Why is the North often called the “Land of the Midnight Sun”?
- At the height of summer, daylight can last up to 24 hours
- It has the most sunny days in winter
- It is closest to the equator
- The sun can be seen at midnight all year round
Answer: At the height of summer, daylight can last up to 24 hours
At the height of summer, daylight in the North can last up to 24 hours, so the sun is still up at midnight. In winter the opposite happens: the sun disappears and darkness lasts for three months.
Learn more: The North and Yukon
- Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut cover one-third of Canada’s land mass but have only about 139,000 people (2026 estimate).
- Northern mines produce gold, lead, copper, diamonds and zinc. Oil and gas deposits are being developed.
- In summer, daylight can last up to 24 hours. In winter the sun disappears and it is dark for three months.
- The North has long, cold winters and short, cool summers.
- Tundra is a vast rocky Arctic plain with no trees and permanently frozen soil.
- Some people continue to earn a living by hunting, fishing and trapping. Inuit art is sold around the world.
- Thousands of miners came to Yukon in the Gold Rush of the 1890s, celebrated in the poetry of Robert W. Service. Mining is still important.
- The White Pass and Yukon Railway opened in 1900, from Skagway, Alaska, to Whitehorse, the capital.
- Yukon holds Canada’s coldest recorded temperature, -63°C.
- Mount Logan, in Yukon, is Canada’s highest mountain. It is named after geologist Sir William Logan, founder of the Geological Survey of Canada.