Canada’s Regions

The Land and Its Regions

Canada spans many geographical areas and is organized into five distinct regions. Both Canada and the U.S.A. are committed to a safe, secure and efficient shared frontier. Although the majority of Canadians live in cities, people also live in small towns, rural areas, and everywhere in between.

OttawaThe National Capital

Ottawa, on the Ottawa River, was chosen as the capital in 1857 by Queen Victoria — the great-great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II. Today it is Canada's fourth largest metropolitan area. The surrounding National Capital Region covers 4,700 square kilometres, preserving and enhancing the area's built heritage and natural environment. Ottawa's Rideau Canal, once a military waterway, is now a tourist attraction and winter skateway.

Atlantic CanadaThe Atlantic Provinces

Atlantic Canada's coasts and natural resources — fishing, farming, forestry and mining — have made these provinces an important part of Canada's history and development. The Atlantic Ocean brings cool winters and cool, humid summers. Newfoundland and Labrador is the most easterly point in North America and has its own time zone; once the oldest colony of the British Empire and a strategic prize, it is long known for its fisheries and distinct sea-linked culture, while today offshore oil and gas drives much of the economy and Labrador holds immense hydro-electric resources.

Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) is the smallest province, known for its beaches, red soil and agriculture — especially potatoes — and as the birthplace of Confederation. It is linked to the mainland by the Confederation Bridge, one of the longest continuous multispan bridges in the world. P.E.I. is also the setting of Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery's much-loved story of a little red-headed orphan girl.

Nova Scotia is the most populous Atlantic Province and a historic gateway to Canada, known for the world's highest tides in the Bay of Fundy. Its identity is tied to shipbuilding, fisheries and shipping; Halifax, the capital, is Canada's largest east coast port — deep-water and ice-free — and home to Canada's largest naval base. Alongside a long history of coal mining, forestry and agriculture, there is now offshore oil and gas exploration. Celtic and Gaelic traditions sustain a vibrant culture, with over 700 annual festivals including the spectacular military tattoo in Halifax.

New Brunswick, in the Appalachian Range, was founded by the United Empire Loyalists and has the St. John River system, the second largest river system on North America's Atlantic coastline. Its principal industries are forestry, agriculture, fisheries, mining, food processing and tourism. Saint John is the largest city, port and manufacturing centre, Moncton is the principal Francophone Acadian centre, and Fredericton is the historic capital. It is the only officially bilingual province, with about one-third of the population living and working in French, and its Loyalist and French heritage comes alive in street festivals and traditional music.

The HeartlandCentral Canada

More than half of all Canadians live in cities and towns near the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River in southern Quebec and Ontario. Known as the industrial and manufacturing heartland, these two provinces together produce more than three-quarters of all Canadian manufactured goods, and southern Ontario and Quebec have cold winters and warm, humid summers.

Nearly eight million people live in Quebec, the vast majority along or near the St. Lawrence River, and more than three-quarters speak French as their first language. The resources of the Canadian Shield have built up forestry, energy and mining — Quebec is Canada's main producer of pulp and paper and, thanks to its huge freshwater supply, Canada's largest producer of hydro-electricity. Quebecers also lead in cutting-edge pharmaceuticals and aeronautics, and the province's films, music, literature and food have international stature, especially within La Francophonie. Montreal is Canada's second largest city and the second largest mainly French-speaking city in the world after Paris.

Ontario, with more than 12 million people, makes up over one-third of all Canadians. Toronto is the largest city in Canada and the country's main financial centre, and many people work in service or manufacturing industries that produce a large share of Canada's exports. The Niagara region is known for its vineyards, wines and fruit crops, while Ontario farmers raise dairy and beef cattle, poultry, and vegetable and grain crops. Founded by United Empire Loyalists, Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec.

The PrairiesThe Prairie Provinces

Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta are the Prairie Provinces — rich in energy resources and some of the most fertile farmland in the world. The region is mostly dry, with cold winters and hot summers.

Manitoba's economy rests on agriculture, mining and hydro-electric power. Its most populous city is Winnipeg, whose Exchange District includes Canada's most famous street intersection, Portage and Main. Winnipeg's French Quarter, St. Boniface, has Western Canada's largest Francophone community at 45,000. Manitoba is an important centre of Ukrainian culture (14% report Ukrainian origins) and has the largest Aboriginal population of any province, at over 15%.

