Amazing facts about Canada 

Canada is the second-largest country in the world

Canada is the largest country in the Western hemisphere and the second-largest country in the world after Russia and borders only one country, the United States of America (the United States and Canada share the longest (stretching 8,891 kilometers (5,525 mi)) international “demilitarized/unprotected” border in the world, they have stood by as friendly neighbors for over 200 years.

Here are some facts about Canada to put its breathtaking scale into perspective: It’s bigger than the entire European Union (33 times bigger than Italy and 15 times bigger than France), more than 30 percent larger than Australia, five times as big as Mexico, three times as big as India. Canada has six time zones.

The longest highway in the world is the Trans-Canada Highway which is over 7,604 kilometers (4,725 miles) in length.

image from : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_and_territories_of_Canada#/media/File:Political_map_of_Canada.png

Image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Canada_Highway

Canada has the longest coastline in the world

At 243,000 km along the shores of 52,455 islands, Canada boasts of the longest coastline in the world. If you want to have an idea of how long this is, it is estimated that at a pace of about 20 km a day, it would take a person 33 years to finish strolling Canada’s shorelines. This compares with Indonesia (54,716 km), Russia (37,653 km), the United States (19,924 km) and China (14,500 km).

There are millions of lakes in Canada

Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. At last count, there may be as many as two million lakes in Canada, with 563 of them larger than 100 square kilometers. Among its largest lakes are Lake Huron in Ontario, Great Bear Lake in the Northwestern Territories, and Lake Superior also in Ontario. There are large lakes in Manitoba as well. You will find Lake Winnipegosis, Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg here. Lake Winnipeg is Canada’s fifth and the world’s 11th largest lake. 

Ontario, Canada, has more than 250,000 lakes. They contain about 1/5 of the world's freshwater.

Wasaga beach north of Toronto is the longest freshwater beach in the world.

Georgian Bay of Lake Huron: Image by Ambar Adhav

Wasaga Beach images from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasaga_Beach

The largest source of fresh water in the world

With its millions of lakes and rivers, it’s not really surprising that Canada has earned this title. For instance, the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence is one of the largest and deepest estuaries in the world. Its water comes from the Great Lakes (or the Laurentian Great Lakes), a series of interconnected freshwater lakes in the upper mid-east region of North America. It mixes with salt oceanic water as it widens into a large estuary (a water passage where the tide meets a river current) near Ile d’Orléans. 

Canada's longest river is McKenzie River in the North West. The river is 4,241 km/ 2,635 miles long.

Canada is fourth biggest producer of hydroelectric power - after China, Brazil, and the USA

Image from: https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/oceans/management-gestion/gulf-golfe-eng.html

Canada has one-tenth of the world’s forest

Half of the country is covered with forests, which should come as no surprise considering one-tenth of the world's forests are here in Canada. Canada boasts 30 percent of the world’s boreal forest and 9 percent of the world’s total forest cover. An incredible 396.9-million hectares of forest and other wooded lands can be found across the country, and 68 percent of that is coniferous. The best part of all, most of our forest land is publicly owned. There are about 180 tree species in Canada. Timber is among the main exports of the country. Canada is the third most forested country in the world.

Images from: https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/our-natural-resources/forests-forestry/how-much-forest-does-canada-have/17601

Canada’s large national & provincial parks

One of the most mind-blowing facts about Canada is that the country is so big, even its parks dwarf other countries. Canada with its 10 Provinces and 3 Territories have an incredible amount to parks. There are 42 National Parks in Canada and over one thousand Provincial and Territorial Parks. Just look at Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories: not only is it a sight to behold with massive waterfalls, it’s also an incredible 30,050 square kilometers—bigger than Albania and Israel. Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta and the Northwest Territories is even bigger at 44,807 square kilometers, which makes it bigger than Denmark and Switzerland. Very scenic Jasper National park in the Rocky Mountains is 11,000 square kilometers and spans over several vegetation zones. The world’s most northerly sand dunes are in Athabasca Provincial Park in northwest Saskatchewan. They are 30 meters high.

The highest mountain in Canada is Mount Logan, Yukon Territory, 5959 meters (19,551 feet). The highest waterfall in Canada is Della Falls, British Columbia, 440 meters high (1,444 feet).

