Western Canada

The capital cities of the four western provinces, from west to east, are Victoria (British Columbia), Edmonton (Alberta), Regina (Saskatchewan) and Winnipeg (Manitoba). With the exception of Winnipeg, which is the largest city in Manitoba, all other provincial capitals of the Western Provinces are located in the second-largest metropolitan areas of their respective province.

Western Canada is the traditional territory of numerous First Nations predating the arrival of Europeans. As Britain colonized the west, it established treaties with various First Nations, took control of other areas without opposition and fought with other First Nations to take control of Western Canada. Not all lands were ceded by the First Nations to British control and land claims are still ongoing.

1894 map of Western Canada

In 1858, the British government established the Colony of British Columbia, governing that part of Canada still known as British Columbia. The British government also established the Hudson's Bay Company which controlled most of the current area of Western Canada, northern Ontario and northern Quebec, the area known as Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory. In 1870, the British government transferred the lands of the company to Canada. The area of Western Canada not within British Columbia was established as the Northwest Territories under Canadian control. The Western Canadian provinces other than British Columbia were established from areas of the Northwest Territories:

• Manitoba established as a province of Canada in 1870, following the enacting of the Manitoba Act.[4][5]
• British Columbia: Under terms that Canada would absorb the colony's debt, would begin to subsidize public work, and would begin to construct a railway allowing travel from British Columbia to Ontario, British Columbia agreed to join Canadian confederation in 1871.[4][6]
• Saskatchewan: Established as province in 1905, with the implementation of the Saskatchewan Act.[4][7]
• Alberta: In 1905, the same year as Saskatchewan, Alberta also was established as province. Just like Saskatchewan had the Saskatchewan Act, Alberta had the Alberta Act.[4][8]

Calgary is the largest municipality by population in western Canada.

As of the 2016 Census, the total population of Western Canada was nearly 11.1 million, including approximately 4.65 million in British Columbia, 4.07 million in Alberta, 1.1 million in Saskatchewan, and 1.28 million in Manitoba.[2] This represents 31.5% of Canada's population.[3] While Vancouver serves as the largest metropolitan area in Western Canada at nearly 2.5 million people,[9] Calgary serves as the largest municipality at over 1.2 million people.[10]

Census metropolitan areas

Vancouver is the largest census metropolitan area by population in western Canada.

View of Edmonton's central business district in 2018

Centred on the intersection of Portage and Main, Downtown Winnipeg is the city's central business district.

As of the 2016 Census, Statistics Canada recognized ten census metropolitan areas within Western Canada, including four in British Columbia, three in Alberta, two in Saskatchewan, and one in Manitoba.[11] The following is a list of these areas and their populations as of 2016.

From 2011 to 2016, the fastest growing CMAs in the country were the five located in Alberta and Saskatchewan: Calgary (+14.6%), Edmonton (+13.9%), Saskatoon (+12.5%), Regina (+11.8%) and Lethbridge (+10.8%). These were the only CMAs in the country to register growth over 10%. The three fastest growing CMAs - Calgary, Edmonton, and Saskatoon - were unchanged from the previous intercensal period.[12]

Name	Population (2016)[13]	National rank[14]
Vancouver	2,463,431	3
Calgary	1,392,609	4
Edmonton	1,321,426	6
Winnipeg	778,489	8
Victoria	367,770	15
Saskatoon	295,095	17
Regina	236,481	18
Kelowna	194,882	22
Abbotsford–Mission	180,518	23
Lethbridge	117,394	34

Badlands in Southern Saskatchewan

Western Canada consists of the country's four westernmost provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It covers 2.9 million square kilometres – almost 29% of Canada's land area. British Columbia adjoins the Pacific Ocean to the west, while Manitoba has a coastline on Hudson Bay in its northeast of the province. Both Alberta and Saskatchewan are landlocked between British Columbia and Manitoba.

The Canadian Prairies are part of a vast sedimentary plain covering much of Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, and southwestern Manitoba. The prairies form a significant portion of the land area of Western Canada. The plains generally describes the expanses of largely flat, arable agricultural land which sustain extensive grain farming operations in the southern part of the provinces. Despite this, some areas such as the Cypress Hills and Alberta Badlands are quite hilly and the prairie provinces contain large areas of forest such as the Mid-Continental Canadian forests.

In Alberta and British Columbia, the Canadian Cordillera is bounded by the Rocky Mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west.

The Canadian Rockies are part of a major continental divide that extends north and south through western North America and western South America. The continental divide also defines much of the border between Alberta and British Columbia. The Columbia and the Fraser Rivers have their headwaters in the Canadian Rockies and are the second- and third-largest rivers, respectively, to drain to the west coast of North America. To the west of their headwaters, across the Rocky Mountain Trench, is a second belt of mountains, the Columbia Mountains, comprising the Selkirk, Purcell, Monashee and Cariboo Mountains sub-ranges.

