June 19, 2019

Last week, on June 13, the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association (NBA) defeated the Golden State Warriors 114-110 to win the team’s first NBA championship. The Raptors won the best-of-seven finals four games to two. Raptors stars Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry, and an underrated supporting team overcame Stephen Curry and his two-time defending champion Warriors to bring the first-ever NBA championship to Canada. The Raptors team, with its “We the North” slogan, celebrated the Canadian coup with nearly 2 million fans at a Toronto parade on June 17.

Kawhi Leonard of the Toronto Raptors lobs a shot over Golden State defenders during the sixth and deciding game of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena on June 13, 2019, in Oakland, California. Credit: © Kyle Terada, Getty Images

The Warriors, one-time heavy favorites to “three-peat” (repeat a third time) as champions, played most of the finals without the nine-time All-NBA forward Kevin Durant. (A calf injury limited Durant to just 12 minutes before a ruptured Achilles tendon ended his postseason). The Warriors also lost the star shooting guard Klay Thompson to a hamstring injury in game three and a torn knee ligament in game six. Curry and teammates Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala failed to muster enough offense to keep up with the hungry Raptors, who delivered big plays in the series’s final moments.

The Raptors began the 2018-2019 season with high hopes, having acquired the top forward Leonard from the San Antonio Spurs in a trade involving longtime Raptors swingman (multi-position player) DeMar DeRozan last July. Toronto also netted the steady shooter and defender Danny Green in the transaction, and they picked up the center Marc Gasol in a deal with Memphis this February. The emergence of the rangy third-year forward Pascal Siakam gave the Raptors star power at every position.

Toronto finished the regular season with a 58-24 record, good for second in the Eastern Conference. The Raptors defeated the Orlando Magic in five games in the first round of the playoffs. The team then topped the Philadelphia 76ers in a hard-fought seven-game series. Toronto overcame a two-games-to-none deficit against top-seeded Milwaukee and its towering superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, sweeping the last four games to close out the conference finals.

The Warriors, the most storied NBA dynasty since Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers and Michael Jordan’s  Chicago Bulls, finished 57-25 in the regular season, tops in the Western Conference. In the opening playoff round, the Warriors defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in a tough series that went six games. In Golden State’s second-round match up against the Houston Rockets, Durant exited after a game five calf strain. The Warriors still prevailed, however, and went on to sweep the upstart Portland Trail Blazers in the conference finals.

In game one of the finals in Toronto, the Raptors thrilled the home fans with a 118-109 victory over the Warriors—the first-ever NBA Finals game played in Canada. (The Raptors entered the league as an expansion team for the 1995-1996 season, and this was the team’s first finals. The only other Canadian NBA team, the Vancouver Grizzlies, never made the finals before moving to Memphis.) Toronto looked strong through halftime of game two, but the Warriors outscored the Raptors 34-21 in the third quarter and held on to win, evening the series at a game a piece.

The series continued on Golden State’s home court in Oakland, where the Raptors showed themselves to be the more complete team. Toronto won game three 123-109 and game four 105-92. Back in Toronto for game five, the Warriors overcame Durant’s postseason-ending injury, winning a tight 106-105 contest. In game six, Toronto stormed back after Klay Thompson’s injury, and Leonard, Lowry, and Siakam, together with the reserves Serge Ibaka and Fred VanVleet, proved invincible down the stretch. Leonard—who averaged 28.5 points, 9.8 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals per game in the series—won the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award. The award was Leonard’s second; he earned finals MVP honors in 2014 as a member of the champion Spurs.

Finals game six was the last the Warriors will play in Oakland’s Oracle Arena, which first hosted games as Oakland-Alameda County Arena in 1966. Warriors fans enjoyed championship teams at the venue in 1975 and again during the team’s recent dominance in 2015, 2017, and 2018. Beginning next season, the Warriors will play their home games at the new $1.4-billion Chase Center across the bay in San Francisco.

September 4, 2018

In July 2018, a herd of bison that had relocated to Canada’s Banff National Park in 2017 produced its first “made in Banff” calves (as Parks Canada is touting) in some 140 years. The bison babies were the first to be conceived and born in the area since the 1870′s. Two bison calves appeared on July 15, 2018, and a third followed on July 19. Six new calves arrived in August. North American bison are commonly called American buffalo.

