Lieutenant Governor of Alberta
The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta is the viceregal representative in Alberta of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta is appointed in the same manner as the other provincial viceroys in Canada and is tasked with carrying out most of the monarch's constitutional and ceremonial duties; the present, 18th, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta is Lois Mitchell, who has served in the role since 12 June 2015. The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta is vested with a number of governmental duties and is expected to undertake various ceremonial roles; the lieutenant governor, him or herself a member and Chancellor of the order, will induct deserving individuals into the Alberta Order of Excellence and, upon installation, automatically becomes a Knight or Dame of Justice and the Vice-Prior in Alberta of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem. The viceroy further presents other provincial honours and decorations, as well as various awards that are named for and presented by the lieutenant governor.
These honours are presented at official ceremonies, which count amongst hundreds of other engagements the lieutenant governor partakes in each year, either as host or guest of honour. At these events, the lieutenant governor's presence is marked by the lieutenant governor's standard, consisting of a blue field bearing the escutcheon of the Arms of Her Majesty in Right of Alberta surmounted by a crown and surrounded by ten gold maple leaves, symbolizing the ten provinces of Canada. Within Alberta, the lieutenant governor follows only the sovereign in the province's order of precedence, preceding other members of the Canadian Royal Family and the Queen's federal representative; the office of Lieutenant Governor of Alberta came into being in 1905, upon Alberta's entry into Canadian Confederation, evolved from the earlier position of Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories. Since that date, 17 lieutenant governors have served the province, amongst whom were notable firsts, such as Norman Kwong—the first Asian-Canadian Lieutenant Governor of Alberta—and Helen Hunley—the first female lieutenant governor of the province.
The shortest mandate by a Lieutenant Governor of Alberta was Philip Primrose, from 1 October 1936 to his death on 17 March 1937, while the longest was John C. Bowen, from 23 March 1937 to 1 February 1950. In 1956, following his appointment, Lieutenant Governor John J. Bowlen became the first provincial viceroy in Canada to be granted an audience with the Canadian monarch, starting a tradition that continues today for all of Canada's lieutenant governors. One of the few examples in Canada of a viceroy exercising the Royal Prerogative against or without ministerial advice came in 1937, when John Bowen denied Royal Assent to three bills passed through the Legislative Assembly. All three bills were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, though, in retaliation for this move by Bowen, his premier, William Aberhart, closed the viceregal residence, removed the Lieutenant Governor's secretary and support offices, took away his official car.
Nearly seven decades Lois Hole, who served as lieutenant governor from 2000 until her death in 2005, publicly stated that she wished to discuss with her premier, Ralph Klein, the proposed Bill 11, meant to allow private health care to compete with the public health care system. From this it was suspected; the province's vice-regal no longer has a home provided as their residence during their term. From 1913 to 1938, the title holder resided at Government House and from 1966 to 2004 at 58 St. George's Crescent in Westmount; the former home is now Alberta Government Conference Centre, the latter was demolished in 2005. The federal expenses of the lieutenant governor in the exercise of her official duties for fiscal year 2017–2018 were: Travel and accommodation: $21,487 Hospitality: $57,104 Operational and administrative expenses: $10,119 Total: $88,710 Monarchy in the Canadian provinces Government of Alberta Lieutenant Governors of Canada Munro, The Maple Crown in Alberta: The Office of Lieutenant Governor, Victoria: Trafford, ISBN 1-4120-5317-X Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Lieutenant Governor - The Canadian encyclopedia The office of Lieutenant Governor of Alberta - Legislative Assembly of Alberta CBC - Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Lois Mitchell Canadian Parliamentary Review
Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan
The Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan is the viceregal representative in Saskatchewan of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who operates distinctly within the province but is shared with the ten other jurisdictions of Canada, as well as the other Commonwealth realms and any subdivisions thereof, resides predominantly in her oldest realm, the United Kingdom. The Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan is appointed in the same manner as the other provincial viceroys in Canada and is tasked with carrying out most of the monarch's constitutional and ceremonial duties; the present, 22nd, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan is W. Thomas Molloy, in the role since 21 March 2018; the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan is vested with a number of governmental duties and is expected to undertake various ceremonial roles. For instance, the lieutenant-governor acts as patron, honorary president, or an honorary member of certain Saskatchewan institutions, such as the Saskatchewan Music Festival Association, the Saskatchewan Craft Council, the provincial poet laureate program.
