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Northern Canada is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics.
Definitions and usage
Also referred to as the Canadian North or (locally) as the North, a political definition for the region consists of Canada's three territories: Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut (which includes all islands in Hudson Bay). An alternate definition based on physiogeography is that portion of the country north of the tree line (a definition that includes Canada's geographical centre): covering most of Nunavut, and the northerly parts of the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Labrador.
Similarly, the Far North (when contrasted to "the North") may refer to the Canadian Arctic: the portion of Canada north of the Arctic Circle.
All of these somewhat depend on the concept of nordicity, a measure of northernness that other Arctic territories share. Canada, a country in northern North America whose population is concentrated along its frontier with the contiguous United States, is frequently reckoned to not have a 'south'. As such, "the South" is only perceived as a region when it is contrasted to or viewed from those in "the North".
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 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 definition 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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, and situated in an environmental context too unspoiled, 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.
Aboriginal peoples in Northern Canada 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. *
References
- Atlas of Canada - Arctic
- Graham, Amanda. "Indexing the Canadian North: broadening the definition", The Northern Review, #6; Winter 1990: pp. 21-37. ISSN 0835-3433.
- Hamelin, Louis-Edmond. Canadian nordicity: it's your north, too. Montreal: Harvest House, 1979. ISBN 0887721745.
- McNiven, Chuck & Puderer, Henry. Delineation of Canada's North: an examination of the North–South relationship in Canada. Geography Division, Statistics Canada, January 2000: Catalogue #2F0138MIE, #2000-3. ISSN 1481-174X.
See also
"Northern Canada"