“Little red” bison calves stay close to their mothers at Canada’s Banff National Park in July 2018. Credit: © Parks Canada

Banff National Park, Canada’s oldest, lies on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Alberta. Known for its spectacular scenery, the park also boasts an impressive animal population that includes bighorn sheep, black bears and grizzlies, deer, elk, moose, mountain goats, and—since last year—a small herd of bison.

In February 2017, 16 bison, including 10 pregnant females, were moved to Banff’s Panther Valley from Elk Island National Park near Edmonton. Panther Valley is a remote wilderness area with wide, grassy pastures. The bison have thrived there, and the females produced 10 “made in Elk Island” babies last summer. (All the calves survived the year and are now nearly full grown.) The females then again became pregnant—in Banff, this time. The original herd of 16 expanded to 35, including nine “little red” bundles of joy. Bison calves are born with bright reddish fur; they later take on the chocolate brown color of their parents.

Bison graze in Elk Island National Park in Alberta, Canada. A bison herd from Elk Island was brought to Banff National Park in February 2017. Little red calves can be seen among the adults. Credit: © Parks Canada

Great herds of bison once roamed over North America between the Appalachian Mountains on the east and the Rockies on the west. Native Americans depended upon bison flesh for food and bison hides for clothing. In 1850, about 20 million bison still thundered over the western plains. Huge herds often forced railroad trains to stop while the animals crossed the tracks. In the late 1800′s, white hunters slaughtered millions of bison. This killing deprived the Native Americans of their main source of food and almost wiped out the bison.

By 1889, fewer than 1,000 bison could be found alive in the United States. Then efforts started to prevent the species from becoming extinct. Game laws and other protective measures allowed the surviving American bison to live and multiply. As a result, about 10,000 bison now live in national, state, and local preserves in the United States. About 3,000 bison roam on public lands in Canada. In addition, there are more than 300,000 bison on private ranches throughout the United States and Canada.

August 3, 2018

For many people in the Northern Hemisphere, the summer of 2018 has been touched by fire and obscured by smoke. Summers are typically fire seasons in many areas, but climate change has caused hotter and drier conditions in recent years, and wildfire outbreaks have become more frequent and more destructive. Other causes of increased fire activity include the building of more developments in fire-prone areas, a lack of proper forest management, and, of course, simple human carelessness. In the past weeks, fires have killed more than 100 people and destroyed homes and large swaths of land in Asia, Europe, and North America.

A firefighting helicopter flies over a wildfire in the Greek town of Rafina near Athens on July 23, 2018. The Greek wildfire was the deadliest yet this year, claiming the lives of 92 people. Credit: © Angelos Tzortzinis, AFP/Getty Images

In southeastern Greece, a wildfire erupted July 23, destroying or damaging some 3,500 structures and killing 96 people along the Attica coast. The giant wildfire, just 18 miles (30 kilometers) east of Athens, the Greek capital, burned out of control for several days, gutting seaside resorts and holiday homes. Fanned by high winds, the fast-moving blaze trapped and killed groups of people, including entire families as they huddled between the flames and steep cliffs overlooking the Aegean Sea. The high death toll prompted criticism of the the area’s lack of access roads, warning systems, and other civil protection measures in areas surrounded by forest and at high risk of wildfires.

In far northern Europe, dozens of wildfires have consumed more than 62,000 acres (25,000 hectares) this summer in Sweden, which is experiencing an abnormally lengthy and intense heat wave. Neighboring Finland and Norway are also suffering from unusual heat and wildfire outbreaks, as are Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania on the other side of the Baltic Sea. Wildfires also torched drought-stricken areas of Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland.

This week in northern California, firefighters continued to battle the Carr Fire that has killed 8 people, destroyed over 1,500 buildings, and consumed some 125,000 acres (50,000 hectares) of land. The wildfire started on July 23 along Carr Powerhouse Road in Shasta County near the city of Redding. The “mechanical failure of a vehicle” ignited dried grasses and trees, and soon flames were roaring through the forested hills around Whiskeytown Lake west of Redding. The wildfire, aided by hot and dry weather, high winds, an abundance of natural fuel, and steep terrain, has since been chased westward by more than 4,200 firefighters—2 of whom have died fighting the blaze. Reports of  “firenados” (huge, rotating whorls of smoke, flame, and ash) encouraged nearly 40,000 people to obey evacuation orders and leave the fire area (which included parts of nearby Trinity County). Many people will return to find their homes and property in ashes.

