Canada: A Regional Geography David Rossiter, Western Washington University

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Canada A Regional GeographyDavid Rossiter,
Western Washington University
A Northern Silver Mine F. Carmichael
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Five Themes

• Location
• relative / absolute
• Place
• human / physical
• Human-Environment interactions
• adaptation, modification, dependence
• Movement
• Regions

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YK
NWT
NVT
NFLD and LAB
BC
ALTA
MTBA
SASK
QUE
PEI
ONT
NB
NS
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Whitehorse
Iqaluit
Yellowknife
St. Johns
Edmonton
Vancouver
Saskatoon
Charlottetown
Victoria
Winnipeg
Fredericton
Calgary
Regina
Quebec
Halifax
St. John
Ottawa
Montreal
Toronto
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The Physical Base

• Geology
• Topography
• Soils
• Vegetation
• Climate
• Fundamental to understanding Canadas Human
  Geography

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The Late Wisconsin Ice Age

• Last ice age in the territory of Canada
• Southern limit Wisconsin
• Covered vast majority of Canadas territory
• Reached maximum extent 18,000 years ago
• Started to recede 15,000 years ago
• Last remnants in Rockies 7,000 years ago

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Till and erratic Peggys Cove, N.S.
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Drumlin - Alberta
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Esker - Manitoba
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Glacial Lake Jasper, AB
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Great Lakes St. Lawrence Lowlands
Q
W
- Quebec City to Windsor - Smallest physiographic
region lt 2 of Canadas landmass
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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

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Appalachian Uplands
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Appalachian Uplands

• Northern section of Appalachian Mountians
• 2 of Canadas land mass
• Rounded uplands and narrow river valleys
• Rocky, shallow soils
• Mixed forest
• Cool, maritime climate
• short summer, wet winter

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NFLD North Coast
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Canadian Shield
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Canadian Shield

• Largest region 50 of Canada
• Geological core of North America
• Underlies other physiographic regions
• Precambrian rocks gt 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

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Quebec North Shore
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Hudson Bay Lowlands
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Hudson Bay Lowlands

• 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

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Muskeg Hudson Bay Lowlands
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Delta James Bay Coast
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Interior Plains
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Interior Plains

• 20 of Canadas 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

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Wheat field outside Winnipeg
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Near Lesser Slave Lake, Alberta
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South Saskatchewan River
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Arctic Lands
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Arctic Lands contd

• 25 of Canadas 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

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Mountains Baffin Island
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Cordillera
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Cordillera

• 16 of Canadas 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

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Cordillera contd

• 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

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Sedimentary rocks at Lake Louise
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The Barrier Coast Mountains, BC
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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

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Pop. Density 2001
Current Pop 32mil
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Where are all the people?

• Longer answer
• All over
• cities draw on resources of hinterland
• north dominated by resource towns and regional
  service centres

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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

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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

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Forestry Communities 1996
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Mining Communities 1996
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Oil and Gas Communities 1996
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Metropolitan Heartlands

• A urban nation
• against stereotype
• diverse
• Old(ish)
• Quebec City (1608)
• Young
• Vancouver (1886)
• Draw on hinterlands resources
• insurance, finance, manufacturing

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Financial Services
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Canadas Regional Character

• Socio-economic regions
• Shaped by
• topography
• political boundaries
• language
• historical patterns
• Heartland-hinterland relations
• Regional identities powerful
• Political considerations

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This place wasnt 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

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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

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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