The Province of Buffalo was a proposal for the creation of a
new Canadian province in the early 20th century. Its main proponent was
Sir Frederick Haultain, the premier of the
North-West Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
.
However, Haultain's frosty relations with
Canadian Prime Minister
The prime minister of Canada (french: premier ministre du Canada, link=no) is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the confidence of a majority the elected House of Commons; as such ...
Sir Wilfrid Laurier
Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, ( ; ; November 20, 1841 – February 17, 1919) was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadian prime minist ...
did not help his cause, and in 1905, his proposed province was divided into
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
in the west and
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
in the east.
History
![Western Canadian Province Proposals](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Western_Canadian_Province_Proposals.png)
The Province of Buffalo was one of several proposals for the area of what would become Alberta and Saskatchewan. Haultain proposed the idea in 1904, stating that "One big province would be able to do things no other province could." At the time the majority of
Calgarians and
Edmontonians disagreed with the proposal, since Haultain thought the capital of the new province should be Regina, but the two major western cities each had their own ambitions to be a capital city (Edmonton eventually becoming the capital of Alberta). Laurier eventually decided to carve two provinces out of that section of the North-West Territories by dividing the land up with a north–south line. This created Alberta in the west, and Saskatchewan in the east.
In 2005 ''
Canadian Geographic
''Canadian Geographic'' is a magazine published by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, (RCGS) based in Ottawa, Ontario.
History and profile
After the Society was founded in 1929, the magazine was established the next year in May 1930 unde ...
'' magazine ran a cover story, "How the West was divided", on Haultain's proposal.
References
External links
The Buffalo Province History ConferenceJanuary/February 2005 Issueof ''Canadian Geographic'', with the article "How the West was divided "
Buffalo
History of Alberta by location
History of Saskatchewan by location
{{Canada-hist-stub