The Carr Fire is the largest of 17 wildfires currently burning throughout the state of California. Collectively, wildfires in the western United States have scorched 4.6 million acres (1.86 million hectares) so far this year, a 24 percent increase over the annual average for the past decade. Wildfires have also stricken large areas of western Canada and parts of Mexico this summer.

Wildfires have also consumed vast amounts of territory in Siberia of eastern Russia. Since May, firefighters have been battling immense wildfires in the Amur Oblast region along the Chinese border, where towering pyrocumulus clouds have injected smoke and pollutants high into Earth’s atmosphere. Pyrocumulus clouds are formed by rising heat from wildfires or by plume emissions from fossil fuel-burning industrial plants, and they sharply increase the levels of carbon dioxide and harmful aerosols in the atmosphere.

January 19, 2018

How and when did people first reach the Americas? It is generally agreed that humans arrived in the Western Hemisphere at least 15,000 years ago. They got there by crossing Beringia, a land bridge that once connected Asia and North America. (Beringia takes its name from the Bering Strait and Sea that now cover the former land bridge.) The details of this human movement have long been a mystery. Recently, however, ancient DNA found in Alaska has helped scientists learn about the timing and circumstances of the migration.

University of Alaska Fairbanks professors Ben Potter and Josh Reuther excavate the remains of two ancient infants along the Upward Sun River in Alaska. Credit: © Ben Potter, University of Alaska Fairbanks

In 2011, a team of archaeologists discovered the bones of two female infants along the Upward Sun River in Alaska. One was an infant who died a few months after birth. The other was a newborn or late-term fetus. The archaeologists determined that the infants died about 11,500 years ago. After the Upward Sun River infants died, their bodies were laid atop a bed of red ocher surrounded by antler points. Only small fragments of DNA from the younger infant were available to study. However, scientists were able to reconstruct the genome (the entire set of chemical instructions that control heredity in a human being) of the older infant.

This scientific illustration shows the ancient Upward Sun River camp in what is now interior Alaska. Credit: © Eric S. Carlson/Ben A. Potter/University of Alaska Fairbanks

Previous studies have shown that Native Americans are descended from one of two ancestral groups. The northern group produced most of the indigenous (native) people of Alaska and upper Canada. A southern group produced most of the indigenous people of the lower United States, Mexico, and Central and South America. The genome of the older infant revealed that she came from a very early group of Native Americans who were the ancestors of both the northern and southern indigenous groups. These original people are now known as the Ancient Beringians. The scientists’ work represents the first reconstruction of an Ancient Beringian genome. It provides key evidence to the theory that all living Native Americans are originally descended from the same group of people.

Despite the fact that the Upward Sun River infants shared a grave and seem to have been from the same community, their DNA shows a great deal of variation. This variation supports what is known as the Beringian Standstill hypothesis, which suggests that ancient Siberians entered Beringia and stayed there for thousands of years before they entered the Americas. This hypothesis proposes that ice age glaciers blocked their migration until about 15,000 years ago, when the glaciers began to melt and retreat. According to the Standstill hypothesis, much genetic mixing would have occurred in Beringia before movement into the Americas began. This helps explain why the two infants’ DNA shows such variation.

The remains of the Upward Sun River infants have shed much light on the migration of the Ancient Beringians. However, more ancient DNA must be gathered and studied before the Beringian Standstill hypothesis can be proven true. There are still many details about the populating of the Americas that remain a mystery.

November 30, 2017

The National Hockey League (NHL) was formed 100 years ago on Nov. 26, 1917, in Montreal, Quebec. The four original teams (reorganized from the National Hockey Association) were the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, and Toronto Arenas (later the Maple Leafs). The first games were played on December 19 as the Canadiens downed the Senators 7-4 and the Wanderers outscored Toronto 10-9. The Arenas won that first NHL season, and the team advanced to a best-of-five championship series against the Vancouver Millionaires of the rival Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Toronto defeated Vancouver 3 games to 2 to take home the 1918 Stanley Cup.

This 1918 Toronto Arenas team composite shows the players and staff (and earned hardware) of the first NHL Stanley Cup champion team. Credit: Public Domain

In 1924, the Boston Bruins became the first United States team to join the NHL. In 1926, the New York Rangers, Chicago Black Hawks (later shortened to Blackhawks), and Detroit Cougars (later the Red Wings) joined the league. By 1942, the NHL consisted of Boston, Chicago, Detroit, the Canadiens, New York, and Toronto. This membership, known as the Original Six, remained unchanged until 1967. That year, the NHL doubled to 12 teams. All six new teams were in the United States. The NHL has since expanded several times, and there are currently 31 teams: 7 in Canada and 24 in the United States.

