grasslands , plains , and lowlands , mostly in the southern regions. The northernmost reaches of the Canadian Prairies are less dense in population, marked by forests and more variable topography . If

1352-602: Is between the southwest tip of Kluane National Park and Reserve (next to Mount Saint Elias ) and Cripple Cove, Newfoundland (near Cape Race ) at a distance of 3,005.60 nautical miles (5,566.37 km; 3,458.78 mi). Climate varies widely from region to region. Winters can be harsh in many parts of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces, which experience a continental climate , where daily average temperatures are near −15  °C (5  °F ), but can drop below −40 °C (−40 °F) with severe wind chills . In non-coastal regions, snow can cover

1456-745: Is called the National Assembly . Ontario has a legislative assembly but its members are called members of the Provincial Parliament or MPPs. The legislative assemblies use a procedure similar to that of the House of Commons of Canada . The head of government of each province, called the premier , is generally the head of the party with the most seats. This is also the case in Yukon, but the Northwest Territories and Nunavut have no political parties at

1560-473: Is covered by forest, totaling around 2.4 million km (0.93 million sq mi). The boreal forest of Canada is considered to be the largest intact forest on Earth, with around 300,000 square kilometres (120,000 sq mi) undisturbed by roads, cities or industry. The Canadian Arctic tundra is the second-largest vegetation region in the country consisting of dwarf shrubs , sedges and grasses , mosses and lichens . Approximately 12.1 percent of

1664-708: Is covered by forests (approximately 8 percent of the world's forested land), made up mostly of spruce , poplar and pine . Canada has over 2,000,000 lakes—563 greater than 100 km (39 sq mi)—which is more than any other country, containing much of the world's fresh water . There are also freshwater glaciers in the Canadian Rockies , the Coast Mountains and the Arctic Cordillera . A recent global remote sensing analysis also suggested that there were 6,477 km of tidal flats in Canada, making it

1768-478: Is covered by ice and permafrost ; however, the future of the permafrost is uncertain because the Arctic has been warming at three times the global average as a result of climate change in Canada . Canada's annual average temperature over land has warmed by 1.7 °C (3.1 °F), with changes ranging from 1.1 to 2.3 °C (2.0 to 4.1 °F) in various regions, since 1948. The rate of warming has been higher across

1872-519: Is home to the world's northernmost settlement, Canadian Forces Station Alert , on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island —latitude 82.5°N—which lies 817 kilometres (508 mi) from the North Pole. Much of the Canadian Arctic is covered by ice and permafrost . Canada has the longest coastline in the world, with a total length of 243,042 kilometres (151,019 mi); additionally, its border with

1976-616: Is less frequent than with other volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean, Canada is commonly thought to occupy a gap in the Ring of Fire between the volcanoes of the western United States to the south and the Aleutian volcanoes of Alaska to the north. Even so, the mountainous landscapes of the Canadian provinces of Alberta , British Columbia , Yukon , and the Northwest Territories include more than 100 volcanoes that have been active during

2080-602: The Alberta Party and Saskatchewan Party . The provincial political climate of Quebec is different: the main split is between sovereignty , represented by the Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire , and federalism , represented primarily by the Quebec Liberal Party . The Coalition Avenir Québec , meanwhile, takes an abstentionist position on the question and does not support or oppose sovereignty. Currently,

2184-560: The Canadian Senate . Originally, most provinces had such bodies, known as legislative councils , with members titled councillors. These upper houses were abolished one by one, Quebec's being the last in 1968. In most provinces, the single house of the legislature is known as the Legislative Assembly; the exceptions are Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, where the chamber is called the House of Assembly , and Quebec where it

SECTION 20

#1733092540340

2288-499: The Colony of British Columbia . NWT included the northern two-thirds of Ontario and Quebec. After the province of Manitoba was established in 1870, in a small area in the south of today's province, almost all of present-day Manitoba was still contained in the NWT. (Manitoba expanded to its present size in 1912.) The British claims to the Arctic islands were transferred to Canada in 1880, adding to

2392-607: The Constitution Act are divided between the Government of Canada (the federal government) and the provincial governments to exercise exclusively. A change to the division of powers between the federal government and the provinces requires a constitutional amendment , whereas a similar change affecting the territories can be performed unilaterally by the Parliament of Canada or government. In modern Canadian constitutional theory ,

