Do Canadians use the word county?

[SignalHillHiker]

We have no counties; no level of government, in fact, between municipality and province. We don't share Canada's history in that regard. Our Parliament only reluctantly agreed to allow St. John's to incorporate as a city in 1888, and even then it was only an advisory council with a chairman appointed by the Prime Minister. It was only with Confederation in 1949 that we got municipalities in the true sense, with Canadian powers.

Here it's common to reference peninsula or bay. "I'm from Placentia Bay", "I'm from the Northern Peninsula", etc. This is especially true when describing people collectively ("Nothing like the black Irish girls from Fortune Bay", etc. )

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Andy6

Those are townships, though.

That's what I said. I also said it's a pretty natural translation to take the common "Canton de Shefford" and turn it into a technically incorrect "Shefford County". The settlers who cut this area up into these divisions did it by taking the county model (usually squares, sometimes using natural features as borders). That they ended up called "townships" is just a naming quirk.

FYI, the actual counties (much larger) that you speak of kind of live on, in some cases, in the administrative units we call MRCs.

[Loco101]

Here's a link that might help when it comes to counties in Canada:
http://www.statoids.com/yca.html

[manny_santos]

Some counties in Ontario, particularly the more rural ones, sometimes are used in everyday conversation. Prince Edward County is perhaps the most well-known. Some in Southwestern Ontario are also commonly used, such as Elgin, Oxford, and Huron. Bruce is as well, though it overlaps the peninsula of the same name.

[LilZebra]

Manitoba uses the Rural Municipality of _______

So, we have the RM of Headingley, RM of Cartier, RM of Gimli, the RM of St. Clements, the RM of Rosser, RM of Macdonald, RM of Springfield, etc...

I wish they were renamed to the American "_____ County".

[Docere]

Statistics Canada has numbered "Census Divisions" in the Prairies and Newfoundland which they treat as counties.

[flar]

All of Ontario used to be counties until amalgamation f#@ked it all up.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by flar

All of Ontario used to be counties until amalgamation f#@ked it all up.

Except Northern Ontario, which always had districts rather than counties. In southern Ontario, more urban counties were replaced by "Regional Municipalities" but those were generally the same areas as the counties they replaced (Niagara was an amalgamation, I believe, as Lincoln County disappeared; Ontario County vanished into Durham Region and Haldimand and Norfolk were united into the unusually rural Regional Municipality of H-N which has since been turned back into two counties, sort of). There is also the "District Municipality" of Muskoka.

[Boris2k7]

Rural municipalities in Alberta are officially incorporated as Municipal Districts but may change their names to so-and-so County for flavour (eg. Rocky View County used to be Municipal District of Rocky View No. 44 prior to 2009).

Municipal Districts are not counties in the sense of being a level in between cities/towns and the province. Cities and towns can exist as islands bordered by or contained within other municipalities, but there is no overlap.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by lio45

That's what I said. I also said it's a pretty natural translation to take the common "Canton de Shefford" and turn it into a technically incorrect "Shefford County". The settlers who cut this area up into these divisions did it by taking the county model (usually squares, sometimes using natural features as borders). That they ended up called "townships" is just a naming quirk.

The townships are surveying units and low-level municipalities, no different from the townships of Ontario counties. Townships in the Prairies are surveying units only. As in Ontario and other places, the counties of Quebec are (or were historically) made up of a certain number of townships. Shefford was a county of Quebec that included, as one of its several townships, a township named Shefford -- that may be where the confusion comes from.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by Andy6

There is also the "District Municipality" of Muskoka.

Torn between north and south!

[isaidso]

Counties of Nova Scotia

Guysborough County is the only one I haven't been to. Even there I might be mistaken. One might have to briefly drive through Guysborough County when one drives from the mainland to Cape Breton.


Courtesy of silentwitnessnovascotia

[GreaterMontréal]

Counties in Quebec are called MRCs.

[Acajack]

I agree with what has been said so far.

One thing about Quebec is that in common speech only certain areas are referred to as "comté de X". Those that come to mind are Comté de Bellechasse, Comté de Portneuf and Comté de Charlevoix.

There may be a few others.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by Docere

Torn between north and south!

Very funny!! Muskoka is and always has been in Southern Ontario. Northerners get very upset when someone says that Muskoka is in Northern Ontario.

[SpongeG]

we don't use counties in BC, we use regional district.

I always thought counties were just an American thing.

The census divisions of British Columbia are called regional districts. They are incorporated, like the counties in the eastern provinces, and accordingly they are administrative divisions. The "Locations" used in the CGNDB are called land districts. They are not incorporated, but are considered geographic divisions.Nov 11, 2015
Canada Counties - Statoids
www.statoids.com/yca.html

[casper]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

we don't use counties in BC, we use regional district.

I always thought counties were just an American thing.

Two key structures exist in western Canada. A regional district is a group of municipalities that share services. You vote for the people who run the municipality they send representitives to the regional district. Meto Vancouver is a regional district that handles water and other things. City of Vancouver or City or Burnaby are municipal governments in the regional district. This removes some of the drivers or amalgamation.

In Saskatchewan cities and towns are incoprorated the country side outside of the towns or cities are part of a rural municipality. As a city or town grows land is transfered from the rural municipality to the town or city. Basically the rural municipality is unincorporated areas.

Not certain which of these two models counties follow in the US or Ontario.

[Pinion]

I didn't know until recently that counties existed in Canada.

Originally Posted by Docere

I think you need to be a member for 10 years before getting the "privilege" of starting "too many" threads.

Cool! Any ideas for my first couple dozen bad threads?

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by lio45

Great map. I wouldn't have thought Noyan was considered part of the Townships. Isn't Noyan where there is a border crossing to New York State? I would have thought the Townships starts a bit to the east as I find the Noyan area still within the South Shore Montreal gravitational pull

[megadude]

Originally Posted by Pinion

I didn't know until recently that counties existed in Canada.

And I had no idea half the provinces didn't have them.

I know I've seen districts before when randomly looking at the northern hinterlands on maps from the west. I just assumed those sparsely populated areas were districts while in the south they were counties, but then again I didn't care to verify my assumptions. Only now am I actually curious.

Learn something new every day.