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. Each of the territories has a commissioner in the place of a lieutenant-governor. These terminological differences are summarized below.

Contents

1 Provincial and territorial terminology compared with federal 2 Provinces of Canada 3 Territories 4 See also

Provincial and territorial terminology compared with federal

Canada	Governor General	Prime Minister	Parliament	House of Commons	Member of Parliament
Quebec	Lieutenant Governor	Premier	Legislature	National Assembly	Member of the National Assembly
Ontario				Legislative Assembly	Member of the Provincial Parliament
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

Provinces of Canada

This table follows Canadian custom by listing the provinces in geographical rather than alphabetical order. (This may run east to west, as here, or the other way. As Prince Edward Island is north of Nova Scotia, they may be listed in either order.) Population figures are from 2004 except as noted.

Province	Postal abbreviation	Other abbreviations	Capital	Entered Confederation	Population	Area (km²)
Newfoundland and Labrador¹	NL (was NF)	Nfld.	St. John's	March 31, 1949	533,800 (in 2001)	405,212
Nova Scotia¹	NS	N.S.	Halifax	July 1, 1867	938,134	55,284
Prince Edward Island¹	PE	P.E.I., PEI	Charlottetown	July 1, 1873	137,900	5,660
New Brunswick¹	NB	N.B.	Fredericton	July 1, 1867	757,100 (in 2001)	72,908
Quebec²	QC (was PQ)	Que., P.Q.	Quebec City	July 1, 1867	7,560,592	1,542,056
Ontario²	ON	Ont.	Toronto	July 1, 1867	12,439,755	1,076,395
Manitoba³	MB	Man.	Winnipeg	July 15, 1870	1,162,800 (in 2003)	647,797
Saskatchewan³	SK	Sask.	Regina	September 1, 1905	996,194	651,036
Alberta³	AB	Alta.	Edmonton	September 1, 1905	3,183,312	661,848
British Columbia¹	BC	B.C.	Victoria	July 20, 1871	4,168,123	944,735

Notes:

1. Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and British Columbia were separate colonies at the time of joining Canada.
2. Ontario and Quebec joined as part of the Dominion of Canada.
3. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta were all created later out of land that was already Canada.

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.

Territory	Postal abbreviation	Other abbreviations	Capital	Entered Confederation	Population	Area (km²)
Nunavut	NU		Iqaluit	April 1, 1999	29,300	2,093,190
Northwest Territories	NT	N.W.T., NWT	Yellowknife	July 15, 1870	40,900 (in 2001)	1,346,106
Yukon	YT	Y.T., YK	Whitehorse	June 13, 1898	29,900 (in 2001)	482,443

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 only about 10% Inuit, 40% First Nations and Métis, and 50% non-aboriginal.

The combined territories 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 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