Ok, stupid Yank here. What exactly is the difference between a Province and a Territory in Canada?
Same difference, almost, as between a State and a Territory in the U.S. Provinces are self-governing constituent parts of Canada; territories have limited self-government and Ottawa has relatively much more authority over them than over the provinces and their governments.
Differences include that there are two “reserve clauses” in the Canadian constitution, rather than the reserve powers clause in the U.S. which gives all non-delegated powers to the states. One gives provinces authority over unspecified powers of a purely local nature; the other gives Ottawa authority over other unspecified powers. Also the territories are represented in Parliament by voting members, unlike in the U.S.
The provinces have their own separate governments as described in the Constitution Act, which describes how powers are allocated to the provinces or to the federal government. In a province, a representative of the crown, a legislative assembly, etc, are set up at the beginning.
Originally the territories were ruled directly by Ottawa. Over time, the territories have acquired their own assemblies and other province-like features, but they are still legally different from provinces.
Please, pardon my ignorance. What keeps the territories from becoming Provinces?
I would assume that the Territories don’t have enough people and revenue to run everything in the manner in which they would like to be accustomed.
Yukon, the NWT and Nunavut don’t have a lot of people.
Have they ever been asked? Perhaps the people of the territories don’t want full provincial status. When the voters of the Northern Territory (one of the territories making up the Australian Commonwealth) were offered full statehood at a referendum in 1998, they rejected it.
Two provinces have already been formed out of the North-West Territories: Saskatchewan and Alberta, which both celebrated their centennial this year. Prior to September 1, 1905, they were part of the NWT.
The answer to “why not more” is population, as BobT mentions - the populations of the current territories are very small. As federal territories, they get money from Ottawa; as provinces, they would still be entitled to transfer payments like other provinces, but I would guess much less than they get as territories.