Regions can be defined by physical and human characteristics. The regions of Canada emerged out of geographical characteristics but have endured because of economic, social, and political developments. There are six regions: Atlantic Canada, Québec, Ontario, the West, British Columbia, and the North.

Canada is generally regarded as a nation of regions. The reason is partly that population does not dominate space in Canada the way it does, by contrast, in China. Canadians can think about Canada but they cannot easily embrace it imaginatively. Its vastness is more than the mind can take in.

Not surprisingly, then, many Canadians identify themselves first in terms of their region and then in terms of their nation. Cultural and regional diversity can exist in Canada because of its vast size. It is also true that Canada's vast size makes it almost unavoidable for cultural and regional diversity to exist.

In the 1960s, Canadians shared many cultural characteristics. For example, about 90% of Canadians were Christians and worshipped weekly in churches. The largest Christian denominations were the Roman Catholic Church, the United Church of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. By the 1990s, however, many Christians had stopped attending church regularly. Moreover, only about 70% of Canadians still identified themselves as Christians. Thus, whereas churches were an institution that united Canada during most of its history, that unity is not nearly so much in evidence today.

Canadians tend to think of their country in terms of regions because this way of thinking helps make a vast geographical space more manageable for the mind to capture and appreciate. It is easiest for Canadians to think of their country in a unified way when looking south at the USA. Canadians often define themselves as "not USAmerican." But even this mode of identification is tricky. Canadians understand what they mean in a cultural sense when they differentiate themselves from USAmericans. However, Canada has an intimate economic relationship with the USA; for example, nearly 84% of all Canada's exports go to the USA.

Many of the opportunities for trade in North America run north and south, up and down the continent, not east and west, across Canada. Trade liberalization during the past twenty years has increased the possibilities for a USAmericanization of Canada's economy. For Canadian nationalists, this is a disturbing trend. For capitalists and entrepreneurs, it opens up a great potential. It is not uncommon for Canadians to be economic continentalists and cultural protectionists at one and the same time. This sort of paradox defines the Canadian mentality better than most descriptions.

Before we come to consider each of Canada's six regions, we need to understand what the whole of Canada comprises.