Proposed provinces and territories of Canada

Since Canadian Confederation in 1867, there have been several proposals for new Canadian provinces and territories. The Constitution of Canada requires an amendment for the creation of a new province^[1] but the creation of a new territory requires only an act of Parliament; therefore, it is easier legislatively to create a territory than a province.

Contents 1 Current and defunct movements within Canada 1.1 Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut 2 Countries and territories 2.1 Current or former British territories 2.2 United States 2.3 Current French territories 3 Miscellaneous boundary changes 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References

Current and defunct movements within Canada

People in many areas across Canada have expressed wishes that their communities receive heightened autonomy via provincehood or territoryhood. These areas include:

Area	Land	Description
Atlantic	Acadia	This was promoted by the Parti Acadien and is similarly represented by the historic "Republic of Madawaska". Currently, there is limited support for this idea, and drawing the borders of a separate Acadian province would be difficult. The Parti Acadien decided once again to support the creation of a separate province, in tandem with most (but not all) SANB members. The party went into the 1978 election with a platform of independence. However, Richard Hatfield and the governing Progressive Conservatives also promoted a platform that promised to increase the role of the Acadian people and culture within the province.
	Cape Breton Island	An area which was annexed by and is a part of Nova Scotia, but in the past it has been a separate colony. Cape Breton Island is usually considered distinct from mainland Nova Scotia by some people across Canada and mainland Nova Scotia. Provincehood had been advocated by the Cape Breton Labour Party.[2]
	Labrador	The mainland portion of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Labrador Party has campaigned on the platform of a separate province.
	Nunatsiavut	An area in northern Labrador, it is inhabited mainly by Inuit, many of whom wish to leave Newfoundland and Labrador and form a territory similar to Nunavut. It has recently been granted certain self-government powers, while remaining within the province. Similar Inuit and First Nation territories, such as Nunavik and parts of British Columbia, are seeking the same status as Nunatsiavut.
Quebec	English Quebec	Around the time of the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty, a self-named 'partition' movement flourished, advocating the separation of certain areas of Quebec, particularly the English-speaking areas such as Montreal's West Island, in the event of Quebec separation, with such areas remaining part of Canada. This movement is no longer active. See also Proposal for the Province of Montreal.
	Kanienkehaka	During the runup to the 1995 Quebec referendum, Mohawk leaders asserted a sovereign right to secede from Quebec if Quebec were to secede from Canada.[3] It is not clear whether most Mohawks would actually like to secede from Canada or to form a territory within Canada, in the event of Quebec secession. In the CBC Television documentary Breaking Point, the Quebec Premier at the time, Jacques Parizeau, said that had the referendum succeeded, he would have allowed the Mohawk communities to secede from Quebec, on the grounds that they had never given up their sovereign rights.
	Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean	André Harvey, the former federal MP for Chicoutimi—Le-Fjord, was attributed with the idea of creating a new province encompassing the highly separatist area of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean in Quebec, on the premise that it has a culture distinct from the rest of Quebec and already has its own flag.
Ontario	National Capital Region	At various times, provincial, territorial or special federal status has been proposed for the metropolitan area consisting of Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec, so that the national capital would not be part of any province.
	Northern Ontario	The Northern Ontario Heritage Party advocated for the creation of a separate province by dividing from Southern Ontario in the 1970s, although the party did not attract widespread electoral support. A newer group, the Northern Ontario Secession Movement, has begun a similar campaign, but has not to date attracted the same degree of attention. On a more modest scale, Sudbury's Northern Life community newspaper has also published a number of editorials in recent years calling on the province to create a new level of supraregional government that would give the Northern Ontario region significantly more autonomy over its own affairs within the province.[4] The Northern Ontario Heritage Party was subsequently reregistered in 2010,[5] although in its current incarnation it advocates increased regional autonomy and has stopped short of calling for a new province.
	Province of Toronto	The largest city in Canada. Some have argued that the rest of Ontario benefits from Toronto more than the reverse. Support for its separation from Ontario is low. Some activists have lobbied for a separate Province of Toronto; former Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman, while in office, floated the idea because of what he perceived as the province's excessive draining of tax resources from Toronto without providing sufficient support for public services within the city.
British Columbia	Vancouver Island	Vancouver Island was a British colony before the mainland of what is now British Columbia was settled. Some island residents believe that the island would be better off as its own province. Support for the movement is low.

Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut

• Each of the three current Canadian territories — Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut — is home to a movement lobbying for the territories' political status to be upgraded to full provincehood.
• The different territories in the Northwest Territories were proposed as independent in different times:
  • Inuvialuit (Inuvik Region - Inuvik)
  • Sahtu (Sahtu Region - Norman Wells)
  • Dehcho (Dehcho Region - Fort Simpson)
  • Tåîchô (North Slave Region - Behchoko and Yellowknife)
  • Akaitcho (South Slave Region - Fort Smith and Hay River)

Countries and territories

Current or former British territories

Polity	Description
Turks and Caicos Islands	A British overseas territory in the Caribbean. There is some support for it to join Canada, and in 2004 Nova Scotia voted to invite Turks and Caicos to join that province, in the event of the islands becoming Canadian. However, the islands' small economy and Canada's involvement in Haiti has made this controversial. On March 2, 2009, the Ottawa Citizen ran an article on its online site reporting the interest of the Canadian government to open a deep-water port in the Caribbean that would "opened up a new market for Canadian goods".[6] The article proposed that "the port, unaffordable for Caribbean countries [would] boost the standard of living and bolstered hemispheric security. ... as a Canadian military operations base for countries wanting help to patrol their waters and to interdict the Caribbean's robust trade in smuggled arms, drugs and people".[6] In the 1990s support for integration into Canada as an "11th province" was at 90%, while in 2003, support for integration stood at around 60% in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Peter Goldring, a Conservative MP from Edmonton, has championed the cause of integrating the Turks and Caicos Islands as a Canadian territory for security benefits as well as increasing Canada's influence in Central and Southern America in regards to anti-terrorism and trade.
Barbados	In 1884, the Barbados Agricultural Society sent a letter to Sir Francis Hincks requesting his private and public views on whether the Dominion of Canada would favourably entertain having the then colony of Barbados admitted as a member of the Canadian Confederation. Asked of Canada were the terms of the Canadian side to initiate discussions, and whether or not the island of Barbados could depend on the full influence of Canada in getting the change agreed to by Britain. Then in 1952 the Barbados Advocate newspaper polled several prominent Bajan politicians, lawyers, businessmen, the Speaker of the Barbados House of Assembly and later as first President of the Senate, Sir Theodore Branker, Q.C. and found them to be in favour of immediate federation of Barbados along with the rest of the British Caribbean with complete Dominion Status within five years from the date of inauguration of the West Indies Federation with Canada.[7] In 2008, the former President of the Barbados International Business Association (BIBA) reflected on the close historical relations between both nations and questioned whether a political union was possible within the next 100 years.[8]
Bermuda	In 1949 Henry Vassey, then Chairman of the Bermuda Trade Development Board, urged the House of Assembly of Bermuda to pursue a political union with Canada. Four Methodist church congregations in Bermuda are part of The United Church of Canada, forming Bermuda Presbytery of the United Church's Maritime Conference headquartered in Sackville, New Brunswick.[7]
Jamaica	In the late 19th century, there was some discussion of some form of political union between Canada and Jamaica.[7]
The West Indies Federation	In a 1952 letter by T.G. Major, a Canadian Trade Commissioner in Trinidad and Tobago, it was stated to the Under Secretary of State for External Affairs that the respective leaders of the British Caribbean could not reach a clear consensus for the exact style of a federal union with Canada. During a parliamentary conference held in Ottawa, it was also noted though that the colony of British Honduras (present day Belize) showed the most interest in a union with Canada exceeding that of the other British Caribbean colonies.[7]

Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden and his delegation to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 put pressure on British Prime Minister David Lloyd George to give most of the above territories to Canada as sub-dominions or League of Nations mandates, citing the concessions made to Billy Hughes' Australian delegation with regard to New Guinea and Nauru. Lloyd George eventually declined.^[9]