Saskatchewan was once known as the "breadbasket of the world" and the "wheat province." It holds 40% of Canada's arable land and is the country's largest producer of grains and oilseeds, as well as boasting the world's richest deposits of uranium and potash and producing oil and natural gas. The capital, Regina, is home to the training academy of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, while Saskatoon, the largest city, is the headquarters of the mining industry and an important educational, research and technology centre.

Alberta is the most populous Prairie province. Both the province and the world-famous Lake Louise in the Rocky Mountains were named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria. Alberta has five national parks, including Banff National Park (established 1885), and its rugged Badlands hold some of the world's richest deposits of prehistoric fossils and dinosaur finds. The largest producer of oil and gas, with the northern oil sands being developed as a major energy source, Alberta is also renowned for agriculture — especially the vast cattle ranches that make Canada one of the world's major beef producers.

British ColumbiaThe West Coast

British Columbia (B.C.) is Canada's westernmost province, on the Pacific coast, with a population of four million. Known for its majestic mountains and as Canada's Pacific gateway, warm airstreams from the Pacific Ocean give its coast a temperate climate. The Port of Vancouver is Canada's largest and busiest port — its gateway to the Asia-Pacific — handling billions of dollars in goods traded around the world.

About half of all goods produced in B.C. are forestry products — lumber, newsprint, and pulp and paper — making it the most valuable forestry industry in Canada. The province is also known for mining, fishing, and the fruit orchards and wine industry of the Okanagan Valley, and it has the most extensive park system in Canada with about 600 provincial parks. Large Asian communities have made Chinese and Punjabi the most spoken languages in the cities after English. The capital, Victoria, is a tourist centre and headquarters of the navy's Pacific fleet.

The Far NorthThe Northern Territories

The Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon contain one-third of Canada's land mass but have a population of only 100,000. The North holds gold, lead, copper, diamond and zinc mines, with oil and gas deposits being developed. It is often called the "Land of the Midnight Sun" because at the height of summer daylight can last up to 24 hours, while in winter the sun disappears and darkness sets in for three months. With long cold winters and short cool summers, much of the North is tundra — a vast rocky Arctic plain with no trees and permanently frozen soil. Some continue to earn a living by hunting, fishing and trapping, and Inuit art is sold throughout Canada and around the world.

Thousands of miners came to the Yukon during the Gold Rush of the 1890s, celebrated in the poetry of Robert W. Service, and mining remains significant. The White Pass and Yukon Railway opened from Skagway in neighbouring Alaska to the capital, Whitehorse, in 1900, offering a spectacular tourist excursion across precipitous passes. Yukon holds the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded in Canada (-63°C), and Mount Logan — Canada's highest mountain — was named for Sir William Logan, the world-famous geologist born in Montreal in 1798 who founded and directed the Geological Survey of Canada from 1842 to 1869.

The Northwest Territories (N.W.T.) were originally formed in 1870 from Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory. The capital, Yellowknife (population 20,000), is called the "diamond capital of North America," and more than half the population is Aboriginal (Dene, Inuit and Métis). The Mackenzie River, at 4,200 kilometres, is the second-longest river system in North America after the Mississippi, draining an area of 1.8 million square kilometres.

Nunavut means "our land" in Inuktitut. Established in 1999 from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories — including all of the former District of Keewatin — its capital is Iqaluit, formerly Frobisher Bay, named after the English explorer Martin Frobisher, who penetrated the uncharted Arctic for Queen Elizabeth I in 1576. Its 19-member Legislative Assembly chooses a premier and ministers by consensus, and the population is about 85% Inuit, with Inuktitut an official language and the first language in schools.

Security & SovereigntyThe Canadian Rangers

Canada's vast north brings security and sovereignty challenges. The Canadian Rangers are part of the Canadian Forces Reserves (militia) and play a key role dealing with harsh weather in an isolated region. Drawing on indigenous knowledge and experience, they travel by snowmobile in winter and all-terrain vehicles in summer from Resolute to the Magnetic North Pole, keeping the flag flying in Canada's Arctic. The caribou (reindeer) is popular game for hunters and a symbol of Canada's North.