# Canada: Right turn on red? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 20, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-right-turn-on-red/331951 "2005-11-20T17:01:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ms\_Macphisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@Ms\_Macphisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Macphisto)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-right-turn-on-red/331951/21 "2005-11-20T21:37:38Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Make that turning left onto a one-way street _from a one way street_. Though according to that link, it is ok to turn left from a two-way street onto a one-way street on a red light in BC. I never knew that. Seeing as I’m fairly sure I’ve never seen anyone do that, I doubt that anyone else knows that either, so I don’t think it’s something I’ll try out any time soon. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-right-turn-on-red/331951/22 "2005-11-20T22:13:34Z")
In Nunavut (all 770,000 suqare miles of it), there is no traffic light to turn at or go through, although Iqualiut has considered installing one: [http://www.nunatsiaq.com/archives/nunavut020712/news/iqaluit/20712\_4.html](http://www.nunatsiaq.com/archives/nunavut020712/news/iqaluit/20712_4.html) However, parking spaces are being laid out in Iqualiut. One resident has stated: “This is the first time we have ever seen poles in Iqaluit, so I don’t like it.” [http://www.cbc.ca/north/story/print/iq-parking-10112005](http://www.cbc.ca/north/story/print/iq-parking-10112005) ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-right-turn-on-red/331951/23 "2005-11-20T23:10:37Z")
> [@Bearflag70](#): > > The importance of coming to a complete stop _on your driving test_ was rammed home. 😉 Ah, yes. Touche ;). ---
**Author:** ![Queuing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/90ced4/32.png) [@Queuing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queuing)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-right-turn-on-red/331951/24 "2005-11-22T18:55:52Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > I grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, which my mom used to say is “the only town where it’s legal to turn left on red without a sign.” > > (In a lot of downtown-to-west side Hamilton, almost all the streets are one-way, and where a one-way street meets a one-way street, the same rules apply to turning left on red that usually apply to turning right on red - assuming that turning left won’t have you going the wrong way down the street of course.) I went to school in Hamilton, and while that may have been true at one time, it always seemed to me (particularly in the downtown core where most of the 1 way streets are) that there was always a sign forbidding you to do so. I always hated that. ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-right-turn-on-red/331951/25 "2005-11-22T19:51:33Z")
Well, since no-one has _really_ answered the OP (what is the deal in British Columbia?): > [@](#): > > (3) Despite subsection (1), and except when a right turn permitted by this subsection is prohibited by a sign at an intersection, the driver of a vehicle facing the red light, and which in obedience to it is stopped as closely as practicable to a marked crosswalk on the near side of the intersection, or if there is no marked crosswalk, as closely as practicable to the intersection, may cause the vehicle to make a right turn, but the driver must yield the right of way to all pedestrians and vehicles lawfully proceeding as directed by the signal at the intersection. From the [BC Motor Vehicle Act, Chapter 318](http://www.qp.gov.bc.ca/statreg/stat/M/96318_03.htm). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-right-turn-on-red/331951.md?page=1)