The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories. The major difference between a Canadian province and a territory is that provinces are jurisdictions that receive their power and authority directly from the Constitution Act, 1867, whereas territories derive their mandates and powers from the federal government. In modern Canadian constitutional theory, the provinces are considered to be co-sovereign divisions, and each province has its own "Crown" represented by the lieutenant-governor, whereas the territories are not sovereign, but simply parts of the federal realm, and have a commissioner.

The ten provinces are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. The three territories are Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon.

Notes:

Prior to Confederation, Ontario and Quebec formed the Province of Canada.
British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island were separate colonies before joining Canada.
Manitoba was created simultaneously with the Northwest Territories.
Saskatchewan and Alberta were created out of land that had been part of the Northwest Territories.
Newfoundland was an independent Dominion within the British Commonwealth prior to joining Canada. British legislation transferred Labrador from Lower Canada to Newfoundland in 1809, but the location of the Labrador boundary was disputed until 1927. The official name of the province changed from Newfoundland to Newfoundland and Labrador by constitutional amendment on December 6, 2001.
With the exception of Fredericton, the provincial capitals are all either the largest or second-largest cities in their respective provinces (Fredericton is the third largest city in New Brunswick after Moncton and Saint John).

Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km² (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.

The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.