Further, Saskatchewan's lieutenant-governor acts, by law, as the visitor to both the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina, under special circumstances may be called upon in this role, as happened in the University Crisis of 1919 at the University of Saskatchewan. The lieutenant-governor, him or herself a member and Chancellor of the order, will induct deserving individuals into the Saskatchewan Order of Merit and, upon installation, automatically becomes a Knight or Dame of Justice and the Vice-Prior in Saskatchewan of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem; the viceroy further presents other provincial honours and decorations, as well as various awards that are named for and presented by the lieutenant-governor. These honours are presented at official ceremonies, which count amongst hundreds of other engagements the lieutenant-governor partakes in each year, either as host or guest of honour. At these events, the lieutenant-governor's presence is marked by the lieutenant-governor's standard, consisting of a blue field bearing the escutcheon of the Arms of Her Majesty in Right of Saskatchewan surmounted by a crown and surrounded by ten gold maple leaves, symbolizing the ten provinces of Canada.
Within Saskatchewan, the lieutenant-governor follows only the sovereign in the province's order of precedence, preceding other members of the Canadian Royal Family and the Queen's federal representative. The former Lieutenant Governors of Saskatchewan are honoured in official portraits collected together in the dedicated Qu'Appelle Gallery in the Saskatchewan Legislative Building; the office of Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan came into being in 1905, upon Saskatchewan's entry into Canadian Confederation, evolved from the earlier position of Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories. Since that date, 20 lieutenant-governors have served the province, amongst whom were notable firsts, such as Sylvia Fedoruk – the first female lieutenant-governor of the province; the shortest mandate by a Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan was Thomas Miller, from 27 February 1945 to 20 June 1945, while the longest was Henry William Newlands, from 18 February 1921 to 30 March 1931. It was in 1929 that the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan's personal discretion was required in the exercise of the Royal Prerogative, when Henry Newlands had to select a new Premier after James Garfield Gardiner lost the confidence of the Legislative Assembly and the opposing Progressive Conservative Party had managed to form a coalition with the Progressive Party and independent members of the assembly.
With the election in 1944 of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation Party to a majority in the Legislative Assembly, the Office of the Lieutenant Governor in Saskatchewan was targeted for spending cutbacks. Government House was closed and the viceroy given only a small office at the Hotel Saskatchewan as a replacement, guards of honour and playing of the Viceregal Salute were dispensed with; this trend continued, due to lack of initiative rather than hostility towards the Crown, until the 1980s when the viceroy's honours were restored and Government House was saved from demolition. Monarchy in the Canadian provinces Government of Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governors of Canada Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan
Monarchy in Saskatchewan
By the arrangements of the Canadian federation, the Canadian monarchy operates in Saskatchewan as the core of the province's Westminster-style parliamentary democracy. The Constitution Act, 1867, leaves many royal duties in Saskatchewan assigned to the sovereign's viceroy, the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, whose direct participation in governance is limited by the conventional stipulations of constitutional monarchy; the role of the Crown is both practical. It is thus the foundation of the executive and judicial branches of the province's government; the Canadian monarch—since 6 February 1952, Queen Elizabeth II—is represented and her duties carried out by the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, whose direct participation in governance is limited by the conventional stipulations of constitutional monarchy, with most related powers entrusted for exercise by the elected parliamentarians, the ministers of the Crown drawn from amongst them, the judges and justices of the peace. The Crown today functions as a guarantor of continuous and stable governance and a nonpartisan safeguard against the abuse of power.
