Helen, within each province (the equivalent of a state) there are many regions or districts. And within each of those there are probably a number of towns, townships or and villages. Like the English counties, the boundaries have changed from time to time and some Regions have been amalgamated or the boundaries re-drawn. The City of Toronto would be an exception: it has now a single metropolitan government where once there were two levels. So if you look at the census data, you will find it divided into Regions and within each Region you will see various communities. For instance, the Region of Parry Sound would have the town of Parry Sound and various smaller towns and townships. The townships are typically rural regions and, to make your life more difficult, may have several villages within /them/. Using Parry Sound Region as an example again, within that you might find (in the old census data) a township called Christie (with a township government headed by a Reeve, the same as a mayor) and within Christie you might find several small named communities or towns: Humphrey, Orrville, etc. The latter communities would be named on the census, under Christie, even if they were only half-a-dozen houses and the surrounding farms. In more populous area (ie suburban areas around cities) the region would have two or three major suburban communities or more and perhaps some rural areas as well. So a suburban region north of Toronto is called York Region, it has some pretty major towns or cities near Toronto which have municipal governments of their own, but falling under York Region (if you look on a map you'll see Richmond Hill, Aurora, Markham, etc.) and further north in the region you have some pretty rural agricultural areas. To make your life more miserable, however, many if not most of the names have changed and the townships have been amalgamated, so what you see on a modern map may not be what you see in the old census or BMD information. Going back to Parry Sound, it is now Muskoka-Parry Sound, Christie is now part of Seguin Township and ...............well, I could go on, but you get the picture. I'm sure you're suitably confused now. Of course, the long and the short of it is that the regions are like US counties and the towns and townships are just like the towns within a US county. I think you can comfortably think of them as being pretty much the same. And, like the US, different levels of government and jurisdictions have different responsibilities. Sue Cox in Toronto PS Don't know what the O is but I'm guessing it's just Ontario. I can't say I noticed it on the old census data. [email protected] wrote: > Hi - I need a little instruction form SKS. My lines have just gone Canadian > and I am lost. I'm from the states and I thought I was educated-not-I know > perfectly well that there are Provinces and Ontario is one of them. And I > can figure out what a town is. The question is, what are all the divisions > between the two? Does Canada have counties? What are the sub divisions? I > pulled an extracted census and it came with a string of names divided by > commas, then a capital O and Ontario. Does the O mean anything, or does it > just mean Ontario? > > Thanks in advance for the education-- Helen > > *************************************** > > BGS Website: http://www.bucksgs.org.uk/ > BFHS Website: http://www.bucksfhs.org.uk/ > Bucks Genuki Website: http://met.open.ac.uk/genuki/big/eng/BKM/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >

Also there are counties - at least in Ontario. See http://www.amo.on.ca/YLG/ylg/ontario.html Jill formerly of Carleton Place, Lanark County, Ontario ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sue Cox" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2007 2:11 PM Subject: Re: [BKM] Canadian Q > Helen, within each province (the equivalent of a state) there are many > regions or districts. And within each of those there are probably a > number of towns, townships or and villages.