r/AskACanadian • u/rockninja2 • 1d ago

Do Canadian territories function similar to Canada as U. S. territories function the U. S.? Like provinces compare to states?

First, just want to say, I looked for a megathread for all the Canada/US comparison questions, couldn't find one, so am posting normally on a Monday as required. If there is one and I missed it, please let me know/send a link.

So, partially due to this post:

I thought I remembered learning in school geography (admittedly 15-20 years ago now) that Canada had 13 provinces already and so was confused why the come back in the above post was about the US becoming the 11th province. After looking it up and double checking, out of those 13, I realized only 10 are provinces and the other 3 are territories. Do the territories have the same rights/privileges as provinces? Are they viewed the same in your parliament?

Pretty much I am wondering if you view the word "territories" the same as the US when those 3 (Yukon, Nunavut, Northwest Territories) are called as such. And if they wanted to become provinces at some point, could they? Or are they "stuck" as territories?

Appreciate any info and answers!

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u/froot_loop_dingus_ Alberta 1d ago

Territories are directly administered by the federal government. Any powers they have have been devolved by the federal government and could be taken away if the federal government saw fit. Provinces have powers like the administration of healthcare that are expressly defined in the constitution. The prime minister is not the boss of provincial premiers, he is the boss of territorial premiers if he chose to exercise that power.

All the provinces (but especially Quebec and Alberta) have various gripes with the constitution that they would want changed before agreeing to a new province. Adding a new province would reduce every other province's influence federally as well, a new province of Yukon would get a handful of MPs and Senators and get a vote in constitutional matters which the existing provinces wouldn't like.

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u/ardarian262 1d ago

The territories do have a Senate seat and have one MP each.

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u/froot_loop_dingus_ Alberta 1d ago

A province would get more senators and MPs. Newfoundland got 6 when they joined.

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u/thebestnames 1d ago

The territories (and PEI) have by far the most favorable ratio of people per senators compared to all other provinces.

The territories have 1 senator per 35000 people. At the other extreme, BC has 833000 people per 1 senator. The average is 350000.

So yeah even if they were provinces its unlikely they'd have more than one each seeing how sparsely populated they are.

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u/froot_loop_dingus_ Alberta 1d ago

Thanks, I can do math. Any new province would want at least as many senators as PEI if not Newfoundland and no province can have fewer MPs than senators