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Tom Monto

Sandy Lake - the geographical centre of Canada

Updated: Apr 14, 2022

What is the geographical centre of Canada?


If you take the longitudes of Canada to the farthest east and to the farthest west and halve the difference, the east-west centre of Canada is in line with the middle of the Hudsons Bay.


North-south the centre is well above James Bay.


So you could say the populated place nearest to the geographical centre of Canada is Sandy Lake, on the Severin River.


But let's not move our capital there. The occupants of the Sandy Lake reserve would be most put out if all of a sudden we decided to set up shop right there!


Ottawa is actually closer to some places in Mexico than it is to some places in Canada.


It is father north than Toronto. After Toronto was burned down during the War of 1812 by U.S. troops - they also burned down Moraviantown, a nice peaceful farm community inhabited by nice peaceful Moravian farmers - a crime for which they later were re-paid when public buildings in Washington, DC were put to the torch - it was decided to move the capital to a place farther away from the U.S. border.


The difference seems small today and did little to create a capital in the centre of the vast sprawling sub-continent that is Canada. But at the time it secured a day or so insurance from marauding U.S. invaders.


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I now think the geographical centre of Canada is a point farther west and north of that, in Nunavut near Yathkyed Lake.


This is mathematically derived by finding the midpoint between northernmost point and southernmost point and the midpoint between the easternmost point and the westernmost point in Canada.

North North Pole 90 degrees N

Nearest point of land is Cape Columbia, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, 83 degrees N and about 60 degrees west.

South Middle Island located at 41°41'N, 82°41"W (41.685,-82.684), or about 41.7 degrees north latitude. It lies in Lake Erie, just south of Pelee Island, and is part of Point Pelee National Park.

East -- Cape Spear (French: Cap d'Espoir) is a headland located on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland near St. John's in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, at a longitude of 52°37' W.

West -- Yukon-Alaska border just west of longitude 140 degrees

Several mountains near the border are commonly referred to as the westernmost points in Canada, and these include Boundary Peak 187, Mt. St. Elias, and Mt. Logan in the Kluane National Park and Reserve.

National midpoint is 97 degrees West and about 65 degrees N.


Another interesting geographical trivia fact is the so called pole of inaccessibility, the place in Canada farthest from any coastline or saltwater and foreign land.


The Canadian pole of inaccessibility is said to be a point along the Peace River, in Alberta at 59.03°N 112.82°W, a few kilometres up the Peace River from where the Jackfish River (one of six Canadian rivers of that name) flows into it. This is the point farthest from any ocean and also from the U.S. border at the 49th Parallel. (Alaska is too far off and too close to the Pacific Ocean to influence the choice of this "centre".)


The point in Canada furthest from any ocean (without reference to distance from the U.S. border) would be along the U.S. border, somewhat nearer to the North American "pole of inaccessibility" (visa vis saltwater) in South Dakota.


The U.S. pole of inaccessibility visa vis saltwater is in South Dakota near Allen, S.D., 1657 kms (1030 miles) from saltwater. This point though is only about 575 kms from the Canadian border.


The U.S. pole of inaccessibility visa vis saltwater and Canada and Mexico is farther south than that, likely near the geographical centre of the contiguous U.S. states, which is in Kansas.

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