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Canada is a federation which consists of 'ten provinces' that, with 'three territories', make up the world's second largest country in total area. The major difference between a Canadian province and a territory is that a province receives relatively greater power and authority directly from the Crown, via the Constitution Act, 1867, whereas territories derive their mandates from the federal government.
The current provinces are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. The three territories are Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon.

Contents

History

Governance

Federal, provincial, and territorial terminology compared

Provinces of Canada

Territories of Canada

Provincial and Territorial Evolution

Other

Provincial parties

References

See also

History

Main articles: Territorial evolution of Canada


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 Great Britain. 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 swaths of western Canada until 1870, when it turned over the land to the Government of Canada, forming part of Northwest Territories. On September 1 1905, the 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.^[1]
In 1869, Newfoundland decided in an election to remain a British territory, over concerns that central Canada would dominate taxation and economic policy. In 1907, Newfoundland and Labrador acquired dominion status. However, in 1933, the government of Newfoundland fell and during World War II, Canada took charge of Newfoundland's defence. Following World War II, Newfoundland's status was in question. In a narrow majority, the citizens of Newfoundland and Labrador voted for confederation in a 1948 referendum. On March 31 1949, Newfoundland and Labrador became Canada's tenth and final province.

Governance

Main articles: Canadian federalism

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, with its greater powers to tax and spend, can use these transfer payments to influence these provincial areas. For instance in order to receive health care funding under medicare, provinces must agree to meet certain federal mandates, such as universal access to required medical treatment.
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 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 Northwest Territories and Nunavut have no political parties at the territorial level. The Queen's representative to each province is the Lieutenant-Governor; each of the territories has an analogous Commissioner. These terminological differences are summarized below.
:''Further information: Monarchy in the Canadian provinces''

Federal, provincial, and territorial terminology compared

Canada	Governor General	Prime Minister	Parliament		Parliamentarian
			Senate	House of Commons	Senator	Member of Parliament
Ontario	Lieutenant-Governor	Premier	n/a ★	Legislative Assembly	n/a	Member of the Provincial Parliament
Quebec				National Assembly		Member of the National Assembly
Newfoundland and Labrador				House of Assembly		Member of the House of Assembly
Nova Scotia						Member of the Legislative Assembly
Other provinces				Legislative Assembly
Territories	Commissioner	Government Leader

★ Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island historically had Legislative Councils, analogous to the federal Senate.

Provinces of Canada

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

Province, with flag	Postal abbreviation/	Other abbreviations	Capital	Entered Confederation	Population (2007)[2]	Area (km²)
						Land	Water	Total
1	ON	Ont.	Toronto	July 1 1867	12,753,702	917,741	158,654	1,076,395
1	QC	Que., PQ, P.Q.	Quebec City		7,687,068	1,356,128	185,928	1,542,056
2	NS	N.S.	Halifax		932,966	53,338	1,946	55,284
2	NB	N.B.	Fredericton		748,878	71,450	1,458	72,908
3	MB	Man.	Winnipeg	July 15 1870	1,182,921	553,556	94,241	647,797
2	BC	B.C.	Victoria	July 20 1871	4,352,798	925,186	19,549	944,735
2	PE	PEI, P.E.I., P.E. Island	Charlottetown	July 1 1873	138,800	5,660	—	5,660
4	SK	Sask., SSK, SKWN	Regina	September 1, 1905	990,212	591,670	59,366	651,036
4	AB	Alta.	Edmonton		3,455,062	642,317	19,531	661,848
2	NL	Nfld., NF, LB	St. John's	March 31 1949	506,548	373,872	31,340	405,212

Notes:

# Immediately prior to Confederation, Ontario and Quebec were part of the Province of Canada.
# Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island were separate colonies at the time of joining Canada. Prior to its entry, Newfoundland was a Dominion within the British Commonwealth.
# Manitoba was established simultaneously with Northwest Territories.
# Saskatchewan and Alberta were created out of land that had been part of Northwest Territories.

Territories of Canada

There are presently three territories in Canada. Unlike the provinces, the territories of Canada have no inherent jurisdiction and only have those powers delegated to them by the federal government.^[3]
[4]
[5] 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 (territories take precedence after provinces regardless of the date of their creation).

Territory, with flag	Postal abbreviation/	Other abbreviations	Capital	Entered Confederation	Population (2007)	Area (km²)
						Land	Water	Total
	NT	N.W.T., NWT	Yellowknife	July 15 1870	41,795	1,183,085	163,021	1,346,106
	YT	Y.T., YK	Whitehorse	June 13 1898	30,883	474,391	8,052	482,443
	NU	NV, NNVT	Iqaluit	April 1 1999	31,216	1,936,113	157,077	2,093,190

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

Provincial and Territorial Evolution

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.
In 1867, provisional districts were formed as shown in some of these maps of the territorial evolution of the Northwest Territories.
Manitoba and Northwest Territories were created in 1870 from Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory. At the time, the land comprising 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.
1895 also affected many changes in the Districts of Northwest Territories.
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 1905 the size of the Northwest Territories shrunk as the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were formed.
In 1999, Nunavut was created from the eastern portion of Northwest Territories. Yukon 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 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.
Each of the territories elects one Member of Parliament. In contrast to United States territories such as the Virgin Islands, 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 House 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.
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.^[6]

Other

The District of Keewatin was created as a separate territory from 1876 to 1905, after which it became an administration district of Northwest Territories. In 1999, it was dissolved when it became part of Nunavut.
There has also historically been an interest within both Canada and the Turks and Caicos Islands, an overseas UK territory in the Caribbean, for the latter to enter into Confederation in some capacity. While no official negotiations are underway, the two have a long-standing relationship and at times politicians on both sides have actively explored the circumstances under which this could be achieved.^[7]
The Canadian National Vimy Memorial near Vimy, Pas-de-Calais département, France, is ceremonially considered Canadian territory. However, the French Government declared in 1922 that they would grant the land "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada the free use of the land exempt from all taxes". Unlike true Canadian land, such as an embassy, it is subject to the laws of France.^[8]

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 sovereigntism (of which separatism is generally held to be one strain), represented by the Parti Québécois, and federalism, represented primarily by the Quebec Liberal Party.
The provincial Progressive-Conservative Party political entities are also now sepatate from the federal New Conservative Party. The federal Progressive-Conservative political party and the former Alliance Party of Canada amalgamated to form the New Conservative party in the House of Commons of the Parliament of Canada. Historically and currently, the Canadian provincial and federal polital party evolution is somewhat flexible. Provincial political parties are more stable than Canadian federal political parties. A historian might wish to detail the evolution of provincial political parties.

References

1.
2. Statistics Canada Population Estimates (April 1, 2007)
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. Design and Construction of the Vimy Ridge Memorial

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

See also

★ West Indies Federation

★ Canadian provincial name etymologies