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Chapter 10

Canada's Regions

The five regions, all 13 provinces and territories with their capitals, and what each is known for.

Canada at a glance

  • Canada is the second-largest country in the world, about 10 million square kilometres.
  • Three oceans border Canada: the Pacific (west), the Atlantic (east) and the Arctic (north). To the south is the United States.
  • Canada has 10 provinces and 3 territories, each with its own capital, grouped in five regions: the Atlantic Provinces, Central Canada, the Prairie Provinces, the West Coast and the North.
  • Canada has about 34 million people (in the study guide). Most live in cities.
  • The national capital is Ottawa, on the Ottawa River. Queen Victoria chose it in 1857. It is Canada's fourth-largest city area, and the National Capital Region covers about 4,700 square km.

Provinces, territories and capitals

  • Atlantic: Newfoundland and Labrador – St. John's; Prince Edward Island – Charlottetown; Nova Scotia – Halifax; New Brunswick – Fredericton.
  • Central Canada: Quebec – Quebec City; Ontario – Toronto.
  • Prairies: Manitoba – Winnipeg; Saskatchewan – Regina; Alberta – Edmonton.
  • West Coast: British Columbia – Victoria.
  • North: Nunavut – Iqaluit; Northwest Territories – Yellowknife; Yukon – Whitehorse.
  • Tip: the capital isn't always the biggest city. Saint John is New Brunswick's largest city and Saskatoon is Saskatchewan's, but their capitals are Fredericton and Regina. Montreal is Canada's second-largest city, but Quebec's capital is Quebec City.

The Atlantic Provinces

  • Fishing, farming, forestry and mining shaped the region. The ocean brings cool winters and cool, humid summers.
  • Newfoundland and Labrador has the most easterly point in North America and its own time zone. It was the oldest British colony and joined Canada in 1949. It is known for fisheries, offshore oil and gas, and Labrador's hydro power.
  • Prince Edward Island is the smallest province, known for beaches, red soil and potatoes. It is the birthplace of Confederation. The Confederation Bridge links it to the mainland. 'Anne of Green Gables' by Lucy Maud Montgomery is set there.
  • Nova Scotia is the most populous Atlantic province. The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world. Halifax is Canada's largest east coast port and home to Canada's largest naval base. Nova Scotia has Celtic and Gaelic traditions and over 700 festivals a year.
  • New Brunswick was founded by United Empire Loyalists and is the only officially bilingual province; about one-third of its people live and work in French. The St. John River system is the second largest on North America's Atlantic coast. Saint John is the largest city; Moncton is the main Acadian centre; Fredericton is the capital.

Central Canada

  • More than half of Canadians live in Central Canada, near the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. It is the industrial and manufacturing heartland; Ontario and Quebec make over three-quarters of Canada's manufactured goods.
  • Quebec has nearly 8 million people. More than three-quarters speak French as their first language. Quebec is Canada's main producer of pulp and paper and its largest producer of hydro-electricity, and a leader in pharmaceuticals and aeronautics.
  • Montreal is Canada's second-largest city and the second-largest mainly French-speaking city in the world, after Paris.
  • Ontario has more than 12 million people, over one-third of Canadians. Toronto is Canada's largest city and main financial centre. Ontario was founded by Loyalists and has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Niagara region is known for vineyards and fruit.
  • The five Great Lakes are Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan (in the U.S.) and Superior. Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world.

The Prairie Provinces

  • Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta have rich energy resources and some of the world's most fertile farmland. The climate is dry, with cold winters and hot summers.
  • Manitoba's economy is based on agriculture, mining and hydro power. Winnipeg is the largest city; Portage and Main is Canada's most famous intersection. St. Boniface in Winnipeg has Western Canada's largest French-speaking community. Manitoba is a centre of Ukrainian culture (about 14%) and has the largest Aboriginal population of any province (over 15%).
  • Saskatchewan was once called the 'breadbasket of the world' and the 'wheat province'. It has about 40% of Canada's farmland, the world's richest deposits of uranium and potash, and oil and gas. Regina is home to the RCMP training academy; Saskatoon is the largest city.
  • Alberta is the most populous Prairie province. It and Lake Louise are named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, Queen Victoria's fourth daughter. It has five national parks, including Banff (1885). The Badlands have some of the world's richest dinosaur fossils. Alberta is the largest producer of oil and gas (including the oil sands) and is known for cattle ranches.

The West Coast

  • British Columbia is Canada's westernmost province, with about 4 million people, known for its mountains.
  • The Port of Vancouver is Canada's largest and busiest port, its gateway to the Asia-Pacific.
  • About half of B.C.'s production is forestry products; it also has mining, fishing, and the orchards and wineries of the Okanagan Valley.
  • B.C. has Canada's largest park system, about 600 provincial parks. After English, Chinese and Punjabi are the most spoken languages in its cities.
  • Victoria, the capital, is a tourist centre and headquarters of the navy's Pacific fleet.

The North

  • The three territories have about one-third of Canada's land but only about 100,000 people.
  • Mines produce gold, lead, copper, diamonds and zinc, and oil and gas are being developed.
  • The North is called the 'Land of the Midnight Sun': in midsummer daylight can last up to 24 hours; in winter the sun disappears for about three months.
  • Much of the North is tundra: treeless land with permanently frozen soil. Many people hunt, fish and trap, and Inuit art is sold around the world.
  • Yukon: thousands of miners came in the Gold Rush of the 1890s. The White Pass and Yukon Railway opened in 1900. Yukon holds Canada's record coldest temperature (−63°C), and Mount Logan, Canada's highest mountain, named after geologist Sir William Logan.
  • Northwest Territories: created in 1870. Yellowknife is the 'diamond capital of North America'. More than half the people are Aboriginal (Dene, Inuit, Métis). The Mackenzie River (4,200 km) is the second-longest river system in North America.
  • Nunavut: created in 1999 from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories. Its name means 'our land' in Inuktitut. Iqaluit was formerly called Frobisher Bay. About 85% of the people are Inuit, and Inuktitut is an official language. Its 19-member assembly chooses the premier by consensus.
  • The Canadian Rangers, part of the Canadian Forces reserves, protect Canada's security and sovereignty in the North, using Indigenous knowledge.

Checked against the official study guide: Discover Canada: Canada's regions. Summarized in our own words.

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