United States

In the 1979 Canadian federal election, the Rhinoceros Party of Canada, a satirical federal political party, included annexation of the United States as part of its platform.^[10] It was proposed that the United States become the third territory of Canada. As well, following the 2004 U.S. presidential election, some American voters distributed the Jesusland map, which proposed that the 19 American "blue states" secede from the United States and become Canadian provinces. In both cases, however, Canadian annexation of all or part of the United States was a purely satirical idea rather than a serious proposal.^[11]

Land	Description
Alaska	Some Canadians and Alaskans have discussed the possibility of the state of Alaska seceding from the United States and joining Canada under an autonomy plan allowing for a U.S. sphere of influence. This is comparable to what some Quebec separatists have advocated for in the past (sovereignty-association, Quebec Autonomism). The issue has been discussed on various fora, such as that for the Alaska Independence Party forum, which claims Alaska as the "lost province". However, no formal movement in favour of this proposal exists, nor does any political party advocate it.
Vermont	Some supporters of the Vermont independence movement propose that Vermont join Canada as a province.[12][13]
Maine	Some propose that Maine secede from the U.S. and join Canada as a province,[14][15] though this movement is much smaller than the "Vermont annexation movement".

Current French territories

Land

Description

St. Pierre and Miquelon

A small French dependency just off the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador. At various times, residents and politicians in Saint Pierre and Miquelon have proposed that the islands pursue secession from France to become part of Canada, so that the islands — whose economy is highly dependent on the Atlantic fishery — could participate in Canada's much larger maritime fishing zone rather than France's limited "keyhole" zone. As of 2011[update] such proposals have never come to a vote or referendum.

Miscellaneous boundary changes

There have also been some proposals that would result in a change of the boundary status between existing provinces, or even between Canada and the United States.

Land	Description
Northwestern Ontario	Recently, some residents of Northwestern Ontario have proposed that the region secede from Ontario to join Manitoba, due to the perception that the government of Ontario does not pay sufficient attention to the region's issues. One paper in Canadian Public Policy suggested the region merge with Manitoba to form a new province called "Mantario."[16]
Maritime Provinces	At various times, some politicians in Canada's Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have proposed that the three provinces unite into a single new province, which would be larger and have more political and economic clout than any of the three provinces does individually. Although this Maritime Union proposal often attracts media attention, there has been little substantive discussion.
Southeastern British Columbia	In the 1990s, there was discussion amongst some municipal councillors in Elkford, which lies within the Rocky Mountains, about joining Alberta, whose conservative politics were more in line with their own than were the left-wing politics of much of the rest of BC. This discussion did not result in any formal movement.
Northwest Angle	Due to laws restricting fishing rights in Lake of the Woods, some residents of this part of Minnesota — which is accessible via road to the rest of the United States only by way of Manitoba — suggested leaving the United States and joining Canada in 1997. The following year, Representative Collin Peterson proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow the residents of the Northwest Angle, which is part of his district, to vote on seceding from the United States and joining Canada, angering the leaders of Red Lake Indian Reservation, which holds most of the Northwest Angle's land.[17][18]

See also

• 51st state
• Annexation movements of Canada
• Proposals for new Australian states
• Secessionist movements of Canada
• Territorial evolution of Canada
• Former colonies and territories in Canada

Notes

References

• [|Stewart, Alice R.] (1950) "Canadian—West Indian Union, 1884–1885" Canadian Historical Review Number 4, (University of Toronto Press) 31: Pgs. 369–389 doi:10.3138/CHR-031-04-02 ISSN (Print) 1710-1093 (Online) 0008-3755 (Print) 1710-1093 (Online) http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/c52481673131810h/fulltext.pdf 

Lists relating to the provinces and territories of Canada Ranked by area · by population (growth rate) · by GDP · by order of joining Confederation · by government spending · unemployment Political Current lieutenant governors · Current first ministers · History of first ministers · Capitals · Elections Historical Former colonies and territories in Canada · Territorial evolution of Canada after 1867 · Proposals for new provinces Other Total area  · Bibliography · Extreme points  · Language policies · Symbols · Name etymologies · Museums  · Population  · Regions  · Topics