This arrangement began with the granting of Royal Assent to the 1905 Saskatchewan Act, continued an unbroken line of monarchical government extending back to the mid 17th century. However, though Saskatchewan has a separate government headed by the Queen, as a province, Saskatchewan is not itself a kingdom. Government House in Regina is owned by the sovereign only in her capacity as Queen in Right of Saskatchewan and is used both as an office and as an official event location by the lieutenant governor, the sovereign, other members of the Canadian Royal Family; the viceroy resides in a separate home provided by the provincial Crown and the Queen and her relations reside at a hotel when in Saskatchewan. Those in the Royal Family perform ceremonial duties when on a tour of the province. Monuments around Saskatchewan mark some of those visits, while others honour a royal personage or event. Further, Saskatchewan's monarchical status is illustrated by royal names applied regions, communities and buildings, many of which may have a specific history with a member or members of the Royal Family.
Gifts are sometimes offered from the people of Saskatchewan, via the Office of Protocol and Honours, to a royal person to mark a visit or an important milestone. Unofficial gifts are offered on various occasions, including a carload of locally milled flour from Yorkton for Princess Elizabeth on her marriage in 1947, Royal Family members and viceroys have been conferred honorary degrees by Saskatchewan universities. Associations exist between the Crown and many private organizations within the province. Examples include the Globe Theatre, under the patronage of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, which received its royal prefix from Queen Elizabeth II in 1993. At the various levels of education within Saskatchewan, there exist a number of scholarships and academic awards either established by or named for members of the Royal Family, such as the Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship in Parliamentary Studies and the Queen Elizabeth II Centennial Aboriginal Scholarship; the main symbol of the monarchy is the sovereign herself, her image thus being used to signify government authority.
A royal cypher, crown, or the provincial arms may illustrate the monarchy as the locus of authority, without referring to any specific monarch. Additionally, though the monarch does not form a part of the constitutions of Saskatchewan's honours, they do stem from the Crown as the fount of honour, so bear on the insignia symbols of the sovereign; the Queen or others in her family may bestow awards in person: in 2004, the Princess Royal presented to 25 recipients the Saskatchewan Protective Services Medal, marking the first time a member of the Royal Family had presented a provincial honour in Canada, when the Queen was in the province in 2005, she appointed Saskatchewan citizens to the Royal Victorian Order. Under the authority of the Queen in Right of Saskatchewan, other members of the Royal Family have received Saskatchewan honours. In 1882, Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, her husband, the Governor General of Canada, were the first members of the Royal Family to pass through what would become Saskatchewan.
During a stop at the not yet named territorial capital, in the dining room of the Royal Train, Princess Louise named the new community Regina, after her mother, Queen Victoria. Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, presided over the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of Saskatchewan's entry into Confederation and Princess Anne marked Re
Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau is a Canadian politician serving as the 23rd Prime Minister of Canada since 2015 and Leader of the Liberal Party since 2013. Trudeau is the second-youngest Canadian Prime Minister after Joe Clark. Born in Ottawa, Trudeau attended Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf and graduated from McGill University in 1994 and the University of British Columbia in 1998, he gained a high public profile in October 2000, when he delivered a eulogy at his father's state funeral. After graduating, he worked as a teacher in Vancouver, British Columbia, he completed one year of an engineering program at Montreal's École Polytechnique, from 2002 to 2003, one year of a master's program in environmental geography at McGill University, from 2004 to 2005. He advocated for various causes, portrayed a cousin in the 2007 TV miniseries The Great War. In the 2008 federal election, he was elected to represent the riding of Papineau in the House of Commons. In 2009, he was appointed the Liberal Party's critic for youth and multiculturalism, the following year, became critic for citizenship and immigration.
