Wikipedia:Canadian Wikipedians' notice board/Style guide

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This page documents an English Wikipedia naming convention. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should follow, though it should be treated with common sense and the occasional exception. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

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This is a summary of current styles and conventions on Wikipedia for Canadian-related articles, as determined by application of Wikipedia policies, existing practice and current consensus among the users of Wikipedia:Canadian Wikipedians' notice board.

This document may be added to as needed. However, if you believe that a guideline listed here should be changed, then please solicit consensus at Wikipedia talk:Canadian Wikipedians' notice board rather than changing the guideline unilaterally.

Contents 1 Places 1.1 Neighbourhoods/communities 1.2 Provinces 1.3 Territories 1.4 Population 2 Geography 3 French names 4 Media 5 People 6 Notes

[edit] Places

See also: Wikipedia:WikiProject Canadian communities/Structure guideline

Cities^[1] which either have unique names or are unquestionably the most significant place sharing their name can have undisambiguated titles. At present, the following cities are located at the plain title: Calgary, Charlottetown, Chatham-Kent, Edmonton, Estevan, Flin Flon, Fort McMurray, Fredericton, Gatineau, Greater Sudbury, Iqaluit, Kamloops, Kelowna, Lethbridge, Lloydminster, Medicine Hat, Mississauga, Moncton, Montreal, Moose Jaw, Ottawa, Penticton, Quebec City, Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Saskatoon, Toronto, Trois-Rivières, Tuktoyaktuk, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Yellowknife.

Note the following considerations:

1. Cities can be moved if they (a) have a unique name, or (b) are the most important use of their name. A city's relative international fame, or lack thereof, may have some bearing on criterion b, but it is irrelevant if the city qualifies under criterion a (i.e. if there's no other Flin Flon anywhere in the world, then it's not valid to cite Flin Flon's lack of international fame as a reason to keep the article at "Flin Flon, Manitoba".)
2. Towns, villages, neighbourhoods and other smaller settlements must have unique names to qualify for a page move. At this smaller level, importance is too subjective to be a viable criterion.
3. Population and Google-hit comparisons between cities of the same name may be helpful in determining primary usage, but are not conclusive in isolation. For example, Hamilton and Windsor are larger than their namesakes in other countries, but for historical, political or cultural reasons they are both less internationally significant than at least one of their smaller namesakes, and thus do not qualify as primary usages. In one special case, Halifax Regional Municipality, the title is undisambiguated but located at the official name rather than the common "Halifax"; a separate subarticle on the pre-amalgamation city of Halifax is located at City of Halifax. In such cases, however, the plain title should normally be a dab page.
4. Cities may also lose out as primary usage to non-city topics — for example, Regina and Prince Albert are both the largest cities of those names, but cannot be considered primary topics as both are overridden by their names' royal connotations.
5. Institutions, electoral districts or geographical features in a city which include the city's name in their own names (e.g. University of Toronto, Winnipeg Transit, Ottawa River, Vancouver Canucks, Lethbridge (electoral district), etc.) are secondary, not primary, usages, and thus are not valid reasons to put a disambiguation page at "City" rather than "City (disambiguation)". A comprehensive article about the city would include links to these topics anyway.
6. Further page moves are permitted. However, a discussion should take place on the article's talk page before a move is implemented, so that we have documented proof that people have put adequate research into the uniqueness or importance of the topic. Do not move an article arbitrarily if this input has not been solicited on the talk page, and do not assume that a name is unique just because another article doesn't already exist at the plain title. At the same time, however, if somebody else who isn't familiar with our current practice moves an article without talk page discussion, don't waste time reverting it if doing so would violate WP:SNOW. (There's no other Iqaluit in the world. Trust us.) Also note that the discussion should take place on the article's talk page, not at WP:NC, which is primarily for discussion about the general aspects of naming conventions.
7. In most cases, an article is a candidate for such a page move if "City" already exists on Wikipedia as a redirect to "City, Province". An article may also be a candidate for such a page move if "City" is a blank redlink. As some confirmation may be needed that a name is actually unique, however, always propose a page move for discussion first as neither of these circumstances is sufficient to justify an arbitrary renaming.