2496-808: The Gaspé Peninsula and the Atlantic Provinces , creating rolling hills indented by river valleys. It also runs through parts of southern Quebec . The Appalachian Mountains (more specifically the Chic-Choc , Notre Dame , and Long Range Mountains ) are an old and eroded range of mountains, approximately 380 million years in age. Notable mountains in the Appalachians include Mount Jacques-Cartier (Quebec, 1,268 m or 4,160 ft), Mount Carleton ( New Brunswick , 817 m or 2,680 ft), The Cabox ( Newfoundland , 814 m or 2,671 ft). Parts of

2600-659: The Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, along the south coast of Georgian Bay and in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. Cattle and sheep are raised in the valleys and plateaus of British Columbia. Cattle, sheep and hogs are raised on the prairies, cattle and hogs in Western Ontario, sheep and hogs in Quebec, and sheep in the Maritimes. There are significant dairy regions in central Nova Scotia, southern New Brunswick,

2704-544: The Great Lakes into the Gulf of St. Lawrence ending in the Atlantic Ocean . The Mackenzie, including its tributaries is over 4,200 kilometres (2,600 mi) in length and lies within the second largest drainage basin of North America , while the St. Lawrence 3,058 kilometres (1,900 mi) in length, drains the world's largest system of freshwater lakes . The Atlantic watershed drains

2808-722: The Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland , eastern mainland Northwest Territories , most of Nunavut 's mainland and, of its Arctic Archipelago , Baffin Island and significant bands through Somerset, Southampton, Devon and Ellesmere islands are located on a vast rock base known as the Canadian Shield . The Shield mostly consists of eroded hilly terrain and contains many lakes and important rivers used for hydroelectric production, particularly in northern Quebec and Ontario. The Shield also encloses an area of wetlands around

2912-774: The Haida Gwaii in the north on the British Columbia Coast . It contains two main mountain ranges, the Vancouver Island Ranges on Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Mountains on Haida Gwaii. The Hudson Bay Lowlands is a vast wetland located between the Canadian Shield and southern shores of Hudson Bay and James Bay . Most of the area lies within the province of Ontario , with smaller portions reaching into Manitoba and Quebec . Many wide and slow-moving rivers flow through this area toward

3016-557: The Hudson Bay . Some particular regions of the Shield are referred to as mountain ranges , including the Torngat and Laurentian Mountains . The Shield cannot support intensive agriculture, although there is subsistence agriculture and small dairy farms in many of the river valleys and around the abundant lakes, particularly in the southern regions. Boreal forest covers much of the shield, with

3120-627: The Hudson's Bay Company . In 1870, the company relinquished its claims for £300,000 (CND$ 1.5 million), assigning the vast territory to the government of Canada. Subsequently, the area was re-organized into the province of Manitoba and the North-West Territories. The North-West Territories encompassed all of current northern and western Canada, except for the British holdings in the Arctic islands and

3224-772: The Keewatin Region . It occupied the area that is now the Kenora District of Ontario, northern Manitoba, and mainland Nunavut. The government of Keewatin was based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The territory did not have any representation in federal parliament. The vast majority of Canada's population is concentrated in areas close to the Canada–US border . Its four largest provinces by area ( Quebec , Ontario , British Columbia and Alberta ) are also (with Quebec and Ontario switched in order) its most populous; together they account for 86% of

Canadian Geographic - Misplaced Pages Continue

3328-620: The Kula and Farallon Plates during the Laramide orogeny about 100 million years ago. The widespread granite forming the Coast Mountains formed when magma intruded and cooled at depth beneath volcanoes of the Coast Range Arc whereas the metamorphic formed when intruding magma heated the surrounding rock to produce schist . The Insular Mountains extend from Vancouver Island in the south to

3432-756: The Lower Mainland and various regions within the Interior of British Columbia , the St. Lawrence Basin and the Canadian Maritimes . Main crops in Canada include flax , oats , wheat, maize, barley , sugar beets and rye in the prairies; flax and maize in Western Ontario ; Oats and potatoes in the Maritimes. Fruit and vegetables are grown primarily in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, Southwestern Ontario ,

