A Study of Canada's Diverse Landscape Through Geographic Regions

This essay provides an overview of the geography of Canada, focusing on its division into seven physiographic regions: The Cordillera, The Prairies, The North, The Canadian Shield, The Great Lakes, The St. Lawrence River, and The Atlantic. It discusses how these regions are delineated based on l...Read More

Running head: GEOGRAPHY OF CANADA
Geography of Canada
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1GEOGRAPHY OF CANADA
Geography of Canada
Canada has a very diverse landscape. Geographic regions are created on the basis of
landforms, natural resources and climate. Canada, being the second largest country in the world,
has different types of landscapes and climate in different parts of the country and hence, the
geographers have divided the country into 7 physiological regions, namely, The Cordillera, The
Prairies, The North, The Canadian Shield, The Great Lakes, The St. Lawrence River and The
Atlantic (Gruber et al., 2015). The basis of such division is to study the different areas through
comparison without analyzing overwhelming data and understand the working system.
Geographic divisions are helpful in creating a better understanding of the human as well as the
physical aspects and patterns of working together as a system. Geographic regions can vary
radically in size, from being as large as half of the hemisphere to as small as few blocks. The
boundaries of regions or the criteria for regions are based on the characteristics of the area in
terms of physical landscape, natural resources and climate, and not on the size (Cochrane &
Perrella, 2012). Thus, the geographers has divided the regions in Canada for the purpose of
conducting studies and research work regarding the landscapes, geology and climate, irrespective
of their political administration, economy and culture.
The geographic locations are often different than what people perceive who live in those.
Three types of regions are identified which are determined by the perceptions of people. Those
regions are termed as formal, functional and vernacular (Weaver & Holtkamp, 2016). The formal
regions are often divided on the basis of culture, politics, economy and the physical features,
such as, the Alps, the wine counties, the provinces of Canada, that have different administration
systems (Lewis, 2015). Functional regions are based on the areas divided by services, such as,
regions enjoying services by a particular cable network company. Lastly, vernacular regions are

2GEOGRAPHY OF CANADA
those, which are created solely due to perceptions of people living there regarding tradition,
culture and history, such as the Mid West of the USA.
In Canada, there are 10 provinces and 3 territories, which vary radically in size of the
land and water, and these divisions are totally based on the political administration,
demographic, culture and history. Thus, they are different than the geographic regions. For
example, in Canada, there is not much habitat in the northern arctic regions; however, they fall
under the geographic region of The North or The Arctic, which remain frozen almost throughout
the year (Gruber et al., 2015). Thus, the basis of geographic division of regions not necessarily is
the same for the divisions based on people’s perceptions. The purpose of earth studies will not be
served if the geographers also divided the natural regions on the basis of their economic and
political administrations or people’s perception as the two aspects have completely different
purpose of study.

3GEOGRAPHY OF CANADA
References
Cochrane, C., & Perrella, A. (2012). Regions, regionalism and regional differences in
Canada. Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science
politique, 45(4), 829-853.
Gruber, S., Burn, C. R., Arenson, L., Geertsema, M., Harris, S., Smith, S. L., ... & Benkert, B.
(2015). Permafrost in mountainous regions of Canada. In The Proceedings of the 68th
Canadian Geotechnical Conference, 7th Canadian Permafrost Conference. September
20–23, 2015, Québec-City, Qc, Canada.
Lewis, S. (2015). A system in name only—access, variation, and reform in Canada's
provinces. New England Journal of Medicine, 372(6), 497-500.
Weaver, R., & Holtkamp, C. (2016). Determinants of Appalachian identity: using vernacular
traces to study cultural geographies of an American region. Annals of the American
Association of Geographers, 106(1), 203-221.