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Provinces

Arms	Province	Postal abbrev.	Capital [1]	Largest city[2]	Entered Confederation[3]	Population [a]	Area (km2)[5]			Official language(s)[6]	Seats[7]
							Land	Water	Total		Commons	Senate
	Ontario[b]	ON	Toronto		July 1, 1867	13,448,494	917,741	158,654	1,076,395	English[c]	121	24
	Quebec	QC	Quebec City	Montreal	July 1, 1867	8,164,361	1,356,128	185,928	1,542,056	French[d]	78	24
	Nova Scotia	NS	Halifax[e]		July 1, 1867	923,598	53,338	1,946	55,284	English[f]	11	10
	New Brunswick	NB	Fredericton	Moncton	July 1, 1867	747,101	71,450	1,458	72,908	English French[g]	10	10
	Manitoba	MB	Winnipeg		July 15, 1870	1,278,365	553,556	94,241	647,797	English[c][h]	14	6
	British Columbia	BC	Victoria	Vancouver	July 20, 1871	4,648,055	925,186	19,549	944,735	English[c]	42	6
	Prince Edward Island	PE	Charlottetown		July 1, 1873	142,907	5,660	0	5,660	English[c]	4	4
	Saskatchewan	SK	Regina	Saskatoon	September 1, 1905	1,098,352	591,670	59,366	651,036	English[c]	14	6
	Alberta	AB	Edmonton	Calgary	September 1, 1905	4,067,175	642,317	19,531	661,848	English[c]	34	6
	Newfoundland and Labrador	NL	St. John's		March 31, 1949	519,716	373,872	31,340	405,212	English[c]	7	6
Total						7007350381240000000♠35,038,124	7006549091800000000♠5,490,918	7005572013000000000♠572,013	7006606293100000000♠6,062,931	—	7002335000000000000♠335	7002102000000000000♠102

Notes:

Provincial legislature buildings

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  British Columbia Parliament Buildings
  

  
  

  
  


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  Alberta Legislative Building
  

  
  

  
  


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  Saskatchewan Legislative Building
  

  
  

  
  


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  Manitoba Legislative Building
  

  
  

  
  


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  Ontario Legislative Building
  

  
  

  
  


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  Parliament Building (Quebec)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Confederation Building (Newfoundland and Labrador)
  

  
  

  
  


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  New Brunswick Legislative Building
  

  
  

  
  


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  Province House (Nova Scotia)
  

  
  

  
  


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  Province House (Prince Edward Island)
  

  
  

  
  

Territories

There are three territories in Canada. Unlike the provinces, the territories of Canada have no inherent sovereignty and have only those powers delegated to them by the federal government.^[8][9][10] They include all of mainland Canada north of latitude 60° north and west of Hudson Bay, as well as most 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

Arms	Territory	Postal abbreviation	Capital and largest city[1]	Entered Confederation[3]	Population[a]	Area (km2)[5]			Official languages	Seats[7]
						Land	Water	Total		Commons	Senate
	Northwest Territories	NT	Yellowknife	July 15, 1870	41,786	1,183,085	163,021	1,346,106	Chipewyan, Cree, English, French, Gwich'in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey, Tłįchǫ[11]	1	1
	Yukon	YT	Whitehorse	June 13, 1898	35,874	474,391	8,052	482,443	English, French[12]	1	1
	Nunavut	NU	Iqaluit	April 1, 1999	35,944	1,936,113	157,077	2,093,190	Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, English, French[13]	1	1
Total territories					7005119100000000000♠119,100	7006359358900000000♠3,593,589	7005328150000000000♠328,150	7006392173900000000♠3,921,739	—	7000300000000000000♠3	7000300000000000000♠3

Territorial legislature buildings

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  Yukon Legislative Building
  

  
  

  
  


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  Northwest Territories Legislative Building
  

  
  

  
  


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  Legislative Building of Nunavut
  

  
  

  
  

Territorial evolution

Canada timeline: evolution of the borders and the names of Canada's provinces and territories

Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were the original provinces, formed when several 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.^[14] Prior to this, Ontario and Quebec were united as the Province of Canada. Over the following years, Manitoba (1870), British Columbia (1871), and Prince Edward Island (1873) were added as provinces.^[14]

The British Crown had claimed two large areas north-west of the Canadian colony, known as Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory and assigned them to the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1870, the company relinquished its claims for £300,000 ($1.5 million), assigning the vast territory to the Government of Canada.^[15] Subsequently, the area was re-organized into the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories.^[15] The Northwest Territories were vast at first, encompassing all of current northern and western Canada, except for the British holdings in the Arctic islands and the Colony of British Columbia; the Territories also included the northern two-thirds of Ontario and Quebec, and almost all of present Manitoba, with the 1870 province of Manitoba originally being confined to a small area in the south of today's province.^[16] The British claims to the Arctic islands were transferred to Canada in 1880, adding to the size of the Northwest Territories. The year of 1898 saw the Yukon Territory, later renamed simply as Yukon, carved from the parts of the Northwest Territories surrounding the Klondike gold fields. On September 1, 1905, a portion of the Northwest Territories south of the 60th parallel north became the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.^[16] 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.^[17]

1905 Provinces and territories of Canada coat of arms postcard

In 1869, the people of Newfoundland voted to remain a British colony over fears that taxes would increase with Confederation, and that the economic policy of the Canadian government would favour mainland industries.^[18] In 1907, Newfoundland acquired dominion status.^[19] In the middle of the Great Depression in Canada with Newfoundland facing a prolonged period of economic crisis, the legislature turned over political control to the Commission of Government in 1933.^[20] Following Canada's participation in World War II, in a 1948 referendum, a narrow majority of Newfoundland citizens voted to join the Confederation, and on March 31, 1949, Newfoundland became Canada's tenth province.^[21] In 2001, it was officially renamed Newfoundland and Labrador.^[22]

