Canada's Regions

High yield

Eight pages, and the capitals table alone is worth several questions. Learn the table first, the details second.

Guide pages 44–51

The country

Canada is the second largest country on earth — 10 million square kilometres.
Three oceans line Canada's frontiers: the Pacific in the west, the Atlantic in the east, and the Arctic to the north.
Canada has five distinct regions: the Atlantic Provinces, Central Canada, the Prairie Provinces, the West Coast, and the Northern Territories.
There are ten provinces and three territories.
Ottawa, on the Ottawa River, was chosen as the capital in 1857 by Queen Victoria. It is Canada's fourth largest metropolitan area.
Canada has a population of about 34 million people.

Newfoundland and Labrador — capital St. John's. The most easterly point in North America, with its own time zone. The oldest colony of the British Empire. Known for fisheries; today off-shore oil and gas. Labrador has immense hydro-electric resources.
Prince Edward Island — capital Charlottetown. The smallest province, known for beaches, red soil and potatoes. The birthplace of Confederation. Connected to the mainland by the Confederation Bridge. Setting of Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
Nova Scotia — capital Halifax. The most populous Atlantic province. The world's highest tides are in the Bay of Fundy. Halifax is Canada's largest east coast port and home to Canada's largest naval base. Over 700 annual festivals.
New Brunswick — capital Fredericton. Founded by United Empire Loyalists. The St. John River system is the second largest on North America's Atlantic coastline. The only officially bilingual province; about one-third live and work in French. Saint John is the largest city; Moncton is the principal Francophone Acadian centre.

More than half the people in Canada live in Central Canada — the industrial and manufacturing heartland.
Ontario and Quebec together produce more than three-quarters of all Canadian manufactured goods.
Quebec — capital Québec City. Nearly eight million people; more than three-quarters speak French as a first language. Canada's main producer of pulp and paper and largest producer of hydro-electricity. Montreal is Canada's second largest city and the second largest mainly French-speaking city in the world after Paris.
Ontario — capital Toronto. More than 12 million people, over one-third of Canadians. Toronto is the largest city in Canada and the country's main financial centre. The Niagara region is known for vineyards and wines. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec.
The five Great Lakes: Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan (in the U.S.A.) and Lake Superior — the largest freshwater lake in the world.

Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta — rich in energy resources and some of the most fertile farmland in the world. Mostly dry, with cold winters and hot summers.
Manitoba — capital Winnipeg. Economy based on agriculture, mining and hydro-electric power. Portage and Main is the most famous street intersection in Canada. St. Boniface has Western Canada's largest Francophone community. The largest Aboriginal population of any province, at over 15%.
Saskatchewan — capital Regina. Once known as the “breadbasket of the world.” Has 40% of the arable land in Canada and is the largest producer of grains and oilseeds. World's richest deposits of uranium and potash. Regina is home to the RCMP training academy. Saskatoon is the largest city.
Alberta — capital Edmonton. The most populous Prairie province, named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria. Five national parks including Banff, established in 1885. Largest producer of oil and gas; the oil sands are in the north. The Badlands hold rich dinosaur fossil deposits.

British Columbia — capital Victoria. Canada's westernmost province, population four million.
The Port of Vancouver is Canada's largest and busiest, and the gateway to the Asia-Pacific.
About one-half of all goods produced in B.C. are forestry products — the most valuable forestry industry in Canada.
Known for mining, fishing, and the fruit orchards and wine industry of the Okanagan Valley.
B.C. has the most extensive park system in Canada, with approximately 600 provincial parks.
Chinese and Punjabi are the most spoken languages in the cities after English.
Victoria is a tourist centre and headquarters of the navy's Pacific fleet.

The Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon contain one-third of Canada's land mass but have a population of only 100,000.
The North is called the “Land of the Midnight Sun” — at the height of summer daylight can last up to 24 hours; in winter darkness sets in for three months.
Much of the North is tundra, the vast rocky Arctic plain, where there are no trees and the soil is permanently frozen.
Yukon — capital Whitehorse. The Gold Rush of the 1890s, celebrated in the poetry of Robert W. Service. Yukon holds the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded in Canada (−63°C). Mount Logan in Yukon is the highest mountain in Canada.
Northwest Territories — capital Yellowknife, called the “diamond capital of North America.” More than half the population is Aboriginal. The Mackenzie River, at 4,200 km, is the second-longest river system in North America after the Mississippi.
Nunavut — capital Iqaluit, formerly Frobisher Bay. “Nunavut” means “our land” in Inuktitut. Established in 1999 from the eastern part of the N.W.T. The 19-member Legislative Assembly chooses a premier and ministers by consensus. About 85% Inuit; Inuktitut is an official language.
The Canadian Rangers, part of the Canadian Forces Reserves, keep the flag flying in Canada's Arctic.