The diversity and vastness of the Canadian landscape offer a wide array of gorgeous scenery and experiences. From the Rocky Mountains to Arctic glaciers, the country’s parks serve up non-stop eye candy

  

Virginia Falls in Nahanni National Park Image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahanni_National_Park_Reserve

Spirit Island Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park: Image by Ambar Adhav

Canadian Rockies Banff National Park: Image by Ambar Adhav

and here are more images of my trip to the Canadian Rockies 

Top ten biggest islands in the world

Three Canadian islands are among the top ten biggest islands in the world. They are: Baffin Islands (more than double the size of Great Britain), Victoria Island and Ellesmere Island (both are roughly the size of England). Vancouver Island is in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is 32,134 square kilometers (12,407 sq mi) in area. It is the largest island on the West Coast of the Americas.

Mount Thor in Baffin Island, Canadian Arctic image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Thor

MacMillan Provincial Park on Vancouver Island is home to a famous, giant and tall Douglas fir trees, known as Cathedral Grove Image by Ambar Adhav

You’ll find the largest island within an island in Canada

Canada has a little-known island within an island in the Arctic measuring about four acres. Part of why it is mostly unknown is that it is inaccessible being 75 miles inland from Victoria Island (between Nunavut and the Northwestern Territories), the eighth largest island in the world.

Images from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Island_(Canada)

World’s highest tides: Bay of Fundy

The Bay of Fundy in Eastern Canada has the highest tides in the world. Tides in this coastal zone reach a peak of around 16 m (50′) — the height of a 5-storey building. This is many times higher than typical tides on the rest of the Atlantic coast! The huge tides expose the sea bottom and shape the coastline. Twice each day, 160 billion tonnes of seawater flow in and out of the Bay of Fundy — more than the combined flow of the world’s freshwater rivers! The Bay of Fundy’s tides transform the shorelines, tidal flats and exposed sea bottom as they flood into the bay and its harbors and estuaries.

Hopewell Rocks in Bay of Fundy: Image by Ambar Adhav

here are more images of my Eastern Canada trip 

The world’s oldest known rocks can be found here

The Canadian Shield forms a U-shape extending from Lake Superior in the south to the Arctic islands in the north and from the western part of Canada eastward to Greenland. It is where some of the oldest rocks on earth can be found. Among them, a 4.28 billion-year-old rock that was discovered by geologists in 2001. It was found in an area of exposed bedrock on the eastern shore of the Hudson Bay in northern Quebec.

Image from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/earth-original-crust-canadian-shield-1.4028576

Canada has a version of the Dead Sea

The Dead Sea in the Middle East is known the world over for water so buoyant you can’t sink. This is attributed to its high salt content making it denser than fresh water. Canada has Little Manitou Lake in Saskatchewan. Fed by underground springs, the 13.3 square km lake has mineral salt concentrations of 180,000 mg per litre making it extremely buoyant.

Canada's population density is among the lowest in the world, at 3.7 inhabitants per sq km (9.6/sq mi).

Six Canadian cities have more than 1 million residents: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa. According to Statistics Canada, Toronto tops the list, followed by Montreal and Vancouver, and Toronto has become the fourth most populous city in North America. Canada continues to be among the top countries with the lowest population density currently estimated at 3.9 people per square kilometer.

The country has a total population of more than 37 million as of 2019. Nine out of ten Canadians live in the US - Canada border region which includes the area up to 160 km/ 99 miles from the US - Canada border. Almost 82% of all Canadian live in urban areas. Life expectancy at birth is about 83 years. There are 26 doctors per 10,000 people in Canada. The Literacy Rate is 99%, About 1.4 Million Canadians refer to themselves as belonging to the indigenous or Aboriginal people (First Nation people, Metis and Inuits).

Canada has more oil than you think

Canada is the third-largest oil reserve holder in the world after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. The North American country is also the seventh-largest producer of oil. There’s an estimated 249.67 billion accessible barrels of the crude bitumen—a semi-solid source of petroleum in the world and Canada has about 70.8 percent of it.

Canada is also the largest supplier of energy, also including oil and gas, to the USA!

World leader in uranium mining

Canada is the world leader in uranium mining. Uranium is used in nuclear power plants for producing electricity. The largest uranium mine of the world is located at Cigar Lake in northern Saskatchewan/Canada.

