Which provinces make up canadas core

Ontario and Quebec are at the center of Canada's political and economic life. Ottawa is the capital of the federal government. It is located in southeastern Ontario, right next to the border of Quebec province. Quebec has its own political importance as the heart of French Canadian life. Ontario and Quebec also power Canada's economy. Together, they account for more than 35 percent of Canadian agricultural production, 45 percent of its mineral output, and 70 percent of its manufacturing.

As the map on page shows, they supply a wide variety of products. Toronto, located on the shores of Lake Ontario, is not only the country's most populous city but also its banking and financial hub. Montreal, located on the St. Lawrence River, is Canada's second largest city. It is the center of economic and political activity in Quebec province. These three provinces are the center of the nation's agricultural yield.

They account for 50 percent of Canada's agricultural production. The land of the Prairie Provinces, however, consists of more than just fertile soil.

About 60 percent of Canada's mineral output comes from this region of the country. Alberta itself has the nation's largest known deposits of coal and oil and produces 90 percent of Canada's natural gas. The people of the Prairie Provinces are a diverse group.

The town of St. Boniface boasts the largest French-Canadian population outside Quebec. The population of Saskatchewan also includes immigrants from South and East Asia and is home to the metis. Alberta is perhaps the most diverse of all. In addition to European immigrants, this province also has significant Indian, Japanese , Lebanese , and Vietnamese populations. The province of British Columbia along with the three territories—Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut—make up Canada's western and northern lands.

Canada's westernmost province is British Columbia. Nearly all of it lies within the Rocky Mountain range. As a result, three-fourths of the province is 3, feet or more above sea level. More than half of the land is densely forested, and nearly one-third is frozen tundra, snowfields, and glaciers. Most of the population is found in the southwest.

This is the location of British Columbia's two largest cities, Victoria and Vancouver. The economy is built on logging, mining, and hydroelectric-power production. Vancouver is Canada's largest port and has a prosperous shipping trade. Canada's three territories make up 41 percent of the country's land mass.

Yet, they are too sparsely populated to be provinces. The Yukon Territory, with a population around 30,, lies north of British Columbia and is largely an unspoiled wilderness. Directly east is the Northwest Territories, an area that extends into the Arctic. It has a population of about 41, people. Nunavut was carved out of the eastern half of the Northwest Territories in It is home to many of Canada's Inuit.

Even though the land is rugged and climatic conditions are severe, economic activities take place in the territories. As in other Atlantic Provinces, fishing has historically been an important industry in PEI, but agriculture is also important. It is bordered to the east, south, and west by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the north by the Province of New Brunswick. The climate conditions on the coast make for warmer winters and cooler summers. Further inland, winters are slightly colder and summers slightly warmer.

Today, however, the economy is much more diversified. The most recent industry in the province to see significant growth is the extraction of offshore oil and gas. The province boasts a temperate climate in which winters are cold and summers are moderately warm. As with most other Canadian provinces, New Brunswick has a largely resource-based economy, though it has a growing service sector, as well as a small manufacturing sector. It is also the largest Canadian province by land area, which means that its climate can vary greatly depending on where you are in the province.

Whereas southern Quebec normally sees very cold winters and moderate to very warm summers, the extreme north of the province will normally experience extremely cold winters and cool summers. It also produces a lot of hydroelectricity since it has an abundant supply of fresh water. Other key industries include aeronautics, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, forestry, mining, and filmmaking. Like Quebec, Ontario is vast in area, stretching from the border with the United States in the south, all the way to Hudson Bay in the north, making climate conditions very different based on where in the province you are.

Winters are much colder in the north and summers much warmer in the south. The economies of these three provinces are largely based on the exploitation of their natural resources. The topography of the Prairie Provinces is very flat, except for a section of Alberta, which features part of the Rocky Mountains.

The climate of the Prairie Provinces features very cold winters and very hot, dry summers. Manitoba is the eastern-most of the Prairie Provinces. The geography of the province includes around one hundred thousand lakes, the largest of which is Lake Winnipeg, one of the biggest inland bodies of fresh water in the world. The province is a very large exporter of grain products, including wheat , canola, oats, barley, and rye. With its many waterways, Manitoba can also generate a large amount of hydroelectricity.

The mining and manufacturing sectors are also important economic drivers in Manitoba. Like Manitoba, Saskatchewan is a very significant grain exporter. Mining extraction is also a key sector in Saskatchewan as the province contains large deposits of uranium and potash. Alberta is the most populous of the Prairie Provinces and arguably the most scenic. Alberta is well-known as being a lead producer and exporter of beef products.

It is also a large producer of oil and gas, especially from the oil sands located in the north of the province. On the coast, the climate is mostly temperate year-round. British Columbia also receives a significant amount of precipitation, especially on the coast.

In fact, about half of the products produced in the province are forestry-related. Only about , people live in the Northern Territories, which consist of the Yukon Territory , the Northwest Territories , and Nunavut. Today, the Northern Territories are severely affected by global warming , which is causing milder conditions, and perhaps most importantly, melting ice, which endangers the hunting and migratory patterns of certain animals and makes it harder for the indigenous population to maintain traditional lifestyles.

Almost everything that people in the Northern Territories consume must be imported from the south, and due to limited transportation infrastructure and the remoteness of many northern communities, it is very costly to transport goods to the area. A gold rush in the s brought throngs of people to the Yukon. Today, mining still plays an important role in the Yukon economy, as does a rapidly expanding tourism industry.

The Northwest Territories is where you will find the Mackenzie River, which is the second-biggest river system in North America.