3536-629: The Ottawa River and the St. Lawrence River. The East Lowland includes Anticosti Island , Îles de Mingan , and extends to the Strait of Belle Isle. The St. Lawrence Lowlands is one of the most densely populated, prosperous and productive regions in Canada . Major urban areas include Toronto , Montreal , Ottawa-Gatineau and Quebec City . The northeastern part of Alberta , northern parts of Saskatchewan , Manitoba , Ontario and Quebec, all of Labrador and

3640-744: The Pacific Ranges between the Fraser River and Bella Coola , the Kitimat Ranges from there northwards to the Nass River , and the Boundary Ranges from there to the mountain terminus in Yukon at Champagne Pass and Chilkat Pass northwest of Haines, Alaska . The Saint Elias Mountains lie to their west and northwest, while the Yukon Ranges and Yukon Basin lie to their north. On the inland side of

3744-473: The Precambrian eon, at least 3.11 billion years ago, when its part of the North American continent began to form, volcanism continues to occur in Western and Northern Canada in modern times, where it forms part of an encircling chain of volcanoes and frequent earthquakes around the Pacific Ocean called the Pacific Ring of Fire . Because volcanoes in Western and Northern Canada are in relatively remote and sparsely populated areas and their activity

3848-408: The River St. Lawrence and Coast of America and North America and West Indies Station , the North America and Newfoundland Station , the North America and West Indies Station , and finally the America and West Indies Station ) main bases, dockyards, and Admiralty Houses. The squadron of the station was based at Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax , during the summers and Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda , in

3952-422: The St. Lawrence River to the Strait of Belle Isle and the Atlantic Ocean . The lowlands comprise three sub-regions that were created by intrusions from adjacent physiographic regions — the West Lowland, Central Lowland and East Lowland. The West Lowland includes the Niagara Escarpment , extending from the Niagara River to the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island . The Central Lowland stretches between

4056-416: The Western Cordillera , Hudson Bay Lowlands and the Arctic Archipelago . Canada is also divided into fifteen terrestrial and five marine ecozones , encompassing over 80,000 classified species of life. Since the end of the last glacial period , Canada has consisted of eight distinct forest regions , including extensive boreal forest on the Canadian Shield ; 42 percent of the land acreage of Canada

4160-417: The Yukon . Originally published out of Montreal , Quebec , the magazine is now headquartered in Ottawa , Ontario . The magazine adopted its current title in 1978. Typically the magazine contains articles on physical, historical, political and environmental geography, illustrated with photographs, illustrations and maps. Controversial subjects such as acid rain , clear-cut logging , vanishing wetlands ,

4264-501: The pollution of the Great Lakes and energy sources of Canadians have also been covered in print and online. The magazine's website contains substantial extracts from current articles and supplementary information not published in the print edition, and a digital edition is also produced for each issue. In addition to the Canadian Geographic title, the RCGS also publishes Géographica , its French companion, and Canadian Geographic Travel , which concentrates on travel topics. In 2002,

Canadian Geographic - Misplaced Pages Continue

4368-428: The tree line , it encompasses geological regions of varying types: the Arctic Cordillera (with the British Empire Range and the United States Range on Ellesmere Island ) contains the northernmost mountain system in the world. The Arctic Lowlands and Hudson Bay lowlands comprise a substantial part of the geographic region often designated as the Canadian Shield (in contrast to the sole geologic area). The ground in

4472-470: The tundra , boreal forest , grassland , and temperate deciduous forest . British Columbia contains several smaller biomes, including; mountain forest which extends to Alberta , and a small temperate rainforest along the Pacific coast , the semi arid desert located in the Okanagan and alpine tundra in the higher mountainous regions. Over half of Canada's landscape is intact and relatively free of human development. Approximately half of Canada

4576-440: The world's second-largest country by area. The major difference between a Canadian province and a territory is that provinces receive their power and authority from the Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly called the British North America Act, 1867 ), whereas territories are federal territories whose governments are creatures of statute with powers delegated to them by the Parliament of Canada . The powers flowing from

4680-527: The 16th century. Today these stocks are nearly depleted, and their conservation has become a preoccupation of the Atlantic Provinces . On the West Coast, tuna stocks are now restricted. The less depleted (but still greatly diminished) salmon population continues to drive a strong fisheries industry. Canada claims 22 km (12 nmi) of territorial sea, a contiguous zone of 44 km (24 nmi), an exclusive economic zone of 5,599,077 km (2,161,816 sq mi) with 370 km (200 nmi) and

