and Territories
of Canada
Linked to official websites (open in new window) |
Zone |
Equivalent |
| St. John's, Newfoundland Halifax, Nova Scotia Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island Fredericton, New Brunswick Ville de Québec/Quebec City, Québec Toronto, Ontario Winnipeg, Manitoba Regina, Saskatchewan Iqaluit, Nunavut Edmonton, Alberta Yellowknife, Northwest Territories Victoria, British Columbia Whitehorse, Yukon |
Newfoundland Atlantic Atlantic Atlantic Eastern Eastern Central Central Central Mountain Mountain Pacific Pacific |
1:30 pm 1:00 pm 1:00 pm 1:00 pm 12 noon 12 noon 11:00 am 11:00 am 11:00 am 10:00 am 10:00 am 9:00 am 9:00 am |
In the first ballot-election, 1894, in Whitewood, Saskatchewan (then the Old Northwest Territories), the election ballots were blank. Since most of the voters were illiterate, they simply marked their ballot with one of several coloured pencils, the colour indicating their choice. |
Each province elects its own provincial legislature. Members are elected from the various electorial ridings throughout each province. By law, provincial legislatures must meet at least once in a year, and there must be a provincial election every 5 years.
Provincial government heads are known as 'Premiers', typically the leader of the political party having the largest number of 'Members' elected to the Legislative Assembly.
Each Premier appoints Ministers to be in charge of the various departments of the government and to put into effect the measures voted by the Legislature. The senior civil servants (permanent heads of each department) are typically called 'Deputy Ministers'.
1867 - Ontario, Québec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick united under the British North American Act to become the Dominion of Canada, July 1, 1867.
1869 - Canada aquired the rights to the Hudson's Bay Company and transformed what was previously known as 'Rupert's Land', plus all of the land beyond to the Rocky Mountains, into the North-West Territories.
Above the entrance to the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings, through the Peace Tower, in Ottawa, Ontario, there are 10 stone shields. For many years, nine of the shields were engraved with the coat-of-arms of the then nine provinces of Canada. One shield remained blank for 82 years. Originally engraved by M. Cléo Soucy, he had convinced the architects to include 10 shields. When Newfoundland finally entered Confederation in 1949, M. Soucy, who was still alive, eagerly engraved the coat-of-arms of Newfoundland into the tenth shield. |
1871 - Province of British Columbia joined Confederation.
1873 - Province of Prince Edward Island joined the Dominion.
1898 - Yukon Territory created.
1905 - Alberta and Saskatchewan join as the 8'th and 9'th provinces.
1949 - Newfoundland enters the Union as the 10'th and last province of Canada.
1999 - As of April 1, 1999 Nunavut became a territory and changed the map of Canada for the first time in half a century.
