Canadian province and territory codes

From IntactiWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

This article is about the second level of government division in Canada.

Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North America—New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada (which upon Confederation was divided into Ontario and Quebec)—united to form a federation, becoming a fully independent country over the next century. Over its history, Canada's international borders have changed several times as it has added territories and provinces, making it the world's second-largest country by area.

The major difference between a Canadian province and a territory is that provinces receive their power and authority from the Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly called the British North America Act, 1867), whereas territorial governments are creatures of statute with powers delegated to them by the Parliament of Canada. The powers flowing from the Constitution Act are divided between the Government of Canada (the federal government) and the provincial governments to exercise exclusively. A change to the division of powers between the federal government and the provinces requires a constitutional amendment, whereas a similar change affecting the territories can be performed unilaterally by the Parliament of Canada or government.

In modern Canadian constitutional theory, the provinces are considered to be co-sovereign within certain areas based on the divisions of responsibility between the provincial and federal government within the Constitution Act, 1867, and each province thus has its own representative of the Canadian Crown, the lieutenant governor. The territories are not sovereign, but instead their authorities and responsibilities are devolved directly from the federal level, and as a result, have a commissioner that represents the federal government. [1]

Provinces and territories

Province or territory Type Postal ISO[2] Capital
Alberta
Province AB CA-AB Edmonton
British Columbia
Province BC CA-BC Victoria
Manitoba
Province MB CA-MB Winnipeg
New Brunswick
Province NB CA-NB Fredericton
Newfoundland and Labrador
Province NL CA-NL St. John's
Northwest Territories
Territory NT CA-NT Yellowknife
Nova Scotia
Province NS CA-NS Halifax
Nunavut
Territory NU CA-NU Iqaluit
Ontario
Province ON CA-ON Toronto
Prince Edward Island
Province PE CA-PE Charlottetown
Quebec
Province QC CA-QC Quebec City
Saskatchewan
Province SK CA-SK Regina
Yukon
Territory YT CA-YT Whitehorse

See also

References

  1. REFweb Wikipedia article: Provinces and territories of Canada. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  2. ISO 3166-2:CA is the entry for Canada in ISO 3166-2, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which defines codes for the names of the principal subdivisions (e.g., provinces or states) of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1. Currently for Canada, ISO 3166-2 codes are defined for 10 provinces and 3 territories. Each code consists of two parts, separated by a hyphen. The first part is CA, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of Canada. The second part is two letters, which is the conventional abbreviation of the province or territory.