GEO of Canada Midterm

Region

A distinctive area of Earth’s surface. It has distinguishing human or natural characteristics that set it apart from other areas

Regionalism

The division of a large area into different parts with varying characteristics

Reasons why regionalism is so prevalent in Canada

• vast geographic size and varied geography

• different patterns of historic settlement

• different cultures/languages

• uneven population distribution

• British North America Act of 1867 gave considerable power to the provinces

Uniform region

A geographic region named after a characteristic where all locations in the region have similarities in that characteristic

Functional region

A geographic region that is defined by a series of interactions and connections rather than by formal or recognized boundaries

Cultural region

A geographic region based on a sense of belonging, there is a bond between people and the region. This bond arises from shared historical experiences, similar values, and common goals

Faultlines

Differences between the different areas whether it be geographical, cultural etc.

4 Faultlines within Canada

• Centralist vs. decentralist visions of Canada

• English speaking and French speaking canadians

• Indigenous Peoples and the Non-Indigenous Majority

• Newcomers and old timers

Centralist vs Decentralist Visions of Canada

This faultline related to Canada’s political system and refers to the centralization of government power (federal power) versus the decentraliation of power (Provincial power)

English speaking and French speaking Canadians

French is the only official language in Quebec but there is a political and cultural struggle to maintain French as a viable language within a primarily English-speaking continent

Faultline within Quebec

Internal faultline between federalists and seperatists

Indigenous peoples and the non indigenous majority

• Higher proportion of indigenous communities remain dependent on the federal goverenment

• high rate of poverty and unemployment in many indigenous communities, specifically on reserves

• Residential schools of the past were designed to assimilate youth and to discourage the use of indigenous language

3 groups of Indigenous peoples in Canada

First Nations, Metis, and Inuit

Newcomers and Old-timers

• Canada is a country of immigrants and this can lead to cultural friction among different ethnic groups

• New immigrants are concentrated in major cities; gives a network of family/friends who speak their language and restaurants that  serve their desired food

Transportation that solves the challenge of linking regions across Canadas vast landscape

• The canadian pacific railway

• the canadian national railway

• the trans canada highway

• The great trail

Canadian pacific railway

Completed in 1885 and was influentiaal in the development of Western Canada. Its terminal in Vancouver fulfiled a promise from the federal gov’t to BC when that province enterd confederation in 1871

Canadian National Railway

Incorperated in 1919 and today is Canada’s longest railway spanning from halifax to Prince Rupert, BC

The Trans-Canada Highway

Opened in 1962 and links all 10 provinces. The main branch is one of the longest highways in the world (7821km). Highway maintenance and route numbering are not under federal jurisdiction (transporation is a provincial power)

The great Trail

A system of paths, greenways, waterways, and roads linking the 3ocean coasts; 80% of canadians live within 30 minutes of the great trail. After 25 years of planning, it was commemorated in 2017 on the 150th anniviersary of confederation

Sense of place

Involves a psychological bond that people have for the area where they were born and raised or for where they currently live

arises from the physical landscape of the area, economic activities, and institutional bodies

most powerful determinant of a persons life chances, experiences, and opportunitites

Collective experiences amoung people in a region

Lead to shared aspirations, goals, and values

Each canadian region

Has both a sense of place and regional pride as well as a commitment to federalism

A sense of place within a specific city

Protects against the current phenomenon of economic and Cultural globalization

Distinctive cityscapes

Provide an identity that evokes a psychological bond between people and the location

The 6 regions of Canada

• Territorial North

• British columbia

• Western Canada

• Ontario

• Quebec

• Atlantic Canada

Reasons why the 6 regions are defined as regions

• Manageable sections in a balanced size

• Identifiable by a set of physical features, natural resources, and economic strangths

• breakdown is on provincial basis, making it easy to study statistical census data

• linked to regional identity and sometimes associated with regional disputes

The core/Periphery theory

• referred to as heartland/hinterland theory

• Based on the idea that capitalist economics result in regionally uneven development

• States that both parts are dependent on each other but the core (industrial heartland) dominates the economic relationship with the periphery (resource hinterland)

Core in canada

Southern ontario and southern quebec while all other areas makeup the periphery

Upward transitional peripheries

BC and the prairie provinces

Downward transitional periphery

The atlantic provinces

Resource frontier periphery

The territorial North

Characteristics of Cores

• receive raw materials from the periphery

• Manufacturing is a common industry

• Geographically small

• diverse economy

• urban and densely populated

• home to corporate headquarters

Characteristics of peripheries

• purchase manufactureds goods from the core

• geographically large

• resource-based economy

• rural and sparsely populated

Noticable trends traveling from a core to a periphery

• Both total population and population density decreases

• medium income decreases

• unemployment decreases

Two contrasting ways that cores and peripheries interact

• regional exploitation model

• modern model

Regional exploitation model

the economically wealthy core exploits the natural wealth of the periphery leaving it impoverished

