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, an upper-tier municipality), 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 in 1970, with its six counties proper to date sharing some services (most notably the transit system).

As an alternative example, Toronto, the capital of the province of Ontario and most populous Canadian city, is an independent municipality, meaning it relates to the provincial government at the same level as upper-tier municipalities like counties, but contains no lower-tier municipalities of its own, like counties and regional municipalities. Ottawa is also an independent city, although unlike Toronto is not part of any Canadian province or territory, deriving its sub-federal authority from an act of devolution in the Parliament of Canada.