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The Northwest Territories (NWT; French, les Territoires du Nord-Ouest) is a territory of Canada. Located in northern Canada, it is east of Yukon, west and south of Nunavut (Canada's two other territories), and north of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. It has an area of 1,140,835 square kilometres and a population of 41,464 as of the 2006 census, an increase of 11.0% from 2001. Its capital has been Yellowknife since 1967. Geographical features include the vast Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes, as well as the immense Mackenzie River and the canyons of the Nahanni River, a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Territorial islands in the Arctic Archipelago include Banks Island, Parry Peninsula, Prince Patrick Island, and parts of Victoria Island and Melville Island. The highest point is Mount Nirvana near the border with Yukon at elevation 2,773 m (9,098 ft). History
The present-day territory was created in June 1870, when the Hudson's Bay Company transferred Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory to the government of Canada. This immense region comprised all of modern Canada except British Columbia, the coast of the Great Lakes, the Saint Lawrence River valley and the southern third of Quebec, the Maritimes, Newfoundland, and the Labrador coast. It also excluded the Arctic Islands except the southern half of Baffin Island; these remained under direct British rule until 1880. The name of the territory is traced to North-Western Territory, a region named for the geographical location relative to Rupert's Land. After the transfer, the territories were gradually whittled away. The province of Manitoba was created on 15 July 1870, a tiny square around Winnipeg, and then enlarged in 1881 to a rectangular region composing the modern province's south. By the time British Columbia joined confederation on 20 July 1871, it had already (1866) been granted the portion of North-Western Territory south of 60 degrees north and west of 120 degrees west. In 1882 Regina in the then-District of Assiniboia became the territorial capital; after Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905, Regina became the provincial capital of the new province of Saskatchewan.
Keewatin would be returned to NWT in 1905.
In the meantime, Ontario was enlarged northwestward in 1882. Quebec was also extended, in 1898, and Yukon was made a separate territory in the same year to deal with the Klondike Gold Rush, and remove the NWT government from administering the sudden boom of population, economic activity and influx of non-Canadians. The provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were created in 1905, and Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec acquired the last of their modern territories from NWT in 1912. This left only the districts of Mackenzie, Franklin (which absorbed the remnants of Ungava in 1920), and Keewatin. In 1925, the boundaries of NWT were extended all the way to the North Pole on the sector principle, vastly expanding its territory onto the northern ice cap. The reduced Northwest Territories was not represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1907 until 1947 when the electoral district of Yukon—Mackenzie River was created. This riding only included the District of Mackenzie. The rest of the Northwest Territories had no repesentation in the House of Commons until the early 1960s when the Northwest Territories electoral district was created in recognition of Inuit having been given the right to vote in 1953. In 1912 the Government of Canada renamed the territory to Northwest Territories, dropping the hyphenated form. Between 1925 and 1999, Northwest Territories measured 3 439 296 km² – larger than India. Finally, on April 1, 1999, the eastern three-fifths of Northwest Territories (including all of Keewatin district and much of Mackenzie and Franklin) became a separate territory called Nunavut. There was some discussion of changing the name of Northwest Territories after the separation of Nunavut, possibly to a term from an Aboriginal language. One proposal was "Denendeh" ("our land" in Dene). The idea was advocated by former premier Stephen Kakfwi among others. Also, a popular radio station began to promote changing the territory's name to "Bob". This idea appeared to have some popular support, but was never taken seriously by politicians (or probably even those who claimed to support it). In the end, as a poll conducted prior to division showed, strong support remained for retaining the name "Northwest Territories". This name arguably became more appropriate following division, than it was when the territory extended far into Canada's northeast. [1] [2] In Inuktitut, Northwest Territories are referred to as ᓄᓇᑦᓯᐊᖅ (Nunatsiaq), "beautiful land." Research Tips
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