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. (205,955 CMA 2016)
-flower - Pitcher Plant, tree - Black Spruce, bird - Atlantic Puffin.
-motto - "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God."

THE PEOPLE

-519,716 people live in Newfoundland and Labrador (2016 census).
-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.
-Thick forests and many rivers and lakes cover much of the island and south and central Labrador.
-Torngat Mountains in Labrador are the most spectacular mountains east of the Rockies.
-Gros Morne National Park (west coast of Newfoundland) has mountains, forests, lakes and sand dunes.
-Terra Nova National Park (east coast of Newfoundland) consists of rocky cliffs, rolling hills, forests, lakes and ponds.
-The Continental Shelf off the coast includes shallow areas (banks) and deeper areas (troughs and channels)
-The Grand Banks are 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 underground 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.




CANADA | FACTS | EMBLEMS | TOURS


Web Pages for Students

J.Giannetta 1999
(updated 2017)
jgiannet@hotmail.com



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