For cities which do not qualify for undisambiguated titles, the correct title format is [[City, Province/Territory]] (the "comma convention"). For the territories, please note that the correct forms are "City, Yukon" (not "City, Yukon Territory") and "City, Nunavut" (not "City, Nunavut Territory"), but "City, Northwest Territories". For the easternmost province, the proper form is "City, Newfoundland and Labrador". Localities that need further disambiguation beyond the province or territory include their county, municipality or parish. (e.g. Armstrong, Thunder Bay District, Ontario, due to the need to disambiguate it from the Armstrong, Ontario in Timiskaming District — as the one in Timiskaming is an incorporated municipality, it gets title precedence.)

A Canadian city's article, however, should never be titled simply "city, Canada" (e.g "Halifax, Canada"), although it is permissible to create a title of this type as a redirect to the properly titled article. Similarly, a title that uses the province's two-letter postal abbreviation should never be the primary article title, although creating a redirect is permitted. You may also create redirects from documentably common misspellings such as "Winnepeg", "Ottowa", "St. Catherine's" or "Iqualuit", although it is not necessary to anticipate every conceivable misspelling that could possibly arise.

Dedicated city categories should always be named with the same title format as the city's main article. That is, if the article is at Toronto, then use "Toronto" rather than "Toronto, Ontario" in category names, but if it's at Regina, Saskatchewan, then name the related categories in the format "Regina, Saskatchewan" rather than "Regina".

A former geographic name, such as Berlin, Ontario, Fraserville, Quebec, Bytown or York, Upper Canada, should only have a separate article if there's something substantial that can be written about the history of that name — otherwise it should exist only as a redirect to the place's current name.

See also Wikipedia:Canadian wikipedians' notice board/Cities, an ongoing project to review which Canadian cities should or shouldn't qualify for page moves.

[edit] Neighbourhoods/communities

Article titles for neighbourhoods (and other communities within municipalities)^[1] are subject to the same considerations as municipalities, as set out in points 1 to 7 above.

For neighbourhoods which do not qualify for undisambiguated titles, the correct title format is [[Neighbourhood, City]] (not [[Neighbourhood (City)]], as the "bracket convention" is generally reserved for geophysical features such as rivers and mountains). Where a neighbourhood straddles a municipal boundary and is located in two separate municipalities, the correct title format is [[Neighbourhood, Province]] (e.g. Thornhill, Ontario), regardless of any other consideration listed here, if disambiguation is needed.

Where a neighbourhood is recognized as a distinct and valid municipal address by Canada Post (see database here), the title may be at [[Neighbourhood, Province]] rather than [[Neighbourhood, City]] (e.g. East York, Ontario; Dartmouth, Nova Scotia). Such neighbourhoods were usually once autonomous municipalities that have since been annexed or amalgamated, or are semi-autonomous municipalities (e.g. Montreal's boroughs).

A neighbourhood article should never be titled [[Neighbourhood, Canada]], [[Neighbourhood, Former City]], [[Neighbourhood, Upper-tier Municipality]], [[Sub-Neighbourhood, Larger Neighbourhood/area]], or disambiguated with a descriptor (e.g. [[Neighbourhood (Borough)]]).

A discussion should take place on the article's talk page before any page move is undertaken to implement these guidelines (please see numbered point 6 above), except where the move simply converts a title from the "bracket convention" ([[Neighbourhood (City)]]) to the "comma convention" ([[Neighbourhood, City]]).

Neighbourhood articles are still subject to WP:RS, WP:NPOV and WP:V, and consequently a neighbourhood should only have an article independent of its parent municipality when an article can be written that meets those core policies and guideline. A neighbourhood whose article does not meet that threshold (e.g. an unreferenced three or four line stub) should be redirected to its city, or to an appropriate subpage of the city (e.g. a borough or a merged "Neighbourhoods in City" subarticle), until a properly referenced article can be written about the neighbourhood as an independent topic.

[edit] Provinces

Note that Newfoundland is not a Canadian province; it is an island which forms part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. While a title in the format "Jonesville, Newfoundland" or "Smithburg, Labrador" may be created as a redirect, it is never to be the article's primary title — places in this province which require disambiguation are always to be titled "Place, Newfoundland and Labrador". In a few isolated cases, places in Labrador may require added disambiguation from places on the island of Newfoundland — in these instances, the preferred format is either "Place (Newfoundland or Labrador), Newfoundland and Labrador" or "Place, Region (e.g. Twillingate, Bonavista, Conception Bay, Placentia Bay, etc.), Newfoundland and Labrador", not just "Place, Newfoundland" or "Place, Labrador".

