Maximum Number of Canadian Provinces with No Territorial Expansion

Exactly what it says in the title. Without expanding Canada territorially, what would be the plausible maximum amount of provinces in the Confederation?
 
Exactly what it says in the title. Without expanding Canada territorially, what would be the plausible maximum amount of provinces in the Confederation?

Well, we've got ten today. The three territories could be made into provinces, so that's 13. Cape Breton had a strong secessionist movement at one point, so there's 14. A Province of Toronto makes sense if Canada is undergoing constitutional revisions (or perhaps Toronto and Montreal), so that's 15-16. Past that, granting the First Nations the status of provinces has long been a proposed way to increase their autonomy and empowerment within the Canadian constitutional framework: in that case, depending on which First Nations get that status, that could be a lot of provinces.
 
Well, we've got ten today. The three territories could be made into provinces, so that's 13. Cape Breton had a strong secessionist movement at one point, so there's 14. A Province of Toronto makes sense if Canada is undergoing constitutional revisions (or perhaps Toronto and Montreal), so that's 15-16. Past that, granting the First Nations the status of provinces has long been a proposed way to increase their autonomy and empowerment within the Canadian constitutional framework: in that case, depending on which First Nations get that status, that could be a lot of provinces.

I should mention that there had been a long-standing movement in Northern Ontario for it to split from Southern Ontario and form its own province.
 
Vancouver Island could also be a province. It has roughly the same population as New Brunswick.
 
The Lower Peninsula of Michigan could have well remained British, but London sent its C-team negotiators to the 1794 Jay Treaty, while Washington sent its A-team.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan#18th_century

michigan%20location.gif


So, with reasonable PODs, Michigan could certainly have been another Canadian province.
 
Perhaps the various districts of the Northwest Territories/Rupert's Land/North-Western Territory can become provinces - Athabaska, Assiniboia, Keewatin in addition to the OTL but smaller Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

Stikine Territory could also become a province.
 
The three territories have a combined population that's only about 2/3 the size of PEI's. I doubt they'll ever be provinces.
 
The three territories have a combined population that's only about 2/3 the size of PEI's. I doubt they'll ever be provinces.
Not only that, but I imagine the indigenous leadership of Nunavut wouldn't want the term province of Canada, but instead see themselves as a nation within Canada.
 
Past that, granting the First Nations the status of provinces has long been a proposed way to increase their autonomy and empowerment within the Canadian constitutional framework: in that case, depending on which First Nations get that status, that could be a lot of provinces.

I know maps of Canada showing the historical distribution of First Nations, but I cannot find a map of the territorial claims the different FNs have today. I assume that these would be the basis of this type of new provinces.

Has anone a link to such a map?
 
The Lower Peninsula of Michigan could have well remained British, but London sent its C-team negotiators to the 1794 Jay Treaty, while Washington sent its A-team.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan#18th_century

michigan%20location.gif


So, with reasonable PODs, Michigan could certainly have been another Canadian province.

Sorry, could you elaborate on that? Maybe I'm oblivious, but I couldn't make out a reference to the UP or the negotiators....
 
When the Prairies were being considered for provinces (OTL's Saskatchewan and Alberta, basically), there were multiple suggestions. Everything from 1 single huge province to 4 of them. While most of the support was behind 2 (either split E-W as OTL, or N-S (CNR vs CPR, essentially), 4 provinces could have been chosen.

So... Cape Breton (+1), Toronto and Northern Ontario (+2), prairies (+2), Vancouver Island (+1), it wouldn't be too hard to get to 16. IMO.
 
I think that there could be two or three more. Assiniboia is a possibility, while another would be to have BC be two provinces: New Caledonia and Vancouver (Island), the latter to include the Queen Charlotte Islands too.
 
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