In 2011, he was appointed as critic for amateur sport. Trudeau won the leadership of the Liberal Party in April 2013 and went on to lead his party to victory in the 2015 federal election, moving the third-placed Liberals from 36 seats to 184 seats, the largest-ever numerical increase by a party in a Canadian general election. On June 23, 1971, the Prime Minister's Office announced that Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau's wife of four months, the former Margaret Sinclair, was pregnant and due in December. Justin Trudeau was born on Christmas Day 1971 at 9:27 pm EST at the Ottawa Civic Hospital, he is the second child in Canadian history to be born to a Prime Minister in office. Trudeau's younger brothers Alexandre and Michel were the fourth. Trudeau is predominantly of French Canadian descent, his grandfathers were businessman Charles-Émile Trudeau and Scottish-born James Sinclair, who served as Minister of Fisheries in the cabinet of Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent. Trudeau's maternal great-grandfather Thomas Bernard was born in Makassar and immigrated to Penticton, British Columbia, in 1906 at age 15 with his family.
Through the Bernard family, kinsmen of the Earls of Bandon, Trudeau is the 5th-great grandson of Major-General William Farquhar, a leader in the founding of modern Singapore. Trudeau was christened with his father's niece Anne Rouleau-Danis as godmother and his mother's brother-in-law Thomas Walker as godfather at Ottawa's Notre Dame Basilica on the afternoon of January 16, 1972, which marked his first public appearance. On April 14, 1972, Trudeau's father and mother hosted a gala at the National Arts Centre, at which visiting U. S. president Richard M. Nixon said, "I'd like to toast the future prime minister of Canada, to Justin Pierre Trudeau" to which Pierre Elliott Trudeau responded that should his son assume the role, he hoped he would have "the grace and skill of the president". Earlier that same day U. S. first lady Pat Nixon had come to see him in his nursery to deliver a stuffed toy Snoopy. Nixon's White House audio tapes revealed Nixon referred to that visit as "wasting three days up there.
That trip we needed like a hole in the head." His parents publicly announced their separation on May 27, 1977, when Trudeau was five years old, with his father having custody. There had been repeated rumours of a reconciliation in the public for many years afterwards, but his mother's attorney Michael Levine filed in Toronto to the Supreme Court of Ontario for a no-fault divorce on November 16, 1983 and finalized on April 2, 1984, with his father publicly announcing his intention to retire as prime minister on February 29 of that year, his parents came to an amicable joint-custody arrangement and learned to get along quite well. Interviewed in October 1979, his nanny Dianne Lavergne was quoted, "Justin is a mommy's boy, so it's not easy, but children's hurts mend quickly, and they're lucky kids, anyway." Of his mother and father's marriage, Trudeau said in 2009, "They loved each other passionately, completely. But there was 30 years between them and my mom never was an equal partner in what encompassed my father's life, his duty, his country."
Trudeau has three half-siblings and Alicia, from his mother's remarriage to Fried Kemper, Sarah, from his father's relationship with Deborah Coyne. Trudeau lived at 24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of Canada's prime minister, from his birth until his father's government was defeated in the federal election on May 22, 1979; the Trudeaus were expected to move into the residence of the Leader of the Official Opposition, Stornoway, at 541 Acacia Avenue in Rockcliffe Park, but because of flooding in the basement, prime minister Joe Clark offered them Harrington Lake, the prime minister's official country retreat in Gatineau Park, with the expectation they would move into Stornoway at the start of July. However, the repairs were not complete so Pierre Trudeau took a prolonged vacation with his sons to the Nova Scotia summer home of his friend, MP Don Johnston, sent his sons to stay with their maternal grandparents in North Vancouver for the rest of the summer while he slept at his friend's Ottawa apartment.
Justin and his brothers returned to Ottawa for the start of the school year, but lived only on the t
Nunavut
Nunavut is the newest and most northerly territory of Canada. It was separated from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the boundaries had been drawn in 1993; the creation of Nunavut resulted in the first major change to Canada's political map since the incorporation of the province of Newfoundland in 1949. Nunavut comprises a major portion of Northern Canada, most of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, its vast territory makes it the fifth-largest country subdivision in the world, as well as North America's second-largest. The capital Iqaluit, on Baffin Island in the east, was chosen by the 1995 capital plebiscite. Other major communities include the regional centres of Cambridge Bay. Nunavut includes Ellesmere Island to the far north, as well as the eastern and southern portions of Victoria Island in the west, all islands in Hudson and Ungava Bays, including Akimiski Island far to the southeast of the rest of the territory.
