Scott Woolard

🇨🇦 CELEBRATE CANADA — #12: NORTHWEST TERRITORIES A waterfall nearly TWICE the height of Niagara Falls. North America’s deepest lake. The world’s largest Dark-Sky Preserve. And the woman who played Superman’s Lois Lane. Welcome to the Northwest Territories. 🇨🇦 🌟 5 REMARKABLE NORTHERNERS • Margot Kidder — Born in Yellowknife. Became internationally famous as Lois Lane in the original Superman movies. • Nellie Cournoyea — Made Canadian history in 1991 as the first Indigenous woman to lead a government. • Stephen Kakfwi — Dene leader, former Premier, and influential champion of Indigenous rights and northern self-determination. • Leela Gilday — Yellowknife-born Dene singer-songwriter and two-time JUNO winner, sharing northern Indigenous music with the world. • Jesse Cockney — Yellowknife-born, two-time Olympic cross-country skier and inspiring Indigenous role model. 💡 5 EXTRAORDINARY ACHIEVEMENTS • Canadian diamonds — The Ekati mine opened in 1998, launching Canada’s commercial diamond-mining industry. • Arctic Ocean Highway — In 2017, the Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway became Canada’s FIRST all-season highway reaching the Arctic Ocean. • Indigenous self-government — Pioneering land-claim agreements, Indigenous governance, and shared management of natural resources. • Consensus government — No political parties in the territorial legislature. Representatives work through a system designed around cooperation rather than party competition. • Protecting the night sky — Wood Buffalo National Park, shared with Alberta, is home to the world’s LARGEST Dark-Sky Preserve. 🏞️ 3 NATURAL WONDERS • Nahanni National Park — Towering canyons, pristine wilderness, and Náįlįcho (Virginia Falls), nearly TWICE the height of Niagara Falls! (Pictured!) • Wood Buffalo National Park — Canada’s largest national park, protecting enormous wood bison herds and endangered whooping cranes. • Tuktoyaktuk’s Pingos — Remarkable ice-cored hills rising from the Arctic tundra, including Canada’s tallest. 🤯 1 FACT THAT MIGHT SURPRISE YOU Great Slave Lake plunges an astonishing 614 metres, making it the DEEPEST lake in North America! It’s also the tenth-largest lake on Earth by surface area. ❤️ The Northwest Territories reminds us that Canada’s greatness isn’t measured by population, skyscrapers, or kilometres of highway. Sometimes it’s found in extraordinary people, breathtaking wilderness, and communities accomplishing remarkable things far from the spotlight. Canada, we have so much to be proud of. 🇨🇦 What else deserves recognition from the Northwest Territories? 📸 Photo: Náįlįcho (Virginia Falls), Nahanni National Park Reserve, Northwest Territories — Paul Gierszewski / Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain).