NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

-This most easterly province is made up of Newfoundland (island) and Labrador (mainland).
-Thousands of small islands are also included.
-Labrador is larger and is bordered by Quebec. The North Atlantic Ocean is to the east.
-The island of Newfoundland is surrounded by the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean.
-The capital city and largest city is St. John's.
-flower - Pitcher Plant, tree - Black Spruce, bird - Atlantic Puffin.
-motto - "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God."

THE PEOPLE

-About 508, 944 people live in Newfoundland and Labrador (2008).
-Most of the population lives on the island of Newfoundland.
-People live in fishing villages along the coast and small rural communities.
-About 60% of the people live in towns and cities.
-Early settlers mainly came from England, Ireland and Scotland.
-About 96% are British and Irish, and about 2% are of French descent
-Aboriginal ancestry include Micmac, Inuit, Innu and Métis.

CLIMATE

-In northern Labrador the climate is subarctic.
-The Atlantic Ocean affects the climate.
-Summers are cool and winters are long.
-There are many storms, fog, strong winds, heavy precipitation and cold temperatures.
-Newfoundland experiences more fog than any of the other Atlantic Provinces.

HISTORY

-The first people of Newfoundland were the Beothuk (now extinct) who hunted caribou and fished.
-For thousands of years ancestors of the Inuit hunted seal and polar bears along the Labrador coast.
-Vikings (Norsemen) were the first to visit Newfoundland and Labrador.
-Five hundred years later (in 1497) the explorer John Cabot arrived .
-He claimed the "new found isle" for the King of England.
-Fishermen from France, England, Spain and Portugal fished in the waters of the Grand Banks.
-English, Irish and Scottish settlers built small villages along the coast.
-In 1949 Newfoundland became a Canada's tenth province.

LAND AND WATER

-There are many bays and deep fiords along the coastlines.
-Pack ice and icebergs can be seen off the coastline.
-Much of the island, south and central Labrador - covered with thick forests, many rivers and lakes.
-Torngat Mountains in Labrador - the most spectacular mountains east of the Rockies.
-Gros Morne National Park (west coast of Newfoundland) - mountains, forests, lakes, sand dunes
-Terra Nova National Park (east coast of Newfoundland) - rocky cliffs, rolling hills, forests, lakes, ponds
-Continental Shelf off the coast - includes shallow areas (banks) and deeper areas (troughs and channels)
-The Grand Banks - a shallow part of the Continental Shelf (less than 50 metres deep) that lie off the coast of Newfoundland.

RESOURCES/INDUSTRY

-Main exports are oil, fish products, newsprint, iron ore and electricity.
-Newfoundland and Labrador are part of the Canadian Shield.
-Iron ore is produced in Labrador. (Steel is made from iron ore.)
-Oil and gas are found under the Grand Banks.
-Churchill Falls in Labrador is the second largest hydroelectric power plant in the world.
-Fishermen catch cod, herring, Atlantic salmon, flounder, turbot, halibut, tuna and haddock.
-Lobster, scallops, shrimp, and crab are also caught.
-Overfishing caused a severe decline of fish in the Grand Banks.
-Fish processing is an important industry.
-Forests ( mostly coniferous trees ) cover one third of Newfoundland.
-Summers are cool and the growing season is short.

PLACES AND PEOPLE

-Signal Hill is a high cliff where Italian inventor Marconi received the first wireless signal (1901) from across the Atlantic Ocean.
-Titanic, a large passenger ship, sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg south of Newfoundland.
-A transatlantic telegraph cable was laid on the bottom of the ocean from Ireland to Heart's Content, Newfoundland in 1866.

-Joey Smallwood - first premier of Newfoundland, the main force for bringing Newfoundland into Confederation in 1949
-Kevin Major - a Canadian children's author lives in St.John's.
-W.Grenfell - a doctor and missionary in the early 1900s, who visited fishing villages along the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland to care for the sick.



BACK to GET THE FACTS ABOUT ........

link - The Canadian Encyclopedia - NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
link - Government of Newfoundland and Labrador website

updated March 2009
http://www.saskschools.ca/~gregory/