4784-469: The 5th ranked country in terms of how much tidal flat occurs there. Protected areas of Canada and National Wildlife Areas have been established to preserve ecosystems. Canada is geologically active, having many earthquakes and potentially active volcanoes, notably the Mount Meager massif , Mount Garibaldi , Mount Cayley , and the Mount Edziza volcanic complex . Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada range from Arctic weather in

4888-438: The 60° parallel, Ontario's to Hudson Bay and Quebec's to encompass the District of Ungava . In 1869, the people of Newfoundland voted to remain a British colony over fears that taxes would increase with Confederation, and that the economic policy of the Canadian government would favour mainland industries. In 1907, Newfoundland acquired dominion status. In the middle of the Great Depression in Canada , Newfoundland underwent

4992-425: The American magazine National Geographic , performing a public mea culpa for its history of racist depictions, the editorship of Canadian Geographic publicly announced that it would be performing a similar historical review of its published content to see if it has had similar problems. Canadian geography Canada has a vast geography that occupies much of the continent of North America , sharing

5096-456: The Appalachians are home to a rich endemic flora and fauna and are considered to have been nunataks during the last glaciation era. The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands , or simply St. Lawrence Lowlands, is a physiographic region of Eastern Canada that comprises a section of southern Ontario bounded on the north by the Canadian Shield and by three of the Great Lakes — Lake Huron , Lake Erie and Lake Ontario — and extends along

5200-416: The Arctic and Hudson Bay watersheds. This watershed irrigates the agriculturally important areas of inner British Columbia (such as the Okanagan and Kootenay valleys), and is used to produce hydroelectricity. Major elements are the Yukon, Columbia and Fraser rivers. The northern parts of Alberta, Manitoba, and British Columbia, most of Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and parts of Yukon are drained by

5304-478: The Arctic is mostly composed of permafrost, making construction difficult and often hazardous, and agriculture virtually impossible. The Arctic, when defined as everything north of the tree line, covers most of Nunavut and the northernmost parts of Northwest Territories, Yukon , Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Labrador. The archipelago consists of 36,563 islands, of which 94 are classified as major islands, being larger than 130 km (50 sq mi), and cover

SECTION 50

#1733092540340

5408-419: The Arctic watershed. This watershed has been little used for hydroelectricity, with the exception of the Mackenzie River. The Peace , Athabasca and Liard Rivers , as well as Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake (respectively the largest and second largest lakes wholly enclosed by Canada) are significant elements of the Arctic watershed. Each of these elements eventually merges with the Mackenzie, thereby draining

5512-460: The Arctic, making Canada one of the world's largest producers. Throughout the Shield there are many mining towns extracting these minerals. The largest, and best known, is Sudbury , Ontario. Sudbury is an exception to the normal process of forming minerals in the Shield since there is significant evidence that the Sudbury Basin is an ancient meteorite impact crater . The nearby, but less known Temagami Magnetic Anomaly has striking similarities to

5616-411: The Boundary Ranges are the Tahltan and Tagish Highlands and also the Skeena Mountains , part of the Interior Mountains system, which also extend southwards on the inland side of the Kitimat Ranges . The terrain of the main spine of the Coast Mountains is typified by heavy glaciation , including several very large icefields of varying elevation. Of the three subdivisions, the Pacific Ranges are

5720-415: The Canadian mainland (from those in James Bay to the Queen Elizabeth Islands ). The following table lists the territories in order of precedence (each province has precedence over all the territories, regardless of the date each territory was created). Another territory, the District of Keewatin , existed from October 7, 1876, until September 1, 1905, when it rejoined the Northwest Territories and became

5824-489: The Canadian mainland is Point Pelee , Ontario 41°54′32″N 82°30′32″W  /  41.909°N 82.509°W  / 41.909; -82.509  ( Point Pelee, Ontario ) . The lowest point is sea level at 0 m, whilst the highest point is Mount Logan , Yukon , at 5,959 m / 19,550 ft 60°34′01″N 140°24′18″W  /  60.567°N 140.405°W  / 60.567; -140.405  ( Mount Logan, Yukon ) . The westernmost point

5928-431: The Canadian mainland is Zenith Point on Boothia Peninsula , Nunavut 72°00′07″N 94°39′18″W  /  72.002°N 94.655°W  / 72.002; -94.655  ( Zenith Point, Nunavut ) . The southernmost point is Middle Island , in Lake Erie , Ontario (41°41′N 82°40′W); the southernmost water point lies just south of the island, on the Ontario– Ohio border (41°40′35″N). The southernmost point of

