About Canada

Canada is a vast and beautiful country
just waiting to be explored

Occupying the northern half of the North American continent, Canada's land mass is 9 093 507 km2, making it the second-largest country in the world after Russia. From east to west, Canada encompasses six time zones. In addition to its coastlines on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Canada has a third sea coast on the Arctic Ocean, giving it the longest coastline of any country.

Because of the northern climate, only 12 percent of the land is suitable for agriculture. Thus, most of the population of 30 million live within a few hundred kilometres of the southern border, where the climate is milder. If you fly over Canada in summer, you will often see more water than land: so many lakes, big and small, too numerous to count.

Canada is divided into seven geographical regions
each with a very different landscape and climate

The Pacific Coast
Bathed by warm, moist Pacific air currents, the British Columbia coast, indented by deep fiords and shielded from Pacific storms by Vancouver Island, has the most moderate climate of Canada's regions. Vancouver Island's west coast receives an exceptional amount of rain, giving it a temperate rain forest climate. Although it does not contain the diversity of species of a tropical rain forest, the island's west coast does have the oldest and tallest trees in Canada: Western Red Cedars 1,300 years old and Douglas firs 90 metres high.
To explore this region of Canada
visit campgrounds of British Columbia's coastline

The Cordillera
From British Columbia to just east of the Alberta border the land is young, with rugged mountains and high plateaus. The spectacular Rocky Mountains and Coastal Mountain range, running north to south, posed major engineering problems for the builders of the transcontinental railways and highways. The highest point in Canada, Mount Logan (5,959 metres), rises amid a huge icefield in the southwest corner of the Yukon, the largest icecap south of the Arctic Circle. The British Columbia interior varies from alpine snowfields to deep valleys where desert-like conditions prevail. For example, Okanagan Valley farmers on the leeward side of the mountains must irrigate their orchards and vineyards.
To explore this region of Canada
visit campgrounds of British Columbia and Alberta

The Prairies
To drive across the Prairies is to see endless fields of wheat ripening under a sky that seems to go on forever. The plains of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are among the richest grain-producing regions in the world. Yet if you drive north from Brooks, Alberta, you descend into the Red Deer River Valley, where water and wind have created strange shapes in the sandstone called "hoodoos." The same forces of erosion have uncovered some of the largest concentrations of dinosaur fossils in the world.
To explore this region of Canada
visit campgrounds of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba

The Canadian Shield
A huge inland sea called Hudson Bay extends into the heart of Canada, and wrapped around this bay is a rocky region called the Canadian Shield. Canada's largest geographical feature, it stretches east to Labrador, south to Kingston on Lake Ontario and northwest as far as the Arctic Ocean. The Shield is considered to be the nucleus of the North American continent. Its gneiss and granite rocks are 3.5 billion years old, three-quarters the age of the Earth. Scraped by the advance and retreat of glaciers, the Shield has only a thin layer of soil that supports a boreal forest of spruce, fir, tamarack and pine.
To explore this region of Canada
visit campgrounds of northern Ontario and Quebec

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands
Southern Quebec and Ontario, the industrial heartland of Canada, contain Canada's two largest cities, Toronto and Montreal. Fifty percent of Canadians live in this small region where 70 percent of Canada's manufactured goods are produced. The region also has prime agricultural land, for example, the Niagara Peninsula. The large expanses of lakes Erie and Ontario extend the number of frost-free days, permitting the cultivation of grapes, peaches, pears and other fruits. The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence region is sugar maple country. In the autumn, the maple leaves, Canada's national symbol, are ablaze in red, orange and gold, and the sap is collected in spring to make maple syrup and sugar
To explore this region of Canada
visit campgrounds of southern Ontario and Quebec

The Atlantic Provinces-Appalachian Region
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland are the smallest Canadian provinces, and were the first to be settled by Europeans. The Atlantic provinces are an extension of the Appalachians, an ancient mountain range. Much of the region has low, rugged hills and plateaus and a deeply indented coastline. Agriculture flourishes in the fertile valleys, such as the Saint John River Valley in New Brunswick, and the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia. Prince Edward Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence has a gently rolling landscape with a rich, red soil.
To explore this region of Canada
visit campgrounds of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia,
Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland

The Arctic
North of the tree-line is a land of harsh beauty. During the short summer, when daylight is nearly continuous and a profusion of flowers blooms on the tundra, the temperature can reach 30°C. Yet the winters are long, bitterly cold and dark. The Arctic is no longer an inaccessible frontier. Inuvik, in the Mackenzie Delta, can be reached by road, and every community is served by air. North of the mainland is a maze of islands separated by convoluted straits and sounds, the most famous of which link together to form the fabled Northwest Passage.
To explore this region of Canada
visit the Yukon, Northwest and Nunavut Territories