Canora is a town, located at the junction of highways No. 5 and 9 in east central Saskatchewan, about 50 km north of Yorkton. It is centrally located on the corners of four adjacent rural municipalities, including the RM of Good Lake. The community is home to approximately 3,500 residents and is part of the Canora-Pelly electoral district. The community was founded along the Canadian Northern Railway tracks - one of the companies that evolved into the Canadian National Railway (CN), and two CN freight lines still run through Canora. The Canora railway station, downtown on the CN east-west line before the switch to the northbound line, is served by Via Rail on its passenger service from Winnipeg to Churchill, Manitoba. As of 2016, 53% of the town’s residents are either from Ukraine or of Ukrainian descent, with the language still widely spoken in the community.

Highway 5 is a major highway in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It begins in downtown Saskatoon and runs eastward to the Manitoba border near Togo, where it becomes Provincial Road 363. The highway is approximately 393 kilometres (244 mi) long. Between the early 1900s (decade) and 1976, Provincial Highway 5 was a trans-provincial highway travelling approximately 630 kilometres (390 mi) in length. At this time it started at the Alberta border in Lloydminster and traveled east to the Manitoba border.