Canada's Regions

The four Atlantic provinces are Newfoundland and Labrador (capital: St. John's), Prince Edward Island (Charlottetown), Nova Scotia (Halifax) and New Brunswick (Fredericton). Their Atlantic coasts and proximity to the sea shaped economies built on fisheries, farming, forestry, mining and shipping.

Newfoundland and Labrador is the most easterly point in North America and has its own time zone, half an hour ahead of the Maritimes. It is known for fisheries and, more recently, offshore oil and gas and hydroelectric resources in Labrador. Prince Edward Island is the smallest province, famous for beaches, red soil, agriculture — especially potatoes — and as the birthplace of Confederation, where the 1864 Charlottetown Conference was held.

Nova Scotia is the most populous Atlantic province; Halifax is Atlantic Canada's largest port, playing an important role in trade and as a naval base. New Brunswick, founded by United Empire Loyalists, is the only officially bilingual province — about one-third of its people live and work in French.

Quebec and Ontario make up Central Canada, the industrial and manufacturing heartland. More than half of all Canadians live in these two provinces, and together they produce more than three-quarters of Canada's manufactured goods.

Quebec (capital: Quebec City) is the main centre of French language and culture in Canada — most Quebecers speak French, and Quebecers are the heirs of a proud history. The province produces huge amounts of hydroelectricity as well as forestry and pharmaceutical products. Montreal is Canada's second largest city and the second largest mainly French-speaking city in the world after Paris.

Ontario (capital: Toronto) has the largest population of any province — more than one-third of Canadians. Toronto is Canada's largest city and its main financial centre, while the Niagara region is famous for vineyards, fruit and Niagara Falls. Ottawa, the national capital, is also located in Ontario.

Manitoba (capital: Winnipeg), Saskatchewan (Regina) and Alberta (Edmonton) are the Prairie provinces — rich in energy resources and some of the most fertile farmland in the world. The region is mostly dry, with warm summers and cold winters.

Alberta is the most populous Prairie province and Canada's largest producer of oil and gas, including the oil sands in the north. It is also famous for cattle ranching — Alberta beef is known worldwide — and for national parks such as Banff. Saskatchewan, once called the "breadbasket of the world" for its wheat fields, has the world's richest deposits of uranium and potash; Regina is home to the RCMP training academy, and Saskatoon is the largest city.

Manitoba's economy is based on agriculture, mining and hydroelectric power. Winnipeg's most famous intersection is Portage and Main, and the city's French Quarter, St. Boniface, has Western Canada's largest Francophone community.

British Columbia (capital: Victoria) is Canada's westernmost province, on the Pacific Ocean. Known for its majestic mountains, B.C. is Canada's gateway to the Asia-Pacific: the Port of Vancouver is Canada's largest and busiest port, handling billions of dollars in goods traded around the world.

About one half of all the goods produced in British Columbia are forestry products, including lumber, newsprint, and pulp and paper — the most valuable forestry industry in Canada. B.C. is also known for mining, fishing, and the fruit orchards and wine industry of the Okanagan Valley.

Victoria, the capital, is a tourist centre and headquarters of the navy's Pacific fleet, while Vancouver is the province's largest city. British Columbia also has the most extensive park system in Canada, with approximately 600 provincial parks.

The Yukon (capital: Whitehorse), the Northwest Territories (Yellowknife) and Nunavut (Iqaluit) make up one-third of Canada's land mass but have a population of only about 100,000. Because the summer sun can shine at midnight, the North is often called the "land of the midnight sun"; in winter, the sun disappears and darkness sets in for three months.

Thousands of miners came to the Yukon during the Gold Rush of the 1890s, and mining remains a significant part of the northern economy. Canada's highest mountain, Mount Logan, is in the Yukon. The Northwest Territories were originally made up of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory; today Yellowknife is called the "diamond capital of North America" because more than one-third of the territory's income comes from diamond mining.

Nunavut, meaning "our land" in Inuktitut, was established in 1999 from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories. The population is about 85% Inuit, and Inuktitut is an official language and the first language in schools. Inuit art is world famous, and northern traditions of hunting and community life remain strong.