Canada is also the third richest nation on earth in natural resources. The commodities that the country owns include industrial minerals, such as gypsum, limestone, rock salt, and potash, as well as energy minerals, such as coal and uranium. Metals in Canada include copper, lead, nickel, and zinc, and precious metals are gold, platinum, and silver. Canada is the leading supplier of natural gas and phosphate and is the third-largest exporter of timber

Canada is one of the world’s 10 largest economies

The latest edition of the World Economic League Table places Canada as the world’s 10th-largest economy based on its GDP of US$1.731 trillion in 2019. It is also a G7 country. The Group of Seven (G7) is an international intergovernmental economic organization consisting of seven of the world’s advanced economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The World Economic Forum ranks countries by quality of life using criteria like access to medical care, sanitation, and shelter, as well as education, life expectancy, and personal freedoms. On the WEF's shortlist are countries like Australia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Sweden. But coming in second place – right behind Finland – is Canada. 

In  the 2018 world education ranking from Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a major study of 72 countries, Canada ranked sixth overall, in the latest results from the OECD's PISA assessment, a survey conducted every three years that measures how 15-year-old high school students fare in reading, science, and mathematics. 

 World's biggest T. Rex dinosaur fossil found in Canada

Paleontologists at the University of Alberta recently reported the world's largest Tyrannosaurus rex, and the biggest dinosaur skeleton ever found in Canada. The enormous dinosaur, which was 42 feet long and weighed 19,400 pounds, roamed prehistoric Saskatchewan 66 million years ago and was nicknamed Scotty.

 

image from:  https://www.history.com/news/worlds-biggest-t-rex-canada-scotty-dinosaur

Other interesting facts about Canada

Residents of Churchill, Manitoba Canada, leave their cars unlocked to offer an escape for pedestrians who might encounter Polar Bears

Regina, the capital of the prairie province of Saskatchewan, is the closest to the center of the continent at a latitude of 50°27’ N and a longitude of 104°37’ W.

In Alberta's Banff National Park, overpasses that go over highways are made for wildlife and have trees and shrubs growing on them

Image by Ambar Adhav

Hawaiian pizza was actually invented by a man from Ontario, not by the Hawaiians.

There's an area in the Hudson Bay region that has less gravity than the rest of the planet.

The name “Kanata” is an Iroquois word (a Native American tribe who lived in Quebec in the 16th century) for “village” or “settlement”. When the French explorers settled, they believed the word was used to designate the whole area”. The name Canada, therefore, comes from a misunderstanding.

Maple syrup was first used by the Indigenous People of North America as a sweetener. Nowadays, Quebec manufactures more than 77% of the world’s maple syrup while Canada accounts for 90% of the world’s maple production.

Horseshoe Falls, also known as Canadian Falls, is the largest of the three waterfalls that collectively form Niagara Falls on the Niagara River along the Canada–United States border. Approximately 90% of the Niagara River, after diversions for hydropower generation, flows over Horseshoe Falls

At 3,950 feet wide, Niagara Falls is amongst the top 10 largest waterfalls in the world, but it is the waterfalls with the largest volume of water traveling through it. It has three separate parts: Horseshoe, or Canadian, Falls being the largest on the Niagara River along the Canada–United States border.

image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_Falls

Thanks to its northern latitudes and minimal light pollution, Canada is perfect for northern lights (Aurora borealis) viewing, especially between October and March. An aurora sometimes referred to as polar lights, northern lights (aurora borealis), is a natural light display in the Earth's sky, predominantly seen in the high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras are the result of disturbances in the magnetosphere caused by the solar wind.

image from: https://travel.usnews.com/gallery/the-13-best-places-to-see-the-northern-lights

References & Sources:

https://livelearn.ca/article/about-canada/10-amazing-facts-about-canadas-geography/ 

https://www.kids-world-travel-guide.com/canada-facts.html

https://www.readersdigest.ca/travel/canada/10-mind-boggling-facts-about-canada/

https://www.narcity.com/life/ca/on/toronto/30-weird-facts-about-canada-that-prove-its-the-most-interesting-country-ever

https://www.factslides.com/s-Canada

https://livelearn.ca/article/about-canada/10-amazing-facts-about-canadas-geography/