Federation Maps and Fact Sheets

Canada
A federation since 1867
Government of Canada Official Website

Constituent units

• 10 provinces: Alberta; British Columbia; Manitoba; New Brunswick; Newfoundland; Nova Scotia; Ontario; Prince Edward Island; Quebec; Saskatchewan.
  3 territories: Northwest Territories, Yukon Territory, and since 1999, Nunavut.
  • Map of the provinces and territories
  • Official Websites of provincial and territorial governments

Constitutional distribution of powers

• The Constitution Act, 1867. IV: Legislative Power, in particular:
  • Powers of the Parliament (Articles 91 and 94a)
  • Exclusive Powers of Provincial Legislatures (Articles 92, 92a, 93, 93a)
  • Concurrent Powers (Article 95)
    (Source : Department of Justice Canada) 

Legislative institutions

• Federal: Bicameral Parliament composed of the Senate and the House of Commons.
  • Regional representation in the Senate: a total of 24 Senators for each of the four regions (Atlantic provinces; Quebec; Ontario; Western provinces); 6 senators for the province of Newfoundland; 1 senator for each of the three territories.
  • Official Website of Canada's Parliament: Senate and House of Commons
• Provincial and territorial: Unicameral assemblies
  • Official Websites of provincial and territorial legislative assemblies: under Canadian legislatures

Official languages

The Canadian Constitution stipulates that English and French are official languages in the institutions of the Federal Parliament and Federal government and in all courts established by the Federal Parliament.

The Canadian Constitution also defines 1) the status of English and French in the legislative assemblies and legal institutions of the provinces of New Brunswick, Quebec and Manitoba, 2) the status of the English and French linguistic communities of the province of New Brunswick and 3) minority official language education rights in all provinces and territories.

Some provinces and territories have made English, or French, or English and French, or English, French and Aboriginal languages their official languages.

• Bilingualism in Canada

Other links of interest

• Canada: a Federal State
• Nunavut, a new territory 
• Acts establishing the provinces and the territories
• Introduction: Powers of the National and the Provincial Governments
• Federations magazine (Forum of Federations), notably:
  • Canada's cities seek new status, Vol. 3. No. 1 / February-March 2003 (PDF)