Canada Immigration Regions

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BC: Okanagan/Kelowna

View of Kelowna city and beach from a plane.

Kelowna is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley, in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the head office of the Regional District of Central Okanagan. Its name derives from an Okanagan language term for “grizzly bear”.[2] Kelowna is the third largest metropolitan area in the province and ranks as the 22nd largest in Canada, with a population of 179,839 in 2011 making it the largest inland city in BC. Nearby communities include the district municipality of West Kelowna (also referred to as Westbank, Westside) to the west across Okanagan Lake, Lake Country and Vernon to the north, as well as Peachland to the southwest and, further to the south, Summerland and Penticton.
City of Kelowna Website

BC: Vancouver

Futuristic looking skyscrapers in Vancouver city.

Vancouver officially the City of Vancouver, is the most populous city in the Canadian province of British Columbia.

The 2011 census recorded 603,502 people in the city, making it the eighth largest Canadian municipality.[1] The Greater Vancouver area of around 2.4 million inhabitants is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,[1] the second largest city on the United States–Canada border, and the most populous in Western Canada. Vancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada; 52% of its residents have a first language other than English.[4][5] Vancouver is classed as a Beta global city.

The City of Vancouver encompasses a land area of about 114 square km, giving it a population density of about 5,249 people per square km (13,590 per square mi). With over 250,000 residents, Vancouver is the most densely populated Canadian municipality, and the fourth most densely populated city in North America behind New York City, San Francisco,[6] and Mexico City.

AB: Edmonton

Skyline view of Edmonton

Edmonton is the capital of Alberta, Canada. Edmonton is on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by Alberta’s central region.

The city had a population of 877,926 in the 2014 census,[11] is Alberta’s second-largest city and Canada’s fifth-largest municipality. This population represents 66 percent of the total 2014 population of 1,328,300[12] within the Edmonton census metropolitan area (CMA), Canada’s fifth-largest CMA by population. Edmonton is the most northern North American city with a metropolitan population over one million. A resident of Edmonton is known as an Edmontonian.[13]

Edmonton’s historic growth has been facilitated through the absorption of five adjacent urban municipalities (Strathcona, North Edmonton, West Edmonton, Beverly and Jasper Place)[14] and a series of annexations ending in 1982.[15] Edmonton serves as the northern anchor of the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor.[16] Known as the “Gateway to the North”,[17] the city is a staging point for large-scale oil sands projects occurring in northern Alberta and large-scale diamond mining operations in the Northwest Territories.[18]
Edmonton is a cultural, governmental and educational centre. It hosts a year-round slate of festivals, reflected in the nickname “Canada’s Festival City”.[1] It is home to North America’s largest mall, West Edmonton Mall (the world’s largest mall from 1981 until 2004),[19] and Fort Edmonton Park, Canada’s largest living history museum.

AB: Calgary

View of river and Calgary city.

Calgary is a city in the Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated at the confluence of the Bow River and the Elbow River in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, about 80 km (50 mi) east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. In the 2011 census, the City of Calgary had a population of 1,096,833[5] and a metropolitan population of 1,214,839, making it the largest city in Alberta, and the third-largest municipality and fifth-largest census metropolitan area (CMA) in Canada.[7]

The economy of Calgary includes activity in the energy, financial services, film and television, transportation and logistics, technology, manufacturing, aerospace, health and wellness, retail, and tourism sectors.[11] The Calgary CMA is home to the second-highest number of corporate head offices in Canada among the country’s 800 largest corporations.

MB: Winnipeg

Skyline of Winnipeg

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers.

The city is named after the nearby Lake Winnipeg; the name comes from the Western Cree words for muddy or brackish water. The region was a trading centre for aboriginal peoples long before the arrival of Europeans. French traders built the first fort on the site in 1738. A settlement was later founded by the Selkirk settlers of the Red River Colony in 1812, the nucleus of which was incorporated as the City of Winnipeg in 1873. As of 2011, Winnipeg is the seventh most populated municipality in Canada.[11] Being located very far inland, the local climate is extremely seasonal even by Canadian standards with average January lows of around −21 °C (−6 °F) and average July highs of 26 °C (79 °F).

ON: Toronto

Skyline of Toronto city from a boat.

Toronto is the most populous city in Canada,[12] the provincial capital of Ontario,[13] and the centre of the Greater Toronto Area, the most populous metropolitan area in Canada.[14] In the 2011 census, Toronto had a population of 2,615,060, making it the fifth largest city in North America.[6] A city report released in 2013 shows the city is now the fourth most populous city in North America, after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles.[15][16] An alpha global city,[17] Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, and culture,[18][19] and is widely recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world.[20][21][22][23][24]

QC: Montreal

Nighttime view of Montreal city from the water.

Montreal is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec. It is the second largest city in Canada, 18th largest in North America and the 26th largest in the Americas. Originally called Ville-Marie, or “City of Mary,”[12] it is named after Mount Royal,[13] the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. The city is on the Island of Montreal, which took its name from the same source as the city,[14][15] and a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard. It has a distinct four-season continental climate with warm to hot summers and cold snowy winters.[16]

In 2011 the city had a population of 1,649,519.[6] Montreal’s metropolitan area had a population of 3,824,221[8] and a population of 1,886,481 in the urban agglomeration, with all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included.[17] The 2014 estimate of the population of the metropolitan area of Montreal is 4.1 million.[18]

French is the city’s official language[19][20] and is the language spoken at home by 56.9% of the population of the city, followed by English at 18.6% and 19.8% other languages (in the 2006 census).[21] In the larger Montreal Census Metropolitan Area, 67.9% of the population speaks French at home, compared to 16.5% who speak English.[22] Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada with 56% of the population able to speak both English and French.[23] Montreal is the second largest primarily French-speaking city in the world, after Paris.[24][25][26] [27]

Historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was surpassed in population and economic strength by Toronto in the 1970s. It remains an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, culture, tourism, gaming, film and world affairs.[28] Along with Washington D.C and New York City, Montreal is one of the three North American cities home to organizations of the United Nations,[29] being the location for the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization. Montreal has the second-highest number of consulates in North America.[29] Montreal was also named a UNESCO City of Design.[30][31] In 2009, Montreal was named North America’s leading host city for international association events, according to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).[32] The 2016 edition of QS Best Student Cities ranked Montreal the 7th-best city in the world to be a university student.[33] In August 2015, the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Ranking placed Montreal 14th out of 140 cities.[34]

Montreal has hosted multiple international conferences and events throughout its history, including the 1967 International and Universal Exposition and the 1976 Summer Olympic Games.[35][36] It is the only Canadian city to have held the Summer Olympics. Currently, the city hosts the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Just for Laughs festival.