Summit of the Americas

"Canada, the summit of the Americas
your sides lapped by the two great oceans
your brow thrust into the Arctic ice
your humble name is that of a giant."
[Translation]

	Iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador ©2003 ICN-RCI / Hemera

It is with poetry that Berthe de Trémaudan, a Canadian writer of Belgian origin, honours the setting of her adopted country. Located roughly between 41 and 83 degrees north latitude, Canada occupies the northern third of North America, spanning 5,514 kilometres and six time zones from east to west. In land area, with its 10 million square kilometres, it is second only to Russia, which has more than 17 million. Canada could contain 18 countries the size of France or 40 United Kingdoms.

Canada is surrounded by oceans on three sides: the Atlantic on the east, the Pacific on the west and the Arctic on the north. Its seemingly endless maritime boundary extends some 244,000 kilometres, enough to circle the earth more than six times. Canada's only neighbour by land is the United States, with which it shares two borders, along its entire southern flank as well as to the northwest, with the state of Alaska. Another of Canada's neighbours is France, which owns the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon off Newfoundland and Labrador. It also rubs shoulders with Denmark, since the Danish territory of Greenland, at its closest point, is scarcely 20 kilometres from Ellesmere Island in Canada's Far North.