In 1903, the Alaska Panhandle Dispute fixed British Columbia's northwestern boundary.^[23] This was one of only two provinces in Canadian history to have its size reduced. The second reduction, in 1927, occurred when a boundary dispute between Canada and the Dominion of Newfoundland saw Labrador increased at Quebec's expense – this land returned to Canada, as part of the province of Newfoundland, in 1949.^[24]
In 1999, Nunavut was created from the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories.^[25] Yukon lies in the western portion of The North, while Nunavut is in the east.^[26]

All three territories combined are the most sparsely populated region in Canada, covering 3,921,739 km² (1,514,192 sq mi) in land area.^[5] They are often referred to as a single region, The North, for organisational and economic purposes.^[27] For much of the Northwest Territories' early history it was divided into several districts for ease of administration.^[28] The District of Keewatin was created as a separate territory from 1876 to 1905, after which, as the Keewatin Region, it became an administrative district of the Northwest Territories.^[29] In 1999, it was dissolved when it became part of Nunavut.

Government

Theoretically, provinces have a great deal of power relative to the federal government, with jurisdiction over many public goods such as health care, education, welfare, and intra-provincial transportation.^[30] They receive "transfer payments" from the federal government to pay for these, as well as exacting their own taxes.^[31] 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.^[31]

Provincial and territorial legislatures have no second chamber like the Canadian Senate. Originally, most provinces did have such bodies, known as legislative councils, with members titled councillors. These upper houses were abolished one by one, Quebec's being the last in 1968.^[32] In most provinces, the single house of the legislature is known as the Legislative Assembly; the exceptions are Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, where the chamber is called the House of Assembly, and Quebec where it is called the National Assembly.^[33] Ontario has a Legislative Assembly but its members are called Members of the Provincial Parliament or MPPs.^[34] The legislative assemblies use a procedure similar to that of the House of Commons of Canada. The head of government of each province, called the premier, is generally the head of the party with the most seats.^[35] This is also the case in Yukon, but the Northwest Territories and Nunavut have no political parties at the territorial level.^[36] The Queen's representative to each province is the Lieutenant Governor.^[37] In each of the territories there is an analogous Commissioner, but he or she represents the federal government rather than the monarch.^[38]

Provincial political parties

The governing political party(s) in each Canadian province. Multicolored provinces are governed by a coalition or minority government consisting of more than one party.

Most provinces have rough provincial counterparts to major federal parties. However, these provincial parties are not usually formally linked to the federal parties that share the same name.^[39] For example, no provincial Conservative or Progressive Conservative Party shares an organizational link to the federal Conservative Party of Canada, and neither do provincial Green Parties to the Green Party of Canada. Provincial New Democratic Parties, on the other hand, are fully integrated with the federal New Democratic Party – meaning that provincial parties effectively operate as sections, with common membership, of the federal party. The Liberal Party of Canada shares such an organizational integration with the provincial Liberals in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Other provincial Liberal Parties are unaffiliated with their federal counterpart.^[39]

Some provinces have provincial political parties with no clear federal equivalent, such as the Alberta Party, Saskatchewan Party, and Wildrose Party.

The provincial political climate of Quebec is quite different: the main split is between sovereignty, represented by the Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire, and federalism, represented primarily by the Quebec Liberal Party.^[40] The Coalition Avenir Québec, meanwhile, takes an abstentionist position on the question and does not support or oppose sovereignty.

Currently, the only minority provincial/territorial government is held by the British Columbia New Democratic Party after receiving 41 out of 87 seats in the 2017 general election.

Ceremonial territory

Canadian National Vimy Memorial – For First World War Canadian dead and First World War Canadian missing, presumed dead in France.

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, near Vimy, Pas-de-Calais, and the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial, near Beaumont-Hamel, France are ceremonially considered Canadian territory.^[54] In 1922, the French government donated the land used for the Vimy Memorial "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada the free use of the land exempt from all taxes".^[55]
The site of the Somme battlefield near Beaumont-Hamel site was purchased in 1921 by the people of the Dominion of Newfoundland.^[54] These sites do not, however, enjoy extraterritorial status and are thus subject to French law.

Proposed provinces and territories

Since 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^[56] but the creation of a new territory requires only an act of Parliament, a legislatively simpler process.^[57]

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 leading to more complex international waters disputes.^[58]

See also

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  Canadian provincial and territorial name etymologies
  
  • Canadian adjectival and demonymic forms of place names


• Language policies of Canada's provinces and territories


• List of areas disputed by Canada and the United States


• List of regions of Canada


• List of governments in Canada by annual expenditures


• Commonwealth Local Government Forum-Americas


• Provincial museums of Canada


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  List of Canada-related topics by provinces and territories
  
  • List of Canadian provinces and territories by area
  
  
  • List of Canadian provinces and territories by gross domestic product
  
  
  • List of Canadian provinces and territories by population
  
  
  • List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols
  
  
  • List of Canadian provinces by unemployment rate
  
  


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  Canada – Wikipedia book
  
  

References

Further reading

External links

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  Provincial and territorial government web sites – Service Canada


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  Provincial and territorial legislature web sites – Parliament of Canada


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  Difference between provinces and territories – Intergovernmental Affairs


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  Provincial and territorial statistics – Statistics Canada


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  Provincial and territorial immigration information – Citizenship and Immigration Canada


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  Canadian governments compared – University of Public Administration