On the atlas Canada fills the top of North America. Most of the people who live there do not live at the top. They live at the bottom, on a strip that follows the US border.
One land neighbour: the United States. The border is one of the longest in the world. Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa sit along it. The north is not uninhabited. It is thinner, more expensive to supply, and more political as the Arctic loses ice.
Canada at a glance
Capital
Ottawa
Area
9,984,670 km²
Population
41.7 million
Official language(s)
English, French
Currency
Canadian dollar
Continent
Americas
Distinctive fact
Settlement along the southern rim
The area does not lie, it only misleads
9,984,670 square kilometres make Canada the second-largest state on earth. 41.7 million people live there. A large share within a few hours' drive of the US border. The figure is not an insult to the north. It is the result of climate, soils and transport.
Ottawa sits in the south-east, not in the middle of the country. The middle would be taiga and shield. A capital there would have reached nobody when the state was put together in 1867. The choice was practical, not symbolic.
The country is large. What is inhabited is the hem.
— TerraTally · Countries desk
Two official languages, many first languages
English and French are official at federal level. Quebec is majority French-speaking, New Brunswick officially bilingual. Inuktitut, Cree and dozens of other indigenous languages are older than both. The state made two colonial languages official. It has not erased the older ones from the land.
On Hans Island, Canada and Denmark claimed an island for decades with bottles instead of soldiers. The Arctic is neighbourhood, not emptiness. The border there is now divided.
The shield and the ice are not a backdrop
The Canadian Shield, the prairie, the Cordillera and the Arctic are four different countries under one name. Resources come from the north and the west. Decisions are taken in the south. That creates dependence both ways, not a one-way street.
Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Yukon together have the area of large European states and the populations of small cities. Inuit, First Nations and Métis do not live there as a sidenote. They live where the atlas turns white. The southern hem still decides the budget and the law, and that remains the country's tension.
Canada is easy to remember as a pink slab at the top of the world map and wrong as soon as you count where people live. The second-largest country is lived along the hem.