One morning before heading to work, the conversation Ken and I were having over espresso (made with our machine graciously provided by my grandmother) turned to Canada whether or not we could name all the provinces. I shan’t keep you in suspense. We could not name all of the provinces.
Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territory (“Is that really a province?” we wondered, “Or was that the territory of land the US owned jointly with the British that contained what is now known as Oregon, Washington, and Idaho?”), Newfoundland, Ontario, and an island. Neither of us were sure if all of these were truly provinces (we also threw out a number of city’s names, thinking that they might be provinces as well, but in the end, decided the Ottowa, among others, was not the name of both a city and a province). Well, we knew there were nine provinces, so we thought we hit them all and just didn’t know the exact name of one.
Wrong. Firstly, we were off on our numbers. There are 10 provinces and three territories. We missed Alberta (forgot it), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (know of them, but didn’t realize that it qualified as a provinces), and Prince Edward Island (the island we didn’t know the name of). The territories are Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunuvat.
“Nunuvat? What is that?” I asked. Ken knew nothing of it either. I had never heard of this supposed territory, and I had paid attention in our fifth grade’s geography section on Canada.
“I wonder if it’s new…” Though it seemed odd that western countries were still subdividing, I could think of no other explanation of why this name was appearing in my life for the first time now.
Well, some of you (like Becca, an honorary Canadian) may already be aware of this, but Nunuvat split from the Northwest Territories in 1999. To Ken and I, this came as a complete shock, as we were in the seventh grade when this occurred, and 1997 was the last I heard anything about Canadian geography.
I recently discovered your blog through facebook. I had to comment because this came up recently with a Canadian friend of mine. He said that in when Nunuvat split from the Northwest Territories, it was decided democratically whether the name Northwest Territories would remain. While it was the winner, my friend seemed to consider it a point of pride and a prime example of the spirit and good humor of the Canadian people that coming in as a close runner up for new name was "rest-of-it." I have not confirmed it and admit this could be urban legend and drinking buddy banter but I thought it was relevant all the same.
ReplyDeleteHope you're doing well and I'm enjoying the blog.
Cheers,
Valerie