6032-421: The Canadian mainland is Elijah Point, Cape St. Charles , Labrador (52°13′N 55°37′W) 52°13′01″N 55°37′16″W  /  52.217°N 55.621°W  / 52.217; -55.621  ( Elijah Point, Labrador ) . The Canadian pole of inaccessibility is allegedly near Jackfish River, Alberta (59°2′N 112°49′W). The furthest straight-line distance that can be travelled to Canadian points of land

6136-422: The Coast Mountains is characterized by an intense network of fjords and associated islands, very similar to the Norwegian coastline in Northern Europe ; while their inland side transitions to the high plateau with dryland valleys notable for a series of large alpine lakes similar to those in southern Switzerland , beginning in deep mountains and ending in flatland. They are subdivided in three main groups,

6240-565: The Coastal Hudson Bay Lowland (a narrow band along the northern coast), Hudson Bay Lowland (a broader band extending to slightly south of the Ekwan River), and James Bay Lowland (all the rest of the southern/eastern lands, making up close to 50% of the total Lowlands area). The northernmost point of land within the boundaries of Canada is Cape Columbia , Ellesmere Island , Nunavut 83°06′40″N 69°58′19″W  /  83.111°N 69.972°W  / 83.111; -69.972  ( Cape Columbia, Nunavut ) . The northernmost point of

6344-562: The French government donated the land used for the Vimy Memorial "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada the free use of the land exempt from all taxes". The site of the Somme battlefield near Beaumont-Hamel site was purchased in 1921 by the people of the Dominion of Newfoundland . These sites do not, however, enjoy extraterritorial status and are thus subject to French law. Since Confederation in 1867, there have been several proposals for new Canadian provinces and territories. The Constitution of Canada requires an amendment for

SECTION 60

#1733092540340

6448-451: The Maritimes under the Methodist and Roman Catholic churches). In 1903, resolution of the Alaska Panhandle Dispute fixed British Columbia's northwestern boundary. This was one of only two provinces in Canadian history to have its size reduced. The second reduction, in 1927, occurred when a boundary dispute between Canada and the Dominion of Newfoundland saw Labrador enlarged at Quebec's expense; this land returned to Canada, as part of

6552-399: The Milk River. Canada's abundance of natural resources is reflected in their continued importance in the economy of Canada . Major resource-based industries are fisheries , forestry , agriculture, petroleum products and mining. The fisheries industry has historically been one of Canada's strongest. Unmatched cod stocks on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland launched this industry in

6656-416: The North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan Rivers , Assiniboine River , and Nettilling Lake on Baffin Island. Wollaston Lake lies on the boundary between the Hudson Bay and Arctic Ocean watersheds and drains into both . It is the largest lake in the world that naturally drains in two directions. The continental divide in the Rockies separates the Pacific watershed in British Columbia and Yukon from

6760-878: The North and in the Prairies. In the southern regions of Canada, air pollution from both Canada and the United States—caused by metal smelting, burning coal to power utilities, and vehicle emissions—has resulted in acid rain , which has severely impacted waterways, forest growth and agricultural productivity in Canada . Canada is divided into fifteen major terrestrial and five marine ecozones , that are further subdivided into 53 ecoprovinces , 194 ecoregions , and 1,027 ecodistricts . These eco-areas encompass over 80,000 classified species of Canadian wildlife , with an equal number yet to be formally recognized or discovered. Due to pollution, loss of biodiversity , over-exploitation of commercial species, invasive species, and habitat loss, there are currently more than 800 wild life species at risk of being lost . Canada's major biomes are

6864-450: The North, for organizational and economic purposes. For much of the Northwest Territories' early history it was divided into several districts for ease of administration. The District of Keewatin was created as a separate territory from 1876 to 1905, after which, as the Keewatin Region, it became an administrative district of the Northwest Territories. In 1999, it was dissolved when it became part of Nunavut. Theoretically, provinces have

6968-539: The St. Lawrence Valley, northeastern Ontario , southwestern Ontario, the Red River valley of Manitoba and the valleys in the British Columbia Interior , on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland . Fossil fuels are a more recently developed resource in Canada, with oil and gas being extracted from deposits in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin since the mid-1900s. While Canada's crude oil deposits are fewer, technological developments in recent decades have opened up oil production in Alberta's Oil Sands to

