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Nahanni Butte, NWT, Settlement, population 102 (2011c), 115 (2006c). The settlement of Nahanni Butte is located on the north side of the SOUTH NAHANNI RIVER near its junction with the LIARD RIVER, about 125 km north of the Northwest Territories and British Columbia border.

Yellowknife, NWT, incorporated as a city in 1970, population 19,569 (2016 c), 19,234 (2011 c). The City of Yellowknife is the capital of the Northwest Territories and the territory's only city. It sits on the Canadian Shield, on the north shore of Great Slave Lake, 512 km from the Arctic Circle and approximately 1,513 km north of Edmonton, Alberta. Due to its northerly location, Yellowknife is the Canadian city with the most hours of summer sunshine, averaging 1,030 hours per year. The city and Yellowknife Bay were named after the Yellowknives, a Dene band who lived on the islands of Great Slave's East Arm and travelled as far north as the Arctic coast to obtain copper for knives and other implements. They, in turn, acquired their name from the copper-bladed knives they carried.

The Second Battle of Ypres was fought during the First World War from 22 April to 25 May 1915. It was the first major battle fought by Canadian troops in the Great War. The battle took place on the Ypres salient on the Western Front, in Belgium, outside the city of Ypres (now known by its Flemish name, Ieper). The untested Canadians distinguished themselves as a determined fighting force, resisting the horror of the first large-scale poison gas attack in modern history. Canadian troops held a strategically critical section of the frontline until reinforcements could be brought in. More than 6,500 Canadians were killed, wounded or captured in the Second Battle of Ypres.

The Rideau River flows 100 km northwards from the Rideau Lakes in eastern Ontario to the Ottawa River at Ottawa.

Wrangel Island lies in the Arctic Ocean 200 km N of the coast of eastern Siberia. Discovered in 1849, it was named in 1867 after Baron Wrangel, the Russian governor of Alaska. Though uninhabited, it served for 6 months in 1914

The Canadian Broadcasting Centre was developed as the result of a proposal call process in which the Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited was selected to develop the 9.3 acre site, owned by the CBC, and build the centre, which was then leased to the CBC on a long-term basis.

Watson Lake became an important communication centre after the construction of a major airport (1943), and remains a transportation hub, linking roads from BC with main routes to the interior and to the Northwest Territories. The town is also the centre for forestry and mining in the region.

Williston Lake, 1761 km2, is the largest freshwater body in BC. Created in 1968 as the reservoir of the W.A.C.

Wollaston Lake, 2681 km2, elev 398 m, lies in the wooded Shield country of NE Saskatchewan.

The lake lies in a lowland basin that was scoured out of the limestone and shale bedrock by continental glaciers during the ice ages. When the glaciers finally melted, about 12 000 years ago, a large lake, Glacial Lake AGASSIZ, filled the entire basin.

Vinland, see NORSE VOYAGES.

Salaberry-de-Valleyfield draws its labour force from the local population and its history is marked by often violent labour disputes (see COMPANY TOWNS). Originally (1874) it was called Salaberry, in honour of Charles d'Irumberry de SALABERRY.

Ville-Marie, Catholic utopian colony founded on 17 May 1642 on Île de Montréal by the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal, under the governship of Paul de Chomeday de Maisonneuve, to bring Christianity to the native people; but located in a key region for the development of agriculture and the fur trade.

Westport, NS, incorporated as a village in 1946, population 234 (2011c), 249 (2006c). The Village of Westport is located at the southern tip of Digby Neck, on the eastern side of Brier Island.

Wetaskiwin, Alta, incorporated as a city in 1906, population 12 525 (2011c), 11 689 (2006c). The City of Wetaskiwin is one of Alberta’s oldest cities. It began (1891) as Siding 16 on the Calgary-Edmonton Railway and was a point of departure for early, predominantly Scandinavian homesteaders.

Winisk River, 475 km long, rises in Wunnummin Lake in the Kenora District of northern Ontario.

Windsor, NS, incorporated as a town in 1878, population 3785 (2011c), 3709 (2006c). The Town of Windsor is located in central Nova Scotia, at the mouth of the Avon and St Croix rivers.

Winnipegosis, Lake, 5370 km2, 195 km long, elev 254 m, maximum depth 12 m, Canada's eleventh-largest lake, is located in west-central Manitoba.

Upper Canada Village, developed during the 1950s and 1960s near Morrisburg, Ont, a replica of a 19th-century community that might have existed along the St Lawrence R.

Winnipeg, Manitoba, incorporated as a city in 1873, population 705,244 (2016 c), 663,617 (2011 c). The city of Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, and is located at the confluence of the Red River and Assiniboine River 100 km north of the Minnesota border. The name is derived from the Cree name for Lake Winnipeg, 65 km north, win-nipi, meaning "murky water." Winnipeg is an important economic and cultural centre for the Prairies. Lying midway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, it has been called "Bull's Eye of the Dominion," and because of its location between the Canadian Shield and the prairie, "Gateway to the West."