| Canada is a federation composed of ten
provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into
regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and the three Prairie
provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba). Central Canada consists
of Quebec and Ontario. Atlantic Canada consists of the three Maritime
provinces (New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia), along
with Newfoundland and Labrador. Eastern Canada refers to Central Canada
and Atlantic Canada together. Three territories (Yukon, Northwest
Territories, and Nunavut) make up Northern Canada. Provinces have more
autonomy than territories. Each has its own provincial or territorial
symbols.
The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such
as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue
than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations
in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can
initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health
Act; the provinces can opt out of these but rarely do so in practice.
Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that
reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the
richer and poorer provinces.
All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier
selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province
also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the
Governor General of Canada. The Lieutenant-Governor is appointed on the
recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing
levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years.
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada |
