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Canada and including plateau-like highlands with thousands of lakes and rivers. Almost a quarter of the world’s fresh water is concentrated here. The second region is the Appalachian Mountains to the east, which cover Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and part of Québec. The mountains have been eroded by glaciers, wind and water over 300 million years; their highest elevation, in Gaspe’s Shickshock Mountains, is under 1,300 metres. The third region is the Great Lakes-St Lawrence Lowlands in the south-east, stretching from Québec City to Lake Huron. It is the country’s most productive agricultural area. The fertile Interior Plains or prairies, the fourth region, are a vast expanse of land and sky, rising gently from Manitoba to Alberta and spreading northward through the Mackenzie River valley to the Arctic Ocean. The Western Cordillera, the fifth region, is a rocky spine of mountains along the Pacific coastline. The Cordillera stretches from South America to Alaska, and the Canadian portion Canada is a federation of ten provinces and includes many peaks over 3,000 metres, the KEY FACTS three territories. The provinces (and provincial highest being in the Rocky Mountains. Joined Commonwealth: 1931 (Statute of capitals) are: Alberta (Edmonton), British The Arctic region, finally, consists of hundreds Westminster) Columbia (Victoria), Manitoba (Winnipeg), of islands, covering an area of 2,800 km by Population: 35,182,000 (2013) New Brunswick (Fredericton), Newfoundland 1,800 km and reaching to Canada’s northern GDP p.c. growth: 1.3% p.a. 1990–2013 and Labrador (St John’s), Nova Scotia tip.
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