Which Great Lakes border Canada?
Answer
Four of the five Great Lakes border Canada (Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario), all shared with the United States; Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake entirely within the United States.
Explanation
No Great Lake is entirely within Canada. All four Great Lakes adjacent to Canada (Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario) form part of the international border with the United States. The only Great Lake entirely within one country is Lake Michigan, which is wholly inside the United States. Of the four shared lakes, Lake Superior has the largest Canadian share at about 53 per cent of surface area, and Lake Erie has the smallest Canadian share at about 38 per cent.
Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes and the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area at 82,103 square kilometres. It is also the deepest of the Great Lakes (maximum depth 406 metres) and the third-largest freshwater lake in the world by volume after Lake Baikal and Tanganyika. The Canadian shore extends along Ontario from Sault Ste. Marie north and west to Thunder Bay, with Pukaskwa National Park protecting a rugged stretch of the northern shore. The Lake Superior watershed includes Isle Royale (US), the Apostle Islands (US), and the Slate Islands (Canada).
Lake Huron (59,600 square kilometres) is the second-largest Great Lake by surface area and includes Georgian Bay, often called Canada's sixth Great Lake because of its size. Lake Huron contains Manitoulin Island, the largest freshwater island in the world (2,766 square kilometres). The Lake Huron-Lake Michigan system is hydrologically a single lake connected by the Straits of Mackinac. Lake Erie is the shallowest Great Lake (mean depth 19 metres) and the most southerly, with Pelee Island in Canadian waters being the most southerly inhabited point in Canada (latitude 41.77 north).
Lake Ontario is the smallest Great Lake by surface area (18,960 square kilometres) and the easternmost. It is connected to Lake Erie by the Niagara River (and the Welland Canal, opened 1932) and drains east via the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean. The Niagara Escarpment runs along the lake's southwestern shore. The Toronto, Hamilton, and Kingston metropolitan areas all sit on Lake Ontario's Canadian shore. The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway system collectively drains about 21 per cent of the world's surface freshwater and supports more than 30 million Canadians and Americans for drinking water, transportation, and recreation.
Why this matters for your test
The Great Lakes are central to Canadian-American geography. Recognising that no Great Lake is entirely in Canada, while Lake Michigan is entirely in the United States, gives candidates the precise factual answer to a commonly misframed question.
Source: Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship
