Atlantic Canada
New Brunswick
Prince Edward Island
Nova Scotia
Newfoundland/Labrador
Physiographic Regions
•Canadian shield (labrador)
•Appalachian Uplands
◦From these we get fish, forests (new Brunswick) and minerals
Physical Attributes
•5.5% of area of Canada
–Appalachian Uplands
•very old terrain
•it has been flattened by the environment (wind, snow, ice, water)
•Continental Shelf (400km offshore)
•Potentially a very productive fishery
•They are now searching for petroleum in Newfoundland and Natural Gas in Nova Scotia
•Main air masses originate in the Interior of North America, gulf of Mexico and North Atlantic
Ocean
•Atlantic climatic zone (includes hot, moist air masses from Gulf of Mexico
•Subarctic zone is milder inland
•Arctic zone: Labrador current chills coastline
•Little arable land
◦St-John river valley
◦PEI
◦Annapolis valley
•Atlantic Ocean that links provinces together and to foreign countries (Western Europe)
•Isolated from Canada's Core
•closer ties to New England
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland/Labrador
Population
•just under 7% of the population of Canada
•1949, Atlantic Canada constituted 11.6% of the nation's population
•slow population increase and large out-migration (little in-migration)
•recent major decline and then rebound in populations of Newfoundland/Labrador and New
Brunswick
◦Mainly due to new mining industry in the two provinces
•From 1996 to 2008 Atlantic Canada lost over 48 000 residents
•Original settlers were British, french and German
•Population lives mainly in the south, north holds less than 5% of the population
•settlements are dispersed along the coastline
•inland communities situated around mineral and forest resources
•Least urbanized region in Canada