It is Canada's only geo-political region, not connected to the rest of North America by highway. Nunavut is the second-least populous of Canada's provinces and territories. One of the world's most remote, sparsely settled regions, it has a population of 35,944 Inuit, spread over a land area of just over 1,750,000 km2, or smaller than Mexico. Nunavut is home to the world's northernmost permanently inhabited place, Alert. Eureka, a weather station on Ellesmere Island, has the lowest average annual temperature of any Canadian weather station. Nunavut means "our land" in the native language Inuktitut. Nunavut covers 160,935 km2 of water in Northern Canada; the territory includes part of the mainland, most of the Arctic Archipelago, all of the islands in Hudson Bay, James Bay, Ungava Bay, including the Belcher Islands, all of which belonged to the Northwest Territories from which Nunavut was separated. This makes it the fifth-largest subnational entity in the world. If Nunavut were a country, it would rank 15th in area.
Nunavut has long land borders with the Northwest Territories on the mainland and a few Arctic islands, with Manitoba to the south of the Nunavut mainland. Through its small satellite territories in the southeast, it has short land borders with Newfoundland and Labrador on Killiniq Island, with Ontario in two locations in James Bay – the larger located west of Akimiski Island, the smaller around the Albany River near Fafard Island – and with Quebec in many locations, such as near Eastmain and near Inukjuak, it shares maritime borders with Greenland and the provinces of Quebec and Manitoba. Nunavut's highest point is Barbeau Peak on Ellesmere Island; the population density is one of the lowest in the world. By comparison, Greenland has the same area and nearly twice the population. Nunavut experiences a polar climate in most regions, owing to its high latitude and lower continental summertime influence than areas to the west. In more southerly continental areas cold subarctic climates can be found, due to July being milder than the required 10 °C.
The region now known as Nunavut has supported a continuous indigenous population for 4,000 years. Most historians identify the coast of Baffin Island with the Helluland described in Norse sagas, so it is possible that the inhabitants of the region had occasional contact with Norse sailors. In September 2008, researchers reported on the evaluation of existing and newly excavated archaeological remains, including yarn spun from a hare, tally sticks, a carved wooden face mask that depicts Caucasian features, possible architectural material; the materials were collected in five seasons of excavation at Cape Tanfield. Scholars determined that these provide evidence of European traders and settlers on Baffin Island, not than 1000 CE, they seem to indicate prolonged contact up to 1450. The origin of the Old World contact is unclear. So... you have to consider the possibility that as remote as it may seem, these finds may represent evidence of contact with Europeans prior to the Vikings' arrival in Greenland."
The written historical accounts of Nunavut begin in 1576, with an account by English explorer Martin Frobisher. While leading an expedition to find the Northwest Passage, Frobisher thought he had discovered gold ore around the body of water now known as Frobisher Bay on the coast of Baffin Island; the ore turned out to be worthless, but Frobisher made the first recorded European contact with the Inuit. Other explorers in search of the elusive Northwest Passage followed in the 17th century, including Henry Hudson, William Baffin and Robert Bylot. Cornwallis and Ellesmere Islands featured in the history of the Cold War in the 1950s. Concerned about the area's strategic geopolitical position, the federal government relocated Inuit from Nunavik to Resolute and Grise Fiord. In the unfamiliar and hostile conditions, they were forced to stay. Forty years the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples issued a report titled The High Arctic Relocation: A Report on the 1953–
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order and the second highest honour for merit in the system of orders and medals of Canada. It comes second only to membership in the Order of Merit, the personal gift of Canada's monarch. To coincide with the centennial of Canadian Confederation, the three-tiered order was established in 1967 as a fellowship that recognizes the outstanding merit or distinguished service of Canadians who make a major difference to Canada through lifelong contributions in every field of endeavour, as well as the efforts by non-Canadians who have made the world better by their actions. Membership is accorded to those who exemplify the order's Latin motto, desiderantes meliorem patriam, meaning "they desire a better country", a phrase taken from Hebrews 11:16; the three tiers of the order are Companion and Member. The Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, is Sovereign of the order and the serving governor general Julie Payette, is its Chancellor and Principal Companion and administers the order on behalf of the Sovereign.
