Canada: ehh!

British Columbia The Land British Columbia is Canada's westernmost province and one of North America's most mountainous regions. B.C. is bordered by the province of Alberta, the Yukon Territory and several U.S. states, including Alaska. Given its location, British Columbia is a gateway to the Pacific and Asia. Sometimes simply categorized as part of Canada's "West," the province is actually a distinct region both geographically and culturally. The variety of its landscape is the main reason for B.C.'s distinctiveness: its 947 800 km2 offer remarkable topographical contrasts. Where the Pacific Ocean reaches the continent, it meets a chain of islands, large and small, running from north to south. Some of these islands are nestled in fiords carved in the majestic Coastal Mountains, which rise more than 2000 m above sea level. To the east of the Coastal Mountains lies a rolling upland of forests, natural grasslands and lakes. Farther east, the Rocky Mountains (with peaks more than 4000 m high) separate B.C. from neighbouring Alberta. In the north, a small corner of the province is occupied by the Great Plains. The province's climate equals its topography for variety. For example, the mild coastal region receives abundant precipitation - from 130 to 380 cm of rain a year - while the interior has a continental climate. Other parts of the province are almost desert-like, with very hot summers followed by very cold winters. The History The Aboriginal peoples of British Columbia developed a rich and complex culture. Because of the diversity of the Pacific coast - mild to cold climate, seashore to mountains - the tribes that settled in this area developed completely different cultures and languages. The coastal inhabitants were experts at wood sculpture, as their totem polls attest even today. They were also famous for their skill and courage in whaling. As for their social system, it was marked by occasions such as the potlatch - a ceremony in which important gifts were given to guests - and by theatrical displays. In 1774, the first Europeans, under the flag of Spain, visited what is now British Columbia. In contrast with eastern Canada, where the English and French were the two nationalities fighting over territory, Spain and Russia were the first countries to claim ownership of certain parts of British Columbia. In the 18th century, the Spanish claimed the west coast from Mexico to Vancouver Island. At the same time, the Russians were making an overlapping claim for control of the Pacific coast from Alaska to San Francisco. In 1778, Captain James Cook of Great Britain became the first person to chart the region. The first permanent colony, in present-day Victoria, was established by the British in 1843. When gold was discovered in the lower Fraser Valley in 1857, thousands of people came in search of instant wealth. To help maintain law and order, the British government established the colony of British Columbia the following year. In 1866, when the frenzy of the gold rush was over, the colony of Vancouver Island joined British Columbia. The colony was cut off from the rest of British North America by thousands of kilometres and a mountain range. The promise of a rail link between the Pacific coast and the rest of Canada convinced British Columbia to join Confederation in 1871. The People The majority of B.C.'s inhabitants are of British origin, but the population is enriched by immigrants and descendants of immigrants of all nationalities. More than 100 000 British Columbians are descendants of the thousands of Chinese who took part in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the late 19th century. Today, Vancouver has North America's second-largest Chinese community. In addition, more than 60 000 of B.C. inhabitants are from India and over 16 000 from Japan. British Columbians of Asian heritage have contributed tremendously to the province's economic and cultural vitality. Alberta The Land The westernmost of Canada's three Prairie provinces, Alberta lies between the 49th and 60th parallels, at virtually the same latitude as the United Kingdom. Alberta is 1217 km from north to south and between 293 and 650 km in width from west to east. Nearly equal in size to the state of Texas, the province covers an area of some 661 185 km2. Roughly half of the southwestern section of the province is dominated by mountains and foothills - striking reminders of the glaciers that, over millions of years, formed, moved and receded in the area. Peaks of the Rocky Mountains located in Alberta range from 2130 to 3747 m in elevation. The foothills, which form a gentle link between mountain and prairie landscapes, feature heavily forested areas and grasslands used for grazing cattle. Beneath their surface, the foothills contain some of the province's richest deposits of sour gas and coal. The remainder of the province - approximately 90 percent of the land area - forms part of the interior plain of North America. The plains include the forested areas that dominate the northern part of the province and the vast stretches of northern muskeg that overlay much of Alberta's oil and gas deposits and oil sands. Alberta has what is known as a continental climate. It is characterized by vivid seasonal contrasts in which long, cold winters are balanced by mild to hot summers and an unusually high number of sunny days, no matter what the season. Although cold air covers the whole province in winter, it is frequently replaced in the southwest by a mild wind, the "chinook," funneling through the mountains from the Pacific Ocean. The History The Aboriginal people, whose ancestors are thought to have crossed the Bering Sea from Asia thousands of years ago, were the first people to live in what is now Alberta. The Blackfoot, Blood, Piegan, Cree, Gros Ventre, Sarcee, Kootenay, Beaver and Slavey Indians, speaking a variety of Athapaskan and Algonkian languages, were the sole inhabitants of what was then a vast wilderness territory. The early Albertans, particularly the woodland tribes of the central and northern regions, became valuable partners of the European fur traders who arrived in the 18th century. The first European