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DEFINITIONS AND USAGE Also referred to as the Canadian North or (locally) as ''', Ontario , Manitoba , and Labrador . Similarly, the Far North (when contrasted to "the North") may refer to the Canadian . All of these somewhat depend on the concept of Nordicity , a measure of northernness that other Arctic territories share. Canada, a country in Northern North America whose population is concentrated along its Frontier With The Contiguous United States , is frequently reckoned to not have a ' South '. As such, ''"the South"'' is only perceived as a region when it is contrasted to or viewed from those in "the North". TERRITORIALITY Since ; Denmark , Russia , and Norway have made claims similar to those of Canada in the Arctic and are opposed by the EU and the US. This is especially important with the Northwest Passage . Canada asserts control of this passage as part of Canada's internal waters because it is within 20 km of Canadian islands; the US asserts that it is an international waterway. Today ice and freezing temperatures makes this a minor issue, but Global Warming may make the passage more accessible to shipping, something that concerns the Canadian government and inhabitants of the environmentally sensitive region. Similarly, the disputed Hans Island (with Denmark), in the Nares Strait west of Greenland , may be a flashpoint for challenges to overall Canadian sovereignty in The North. TOPOGRAPHY While the largest part of the Arctic is composed of seemingly non-stop permanent ice and (with the British Empire Range and the United States Range on Ellesmere Island ) contains the northernmost mountain system in the world and is geologically distinct from the Arctic Region ''' (which consists largely of Lowlands ). The Arctic and Hudson Bay lowlands comprise a substantial part of the geographic region often considered part of the Canadian Shield (in contrast to the sole geological area). The ground in the Arctic is mostly composed of Permafrost , making construction difficult and often hazardous, and agriculture virtually impossible. The Arctic '''watershed''' (or '''drainage Basin''') drains northern parts of Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia , most of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut as well as parts of Yukon into the Arctic Ocean, including the Beaufort Sea and Baffin Bay . With the exception of the Mackenzie River , Canada's longest river, this watershed has been little used for Hydroelectricity . The Peace and Athabasca River s, and the Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake (respectively the largest and second largest lakes wholly enclosed within Canada), are significant elements of the Arctic watershed. Each of these elements eventually merges with the Mackenzie so that it thereby drains the vast majority of the Arctic watershed. HUMAN GEOGRAPHY The entire region is very sparsely populated with only about 105,000 people living in a vast area the size of Western Europe . It is heavily endowed with natural resources, but in most cases they are too expensive to extract, and situated in an environmental context too unspoiled, to be worthwhile. Though GDP per person is higher than elsewhere in Canada, the region remains relatively poor, due largely to the extremely high cost of most consumer goods, and is heavily subsidised by the Canadian government. Aboriginal Peoples In Northern Canada constitute roughly half of the Inuit population in Canada. The region also contains several groups of First Nations , who are mainly Chipewyan peoples. About 69% of the population of the three territories is Aboriginal, and the three territories each have a greater proportion of Aboriginal inhabitants than any of Canada's provinces. There are also many more recent immigrants from around the world; of the territories, Yukon has the largest percentage of non-Aboriginal inhabitants. {Link without Title} REFERENCES
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