Appointees to the order are recommended by an advisory board and formally inducted by the governor general or the sovereign. As of August 2017, 6,898 people have been appointed to the Order of Canada, including scientists, politicians, athletes, business people, film stars and others; some have resigned or have been removed from the order, while other appointments have been controversial. Appointees receive the right to armorial bearings; the process of founding the Order of Canada began in early 1966 and came to a conclusion on 17 April 1967, when the organization was instituted by Queen Elizabeth II, on the advice of the Canadian prime minister, Lester B. Pearson, assisted with the establishment of the order by John Matheson; the association was launched on 1 July 1967, the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, with Governor General Roland Michener being the first inductee to the order, to the level of Companion, on 7 July of the same year, 90 more people were appointed, including Vincent Massey, Louis St. Laurent, Hugh MacLennan, David Bauer, Gabrielle Roy, Donald Creighton, Thérèse Casgrain, Wilder Penfield, Arthur Lismer, Brock Chisholm, M. J. Coldwell, Edwin Baker, Alex Colville, Maurice Richard.
During a visit to London, United Kingdom in 1970, Michener presented the Queen with her Sovereign's badge for the Order of Canada, which she first wore during a banquet in Yellowknife in July 1970. From the Order of Canada grew a Canadian honours system, thereby reducing the use of British honours. Among the civilian awards of the Canadian honours system, the Order of Canada comes third, after the Cross of Valour and membership in the Order of Merit, within the personal gift of Canada's monarch. By the 1980s, Canada's provinces decorations; the Canadian monarch, seen as the fount of honour, is at the apex of the Order of Canada as its Sovereign, followed by the governor general, who serves as the fellowship's Chancellor. Thereafter follow three grades, which are, in order of precedence: Companion and Member, each having accordant post-nominal letters that members are entitled to use; each incumbent governor general is installed as the Principal Companion for the duration of his or her time in the viceregal post and continues as an extraordinary Companion thereafter.
Additionally, any governor general, viceregal consort, former governor general, former viceregal consort, or member of the Canadian Royal Family may be appointed as an extraordinary Companion, Officer, or Member. Promotions in grade are possible, though this is ordinarily not done within five years of the initial appointment, a maximum of five honorary appointments into any of the three grades may be made by the governor general each year; as of March 2016, there have been 21 honorary appointments. There were in effect, only two ranks to the Order of Canada: Companion and the Medal of Service. There was, however a third award, the Medal of Courage, meant to recognize acts of gallantry; this latter decoration fell in rank between the other two levels, but was anomalous within the Order of Canada, being a separate award of a different nature rather than a middle grade of the order. Without having been awarded, the Medal of Courage was on 1 July 1972 replaced by the autonomous Cross of Valour and, at the same time, the levels of Officer and Member were introduced, with all existing holders of the Medal of Service created as Officers.
Lester Pearson's vision of a three-tiered structure to the order was thus fulfilled. Companions of the Order of Canada have demonstrated the highest degree of merit to Canada and humanity, on either the national or international scene. Up to 15 Companions are appointed annually, with an imposed limit of 165 living Companions at any given time, not including those appointed as extraordinary Companions or in an honorary capacity; as of August 2017, there are 146 living Companions. Since 1994, substantive members are the only regular citizens who are empowered to administer the Canadian Oath of Citizenship. Officers of the Order of Canada have demonstrated an outstanding level of talent and service to Canadians, up to 64 may be appointed each year, not including those inducted as extraordinary Officers or in an ho
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie and boreal province in western Canada, the only province without a natural border. It has an area of 651,900 square kilometres, nearly 10 percent of, fresh water, composed of rivers and the province's 100,000 lakes. Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, on the south by the U. S. states of North Dakota. As of late 2018, Saskatchewan's population was estimated at 1,165,903. Residents live in the southern prairie half of the province, while the northern boreal half is forested and sparsely populated. Of the total population half live in the province's largest city Saskatoon, or the provincial capital Regina. Other notable cities include Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Swift Current, North Battleford and the border city Lloydminster. Saskatchewan is a landlocked province with large distances to moderating bodies of waters; as a result, its climate is continental, rendering severe winters throughout the province.
