The North, the Canadian Arctic defined politically.

The Canadian Arctic is a vast region of northern Canada. Image File history File links Canada_territories_map. ... Image File history File links Canada_territories_map. ... The red line indicates the 10°C isotherm in July, commonly used to define the Arctic region border The Arctic is the area around the Earths North Pole. ...

Technically, the term covers that portion of Canada north of the Arctic Circle. An alternate, more practical definition is that portion north of the tree line (a definition that includes Canada's geographical centre): covering most of Nunavut, and the northernmost parts of the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Labrador. World map showing the five major circles of latitude A sign along the Dalton Highway marking the location of the Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. ... In this view of an alpine tree-line, the distant line looks particularly sharp. ... Motto: Nunavut Sannginivut (Inuktitut: Nunavut our strength or Our land our strength) Official languages Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, English, French Capital Iqaluit Largest city Iqaluit Commissioner Ann Meekitjuk Hanson Premier Paul Okalik (independent) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 1 Nancy Karetak-Lindell 1 Willie Adams Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 1st 2... Motto: None Other Canadian provinces and territories Capital Yellowknife Largest city Yellowknife Commissioner Tony Whitford Premier Joe Handley (Consensus government - no party affiliations) Area 1,346,106 km² (3rd) Land 1,183,085 km² Water 163,021 km² (12. ... Motto: none Official languages English Capital Whitehorse Largest city Whitehorse Commissioner Geraldine Van Bibber Premier Dennis Fentie (Yukon Party) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 1 1 Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 9th 482,443 km² 1. ... Motto: Je me souviens (French: I remember) Official languages French Capital Quebec City Largest city Montreal Lieutenant-Governor Lise Thibault Premier Jean Charest (PLQ) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 75 24 Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 2nd 1,542,056 km² 11. ... Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin: Loyal she began, loyal she remains) Official languages English, French (in some areas) Capital Toronto Largest city Toronto Lieutenant-Governor James K. Bartleman Premier Dalton McGuinty (Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 106 24 Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 2nd 1,076,395... Motto: Gloriosus et Liber (Latin: Glorious and free) Official languages English Capital Winnipeg Largest city Winnipeg Lieutenant-Governor John Harvard Premier Gary Doer (NDP) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 14 6 Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 8th 647,797 km² 14. ... This article is about the region in Canada. ...

A political definition, referred to as The North or Northern Canada, consists of Canada's three territories: Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut (which includes all islands in Hudson Bay). Canada is a federation of ten provinces which, together with three territories, comprise the worlds second largest country. ... Motto: none Official languages English Capital Whitehorse Largest city Whitehorse Commissioner Geraldine Van Bibber Premier Dennis Fentie (Yukon Party) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 1 1 Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 9th 482,443 km² 1. ... Motto: None Other Canadian provinces and territories Capital Yellowknife Largest city Yellowknife Commissioner Tony Whitford Premier Joe Handley (Consensus government - no party affiliations) Area 1,346,106 km² (3rd) Land 1,183,085 km² Water 163,021 km² (12. ... Motto: Nunavut Sannginivut (Inuktitut: Nunavut our strength or Our land our strength) Official languages Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, English, French Capital Iqaluit Largest city Iqaluit Commissioner Ann Meekitjuk Hanson Premier Paul Okalik (independent) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 1 Nancy Karetak-Lindell 1 Willie Adams Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 1st 2... Hudson Bay, Canada. ...

Territoriality

Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60°W and 141°W longitude, extending all the way north to the North Pole: all islands in this region are Canadian territory and the territorial waters claimed by Canada surround these islands. Views of territorial claims in this region are complicated by disagreements on legal principles. Canada and the USSR/Russia have long claimed that their territory extends according to the sector principle to the North Pole. The United States does not accept the sector principle and does not make a sector claim based on its Alaskan arctic coast. Claims that undersea geographic features are extensions of a country's continental shelf are also used to support claims; for example the Denmark/Greenland claim on territory to the North Pole, some of which is disputed by Canada. Foreign ships, both civilian and military are allowed the right of innocent passage through the territorial waters of a littoral state subject to conditions in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea [1] The right of innocent passage is not allowed however, in internal waters, which are enclosed bodies of water or waters landward of a chain of islands. Disagreements about the sector principle or extension of territory to the North Pole and to the defintion of internal waters in the arctic lie behind differences on territorial claims in the Arctic. This claim is recognized by most countries with some exceptions, including the United States; Denmark, Russia, and Norway have made claims similar to those of Canada in the Arctic and are opposed by the EU and the US. 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Map of Earth showing lines of longitude, which appear curved and vertical in this projection, but are actually halves of great circles Longitude, sometimes denoted by the Greek letter λ, describes the location of a place on Earth east or west of a north-south line called the Prime Meridian. ... The North Pole is the northernmost point on any planet. ...

This is especially important with the Northwest Passage. Canada asserts control of this passage as part of Canada's internal waters because it is within 20 km of Canadian islands; the US asserts that it is an international waterway. Today ice and freezing temperatures makes this a minor issue, but global warming may make the passage more accessible to shipping, something that concerns the Canadian government and inhabitants of the environmentally sensitive region. Popular Northwest Passage routes through the Canadian archipelago This article describes the route through the Canadian Arctic. ... Global mean surface temperatures 1856 to 2005 Mean temperature anomalies during the period 1995 to 2004 with respect to the average temperatures from 1940 to 1980 Global warming is an increase in the average temperature of the Earths atmosphere and oceans. ...

