Map of Canada
A working knowledge of global geography is crucial to understanding global relations and can lend insight into countries through the context of geographic location. For instance, with whom a country shares its border can determine relations and the environmental characteristics and region of the world directly impacts economy via export and import capability. Additionally, viewing a map can lend a better understanding of population density in relation to actual land area. For instance, looking at a map of Canada can lend immediate insight into different aspects of the country and its culture.
When first viewing a map of Canada, the large size of the country is immediately apparent. Canada follows behind only Russia in terms of overall size, however, when considering land mass exclusive of water territory, Canada is actually considered smaller than its Southern neighbor, the United States of America, This fact is illustrated quite simply by looking at a map of Canada versus that of the United States. Although quite large in overall size, Canada’s land mass is made smaller largely due to the Hudson Bay which reaches as far inland as Quebec and Montreal, almost dividing Canada in half. Additionally, the Northwest Territories have a series of very large lakes which separates the land territory. In fact, these lakes are iced over and made into temporary ice roads during the harshest of the winter months. This ice road provides temporary access to tractor trailers hauling supplies to the active diamond mines in the region. On a map of Canada, look for the town of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories and you can find the series of lakes which form the notorious winter ice roads.
A map of Canada is fascinating to examine due to the large amount of water bodies dispersed throughout the nation. Although Southern Canada is a large, continuous land mass, excluding the Hudson Bay, Northern Canada begins to break up into a series of islands before opening into the Arctic Ocean.
A map of Canada can really illustrate how sparsely populated many regions of this vast country are due to geographical characteristics.