7072-566: The St. Lawrence. The Churchill River and Saint John River are other important elements of the Atlantic watershed in Canada. The Hudson Bay watershed drains over a third of Canada. It covers Manitoba, northern Ontario and Quebec, most of Saskatchewan, southern Alberta, southwestern Nunavut, and the southern half of Baffin Island . This basin is most important in fighting drought in the prairies and producing hydroelectricity, especially in Manitoba, northern Ontario and Quebec. Major elements of this watershed include Lake Winnipeg , Nelson River,

7176-479: The Stampede. The article he filed was later edited to remove any reference to "horse culls". The magazine also distributed free educational resource material to schools across the country that discussed the Alberta Oil Sands . While Canadian Geographic maintained that the material was independent of influence, it was later revealed that some of the content came from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers , an industrial lobby group. In March 2018, in light of

7280-418: The Sudbury Basin. Its magnetic anomalies are very similar to the Sudbury Basin, and so it could be a second metal-rich impact crater. The Shield is also covered by vast boreal forests that support an important logging industry. Canada's many rivers have afforded extensive development of hydroelectric power. Extensively developed in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Labrador, the many dams have long provided

7384-407: The United States is the world's longest land border, stretching 8,891 kilometres (5,525 mi). Three of Canada's Arctic islands , Baffin Island , Victoria Island and Ellesmere Island , are among the ten largest in the world. Canada can be divided into seven physiographic regions: the Canadian Shield , the interior plains , the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands , the Appalachian region ,

7488-438: The country's population. The territories (the Northwest Territories , Nunavut and Yukon ) account for over a third of Canada's area but are only home to 0.3% of its population, which skews the national population density value. Canada's population grew by 5.0% between the 2006 and 2011 censuses. Except for New Brunswick , all territories and provinces increased in population during this time. In terms of percent change,

7592-508: The country, ice is prominent in northerly Arctic regions and through the Canadian Rocky Mountains , and the relatively flat Canadian Prairies in the southwest facilitate productive agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. The National Topographic System is used by Natural Resources Canada for providing general purpose topographic maps of

7696-544: The country. The maps provide details on landforms and terrain, lakes and rivers, forested areas, administrative zones, populated areas, roads and railways, as well as other man-made features. These maps are used by all levels of government and industry for forest fire and flood control (as well as other environmental issues), depiction of crop areas, right-of-way, real estate planning, development of natural resources and highway planning. The Appalachian mountain range extends from Alabama in southern United States through

7800-411: The creation of a new province but the creation of a new territory requires only an act of Parliament , a legislatively simpler process. In late 2004, Prime Minister Paul Martin surprised some observers by expressing his personal support for all three territories gaining provincial status "eventually". He cited their importance to the country as a whole and the ongoing need to assert sovereignty in

7904-639: The entirety of the Atlantic provinces (parts of the Quebec-Labrador border are fixed at the Atlantic Ocean-Arctic Ocean continental divide ), most of inhabited Quebec and large parts of southern Ontario. It is mostly drained by the economically important St. Lawrence River and its tributaries, notably the Saguenay , Manicouagan , and Ottawa rivers. The Great Lakes and Lake Nipigon are also drained by

8008-576: The environment, including loss of the polar bear , the exploration for resource then the extraction of these resources and an alternative transport route to the Panama Canal through the Northwest Passage . Canada is currently warming at twice the global average, and this is effectively irreversible. Provinces and territories of Canada Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under

8112-483: The fastest-growing province or territory was Nunavut with an increase of 12.7% between 2011 and 2016, followed by Alberta with 11.6% growth, while New Brunswick's population decreased by 0.5%. Generally, Canadian provinces have steadily grown in population along with Canada. However, some provinces such as Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador have experienced long periods of stagnation or population decline. Ontario and Quebec have always been

8216-408: The federal level, and as a result, have a commissioner that represents the federal government. There are three territories in Canada. Unlike the provinces, the territories of Canada have no inherent sovereignty and have only those powers delegated to them by the federal government. They include all of mainland Canada north of latitude 60° north and west of Hudson Bay and all islands north of