On Jan. 1, 2017, the puck dropped on centenary events with the NHL Centennial Classic, a frigid outdoor game between the Red Wings and Maple Leafs at BMO Field in Toronto. The next day, the NHL sponsored a float called “A Century of Greatness (1917-2017)” in the Rose Parade in a much-warmer Pasadena, California. Also in January, a mobile exhibition called the NHL Centennial Fan Arena began its year-long tour of NHL cities. The exhibition included the venerated Stanley Cup trophy, a pop-up hockey rink, a virtual reality Zamboni® experience, and numerous items from the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. A special NHL Centennial Exhibit also ran at the Hockey Hall of Fame throughout the year. Special centennial events also took place at the 2017 NHL All-Star Game in late January and at the NHL Hall of Fame induction ceremony in November. The NHL100 Classic, an outdoor game between the Canadiens and Senators, will wrap up the league’s centennial celebrations at Ottawa’s Lansdowne Park on December 16.

To further mark the anniversary, the league named the all-time 100 Greatest NHL Players. In a diplomatic move, the players were not presented in order of supposed greatness, but rather as a whole listed alphabetically. Naturally, the list included such ice legends as Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, and Bobby Orr, as well as such current stars as Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, and Alex Ovechkin. The league also named the Greatest NHL Team of all time, a somewhat less diplomatic process voted on by hockey fans. The vote began with every NHL Stanley Cup champion team, from the Arenas all the way up to last season’s Pittsburgh Penguins, and was cut down to 10 finalists. Fans then gave the NHL Greatest Team honor to the 1984-1985 Edmonton Oilers. The Gretzky-led Oilers beat the Philadelphia Flyers to win the Stanley Cup that season. The second and third greatest NHL teams were named as the 1991-1992 Penguins and 1976-1977 Canadiens.

June 30, 2017

Tomorrow, July 1, is Canada Day, and this year the holiday marks Canada’s 150^th birthday. To celebrate the event, Ottawa, the Canadian capital, will host speeches, ceremonies, concerts, and a grand fireworks display. Communities across Canada have planned a wide range of activities for the big day—from a community pancake breakfast in Halifax, Nova Scotia, (don’t forget the maple syrup) to a marathon followed by the eating of a giant birthday cake in Vancouver, British Columbia. People all over the country will participate in parades, barbecues, concerts, and fireworks as Canada celebrates the sesquicentennial (150^th anniversary) of Canadian Confederation.

People gather on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, to celebrate Canada Day. Tomorrow, July 1, 2017, marks Canada’s 150th birthday. Credit: AP/Wide World

One hundred and fifty years ago, several small, separate British colonies existed in what is now eastern Canada. The west was largely unsettled by European Canadians, and the vast prairies and mountains remained the domain of indigenous (native) peoples and traders of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Mounties of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ride in a Canada Day parade. Credit: © William MacKenzie, Getty Images

In 1864, in an effort to consolidate British North America, leaders from the Province of Canada—a huge colony stretching from the Great Lakes along the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean—and the Atlantic colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island held a conference in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island. That conference led to another meeting in Quebec City, where colonial leaders (now also including Newfoundlanders) developed the Quebec Resolutions. The resolutions outlined a federation of Canadian provinces with a strong central government which would exist within the British Empire. After a few modifications, the British Parliament approved the resolutions in the British North America Act. Canada’s four original provinces—New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec (the last two born of the Province of Canada)—formed the Dominion of Canada when the act took effect on July 1, 1867. Kingston lawyer and legislator John Macdonald became the new nation’s first prime minister.

Click to view larger image
In 1867, the Dominion of Canada (in yellow) included the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The other colonies and territories of British North America (in pink) later filled out Canada’s modern borders. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The Dominion of Canada had authority within its boundaries, but the British retained control of foreign affairs. Canada gained full independence in 1931, but it kept the monarch of the United Kingdom as its official head of state (as do many other Commonwealth nations). Later, the Constitution Act of 1982 revised and replaced the British North America Act as Canada’s basic governing document.

Tomorrow’s Canada Day festivities will be the climax of a year-long celebration called Canada 150. The four official themes of Canada 150 are “diversity and inclusion, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, young people, and the environment.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will lead the ceremonies, and Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, will be among the honored guests. Other events in the capital will include a performance by Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil and shows featuring Alessia Cara, Gordon Lightfoot, and other Canadian singers.