[edit] Territories

In body text, either "Yukon" or "the Yukon" is acceptable. However, Yukon-specific article, category and list titles should always use the form Yukon without the word the. For the Northwest Territories, however, the preferred form is the Northwest Territories in article text and in the titles of list articles, but geographic articles about the Northwest Territories (e.g. Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories) do not use the word the in the title.

[edit] Population

Per WP:RS and WP:V, all population figures must be referenced to actual Statistics Canada census data. Do not add unsourced population estimates, do not use the Welcome to Jonesville sign on the highway at the city limits or the local Chamber of Commerce business directory as your source, do not drive around town counting houses yourself, do not multiply the 2006 population by past growth rates to arrive at an original research estimate, and do not round population figures off to the nearest thousand. The exact population figure published by Statistics Canada in the Canada 2006 Census is the only acceptable source.

Note that it is permissible to add Statistics Canada's intercensal population estimates to the Demographics section of an article as supplementary data, as long as these are properly cited. However, a postcensal estimate is not to replace the 2006 census population figure at the head of the article or in the infobox — figures in those locations are to remain as per the 2006 census until the results of the 2011 census are published.

Similarly, unless you know how to retrieve individual census tract data from the Statistics Canada site, do not give an unsourced population estimate for a neighbourhood or community within an incorporated municipality. It is preferable for an article to have no population information at all than it is to cite an unsourced or poorly-sourced figure.

[edit] Geography

For a geographical feature (river, mountain, valley, island, etc.) which requires disambiguation, the standard convention is "Name of Feature (Province)". Where that isn't sufficient, then choose a more specific disambiguator, such as by region (e.g. Whitefish River (Northwestern Ontario) vs. Whitefish River (Northeastern Ontario)), by parent river, or by the lake or ocean that the river empties into.

However, it is also acceptable to cover multiple topics in a single article (e.g. Montreal River (Ontario)) if separate articles would be too stubbish.

Do not disambiguate geographical features unnecessarily. If there is no other significant Lake Nipigon, then the one in Ontario does not need to be at "Lake Nipigon (Ontario)".

When writing articles about communities, describe and categorize them by their correct legal status and definition. That is, if Topicville is not independently incorporated, but is a part of a larger incorporated municipality, then Topicville is to be described as a hamlet, a community, a neighbourhood or a settlement, not a city, a town or a village.

[edit] French names

Note that Wikipedia's Use English guideline does not mean that the words in an article title must invariably be in English; it means that the title needs to be what an English speaker would most likely recognize as the usual name of the subject. For example, the Parti Québécois does not have a recognized English name — the standard usage by speakers of Canadian English is the untranslated name "Parti Québécois". On the other hand, the Parti Rhinocéros is not usually referred to in English by its official French name, but by the translated Rhinoceros Party of Canada. In both cases, the correct title on the English Wikipedia is the name that's actually used by speakers of Canadian English to refer to the parties.

For many current institutions (hospitals, universities, etc.) in Quebec, standard Canadian English usage is ambiguous and not clear-cut: some English speakers refer to the Université du Québec à Montréal, while others refer to the "University of Quebec at (or in) Montreal", while still others simply use the acronym UQAM (you-kam). In such cases, title the article with the proper name of the institution in French, and create redirects from any English translations that are genuinely likely to be used as alternate search or link terms. However, where there is a standard and generally accepted English name for the institution, use that rather than the French name (e.g. National Assembly of Quebec rather than "Assemblée nationale du Québec".)

For geographic names, again, the current practice is to reflect actual English usage. Specifically, the unaccented names Montreal, Quebec and Quebec City (not "Montréal" or "Québec") are the standard usages in English. However, usage for most smaller cities and towns in the province is less clear-cut, due in part to the lesser number of documented English references. Accordingly, for most municipal names in Quebec apart from those noted above, use the French spelling unless a clear usage consensus in favour of an alternate name (e.g. Montreal West rather than Montréal-Ouest) is seen outside of Wikipedia.

When using the French language title for an article instead of an English one, always use the proper French orthography, including accents and hyphens, but create redirects from the appropriate unaccented titles. Similarly, when using the English title, create a redirect from the French one.

