Provinces and territories of Canada

Canada is a federation of ten provinces and three territories. The major difference between a Canadian province and a 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.

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).

Related Topics:
Canada - Hudson Bay - James Bay - Arctic Archipelago - Greenland

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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.

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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.

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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.

Related Topics:
1870 - Rupert's Land - North-Western Territory - 1999 - Yukon

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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.

Related Topics:
Inuit - First Nations - Métis - Aboriginal

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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.

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