Modern Model

Core invests in the periphery and helps it to develop economically

Sub-core

Has similar characteristics to a core but at a much smaller scale

Sub cores exisiting within Canada’s peripheries

• vancouver/victoria

• Edmonton/Calgary

• Halifax

The staples Thesis

A proposed explanation of how and why Canada’s economy has grown and changes

Proposed by Harold Innis in the early 1930’s

The regional economic history of Canada was linked to the discovery, utilization and explort of staple resources in canada’s peripheries

Staple product

A natural resource that can be exploited relatively quiickly and cheaply for profit

Staples in Canada throughout time

Atlantic provinces was the first region to be settled, and in its early history it was a periphery for England.

Through Canada’s history there has been an east to west proposition of the most economically prominent staples

Advancement of canada’s staples

• fur

• lumber (Progressing from east to west)

• Fish (east)

• Mining (Progressing from east to west)

• Oil (West)

Three types of economic linkages are necessary for growth and job creation

• Backward linkage

• Forward linkage

• Final demand linkage

Backward linkage

Supplies for the staple industry (e.g. saws and tools for the lumberindustry)

Forward linkage

Local Processing before export (e.g. squaring lumber before shipment)

Final demand linkage

Servicing the needs of workers and families (e.g. General stores, schools, etc)

the national policy

(1879) contributed to the development of the core in canada

This policy created a nationwide markey for Canadian made goods

How did the national policy work?

Through the implementation of tariffs on foreign made goods

Implications of the National Policy

• Increased price of goods from the U.S., which would have otherwise been cheaper for purchase

• Favoured economic and manufacturing growth in Southern Ontario and Southern Quebec since this is where transportation costs were minimized

• It had a negative impact in Western Canada because they were purchasing expensive Canadian-made goods from the core but were exporting wheat and grain to the U.S at low prices since the U.S. had its own tariffs

The Canada - U.S. free trade agreement

(1988) Helped peripheries by providing cheaper products to purchase and also provided a larger market (the U.S. market) for their staple products

Many large companies began to integrate by operating factories in one location instead of one in each country

It was superseded by NAFTA in 1994 when Mexico joined, and was then superseded by CUSMA in 2020

Physical Geogrpahy

The study of Earths natural features

5 Categoories of physical geography

• geologic elements

• physiography

• Climate

• vegetation

• soil

Location of the core based on physical geography

An area with a more favourable physical base is more likely to develop into a core with a large population

3 major geologic elements

• Canadian shield (igneous rock)

• Platform (sedimentary rock)

• folded mountains (metamorphic rock)

Canadian Shield - Geologic

Composed of highly resistant igneous rock

the rock is oover 1 billion years old making it the oldest rock in North America

Extends from the Northwest Territories through the northern prairie provinces, northern ontario, Newfoundland and laborador

Platform

These rocks underlay the interior Plains of the continent (from the northwest territories to texas)

Mainly sedimentary and contain large areas of oil and natural gas

Folded Mountainrs

Folding is caused by the movement of tectonic plates which causes sedimentary rock to change into metamorphic rock

three major areas of folded mountainrs in Canada

Appalachian, Innuitian, Cordillera

Appalachian Mountains

Located in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces, they are relatively old, low, well eroded, and covered in vegetation

Innutian Mountains

Located in Noorthern Nunavut, jagged but some what eroded, mostly inaccessible mountains

Cordillera Mountains

The major ranges include the rocky mountains and coast mountains

youngest mountains in Canada—highest, most jagged, permanently snow-capped top

Physiographic region

A large area that has common characteristics. contains similar topographic features. Land forms have been shaped by a common set of processes

7 physiographic regions of Canada

• Canadian Shield

• Cordillera

• Interior Plains

• Hudson Bay Lowlands

• Arctic Archipelago

• Appalachian Uplands

• Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Lowlands

Canadian Shield - Physiographic

Extends over half of the country’s land mass, the rocky surface consists mainly of rugged land

during the last time of ice advance, the surface was subjected to glacial erosion and deposition

Contains a wealth of valuable metallic mineral resources

Cordillera  - physiographic region

Complex region of mountains, plateaus, and valleys

highest variation in relief of all the physiographic regions

North-south alignment extends from yukon to Southern British Columbia

Rocky mountains are the tallest and best known of the many ranges

Interior Plains

This region was once covered by a large, shallow inland sea where sediments eventually formed sedimentary rock

Deep, wide river valleys are a unique feature of this region and are evidence of glacial spillways

Hudson Bay Lowlands

This region has many bogs and contains muskeg (poorly drained soil).

