Last week's #geoweirdness thread about France really resonated, thanks everyone for sharing
This week we'll stay (at least partially) in the French-speaking world and consider the geographic oddities of Canada
1/n
2/ Canada is enormous, the 2nd largest country in the world behind Russia
. Twice the size of the EU
Here's a great Dymaxion projection of the world with countries ranked by size.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area
3/ Canada is subdivided into 10 provinces and 3 territories. They are administered slightly differently, territories control less of their own affairs. Nunavut is the newest (and largest) territory and was established in 1999
https://answersblurb.com/why-does-canada-have-provinces-and-territories
4/ Newfoundland (then known as the Dominion of Newfoundland, now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador) was originally it's own entity within the British Empire and only joined Canada in 1949.
5/ As we noted in last week's France thread, just off the coast of Newfoundland are the French islands of
Saint Pierre and Miquelon (ISO code "PM"), last tiny remnants of "New France"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_France
The French influence of course lives on in Canada's largest province Quebec
6/ Canada has more than 800,000 lakes.
Manitoulin Island on Lake Huron is the world's largest lake island.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manitoulin_Island
"Inception Island" it is an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island.
https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=69.792222&mlon=-108.240556&zoom=15#map=15/69.7922/-108.2406
7/ The US / Canada
border is one of the longest and most peaceful borders in the world at 8,890 km, but several areas (mainly bodies of water) are still disputed between the two countries
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_areas_disputed_by_Canada_and_the_United_States
8/ Setting the western border was quite contentious, but in 1846 the US and the UK
(Canada
was then a British colony) agreed on the 49th parallel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_boundary_dispute
This created the unique exclave of Point Roberts, Washington, US which can only be reached by land via Canada.
9/ There was very exciting geographic news last year when Canada and Denmark
resolved their dispute over remote, uninhabited Hans Island, thus ending the delightful "Whisky War", in which each country left
bottles of alcohol for the other
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisky_War
The result is Canada now shares a land border with Denmark / Greenland
@opencage wait isn't greenland outside of the EU?
@secretasianman yes, you right, though it’s a bit complicated as all Greenlandic citizens are EU citizens
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_and_the_European_Union