Southern areas have warm or hot summers. Midale and Yellow Grass near the U. S. border are tied for the highest recorded temperatures in Canada with 45 °C observed at both locations on July 5, 1937. In winter, temperatures below −45 °C are possible in the south during extreme cold snaps. Saskatchewan has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups, first explored by Europeans in 1690 and settled in 1774, it became a province in 1905, carved out from the vast North-West Territories, which had until included most of the Canadian Prairies. In the early 20th century the province became known as a stronghold for Canadian social democracy; the province's economy is based on agriculture and energy. Saskatchewan's current lieutenant governor is the current premier is Scott Moe. In 1992, the federal and provincial governments signed a historic land claim agreement with First Nations in Saskatchewan; the First Nations received compensation and were permitted to buy land on the open market for the bands.
Some First Nations have used their settlement to invest in urban areas, including Saskatoon. Its name derived from the Saskatchewan River; the river was known as kisiskāciwani-sīpiy in the Cree language. As Saskatchewan's borders follow the geographic coordinates of longitude and latitude, the province is a quadrilateral, or a shape with four sides. However, the 49th parallel boundary and the 60th northern border appear curved on globes and many maps. Additionally, the eastern boundary of the province is crooked rather than following a line of longitude, as correction lines were devised by surveyors prior to the homestead program. Saskatchewan is part of the Western Provinces and is bounded on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the north-east by Nunavut, on the east by Manitoba, on the south by the U. S. states of North Dakota. Saskatchewan has the distinction of being the only Canadian province for which no borders correspond to physical geographic features. Along with Alberta, Saskatchewan is one of only two land-locked provinces.
The overwhelming majority of Saskatchewan's population is located in the southern third of the province, south of the 53rd parallel. Saskatchewan contains two major natural regions: the Boreal Forest in the north and the Prairies in the south, they are separated by an aspen parkland transition zone near the North Saskatchewan River on the western side of the province, near to south of the Saskatchewan River on the eastern side. Northern Saskatchewan is covered by forest except for the Lake Athabasca Sand Dunes, the largest active sand dunes in the world north of 58°, adjacent to the southern shore of Lake Athabasca. Southern Saskatchewan contains another area with sand dunes known as the "Great Sand Hills" covering over 300 square kilometres; the Cypress Hills, located in the southwestern corner of Saskatchewan and Killdeer Badlands, are areas of the province that were unglaciated during the last glaciation period, the Wisconsin glaciation. The province's highest point, at 1,392 metres, is located in the Cypress Hills less than 2 km from the provincial boundary with Alberta.
The lowest point is the shore of Lake Athabasca, at 213 metres. The province has 14 major drainage basins made up of various rivers and watersheds draining into the Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Saskatchewan receives more hours of sunshine than any other Canadian province; the province lies far from any significant body of water. This fact, combined with its northerly latitude, gives it a warm summer, corresponding to its humid continental climate in the central and most of the eastern parts of the province, as well as the Cypress Hills. Drought can affect agricultural areas during no precipitation at all; the northern parts of Saskatchewan – from about La Ronge northward – have a subarctic climate with a shorter summer season. Summers can get hot, sometimes above 38 °C during the day, with humidity decreasing from northeast to southwest. Warm southern winds blow from the plains and intermontane regions of
Current viceregal representatives and territorial commissioners of Canada
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