Peyto Lake in Banff National Park, Alberta

Climate

Köppen climate types in Western Canada

The coast of British Columbia enjoys a moderate oceanic climate because of the influence of the Pacific Ocean. Winters are typically wet and summers relatively dry. These areas enjoy the mildest winter weather in all of Canada, as temperatures rarely fall much below the freezing mark. The mountainous Interior of the province is drier and has colder winters, but experiences hotter summers than the more moderate coastal areas. Lytton, British Columbia, a small town that sits at the confluence of the Thompson River and Fraser River recorded the second-hottest temperature in Canada at 44.4 °C (111.9 °F) observed on July 16 and 17, 1941,[15] and is regularly referred as Canada's hot spot in summer with temperatures easily reaching the mid to high 30 °C 's (upper 90s to low 100s °F) in July and August and sometimes top 40 °C (104 °F).

Alberta has a dry continental climate with warm summers and cold winters. The province is open to cold Arctic weather systems from the north, which often produce extremely cold conditions in winter. Winters are generally quite cold, though some areas can experience a phenomenon known as the "Chinook wind," wherein warm winds raise the winter temperatures temporarily. In contrast, summers can fluctuate from cool to hot and are generally wetter.

Saskatchewan and Manitoba have a continental climate and experience extremes in weather. Winters in both provinces can be classified as harsh with Arctic winds and −40 °C (−40 °F) temperatures possible. Winter temperatures in both provinces average between −10 and −15 °C (14 and 5 °F). In contrast, summers can be hot with temperatures exceeding 35 °C (95 °F) at least once per year in most locations. The hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada was 45 °C (113 °F), observed in 1937 at the weather stations of Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan and neighbouring Midale.

Average daily maximum and minimum temperatures for 7 largest cities in Western Canada

City	July (°C)	July (°F)	January (°C)	January (°F)
Calgary[16]	23/9	73/48	−1/−13	27/5
Edmonton[17]	23/12	73/54	−6/−14	21/5
Regina[18]	26/11	79/52	-10/-22	14/-8
Saskatoon[19]	25/11	77/52	-12/-22	10/-8
Winnipeg[20]	26/13	79/55	−13/−20	9/−4
Vancouver[21]	22/13	71/54	6/1	43/33
Victoria[22]	22/11	71/51	7/1	44/33

The West has been the most vocal in calls for reform of the Senate, in which Ontario, Quebec, and particularly Atlantic Canada are seen by some westerners as being over-represented. The population of Ontario alone (13.1 million) exceeds that of all the Western provinces combined. The total population of Atlantic Canada, however, is 2.3 million, and this region is represented by 30 senators. Thus, Ontario is under-represented, Quebec has representation proportional to its population and the Atlantic provinces are over-represented. Westerners have advocated the so-called Triple-E Senate, which stands for "equal, elected, effective." They feel if all 10 provinces were allotted an equal number of senators, if those senators were elected instead of appointed, and if the Senate were a body that had more direct political power (for example via an arrangement more similar to the structure of the Australian Senate or the United States Senate rather than the UK model), then their region would have more of its concerns addressed at the federal level. Other westerners find this approach simplistic and either advocate keeping the status quo or may support other models for senate reform. The combination of all of these issues has led to the concept known as Western alienation, as well as calls for Western Canada independence by various fringe groups.

Pipelines allow Western Canada to export oil and gas.

Vineyards in British Columbia

Energy and agriculture are Western Canada's dominant industries – and this region, with only 11 million inhabitants, is one of the world's largest net exporters of both energy and agricultural commodities. Approximate breakdown:[23]

Energy:

• Oil (13% of world reserves; 4% of world production)
• Uranium (8% of world reserves; 20% of world production)

Agriculture:

• Potash (60% of world reserves; 30% of world production)
• Wheat, coarse grains, oilseeds (21% of the world export market for wheat; 10% for oilseeds)
• Farmland (80% of Canadian total)

• Secessionist movements of Canada - Includes several movements in Western Canada
• History of the west coast of North America
• American Old West
• Western United States
• Cascadia
• Western Canada Youth Parliament

• Felske, Lorry W; Beverly Jean Rasporich (2004), Challenging frontiers: the Canadian west, University of Calgary Press, ISBN 1-55238-140-4
• Gardner, Matthew (2008), Western Canada, Footprint, ISBN 978-1906098261

The dictionary definition of Western Canada at Wiktionary Media related to Western Canada at Wikimedia Commons

• Peel's Prairie Provinces: Sources for Canada and Western Canadian History