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The Canadian Provinces
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 Canada, federated country of North America, bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean; on the northeast by Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, which separate it from Greenland; on the east by the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by the United States; and on the west by the Pacific Ocean and Alaska. It was formerly known as the Dominion of Canada.
Occupying all of North America north of the conterminous United States, except Alaska, Greenland, Saint-Pierre Island, and the Miquelon Islands, Canada is the world's second largest country, surpassed in size only by Russia. It includes many islands, notably the Canadian Arctic Islands (Arctic Archipelago) in the Arctic Ocean.
 Some of the hotels, motels and resorts available for booking in our reservation network include, Ramada Inn, Marriott Hotels, Super 8 Motels, Econo Lodge, Holiday Inn & Holiday Inn Express, Travelodge, Hampton Inn, Sheraton, Hilton, Best Western, Hyatt and Hyatt Regency, Wyndham Inn, Ritz and Ritz Carlton, Days Inn, Courtyard by Marriott, La Quinta Inns, Comfort Inn and Comfort Suite, Embassy Suites, Quality Inn, Radisson Inn, Sleep Inn, Numerous Resorts and Resort Villas throughout the globe, along with Plaza and Plaza Suites and and array of private and Golf Clubs and Golf Resorts.
Select a province from the list below to see what hotels are available in that region.
All Countries > Canada
Among the larger members of this group,
which in aggregate area is about 1,424,500 sq km (about 550,000 sq mi), are
Baffin, Victoria, Ellesmere, Banks, Devon, Axel Heiberg, and Melville islands. Cape Columbia, a promontory of
Ellesmere Island at latitude 83°06' north, is the northernmost point of Canada;
the country's southernmost point is Middle Island in Lake Erie, at latitude
41°41' north. The easternmost and westernmost limits are delineated,
respectively, by longitude 52°37' west, which lies along Cape Spear,
Newfoundland, and longitude 141° west, which coincides with part of the
Alaskan-Yukon frontier. Canada has a total area of 9,970,610 sq km (3,849,652 sq
mi), of which 755,180 sq km (291,575 sq mi) is covered by bodies of fresh water
such as rivers and lakes, including those portions of the Great Lakes under
Canadian jurisdiction.
Canada contains great reserves of natural
resources, notably timber, petroleum, natural gas, metallic minerals, and fish.
It is also an important manufacturing country, and its major cities, such as
Toronto,
Montréal,
Vancouver,
Ottawa (the country's capital), Edmonton, Calgary,
and Winnipeg are bustling centers of commerce and industry. Most of Canada's
inhabitants live in the southern part of the country, and vast areas of the
north are sparsely inhabited. The country is divided into ten provinces
(Alberta, British Columbia,
Manitoba, New Brunswick,
Newfoundland, Nova Scotia,
Ontario, Prince Edward Island,
Québec, Saskatchewan) and two territories
(Northwest Territories,
Yukon Territory). A third territory called Nunavut, to
be carved from the present Northwest Territories, created in 1999. The
name Canada is derived from an Iroquoian term meaning "village" or "community."
Land and Resources
The coast of the Canadian mainland, about 58,500 km
(about 36,350 mi) in length, is extremely broken and irregular. Large bays and
peninsulas alternate, and Canada has numerous coastal islands, in addition to
the Arctic Archipelago, with a total insular coastline of some 185,290 km (some
115,135 mi). Off the eastern coast the largest islands are
Newfoundland, Cape
Breton, Prince Edward Island, and Anticosti. Off the western coast, which is fringed
with fjords, are Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands. Southampton
Island, covering 41,214 sq km (15,913 sq mi), and many smaller islands are in
Hudson Bay, a vast inland sea in east central Canada.
Canada contains more lakes and inland waters than any other
country in the world. In addition to the Great Lakes on the U.S. border (all
partly within Canada except Lake Michigan), the country has 31 lakes or
reservoirs of more than 1300 sq km (more than 500 sq mi) in area. Largest among
these lakes are Great Bear, Great Slave, Dubawnt, and Baker in the mainland
Northwest Territories; Nettilling and Amadjuak on Baffin Island; Athabasca in
Alberta and Saskatchewan; Wollaston in Saskatchewan; Reindeer in Saskatchewan
and Manitoba; Winnipeg, Manitoba, Winnipegosis, and Southern Indian in Manitoba;
Nipigon and Lake of the Woods in Ontario; Mistassini in Québec; and Smallwood
Reservoir and Melville in Newfoundland.
Among the great rivers of Canada are the Saint Lawrence,
draining the Great Lakes, and emptying into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence; the
Ottawa and the Saguenay, the principal affluents of the Saint Lawrence; the
Saint John, emptying into the Bay of Fundy, between Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick; the Saskatchewan, flowing into Lake Winnipeg, and the Nelson, flowing
from this lake into Hudson Bay; the system formed by the Athabasca, Peace,
Slave, and Mackenzie rivers, emptying into the Arctic Ocean; the upper course of
the Yukon, flowing across Alaska into the Bering Sea; and the Fraser and the
upper course of the Columbia, emptying into the Pacific Ocean.
Physiographic Regions
Excluding the Arctic Archipelago, five general
physiographic regions are distinguishable in Canada: The Canadian Shield,
Appalachian, Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence, Interior Plains, and Cordillera.
The largest region, designated either as the Canadian Shield or the
Laurentian Plateau, extends from Labrador to Great Bear Lake, from the
Arctic Ocean to the Thousand Islands in the Saint Lawrence River, and into
the United States west of Lake Superior and into northern New York. This
region of ancient granite rock, sparsely covered with soil and deeply eroded
by glacial action, comprises all of Labrador (the easternmost part of the
mainland, which is part of the province of Newfoundland), most of Québec,
northern Ontario, Manitoba, and most of the Northwest Territories, with
Hudson Bay in the center.
Eastern Canada consists of the Appalachian region and the
Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence lowlands. The former embraces Newfoundland, Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, and the Gaspé Peninsula of
Québec. This region is an extension of the Appalachian mountain system
(continuations of the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of
New Hampshire) and of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The Great Lakes-Saint
Lawrence lowlands region, covering an area of about 98,420 sq km (about
38,000 sq mi) in southern Québec and Ontario, is a generally level plain.
This region includes the largest expanse of cultivable land in eastern and
central Canada and most of the manufacturing industries of the nation.
Bordering the Canadian Shield on the west is the Interior Plains, an
extension of the Great Plains of the United States. About 1300 km (about 800
mi) wide at the U.S. border, it narrows to about one-quarter of that size
west of Great Bear Lake and widens again at the mouth of the Mackenzie River
on the coast of the Arctic Ocean to about 500 km (about 300 mi). Within the
Interior Plains are the northeastern corner of British Columbia, most of
Alberta, the southern half of Saskatchewan, and the southern third of
Manitoba. This region contains the most fertile soil in Canada.
The fifth and westernmost region of Canada embraces the
uplifts west of the Interior Plains. The region belongs to the Cordillera,
the vast mountain system extending from the southernmost extremity of South
America to westernmost Alaska. In Canada, the Cordillera has an average
width of about 800 km (about 500 mi). Part of western Alberta, much of
British Columbia, the Inuvik Region and part of the Fort Smith Region of
Northwest Territories, and practically all of Yukon Territory lie within
this region. The eastern portion of the Cordillera in Canada consists of the
Rocky Mountains and related ranges, including the Mackenzie, Franklin, and
Richardson mountains. Mount Robson (3954 m/12,972 ft) is the highest summit
of the Canadian Rockies, and ten other peaks reach elevations of more than
3500 m (about 11,500 ft). To the west of the Canadian Rockies is a region
occupied by numerous isolated ranges, notably the Cariboo, Stikine, and
Selkirk mountains, and a vast plateau region. Deep river valleys and
extensive tracts of arable land are the chief features of the plateau
region, particularly in British Columbia. Flanking this central belt on the
west and generally parallel to the Pacific Ocean is another great mountain
system. This system includes the Coast Mountains, an extension into British
Columbia of the Cascade Range of the United States, and various coastal
ranges. The loftiest coastal uplift is the Saint Elias Mountains, on the
boundary between Yukon Territory and Alaska. Among noteworthy peaks of the
western Cordillera in Canada are Mount Logan (5959 m/19,551 ft, the highest
point in Canada and second highest mountain in North America after Mount
McKinley), Mount Saint Elias (5489 m/18,008 ft), Mount Lucania (5226
m/17,147 ft), and King Peak (5173 m/16,971 ft); all are in the Saint Elias
Mountains.
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Home • Alberta • British Columbia • Manitoba • New Brunswick • Newfoundland • Nova Scotia • Northwest Territory • Ontario • Prince Edward Island • Quebec • Saskatchewan • Yukon Territory
Last Revised:
November 10, 2007 07:11 PM. |