8320-458: The federal party. The Liberal Party of Canada shares such an organizational integration with Atlantic Canada provincial Liberals in New Brunswick , Newfoundland and Labrador , Nova Scotia , and Prince Edward Island . Other provincial Liberal parties are unaffiliated with their federal counterpart. Some provinces have provincial political parties with no clear federal equivalent, such as

8424-512: The ground for almost six months of the year, while in parts of the north snow can persist year-round. Coastal British Columbia has a temperate climate, with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coasts, average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s °C (70s °F), while between the coasts, the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 °C (77 to 86 °F), with temperatures in some interior locations occasionally exceeding 40 °C (104 °F). Much of Northern Canada

8528-522: The highest and are crowned by Mount Waddington , while the Boundary Ranges contain the largest icefields, the Juneau Icefield being the largest. The Kitimat Ranges are lower and less glacier-covered than either of the other two groupings, but are extremely rugged and dense. The Coast Mountains are made of igneous and metamorphic rock from an episode of arc volcanism related to subduction of

8632-588: The indicia of sovereignty from the United Kingdom. Prior to this, Ontario and Quebec were united as the Province of Canada. Over the following years, Manitoba (1870), British Columbia (1871), and Prince Edward Island (1873) were added as provinces. The British Crown had claimed two large areas north-west of the Canadian colony, known as Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory , and assigned them to

8736-592: The jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution . In the 1867 Canadian Confederation , three provinces of British North America — New Brunswick , Nova Scotia , and the Province of Canada (which upon Confederation was divided into Ontario and Quebec )—united to form a federation , becoming a fully independent country over the next century. Over its history, Canada's international borders have changed several times as it has added territories and provinces, making it

8840-607: The last British North American colony, which had been somewhat subordinated to Nova Scotia, was one of two Imperial fortress colonies in British North America ;– the other being Nova Scotia, and more particularly the city of Halifax. Halifax and Bermuda were the sites of the Royal Navy's North America Station (or, depending on the time period and the extent of the Western Hemisphere it included,

8944-461: The last vestige of New France . By total area (including its waters), Canada is the second-largest country in the world, after Russia. By land area alone, however, Canada ranks fourth , the difference being due to it having the world's largest proportion of fresh water lakes. Of Canada's thirteen provinces and territories , only two are landlocked ( Alberta and Saskatchewan ) while the other eleven all directly border one of three oceans. Canada

9048-547: The magazine established the Canadian Environment Awards program in partnership with the government and private companies. This award was replaced by the 3M Environmental Innovation Award in 2009. In 2015, the magazine was criticized for allowing its editorial policy to be influenced by its sponsors. In a 2012 issue about the Calgary Stampede , journalist Jesse Brown wrote about improper treatment of horses by

9152-671: The nation's landmass and freshwater are conservation areas , including 11.4 percent designated as protected areas . Approximately 13.8 percent of its territorial waters are conserved, including 8.9 percent designated as protected areas. Volcanic activity is a major part of the geology of Canada and is characterized by many types of volcanic landform , including lava flows, volcanic plateaus , lava domes , cinder cones , stratovolcanoes , shield volcanoes , submarine volcanoes , calderas , diatremes , and maars , along with less common volcanic forms such as tuyas and subglacial mounds . Though Canada 's volcanic history dates back to

9256-440: The north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons. Canada covers 9,984,670 km (3,855,100 sq mi) and a panoply of various geoclimatic regions, of which there are seven main regions. Canada also encompasses vast maritime terrain, with the world's longest coastline of 243,042 kilometres (151,019 mi). The physical geography of Canada is widely varied. Boreal forests prevail throughout

9360-657: The one minority provincial/territorial government is held by the Liberals in Yukon . They are in government with a formal confidence and supply agreement from the Yukon New Democratic Party . The Canadian National Vimy Memorial , near Vimy , Pas-de-Calais, and the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial , near Beaumont-Hamel , both in France, are ceremonially considered Canadian territory. In 1922,

9464-439: The past two million years and whose eruptions have claimed many lives. Canada holds vast reserves of water: its rivers discharge nearly 7% of the world's renewable water supply, Canada has over 2,000,000 lakes —563 greater than 100 square kilometres (39 sq mi)—which is more than any other country and has the third largest amount of glacier water. Canada is also home to about twenty five percent (134.6 million ha) of

