Provinces and territories of Canada

The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories. The major difference between a Canadian province and a territory is that provinces are jurisdictions that receive their power and authority directly from the Constitution Act, 1867, whereas territories derive their mandates and powers from the federal government.

The ten provinces are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan, while the three territories are Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon.

Location of provinces and territories

Provinces

The following table is listed in the order of precedence (i.e. when a province entered into Confederation).

Provinces of Canada

Flag	Arms	Provinces	Abbreviation/ Postal ISO	Capital	Largest	Entered Confederation	Population (Apr 2010)[1]	Land (km2)	Water (km2)	Total Area (km2)	Official Language(s)	House of Commons	Senate
		Ontario	Ont. ON	Toronto	Toronto	July 1, 1867	13,167,894	917,741	158,654	1,076,395	English1 French2	107	24
		Quebec	Que., P.Q. QC	Quebec City	Montreal	July 1, 1867	7,886,108	1,356,128	185,928	1,542,056	French3	75	24
		Nova Scotia	N.S. NS	Halifax	Halifax	July 1, 1867	940,482	53,338	1,946	55,284	English1	11	10
		New Brunswick	N.B. NB	Fredericton	Saint John	July 1, 1867	751,273	71,450	1,458	72,908	English4 French4	10	10
		Manitoba	Man. MB	Winnipeg	Winnipeg	July 15, 1870	1,232,654	553,556	94,241	647,797	English5 French5	14	6
		British Columbia	B.C. BC	Victoria	Vancouver	July 20, 1871	4,510,858	925,186	19,549	944,735	English1	36	6
		Prince Edward Island	P.E.I. PE	Charlottetown	Charlottetown	July 1, 1873	141,551	5,660	0	5,660	English1	4	4
		Saskatchewan	Sask. SK	Regina	Saskatoon	September 1, 1905	1,041,729	591,670	59,366	651,036	English1	14	6
		Alberta	Alta. AB	Edmonton	Calgary	September 1, 1905	3,724,832	642,317	19,531	661,848	English1	28	6
		Newfoundland and Labrador	Nfld., Lab. NL	St. John's	St. John's	March 31, 1949	510,901	373,872	31,340	405,212	English1	7	6

Notes:

Territories

There are currently three territories in Canada. Unlike the provinces, the territories of Canada have no inherent jurisdiction and have only those powers delegated to them by the federal government.^[2][3][4] They include all of mainland Canada north of latitude 60° north and west of Hudson Bay, as well as essentially all islands north of the Canadian mainland (from those in James Bay to the Canadian Arctic islands). The following table lists the territories in order of precedence (each province has precedence over all the territories, regardless of the date each territory was created).

Territories of Canada

Flag	Arms	Territory	Postal abbreviation/ ISO code	Capital and largest city	Entered Confederation	Population (Apr 2010)	Area (km2)			Official Language(s)	Canadian Parliament
							Land	Water	Total		House of Commons	Senate
		Northwest Territories	NT	Yellowknife	July 15, 1870	43,529	1,183,085	163,021	1,346,106	Chipewyan, Cree, English, French, Gwich’in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey, Tłįchǫ[5]	1	1
		Yukon	YT	Whitehorse	June 13, 1898	34,246	474,391	8,052	482,443	English French	1	1
		Nunavut	NU	Iqaluit	April 1, 1999	32,900	1,936,113	157,077	2,093,190	Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, English, French	1	1

Note: Canada did not acquire any new land to create Yukon, Alberta, Saskatchewan, or Nunavut. All of these originally formed part of the Northwest Territories.

History

CANADA TIMELINE: Evolution of the borders and the names of Canada's Provinces and Territories

Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia are the original provinces, formed when British North American colonies federated on July 1, 1867, into the Dominion of Canada and by stages began accruing the indicia of sovereignty from the United Kingdom. Ontario and Quebec were united before Confederation as the Province of Canada. Over the following six years, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island were added as provinces.

The Hudson's Bay Company maintained control of large swathes of western Canada until 1870, when it turned over the land to the Government of Canada, forming part of the Northwest Territories. Manitoba and the Northwest Territories were created in 1870 from Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory. At the time, the land comprising the Northwest Territories was all of current northern and western Canada, including the northern two thirds of Ontario and Quebec, with exception of the Arctic Islands, British Columbia and a small portion of southern Manitoba. On September 1, 1905, a portion of the Northwest Territories south of the 60° parallel became the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1912, the boundaries of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba were expanded northward: Manitoba's to the 60° parallel, Ontario's to Hudson Bay and Quebec's to encompass the District of Ungava.^[6]

In 1869, the people of Newfoundland voted to remain a British colony over concerns that central Canada would dominate taxation and economic policy. In 1907, Newfoundland acquired dominion status. In 1933, facing national bankruptcy, the legislature turned over political control to the Commission of Government. Following World War II, in a 1948 referendum, a narrow majority of Newfoundland citizens voted to join Confederation and, on March 31, 1949, Newfoundland became Canada's tenth and final province. In 2001 it was officially renamed Newfoundland and Labrador.