Has the least variation in relief of all physiographic regions

Permafrost is widespread and there are only a few very small settlements

Arctic Archipelago

It is a complex area of coastal plains, plateaus, and mountains located north of the Arctic circle

The northern part of this region is permanently covered in snow and ice while the southern part contains tundra

Underlain by the continuous permafrost making tree growth impossible

Appalachian Uplands

this is an area of rounded uplands and narrow river valleys

the indented coastline of the region contains many small bays and harbours

Great lakes - St. Lawrence Lowlands

This is the smallest physiographic region

The landscape is generally flat with rolling hills reflecting the underlying sedimentary rock

Soil is very fertile and well suited for agriculture and a variety of crops

Glaciation

Glaciation was a major shaping force in Canada

All of canada (except for Northern Yukon) was covered by ice sheets just 18000 years ago

The advance and retreat of ice haas greatly altered the appearance of the landscape

Most of the 2 mil+ lakes in canada are formed from the melting of continental glacier

Types of glaciers

• Continental glaciers

• Alpine Glaciers

Continental glaciers

these are thick sheets of ice that cover entire continents

Greenland and Antarctica are the only glaciers on earth of this kind

Alpine glaciers

These are glaciers that are found in mountainous regions

A glacier can develop when slopes accumulate with snow that compacts into ice over long periods of time

Evolution of the Great Lakes

The great lakes are remnants of glacial lakes that bordered the continental ice sheet

The bottoms of the lakes were formed by glacial scouring then filled with water from melting ice

Former Lake Agassiz

Formed by melting ice, this was once the largest lake in North America

It was located mostly in what is now Manitoba.

Now flat and fertile farmland as part of the red river valley

Major Components of Climate

• Temperature

• Precipitation

Climatic Controls

• Latitude

• Altitude

• Proximity to Bodies of Water

• Ocean Currents

Latitude

lower = more solar radiation impacting the surface

Altitude

Higher elevations = Cooler temperature

fewer air molecules at higher elevations; this allows heat to more easily escape into space

Proximity to Bodies of Water

Water keeps nearby land areas warmer in Autumn and cooler in Spring

Ocean Currents

Transport warm or cold water depending on the source of the current

Variations in topography

Cold air is dense and tends to sink into valleys

Prevailing wind

Some wind systems cause rapid temperature changes

Locations of pressure systems

relates to the position of warm and cold front

Canada’s 7 Climatic Zones

• Pacific

• cordillera

• prairies

• great lakes- st lawrence

• atlantic

• subarctic

• arctic

Majority of canadas land mass

Is located within the subarctic and arctic climatic zones

Temperature

In Canada, primarily controlled by latitude and proximity to bodies of waterr

moderation is evident along ocean coasts (especially pacific coast) and to a lesser extent around the great lakes

Growing season

number of days between final frost in spring and first frost in fall

Victoria B.C. has the largest

Physical Effects of Temperature

dictates the predominant veggetation in area

Dictates the length of the growing season

Precipitation in Canada

Prairie Provinces and the Territorial North are relatively dry

West Coast is very wet due to orographic precipitation

Convective precipitation occurs in the Prairie Provinces and in the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Lowlands especially during Summer

Moderate precipitation and consistent year round in great lakes

Orographic Precipitation

Precipitation caused by air rising up a mountain

Convective Precipitation

Thunderstorms caused by air rising off hot ground

Desert

An area that receives less than 250mm of precipitation annually

Major natural vegetation zones in canada

Forest, tundra, grassland

Deciduous Foorests

These are composed of trees that lose their leaves each winter e.g. broad leaf forest (southern ontario), carolinian forest (north shore of lake Erie)

Coniferous Forests

These are composed of evergreen trees and are sometimes called needleleaf forests e.g. Boreal forest (Canadian Shield), montane forest (Interior of B.C.), Coastal rainforest (coast of B.C.)

Grasslands

only found in the prairie provinces

found in relatively dry areas, length of the grass varies with moisture content

Tundra

found in both arctic and alpine areas

plants in these zones have shallow root systems sue to the underlying permafrost

Small plants survive in harsh climate. thy reproduce by runners