9568-501: The point where Canada now has some of the largest reserves of oil in the world. In other forms, Canadian industry has a long history of extracting large coal and natural gas reserves. Canada's mineral resources are diverse and extensive. Across the Canadian Shield and in the north there are large iron, nickel , zinc , copper, gold, lead, molybdenum , and uranium reserves. Large diamond concentrations have been recently developed in

9672-410: The province of Newfoundland, in 1949. In 1999, Nunavut was created from the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories. Yukon lies in the western portion of Northern Canada, while Nunavut is in the east. All three territories combined are the most sparsely populated region in Canada, covering 3,921,739 km (1,514,192 sq mi) in land area. They are often referred to as a single region,

9776-468: The provinces are considered to be co-sovereign within certain areas based on the divisions of responsibility between the provincial and federal government within the Constitution Act, 1867 , and each province thus has its own representative of the Canadian Crown , the lieutenant governor . The territories are not sovereign, but instead their authorities and responsibilities are devolved directly from

9880-567: The reduction of British military forces in the Maritimes to a small garrison for the protection of the Halifax dockyard, which would be withdrawn when that dockyard was handed over to the Dominion government in 1905 for use by the new Canadian naval service. Britain retained control of Bermuda as an imperial fortress, with the governor and commander-in-chief of Bermuda (a military officer previously ranking between lieutenant-colonel and major-general) becoming

9984-520: The region is defined to include areas only covered by prairie land, the corresponding region is known as the Interior Plains . Physical or ecological aspects of the Canadian Prairies extend to northeastern British Columbia , but that area is not included in political use of the term. While the largest part of the Canadian Arctic is composed of seemingly endless permafrost and tundra north of

10088-605: The saltwater of Hudson Bay: these include the Churchill , Nelson and Hayes in Manitoba, Severn , Fawn , Winisk , Asheweig, Ekwan , Attawapiskat , and Albany in Ontario, and the Harricana , Rupert and Eastmain in Quebec. This is the largest wetland in Canada, and one of the largest in the world. The region can be subdivided into three bands running roughly northwest to southeast:

10192-500: The same name. For example, no provincial Conservative or Progressive Conservative Party shares an organizational link to the federal Conservative Party of Canada , and neither do provincial Green Parties to the Green Party of Canada . Provincial New Democratic Parties, on the other hand, are fully integrated with the federal New Democratic Party —meaning that provincial parties effectively operate as sections, with common membership, of

10296-514: The size of the North-West Territories. In 1898 the Yukon Territory, later renamed "Yukon" in 2003, was carved from the area surrounding the Klondike gold fields . On September 1, 1905, a portion of the North-West Territories south of the 60th parallel north became the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1912, the boundaries of Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba were expanded northward: Manitoba's to

10400-413: The territorial level. The King's representative in each province is the lieutenant governor . In each of the territories there is an analogous commissioner , but they represent the federal government rather than the monarch. Most provinces have rough provincial counterparts to major federal parties. However, these provincial parties are not usually formally linked to the federal parties that share

10504-494: The two biggest provinces in Canada, with together over 60% of the population at any given time. The population of the West relative to Canada as a whole has steadily grown over time, while that of Atlantic Canada has declined. Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were the original provinces, formed when several British North American colonies federated on July 1, 1867, into the Dominion of Canada and by stages began accruing

10608-685: The vast majority of the Arctic watershed. The southernmost part of Alberta drains into the Gulf of Mexico through the Milk River and its tributaries. The Milk River originates in the Rocky Mountains of Montana , then flows into Alberta, then returns into the United States, where it is drained by the Missouri River . A small area of southwestern Saskatchewan is drained by Battle Creek , which empties into

10712-540: The winters until the 1820s, when Bermuda (which was better located to control the Atlantic Seaboard of the United States, impossible to attack over land, and almost impregnable against attack over water) became the main base year round. A large British Army garrison in Bermuda , which fell under the commander-in-chief in Nova Scotia , existed to defend the colony as a naval base (and to prevent it becoming as useful

10816-519: The world's wetlands that support a vast array of local ecosystems. Canada's waterways host forty-seven rivers of at least 600 kilometres (370 mi) in length, with the two longest being the Mackenzie River , that begins at Great Slave Lake and ends in the Arctic Ocean , with its drainage basin covering a large part of northwestern Canada, and the Saint Lawrence River , which drains

#339660