1. The Atlantic Provinces
Four provinces on the east coast. Newfoundland and Labrador sits further east than anywhere else on the continent and keeps a separate time zone. Prince Edward Island is the smallest province and the birthplace of Confederation, linked to the mainland by the Confederation Bridge. The Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia has the highest tides in the world, and about a third of New Brunswick’s people live and work in French.
- Newfoundland and Labrador — St. John’s
- Prince Edward Island — Charlottetown
- Nova Scotia — Halifax
- New Brunswick — Fredericton
2. Central Canada
Quebec and Ontario. More than half of all Canadians live in the towns and cities along the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and the two provinces together make more than three-quarters of the country’s manufactured goods. Toronto is the largest city and the main financial centre. Five Great Lakes lie between Ontario and the United States — Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario — and Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world.
- Quebec — Québec City
- Ontario — Toronto
3. The Prairie Provinces
Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, rich in energy resources and some of the most fertile farmland in the world. Saskatchewan was once called the breadbasket of the world and has the world’s richest deposits of uranium and potash; the RCMP training academy is in Regina. Alberta is the largest producer of oil and gas in Canada, and Banff National Park was established there in 1885.
- Manitoba — Winnipeg
- Saskatchewan — Regina
- Alberta — Edmonton
4. The West Coast
British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost province on the Pacific. The Port of Vancouver is the largest and busiest in the country and its gateway to the Asia-Pacific. The province has the most valuable forestry industry in Canada and the most extensive park system, with about 600 provincial parks.
- British Columbia — Victoria
5. The Northern Territories
Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut cover a third of Canada’s land. Much of the North is tundra, where the soil is permanently frozen and no trees grow. Mount Logan in Yukon is Canada’s highest mountain, and Yukon also holds the country’s coldest recorded temperature, -63°C. Nunavut, meaning “our land” in Inuktitut, was created in 1999 from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.
- Yukon — Whitehorse
- Northwest Territories — Yellowknife
- Nunavut — Iqaluit