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Canada: A Regional Geography
David Rossiter, Western Washington University
A Northern Silver Mine – F. Carmichael
Five Themes
• Location
– relative / absolute
• Place
– human / physical
• Human-Environment interactions
– adaptation, modification, dependence
• Movement
• Regions
YK
NWT
NVT
NFLD
and LAB
BC
ALTA
SASK
MTBA
QUE
ONT
PEI
NB
NS
Whitehorse
Iqaluit
Yellowknife
St. John’s
Edmonton
Vancouver
Saskatoon
Charlottetown
Victoria
Calgary
Winnipeg
Regina
Fredericton
Quebec
Ottawa
St. John
Montreal
Toronto
Halifax
The Physical Base
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Geology
Topography
Soils
Vegetation
Climate
• Fundamental to understanding Canada’s
Human Geography
The Late Wisconsin Ice Age
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Last ice age in the territory of Canada
Southern limit: Wisconsin
Covered vast majority of Canada’s territory
Reached maximum extent 18,000 years
ago
• Started to recede 15,000 years ago
• Last remnants in Rockies 7,000 years ago
Till and erratic – Peggy’s Cove, N.S.
Drumlin - Alberta
Esker - Manitoba
Glacial Lake – Jasper, AB
Great Lakes – St. Lawrence Lowlands
Q
W
- Quebec City to Windsor
- Smallest physiographic region: < 2% of Canada’s landmass
Great Lakes – St. Lawrence
Lowlands
• Geology: sedimentary rock (strata) and
glacial deposits
• Flat, rolling topography
• Good soil
• Moderate climate, good growing season
– humid and hot summer / cold winter
• Proximity to USA
• HEARTLAND
Appalachian Uplands
Appalachian Uplands
• Northern section of Appalachian
Mountians
• ~2% of Canada’s land mass
• Rounded uplands and narrow river valleys
• Rocky, shallow soils
• Mixed forest
• Cool, maritime climate
– short summer, wet winter
NFLD – North Coast
Canadian Shield
Canadian Shield
• Largest region – ~50% of Canada
• Geological core of North America
– Underlies other physiographic regions
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Precambrian rocks > 3 billion yrs old
Widespread evidence of glaciation
Shallow soils, exposed granite
Mixed and Boreal forest
Northern continental climate
– hot, short summer / cold, long winter
Quebec – North Shore
Hudson Bay Lowlands
Hudson Bay Lowlands
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~3.5% of the area of Canada
Youngest phyisographic region in Canada
Made up of muskeg (wet peatland)
Interrupted by low ridges of sand and
gravel
• Poorly drained due to level surface
• Northern climate – maritime influence
– short, warm summer / long, cold winter
Muskeg – Hudson Bay Lowlands
Delta – James Bay Coast
Interior Plains
Interior Plains
• ~20% of Canada’s landmass
• Geologic base of sedimentary rock
• Land shaped by glacial and hydrological
processes – river valleys
• Slope east to west – Hudson Bay Wtshd
• Rich soils in south
• Oil and gas deposits
• Continental climate – moderate precip.
– hot summer / cold winter
Wheat field outside Winnipeg
Near Lesser Slave Lake, Alberta
South Saskatchewan River
Arctic Lands
Arctic Lands cont’d…
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~25% of Canada’s territory
Coastal plains (Lowlands)
Plateaux and mountains (Innuitian)
Mainly sedimentary rock
Ground permanently frozen - permafrost
Glaciers still active – ‘calved’ into icebergs
Main geomorphic process – frost action
Coooold, areas of polar desert
Mountains – Baffin Island
Cordillera
Cordillera
• ~16% of Canada’s territory
• Formed 40-80 million years ago
– collision between NA and Pacific plates
– Rockies: up-thrust sedimentary rocks
– Coast mountains: volcanic activity
• Coast an active fault zone
– earthquakes, volcanoes
– part of Pacific Rim of Fire
Cordillera cont’d…
• Glaciers remain in high alpine areas
• Fertile river valleys and deltas (particularly
SW corner of BC)
• Largely coniferous forest cover
• Multiple micro-climates
– warmer, wetter on coast
– colder, drier in interior
Sedimentary rocks at Lake Louise
The Barrier – Coast Mountains, BC
Where are all the people?
Short answer:
• In cities, near the USA
– ~80% of Canadians live in cities (100,000+)
– ~80% of Canadians live within 100km of USA
Pop. Density: 2001
Current Pop: 32mil
Where are all the people?
Longer answer:
• All over
– cities draw on resources of hinterland
– north dominated by resource towns and
regional service centres
Three Popular Explanations
• Staples Development
– Canada developed by resource extraction
• Heartland-hinterland patterns
– International, national, regional scales
• Physical disunity (or, unity despite
geography)
– Human settlement in patches, difference from
USA
Storehouse of Raw Materials
• “Hewers of wood and drawers of water”
• Earliest European interests were more
commercial than colonial – fish, fur
• Colonial settlement shaped by staples
extraction and export
• Trade with “mother countries” (Britain,
France), then USA
• Resources still major economic sector
Forestry
Communities:
1996
Mining
Communities:
1996
Oil and Gas
Communities:
1996
Metropolitan Heartlands
• A urban nation
– against stereotype
– diverse
• Old(ish)
– Quebec City (1608)
• Young
– Vancouver (1886)
• Draw on hinterland’s
resources
– insurance, finance,
manufacturing
Financial
Services
Canada’s Regional Character
• Socio-economic regions:
– Shaped by:
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topography
political boundaries
language
historical patterns
• Heartland-hinterland relations
• Regional identities powerful
– Political considerations
This place wasn’t always Canada
• 1000s of years of Native presence
• European contact over centuries
– late-15th C in east, mid-18th C in west
• Resettlement by Europeans through:
– force
– treaty
– depopulation (disease)
• Historical geographies matter: socially,
politically, ecologically
Current “Geographical” Issues
• Native land claims
– BC particularly, but not exclusively
• Environmental “crises”
– forestry, climate, energy
• Federal “balance”
– fiscal, other arrangements
• Cities’ growth
– planning, opportunity for newcomers
References
• Maps and images were obtained at:
– www.canadainfolink.ca/geog.htm
– http://atlas.nrcan.gc/site/english/index.html
• Other resources:
– A good atlas of Canada
– Historical Atlas of Canada, vols. 1-3,
University of Toronto Press
– The Fur Trade in Canada, Harold Innis
– Heartland and Hinterland, McCann and Gunn