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Happy Canada Day!

By Islomaniac | July 1, 2008

Baffin IslandAlthough I live in the US, I have a lot of family and friends who live in Canada, and for those of you who don’t know, today is the day that Canada celebrates its independence. In honor of our friendly neighbor to the north I thought I would feature Canada’s biggest island.

Baffin Island is Canada’s biggest island. It is appropriate that its biggest island reflects the scale and size of this gigantic country. Baffin island is 507,451 square kilometers in size or 195,928 square miles.  Located in the territory of Nunavut the island is the fifth largest in the world. To put its size into context, the island is bigger than Great Britain, New Zealand, Japan and Cuba.

The island has a population of 11,000 inhabitants and is home to the territories capital, Iqaluit. In addition to its human residents the island is home to a wide variety of wildlife including, polar bears, artic wolves, seals and beluga whales.  

Given the islands position in the countries far Canadian North the island is typically very cold.  Spring thaw arrives much later than normal for a position straddling the Arctic Circle; around early June at Iqaluit in the south-east to early/mid July on the northcoast where glaciers run right down to sea level. Snow, even heavy snow occurs at any time of the year, although is least likely in July and early August.

I have never had the opportunity to visit the far Canadian North, but I have friends who have visted and even lived there. From what I hear it is isolated and cold, but they all come back saying their is something special about the Candian North.

Happy Canada Day!

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Topics: Family Islands, Remote Islands |

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