Territories of Canada

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Canada, officially the Canadian Republic, is a federal parliamentary republic which, in addition to 13 provinces and a federal capital district, consists of five territories (French: territoires), autonomous administrative divisions each of which has its own government with devolved authority from the Parliament of Canada. Territories differ from provinces in that their autonomy, by nature of deriving from the process of devolution, is granted unilaterally by the federal government (namely the Parliament of Canada) and can thus be revoked at the unilateral instigation of Parliament; provinces, on the other hand, share sovereignty equally with the Canadian federal government and cannot be altered or abolished unilaterally according to Canadian constitutional law.

The capital district municipality of Ottawa could be considered a territory as well, as its municipal government has autonomous authority via the same process of devolution as the five territories; however, since the territories each consist of several counties and municipalities, Ottawa as a single municipal jurisdiction is normally not counted as a territory but rather a unique administrative zone of the Canadian Republic.

List[edit | edit source]

# Flag Territory Postal abbrev. Capital1 Population (2020 EST) Confederation2 Official language(s)
1) YT flag.jpeg Yukon YT Whitehorse 605,300 13 June 1898 English, French
2) NT flag.jpeg Northwest Territories NT Yellowknife 405,400 15 July 1870 English, French
3) Nunavut flag.jpeg Nunavut NU Iqaluit 339,300 1 April 1999 English, French
4) Turks and Caicos flag.png Turks and Caicos Islands TC Providence 288,300 1 August 1914 English
5) Greenland flag.jpeg Greenland GT Nuuk 167,700 1 May 1979 Greenlandic, Danish, English
  1. and most populous city
  2. date territory was established and admitted to the union