GreatNESS in Diversity

Though often thought of as a vast and empty nation largely uniform in its geography and population, Canada is a diverse country from coast to coast to coast. Author Jan Morris once noted: "The size of it, the emptiness, the challenges of ice and wilderness... these are what people intuitively and immediately think of when they consider the idea of Canada. There is truth in the reaction... though I have come to feel it is a misleading truth. Canada is one country whose parts are greater than the whole..." As one travels east, west and north, the differences that give Canada its rich identity are readily apparent.

	View from Signal Hill, St. John's, N.L. Photo: Gord Baldwin

In the Atlantic region, one is never far from the smell of the sea and the largest cities of each of the four Atlantic provinces are situated on harbours. Some of these metropolitan areas (or census metropolitan areas as they are called by statisticians), have watched the tide turn on population growth. Saint John, New Brunswick, has experienced modest declines in population since 1992. On the other hand, Halifax, Nova Scotia, expanded from 330,000 in 1992 to 374,000 in 2002 and the city of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the cradle of Confederation, showed modest growth in the early 1990s. Despite these growth spurts, however, Halifax and Charlottetown remain among Canada's smallest provincial capitals. Though ranked as the 13th largest metropolitan area in Canada, Halifax is less than one-thirteenth the size of Toronto (Canada's largest). Charlottetown is Canada's least populous provincial capital, with just over 58,000 residents.

	Downtown Toronto Photo: Chris McCuaig

In 2002, the majority of Canadians—6 out of every 10—lived in Ontario and Quebec, home to 15 of the 25 largest urban areas in the country. As in the Atlantic region, most of these cities can be found on or near a port, either on the Great Lakes or along the St. Lawrence watershed. The population centres are largely concentrated in the industrial south, and the provinces share a sprawling north, rich in natural resources but low in population.

Rain clouds loom over a wheat field near Regina, Sask. Photo: Tristan Wrubleski

The three Prairie provinces, summer home to the prairie crocus, the prairie lily and the wild rose, straddle a region long known for its agricultural production. Over the past hundred years, however, people have been making the move from the farmstead to the cities and towns. At the beginning of the 20th century, 84% of Saskatchewan's population lived in rural areas. This proportion had fallen by 1951 to 55% and to 37% at the end of the century. In  2002, a full 43% of Saskatchewan's population lived in Regina and Saskatoon. Edmonton and Calgary were home to 64% of all Albertans, and 60% of Manitobans lived in the province's lone metropolitan area, Winnipeg.

	Cathedral Mountain sunset, Yoho National Park, B.C. Photo: Ian & Lorraine Faris

With just over four million inhabitants in 2002, British Columbia is Canada's third most populous province. Despite this, its 930,000 square kilometres are home to fewer people than live in the metropolitan area of Toronto and only 573,000 more than in the metropolitan area of Montréal. Blessed with wild seascapes and sprawling mountain vistas, this West Coast province has long been an attractive destination for Canadian and international migrants. In recent years, Asian immigrants have accounted for a significant increase in the visible minority population in the province. In 2001, one-quarter of British Columbians were immigrants, over half of whom had been born in Asia. That same year, more than one-fifth of British Columbians were from a visible minority group, 44% of them Chinese. In metropolitan Vancouver, 37% of the population were minorities, almost half of them of Chinese origin.

On July 29, 2000, the Yukon Territory marked the 100th anniversary of the driving of the last spike on the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway. In 1900, this gateway to the gold fields of the Klondike carried prospectors, miners and dance hall girls. One hundred years later, the line carries tourists into the Yukon from the cruise ship terminal at Skagway, Alaska. In 1901, just over 27,000 people lived in the Yukon. As the gold rush ebbed, however, the numbers began to fall dramatically. By 1921, the Yukon was home to only 4,000 people, and by the year 2002, the territory counted roughly 30,000 Canadians as residents.

Canada's North has a young population. In 2002, one in five Yukon residents were under the age of 15. The Northwest Territories had an even higher proportion of children, accounting for 26% of its 41,400 people. In Nunavut, children made up 37% of the residents. By contrast, only 19% of the total Canadian population in 2002 was under 15 years of age. A high birth rate in Nunavut is the primary cause of the high child population in that territory. Nunavut's average birth rate, calculated as the number of children born per 1,000 residents, was two and a half times higher than the national average in 2002; bringing it slightly below the national birth rate during the baby boom years.