Canadian provinces

This article is part of the series Politics of Canada

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Regions Provinces and territories

Canada consists of ten provinces and three territories. The major difference between a Canadian province and a Canadian territory is that a province is a creation of the Constitution Act, while a territory is created by federal law. Thus, the federal government has more direct control over the territories, while provincial governments have many more competences and rights.

Provinces have a great deal of power relative to the federal government, having a large measure of control over spending on social programs such as medicare, education, welfare, and the like. They receive "transfer payments" from the federal government to pay for these, as well as exacting their own taxes.

Prime Minister Paul Martin surprised some observers in late 2004 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 need to assert sovereignty in the Arctic, particularly as global warming could make that region more open to exploitation. [1]

Provincial and territorial legislatures are unicameral, having no second chamber equivalent to the Canadian Senate. Originally a few 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 called the National Assembly. Ontario has a Legislative Assembly but its members are 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 (or lieutenant-governor). Each of the territories has a commissioner in the place of a lieutenant-governor. These terminological differences are summarized below.

Federal, Provincial, and Territorial Terminology Compared

Provinces of Canada

The following table is listed in the order of precedence (i.e. when a province entered into Confederation). (When provinces joined Confederation at the same time, the one farthest east is first in order of preference.) Population figures are from 2004.

Notes:

1. Immediately prior to Confederation, Ontario and Quebec were part of the Province of Canada.
2. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island were separate colonies at the time of joining Canada. Newfoundland was a Dominion within the British Commonwealth.
3. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta were all created out of land that had been part of Canada's Northwest Territories.

Territories

There are three territories in Canada. 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 Arctic Archipelago) that are not politically part of Greenland. The following table lists the territories in order of precedence (territories take precedence after provinces regardless of the date of their creation).

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.

British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island were separate colonies before joining Canada. Ontario and Quebec were united before Confederation as the Province of Canada.

Manitoba and the Northwest Territories were created in 1870 from Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory. The land of the Northwest Territories at that time was all of current western Canada, except British Columbia and southern Manitoba, and the northern three-quarters of Ontario and Quebec. In 1999 Nunavut was created from the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories. The Yukon Territory lies in the western portion of the north, while Nunavut is in the east.

Nunavut's population is about 85% Inuit, while the population of the Northwest Territories is about 10% Inuit, 40% First Nations and Métis, and 50% non-Aboriginal.

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 organizational purposes.

See also

• List of Canadian provinces and territories in order of entering Confederation
• Canadian provincial name etymologies
• List of Canadian provinces and territories by area
• List of Canadian provinces and territories by population
• List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols
• List of current Canadian premiers
• List of current Canadian lieutenant governors and commissioners
• Provincial creationism
• List of regions of Canada
• Provincial and territorial capitals of Canada
• Provincial tree emblems of Canada
• West Indies Federation

Provinces and territories of Canada
Provinces: British Columbia | Alberta | Saskatchewan | Manitoba | Ontario | Quebec | New Brunswick | Prince Edward Island | Nova Scotia | Newfoundland and Labrador
Territories: Yukon | Northwest Territories | Nunavut