In 1903, the Alaska Panhandle Dispute fixed British Columbia's northwestern boundary. This was one of only two provinces in Canadian history to have its size reduced. The second, in 1927, occurred when a boundary dispute between the province of Quebec and the Dominion of Newfoundland saw Labrador increased at Quebec's expense.

In 1999, Nunavut was created from the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories. Yukon lies in the western portion of The North, while Nunavut is in the east.

All three territories combined are the most sparsely populated region in Canada with about 100,000 people spread across a huge area. They are often referred to as a single region, The North, for organisational purposes. The District of Keewatin was created as a separate territory from 1876 to 1905, after which, as the Keewatin Region, it became an administration district of the Northwest Territories. In 1999, it was dissolved when it became part of Nunavut.

In late 2004, Prime Minister Paul Martin surprised some observers by expressing his personal support for all three territories gaining provincial status "eventually". He cited their importance to the country as a whole and the ongoing need to assert sovereignty in the Arctic, particularly as global warming could make that region more open to exploitation.^[7]

Government

Theoretically, provinces have a great deal of power relative to the federal government, with jurisdiction over many public goods such as healthcare, education, welfare, and intra-provincial transportation. They receive "transfer payments" from the federal government to pay for these, as well as exacting their own taxes. In practice, however, the federal government can use these transfer payments to influence these provincial areas. For instance in order to receive healthcare funding under medicare, provinces must agree to meet certain federal mandates, such as universal access to required medical treatment.

Provincial and territorial legislatures have no second chamber like the Canadian Senate. Originally, most provinces did have such bodies, known as legislative councils, but these were subsequently abolished, Quebec's being the last in 1968. In most provinces, the single house of the legislature is known as the Legislative Assembly except in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, where it is called the House of Assembly, and Quebec where it is generally called the National Assembly. Ontario has a Legislative Assembly but its members are called Members of the Provincial Parliament or MPPs. The legislative assemblies use a procedure similar to that of the Canadian House of Commons. The head of government of each province, called the premier, is generally the head of the party with the most seats. This is also the case in Yukon, but the Northwest Territories and Nunavut have no political parties at the territorial level. The Queen's representative to each province is the Lieutenant Governor. In each of the territories there is an analogous Commissioner, but he or she represents the federal government and not the monarch per se.

Each of the territories elects one Member of Parliament. Canadian territories are each entitled to elect one full voting representative to the Canadian House of Commons. With the sole exception of Prince Edward Island having slightly greater per capita representation than the Northwest Territories, every territory has considerably greater per capita representation in the Commons than every other province. Residents of the Canadian territories are full citizens and enjoy the same rights as all other Canadians. Each territory also has one Senator.

Provincial parties

Most provinces have provincial counterparts to the three national federal parties. However, some provincial parties are not formally linked to the federal parties that share the same name. The New Democratic Party is the only party that has integrated membership between the provincial and federal wings. Some provinces have regional political parties, such as the Saskatchewan Party.

The provincial political climate of Quebec is quite different: the main split is between sovereignty, represented by the Parti Québécois, and federalism, represented primarily by the Quebec Liberal Party. From March 2007 to December 2008, the Official Opposition was the Action démocratique du Québec, which advocates what it calls "autonomy", a middle-of-the-road option supporting localised power in the Federal structure. They have no corresponding Federal party, but polls show their base to align with the Federal Conservative Party of Canada.

The provincial Progressive Conservative parties are also now separate from the federal Conservative Party, which resulted from a merger between the Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance. In British Columbia, the Liberal Party separated from the federal Liberal Party and is now an independent entity.

Other

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, near Vimy, Pas-de-Calais département, France, is ceremonially considered Canadian territory. In 1922 the French government donated "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada the free use of the land exempt from all taxes".^[8] However, it does not enjoy extraterritorial status and is thus subject to French law.

In the past, there has been interest in both Canada and the Turks and Caicos Islands, an overseas UK territory in the Caribbean, for the latter to enter Confederation in some capacity. While no official negotiations are underway, the two have a long-standing relationship and politicians on both sides have actively explored the circumstances under which a political union could be achieved.^[9]

See also

• Canadian provincial name etymologies
• List of Canada-related topics by provinces and territories
• List of areas disputed by Canada and the United States
• Northwest Passage international waters dispute
• Proposals for new Canadian provinces and territories
• Territorial claims in the Arctic

References

Further reading

• Statistics Canada – Population by province and territory, by sex and age group,
• Canada Online – Provincial Government Organization
• Bumsted, J. (2004). History of the Canadian Peoples, Oxford: Oxford University Press (ISBN 0-19-541688-0)

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