June 23, 2017

One hundred and thirty years ago today, on June 23, 1887, the Canadian government established Rocky Mountains Park as Canada’s first official national park. Known now as Banff National Park, the park’s spectacular scenery has long made it one of Canada’s most popular tourist attractions. The park has many deep valleys, glaciers, lakes, and snow-capped mountains. It lies on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Alberta. Originally established as Banff Hot Springs Reservation in 1885, Banff is Canada’s oldest national park.

A train rolls along Banff National Park’s Bow River in 2005. The national park was created 130 years ago today on June 23, 1887. Credit: © Shutterstock

Many features of Banff National Park have been shaped by glaciers during the past million years. Many glaciers still exist in the mountains, but steadily warming temperatures have reduced the number of glaciers in recent decades. Scientists blame the warming temperatures and glacier melt on global warming. Accelerated glacier melt is a problem throughout the Rocky Mountains. It can be seen along Banff National Park’s stretch of the famous Icefields Parkway, where gaps and lakes have formed among the formidable walls and sheets of ice. The Icefields Parkway, a 144-mile (232-kilometer) scenic highway, runs through Banff and Jasper National Park at the heart of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site. World Heritage Sites are places of unique cultural or natural importance as designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Streams formed by the meltwaters of Banff’s glaciers feed such lakes as Bow Lake, Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, and Peyto Lake. Banff’s deep valleys have dense forests chiefly populated by lodgepole pine trees. Subalpine fir, Engelmann spruce, and Lyall’s larch grow at higher elevations. The Castleguard Caves, in the park’s northwest, make up the longest cave system in Canada. Animals in the park include bighorn sheep, black and grizzly bears, deer, elk, moose, mountain goats, and a small herd of bison.

Beautiful Moraine Lake is fed by glacier meltwaters in Canada’s Banff National Park. Credit: © Thinkstock

Visitors to Banff National Park can enjoy many outdoor activities. Over 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) of trails provide hiking routes. In winter, cross-country skiers use many of the trails. The park also has three downhill skiing areas. Summer visitors may enjoy canoeing and other water sports on the lakes and streams. Near the town of Banff in the southern part of the park is a public pool fed by hot mineral springs. The park’s many campgrounds have more than 2,000 campsites. Visitors may also take bus tours of the park and visit national historic sites within the park.

In 1883, railway workers discovered hot mineral springs in an area near what is now the town of Banff. Several people tried to buy the land and use the springs for private gain. But in 1885, the Canadian government declared 6,400 acres (2,600 hectares) around the springs to be a public land reserve. In 1887, the government expanded the reserve to 156 square miles (405 square kilometers) and officially declared it a national park. The park’s name was changed to Banff National Park in 1930. Today, the park covers 1,641,000 acres (664,100 hectares).

May 2, 2017

In Canada’s Yukon territory, increased melting of the vast Kaskawulsh Glacier has caused the nearby Slims River to run dry. The Slims, once a gushing channel of glacial melt water, is now a waterless expanse of mud and dust. In recent decades, increased temperatures caused by global warming shrank the Kaskawulsh Glacier to the point that its melt water found an alternate route out of the Saint Elias Mountains, cutting off water to the Slims.

Parts of Kluane Lake, which received much of its water from the disappeared Slims River, have dried up, leaving behind these small pinnacles of hardened sediment. Credit: Jim Best, University of Illinois/University of Washington (licensed under CC BY 2.0)

For centuries, Kaskawulsh melt water fed the Slims River (as well as the Kaskawulsh River), which in turn fed Kluane Lake as well as the Kluane River. In 2016, however, a scientific expedition into the remote area found that the Slims had changed dramatically. In place of the river’s wide, rushing waters, the expedition found a narrow stream running down a path of mucky and treacherous sediment. The scientists learned that melt water from the shrinking Kaskawulsh Glacier had shifted outlets and was now feeding only the Kaskawulsh River—which had grown in size. In geology, the diversion of water from one river to another is called river piracy. River piracy occurred in ancient times—such as during and after the last ice age—but the theft of Kaskawulsh waters is the first modern case known to science.

