Ceremonial county (Canada)

A ceremonial county (French: comté cérémonial), in the Canadian Republic, is a geographic area which is not a county proper (officially an administrative county), but which is recognised by the deputy president of a province or commissioner of a territory as possessing some sort of historic or cultural value which makes it symbolically similar to a county proper and thereby worthy of cultural preservation. Usually, a ceremonial county was formerly a county proper which was later divided into two or more administrative counties. Most provinces have ceremonial counties distinct from their (more numerous) administrative counties, although some provinces and all territories do not make this distinction, with all counties in theory being simultaneously both administrative and ceremonial (as they are coterminous with one another). Ceremonial counties by themselves do not have any sort of government or administration, existing purely in name.

For example, the Lower Mainland, the most populous region of the province of British Columbia (BC), which is centred on BC's most populous city of Vancouver and also includes the provincial capital of New Westminster, is a ceremonial county; from 1871 to 1965 it was a single county proper, but in 1965 was divided into six separate administrative counties due to rapid population growth, all of which consist of several lower-tier municipalities. The Lower Mainland nevertheless continued as a recognisably distinct cultural region and was thus declared a ceremonial county, with its six counties proper to date sharing some services (most notably the Lower Mainland Constabulary, which is responsible for local policing in and across all six administrative counties and their constituent municipalities).

As an alternative example, Toronto, the capital of the province of Ontario and most populous Canadian city, used to be an incorporated municipality within the larger Toronto County; in 1977, however, Toronto and all other municipalities of Toronto County were combined to form a single municipal jurisdiction, with all municipal governments merged into a single municipal corporation which was itself merged with the county government, with the new consolidated entity officially named the Toronto Metropolis. As such, Toronto continues to be recognised as a ceremonial county, but administratively speaking functions as a single incorporated municipality which doubles as one of Ontario's administrative divisions (the rest of which are administrative counties). To date, Toronto is the only city in Canada to merge the municipal and county levels in this way.