Also create redirects from any translated titles that have documented current or historical use. For instance, a translated redirect should be created from Three Rivers, Quebec to Trois-Rivières, as the name "Three Rivers" was historically used in English. Do not, however, create a translated redirect if the translated name is not demonstrably linked to the topic — for example, Rivière-du-Loup has never been referred to in English as "Wolf River", and Notre-Dame-du-Nord has never been referred to as "Our Lady of the North".

[edit] Media

Television and radio stations are always titled with their legal Industry Canada-issued call signs rather than their on-air brand names; note that in the Canadian context, with the exception of those primary CBC Television stations whose final letter is T, the call sign always includes the -FM or -TV suffix (unlike in the United States, where the suffix is only used when it's necessary to disambiguate multiple stations with the same WXXX/KXXX calls). There is no such thing as an -AM suffix in broadcasting — the actual legal call sign of an AM radio station is always just CXXX. However, because of the frequent need to disambiguate them from FM or TV stations, or other things with the same acronym, Wikipedia uses the format "CXXX (AM)" when necessary. As many readers are not familiar with this convention, a title in the format CXXX-AM may be created as a redirect to the CXXX or CXXX (AM) title, but is never to be the primary title.

The brand name may, however, be created as a redirect to the call sign (e.g. MIX 99.9), a disambiguation page (e.g. Q107) or an article about the brand itself if it has a substantial history (e.g. EZ Rock, Jack FM, Énergie). The only exceptions to this are where a single radio or television network broadcasts across multiple transmitters with different call signs but no local variances in programming — for example, TVOntario, TFO or Télé-Québec. In such cases, all of the call signs should be redirects to a single article about the network itself.

The call sign of a rebroadcaster should always be a redirect to its programming source, rather than an independent article, unless the call sign has a prior history (e.g. CKNC-TV, CJBR-TV) as an originating station.

Newspaper articles should reflect the title as it actually appears on the newspaper's masthead. For example, The Globe and Mail, not "Globe and Mail", but National Post rather than "The National Post". If a masthead title is not unique, include the city's name in parentheses as a disambiguator (e.g. The Gazette (Montreal)) rather than titling the article with the unofficial form "Montreal Gazette". Do, however, create a redirect at the latter title format. Exclude the word "the" from the masthead title if the city's name is present in the publication's proper name (e.g. Sudbury Star, not "The Sudbury Star"; London Free Press, not "The London Free Press"), but include it if the city's name is not part of the publication's name (as in The Gazette or The Globe and Mail).

A television series with a non-unique name is disambiguated as "(TV series)"; if that isn't sufficient because another country has had a TV series of the same name, the next preferred step is "(Canadian TV series)", then "(year TV series)", then "(province TV series)" if necessary. Only disambiguate TV series by network as a last resort.

[edit] People

Whenever possible, people should be at the name by which they are most commonly known rather than an obscure full name. For example, the Trudeau-era Minister of Justice is at Ron Basford, not "Stanley Ronald Basford". However, as with Basford or (Henry) Perrin Beatty, do not assume that the person's usual name is necessarily their first name. In some cases (e.g. Bud Germa, Bush Dumville), their most common name may not even be either of their given names. When in doubt, research or ask WP:CWNB for assistance.

For people with non-unique names, the standard hierarchy for disambiguation is as follows: occupation, Canadian occupation, provincial occupation, affiliative (e.g. political party) occupation. Only disambiguate by obscure biographical details such as the person's place of birth, years of life or not-widely-known middle name as an absolute last resort if none of these other disambiguation criteria are sufficient. Never disambiguate a person by geography alone, such as "John Smith (Canada)" or "Jane McGillicuddy (Prince Edward Island)", and never step further down the hierarchy than is necessary at the present time — as in the case of André Bachand (Progressive Conservative MP) and André Bachand (Liberal MP), base the chosen disambiguator on their current distinction, not on the fact that one of them might (see WP:CRYSTAL) re-enter politics in the future with a different political party. An article can always be moved at a later date if circumstances change.

Do not place honorifics such as Hon., Dr., Fr., PC, MP or OC in the article title, or in the article's lead paragraph. You may, however, include them in the person's infobox — although opinions differ on whether this is necessary or not, standard Wikipedia style does allow it.

[edit] Notes