Atlantic provinces

Since the term Atlantic provinces is not an official name of a political or administrative division, the word provinces does not ordinarily take a capital:

  • We met many wonderful people while travelling through the Atlantic provinces last summer.

However, it is correct to write Atlantic Provinces (with a capital) in contexts where the provinces are viewed as a geographical division in comparison with other regions of Canada:

  • The Atlantic Provinces, the Prairies, and the West Coast are three of the major regions of Canada.

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© His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Public Services and Procurement
A tool created and made available online by the Translation Bureau, Public Services and Procurement Canada

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