Kluane National Park and Reserve is in southwestern Yukon, a territory of Canada. Global warming has reduced the park’s Kaskawulsh Glacier, shown here, and shifted the flow of its melt water. Credit: © Parks Canada

Between 1956 and 2007, the Kaskawulsh Glacier retreated some 2,300 feet (700 meters). In recent years, however, the retreat greatly accelerated, ultimately resulting in a sudden and radical water diversion in 2016. New melt water channels were carved in a matter of days, and the glacial waters found their way only to the Kaskawulsh River—leaving the Slims River high and dry.

Yukon is a northern Canadian territory known for its magnificent scenery. Kluane National Park, shown here, features the Wrangell and Saint Elias mountain ranges. Credit: © Thinkstock

The sudden shift in geological landscape altered much more than the view: fish and other wildlife populations either moved, migrated, or died, and entire plant populations withered and died. A statistical analysis, published in the journal Nature Geoscience in April 2017, blamed the Kaskawulsh river piracy squarely on anthropogenic (human caused) climate change. The analysis warned that river piracy could become a common event as glaciers retreat around the world. Few people live in the Kaskawulsh area, but sudden river piracy in heavily populated regions dependent on glacial melt for water—such as the Himalaya in Asia or the Andes in South America—could have catastrophic effects on human populations.

May 5, 2016

A small plane flies through the smoke above Fort McMurray, Alberta, on May 3, 2016. Local government evacuated the entire population of the Canadian oil sands city as a wildfire whipped by high winds engulfed homes and sent ash raining down on residents. Credit: © Kitty Cochrane, The Canadian Press/AP Photos

A wildfire that began burning on Sunday, May 1, in Alberta, Canada, forced the evacuation of an entire town, Fort McMurray. The fire broke out during record-high temperatures—in the 90′s °F (30′s °C)—and low humidity for this time of year in this area of Canada. By May 2, around 7,500 acres (3,000 hectares) of forested area was burning and, on May 3, the fire turned toward Fort McMurray. In anticipation, the town, home to over 60,000 people, had been evacuated the night before. Fort McMurray is surrounded on all sides by forest and the fire laid waste to nearly the entire town by May 4. Nearby areas—including the Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates, and Fort McMurray First Nation communities—were evacuated as the fire spread south. The Canadian government estimates a total of nearly 90,000 people have been displaced.

The Fort McMurray area, in the Athabasca tar sands region, is a dangerous place for wildfires. The area is home to recovery plants (similar to refineries) for oil extracted from the sands. The recovery plants are filled with flammable oil and chemicals. The fire has stopped oil production in much of Canada’s energy region.

About 18,000 acres (7,200 hectares) of forest have burned. Firefighters hope that cooler temperatures today (the forecast temperature is 66 °F [19 °C]) will make it easier to bring the fire under control. 

Other World Book articles

• Bituminous sands
• Petroleum

October 20, 2015

Speaking in Montreal, Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau gives his victory speech after his party’s landslide victory in Canada’s federal election on October 19. (Credit: © Jim Young, Reuters/Landov)

Canadians went to the polls yesterday in the highest voter turnout in a federal election in more than 20 years, and by early evening surprising election results were in—after nearly a decade of rule by the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party won by a landslide. Pollsters had stated the election was too close to call, but when the results came in the Liberal Party had captured 184 seats in Parliament, the Conservative Party won 99, the New Democratic Party of Canada won 44 seats, Bloc Québécois won 10 seats, and the Green Party captured 1 seat. In Canada’s electoral system, people vote for a candidate for a parliamentary seat; if one party achieves a majority in parliament, the leader of that party becomes prime minister. 

Thus, Stephen Harper, head of the Conservative Party and Canada’s prime minister since 2006, will be replaced with the head of the Liberal Party, Justin Trudeau. The 43-year-old Trudeau is from a famous political family of Canada. His father, the Liberal politician Pierre Trudeau (1919-2000), served as prime minister of Canada from 1968-1979 and from 1980 to 1984. Justin Trudeau was a high school teacher who avoided politics until after his father’s death. Justin Trudeau first became a member of Parliament in 2008.

The vote for the Liberal Party was especially strong in the east of Canada, especially in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. In the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the territories of Yukon, Northwest Territories,  and Nunavut, the Liberal Party swept, taking every available seat. Only in Alberta did the Conservative Party win a majority of the seats.

Some of Trudeau’s campaign promises include attempting to strengthen ties with the United States and with the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, welcoming a larger number of refugees from Syria, and taking action on climate change.

Other World Book articles

• Canada (a Back in time article-2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014)