Canada's Geography

Canada

Canada is a huge country in the continent of North America. Canada is comprised of 3,849,675 square miles (9,976,140 square km); it is the second-largest country in the world (Russia is first at 17,075,200 sq km). This huge country borders the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, and the United States of America. Canada has over 151,480 miles (243,791 km) of coastline. Most of Canada’s human population lives along its southern border. For a page on Canadian explorers, cick here.

The Capital

The capital of Canada is the city of Ottawa, which is in the province of Ontario, located above the Great Lakes.

Provinces and Territories

Canada has 10 provinces and 3 territories (the capital of each is shown in parentheses): Alberta (Edmonton), British Columbia (Victoria), Prince Edward Island (Charlottetown), Manitoba (Winnipeg), New Brunswick (Fredericton), Nova Scotia (Halifax), Nunavut (Iqaluit), Ontario (Toronto), Quebec (Quebec City), Saskatchewan (Regina); Newfoundland and Labrador (St. John’s), Northwest Territories (Yellowknife), and Yukon Territory (Whitehorse).

Geography

Canada’s land ranges from fertile agricultural plains in the south to freezing tundra in the north. The southwest of Canada (British Columbia) has a mild climate. Cold winters characterize most of the rest of Canada. The magnetic North Pole is within Nunavut.

Mountains

Parts of Canada are very mountainous. The tallest mountain in Canada is the Yukon’s Mount Logan, which is 19,850 feet (6050 m) tall. Canada has many mountain ranges, including the Appalachians, Torngats, and Laurentians in the eastern regions, the Rocky, Coastal, and Mackenzie ranges in the western regions, and Mount St. Elias and the Pelly Mountains in the northern country.

Lakes

Canada has about two million lakes. The biggest lakes are (in order by their surface area): Lake Huron [36,000 sq. km of Lake Huron’s 59,600 sq. km are in Canada], Lake Great Bear [31,328 sq. km], Lake Superior [of which 28,700 sq. km of Lake Superior’s 82,100 sq. km are in Canada], Lake Great Slave [also the deepest lake, with a depth of 614 m], Lake Winnipeg, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The 2,000,000 lakes cover about 7.6% of Canada’s land.

Rivers

The longest river in Canada is the Mackenzie River, which is 2,635 miles (4241 km) long. It runs through the Northwest Territories. Other large and important rivers are the St. Lawrence River (1,900 miles = 3058 km long), the Yukon River, the Columbia River (partly in the USA), the Nelson River, the Churchill River, and the Fraser River.