Similarly, the disputed Hans Island (with Denmark), in the Nares Strait west of Greenland, may be a flashpoint for challenges to overall Canadian sovereignty in The North. Hans Island, 1st August 2003, HDMS Triton Hans Island (Greenlandic/Inuktitut: Tartupaluk, Danish: Hans Ø, French: Île Hans) is a small uninhabited barren knoll measuring 1. ... The Nares strait is a waterway between Canadas Ellesmere Island and Greenland which connects Baffin Bay to the Arctic Ocean. ...

Topography

While the largest part of the Arctic is composed of seemingly non-stop permanent ice and tundra north of the tree line, it encompasses geological regions of varying types: the Inuitian Region (with the British Empire Range and the United States Range on Ellesmere Island) contains the northernmost mountain system in the world and is geologically distinct from the Arctic Region (which consists largely of lowlands). The Arctic and Hudson Bay lowlands comprise a substantial part of the geographic region often considered part of the Canadian Shield (in contrast to the sole geological area). The ground in the Arctic is mostly composed of permafrost, making construction difficult and often hazardous, and agriculture virtually impossible. In physical geography, tundra is an area where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. ... The British Empire Range (82° 0′ N 74° 40′ W) is a mountain range on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada. ... The United States Range (82° 13′ N 66° 1′ W) is the most northern mountain range in the world. ... Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. ... Disambiguation: For the region of Scotland please see Scottish Lowlands Lowlands, also known as A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise, is a music festival, held annually in the Netherlands in August. ... Hudson Bay, Canada. ... Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield is a large craton in eastern and central Canada and adjacent portions of the United States, composed of bare rock dating to the Precambrian Era (between 4. ... This article is about frozen ground. ...

The Arctic watershed (or drainage basin) drains northern parts of Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia, most of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut as well as parts of Yukon into the Arctic Ocean, including the Beaufort Sea and Baffin Bay. With the exception of the Mackenzie River, Canada's longest river, this watershed has been little used for hydroelectricity. The Peace and Athabasca Rivers, and the Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake (respectively the largest and second largest lakes wholly enclosed within Canada), are significant elements of the Arctic watershed. Each of these elements eventually merges with the Mackenzie so that it thereby drains the vast majority of the Arctic watershed. A watershed is a region of land where water drains downhill into a specified body of water, such as a river, lake, sea, ocean or wetland. ... Motto: Fortis et Liber (Latin: Strong and free) Official languages English Capital Edmonton Largest city Calgary Lieutenant-Governor Norman Kwong Premier Ralph Klein (PC) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 28 6 Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 6th 661,848 km² 2. ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour without diminishment) Official languages English Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 36 6 Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 5th 944,735 km² 2. ... Approximate area of the Beaufort Sea, and the disputed waters The Beaufort Sea is a large body of water north of The Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Alaska and west of Canadas arctic islands that is a part of the Arctic Ocean. ... Map of Baffin Island and surrounding areas, including Baffin Bay. ... The lower Mackenzie River at the end of August. ... Hydroelectricity is electricity obtained from hydropower. ... The Peace River is a river in Canada which originates in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia and flows through northern Alberta. ... Hudsons Bay Companys scow in Athabasca River, circa 1910 The Athabasca River originates from the Athabasca Glacier of the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park in Alberta. ... Great Bear Lake, NWT, Canada Great Bear Lake (Sahtu) is the largest lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada and the fourth largest in North America. ... ...

Human geography

The entire region is very sparsely populated with only about 105,000 people living in a vast area the size of Western Europe. It is heavily endowed with natural resources, but in most cases they are too expensive to extract to be worthwhile. Though GDP per person is higher than elsewhere in Canada, the region remains relatively poor, due largely to the extremely high cost of most consumer goods, and is heavily subsidised by the Canadian government. Western Europe is distinguished from Eastern Europe by differences of history and culture rather than by geography. ...

Aboriginal peoples in the Canadian Arctic constitute roughly half of the Inuit population in Canada. The region also contains several groups of First Nations, who are mainly Chipewyan peoples. About 69% of the population of the three territories is Aboriginal, and the three territories each have a greater proportion of Aboriginal inhabitants than any of Canada's provinces. There are also many more recent immigrants from around the world; of the territories, Yukon has the largest percentage of non-Aboriginal inhabitants. [2] Aboriginal peoples in Canadian Territories consist of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit located in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon territories of Canada. ... Inuit (Inuktitut syllabics: ᐃᓄᐃᑦ, singular Inuk or Inuq / ᐃᓄᒃ) is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic coasts of Siberia, Alaska, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Québec, Labrador and Greenland. ... Carved mask in Vancouver First Nations is a term for ethnicity used in Canada to replace the word Indian. It refers to the Indigenous peoples of North America located in what is now Canada, and their descendants, who are not Inuit or Métis. ... The Chipewyan are an aboriginal people in Canada. ...

See also

• Canadian Arctic Islands
• Provinces and territories of Canada
• Arctic Circle
• Tree line

Reference map of Canadian arctic islands. ... Canada is a federation of ten provinces which, together with three territories, comprise the worlds second largest country. ... World map showing the five major circles of latitude A sign along the Dalton Highway marking the location of the Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. ... In this view of an alpine tree-line, the distant line looks particularly sharp. ...

External link

• Atlas of Canada - Arctic