explorer to reach what is now Alberta was Anthony Henday, in 1754. Peter Pond, of the North West Company, established the first fur-trading post in the area in 1778. The Hudson's Bay Company gradually extended its control throughout a huge expanse of northern North America known as Rupert's Land and the North West Territory, including the region occupied by present-day Alberta. From that time, the region was fought over by the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, each of which built competing fur-trading posts. The rivalry ended only in 1821, when the two companies merged. Expeditions led by Henry Youle Hind and John Palliser found parts of the region to have exceptionally good land for farming, especially the fertile belt north of the Palliser Triangle, a particularly arid zone. As a result of these findings, the British decided not to renew the license of the Hudson's Bay Company and, in 1870, the North West Territory was acquired by the Dominion of Canada and administered from the newly formed province of Manitoba. New Foundland The Land Nestled into the northeast corner of North America, facing the North Atlantic, is Newfoundland, Canada's most easterly province. Lying between the 46th and 61st parallels, the province consists of two distinct geographical entities: Newfoundland and Labrador. The island of Newfoundland, which forms the southern and eastern portion of the province, is a large triangular-shaped area of some 112 000 km2, while the province's total area is 405 720 km2. Located at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, the island is about halfway between the centre of North America and the coast of western Europe. The island of Newfoundland is separated from the Canadian mainland by the Strait of Belle Isle in the north and by the wider Cabot Strait in the south. The mainland, Labrador, is bordered by northeastern Quebec. Approximately two and a half times as large as the island, it remains a vast, pristine wilderness, where the northern lights, or aurora borealis, flicker over the largest caribou herd in the world. The province's coastline, stretching over more than 17 000 km, is varied and scenic with its bold headlands, deep fiords and countless small coves and offshore islands. The interiors of both Labrador and Newfoundland have a rolling, rugged topography, deeply etched by glacial activity and broken by lakes and swift-flowing rivers. Much of the island and southern and central Labrador is covered by a thick boreal forest of black spruce and balsam fir mixed with birch, tamarack and balsam poplar. Northern Labrador is largely devoid of forest and is marked by the spectacular Torngat Mountains, which rise abruptly from the sea to heights of up to 1676 m. Newfoundland's climate can best be described as moderate and maritime. The island enjoys winters that are surprisingly mild by Canadian standards, though with a high rate of precipitation. Labrador, by comparison, has the cold winters and brief summers characteristic of the Canadian mid-North. The History The central region of the island of Newfoundland was once the home of the now extinct Beothuk Indians. The first Europeans to visit Newfoundland were Norsemen, who arrived in the late 10th century. (The Norse settlement at l'Anse aux Meadows was the world's first cultural discovery location to receive recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.) Other early visitors, the Basques, Portuguese, Spanish, British and French, staged fishing expeditions in the 16th century and probably even earlier. In 1497, the Italian seafarer Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) went to investigate what lay in the northern section of the western Atlantic. John Cabot landed on the island on June 24, 1497, on the feast of St. John the Baptist. Cabot called the new land "St. John's Isle" in honour of the saint and claimed it for Henry VII of England, his patron and employer. Anglo-French colonial warfare shaped the history of Newfoundland during the 1600s and 1700s. France, already well-established on the mainland of Eastern Canada, began to make claims to parts of Newfoundland. In 1662, France established a fort and colony at Placentia, despite protests from British merchants and fishermen. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 ended a long period of raids and skirmishes by both nations and reconfirmed British sovereignty over Newfoundland and the fishing banks. The people of Newfoundland were granted the right to vote for an elected assembly in 1832 and, after much debate, Newfoundland was given responsible government in 1855. In 1865, Newfoundland postponed the decision on whether to join the Dominion of Canada. Following World War II, the question of Newfoundland's future status became an issue once again. A public referendum was held on the subject in 1948; Newfoundlanders voted in favour of joining the Canadian Confederation. Newfoundland became Canada's newest province on March 31, 1949. The People The province's present population of approximately 574 000 is largely descended from settlers from southwestern England and southern Ireland who immigrated to Newfoundland in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The pattern of settlement was mainly determined by the fishing industry, a population distribution that has persisted to this day. The Avalon Peninsula and northeastern Newfoundland, the traditional base for the fisheries, continue to be the most heavily populated areas. St. John's, the historic commercial centre and capital of the island, is the province's largest city, with a population of approximately 172 000. Other major centres are Grand Falls, Windsor and Corner Brook. The smaller communities - called outports - remain, nevertheless, a major element in Newfoundland society. The twin towns of Labrador City and Wabush, which together form the largest urban community of Labrador, are based on the iron-ore mining industries of the area. In the early 1800s, disease and conflicts with settlers reduced the Beothuk Indians to extinction. There were, and still are, a relatively large number of Inuit concentrated in the coastal communities of northern Labrador.