# Why is Canada divided in much larger political sections than the US?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-canada-divided-in-much-larger-political-sections-than-the-us/589935
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 22, 2011, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-canada-divided-in-much-larger-political-sections-than-the-us/589935 "2011-07-22T02:09:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2011, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-canada-divided-in-much-larger-political-sections-than-the-us/589935/21 "2011-07-22T23:25:55Z")
> [@phreesh](#):
>
> It’s interesting in Canada/US, the more west you go (generally), the larger the state.
>
> I imagine (as noted above several times) this is a function of population. Although, I don’t know why the good people of (say) southern California felt they should be part of northern California and vice versa. Why not seperate states?
>
> Same thing with Canada. Why did Regina and Saskatoon think they should be in the same state? Or Edmonton and Calgary?
Part of what you’re seeing is improvements in transportation technology as well. If you have to rely on barges or sail or rudimentary roads, it limits the geographic area you can effectively govern; once the railroads start getting built, it allows the government to have a larger reach. You can see this in the size of the counties, too; as an example, Kentucky has over twice as many counties as California does despite being less than one-fourth its geographic size.
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### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2011, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-canada-divided-in-much-larger-political-sections-than-the-us/589935/22 "2011-07-23T00:40:08Z")
On the other hand, Kentucky used to _be_ a county of Virginia… the time period of the very least developed transport was also the time of the very largest counties. And, to bring it back to Canada, the least developed sections there are the biggest, at least as a rough generalization.
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### Author:  [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-canada-divided-in-much-larger-political-sections-than-the-us/589935/23 "2011-08-03T17:51:33Z")
> [@phreesh](#):
>
> It’s interesting in Canada/US, the more west you go (generally), the larger the state.
>
> I imagine (as noted above several times) this is a function of population. Although, I don’t know why the good people of (say) southern California felt they should be part of northern California and vice versa. Why not seperate states?
>
> Same thing with Canada. Why did Regina and Saskatoon think they should be in the same state? Or Edmonton and Calgary?
Actually, they apparently thought that Alberta and Saskatchewan would be only one province, or at least, the inhabitants of [Lloydminster, Alberta/Saskatchewan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloydminster) did:
> [@](#):
>
> While provincehood of some sort was seen as inevitable by 1903, it had been widely expected that only one province would eventually be created instead of two. The colonists were not aware of the federal government’s deep-rooted opposition to the creation of a single province and thus had no way of knowing that the Fourth Meridian [on which Lloydminster was built] was under consideration as a future provincial boundary. Had they known, it is very unlikely they would have sited the new settlement on the future border.
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### Author:  [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-canada-divided-in-much-larger-political-sections-than-the-us/589935/24 "2011-08-03T18:43:58Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#):
>
> Actually, they apparently thought that Alberta and Saskatchewan would be only one province, or at least, the inhabitants of [Lloydminster, Alberta/Saskatchewan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloydminster) did:
There were proposals to admit the Prairies as [one single province](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Buffalo); it was actually the preferred option of the [premier of the Northwest Territories](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_W._A._G._Haultain) at the time. Ultimately the decision to split the Prairies in two following a meridian fell down to the federal government.
Although the Prairies were split [in a different way](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Manitoba_and_Northwest_Territories_%281900%29.jpg) (as districts of the Northwest Territories) before provincehood.
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