Atlantic Canada

A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narrow entrance. A fjord is an elongated bay formed by glacial action.The term embayment is also used for related features, such as extinct bays or freshwater environments.

A bay can be the estuary of a river, such as the Chesapeake Bay, an estuary of the Susquehanna River. Bays may also be nested within each other; for example, James Bay is an arm of Hudson Bay in northeastern Canada. Some bays are large enough to have varied marine geology, such as the Bay of Bengal (2,600,000 km or 1,000,000 sq mi) and Hudson Bay (1,230,000 km or 470,000 sq mi).

North American English (NAmE) encompasses the English language as spoken in both the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), vocabulary, and grammar of U.S. English and Canadian English, linguists often group the two together. Canadians are generally tolerant of both British and American spellings, although certain words always take British spellings (e.g., cheque rather than check) and others American spellings (e.g., tire rather than tyre).

Dialects of English spoken by United Empire Loyalists who fled the American Revolution (1775–1783) have had a large influence on Canadian English from its early roots. Some terms in North American English are used almost exclusively in Canada and the United States (for example, the terms diaper and gasoline are widely used instead of nappy and petrol). Although many English speakers from outside North America regard those terms as distinct Americanisms, they are just as common in Canada, mainly due to the effects of heavy cross-border trade and cultural penetration by the American mass media. The list of divergent words becomes longer if considering regional Canadian dialects, especially as spoken in the Atlantic provinces and parts of Vancouver Island where significant pockets of British culture still remain.

New Brunswick is a province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to the west. It is part of Eastern Canada and is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. The province is about 83% forested and its northern half is occupied by the Appalachians. The province's climate is continental with snowy winters and temperate summers. The province has a surface area of 72,908 km (28,150 sq mi) and 775,610 inhabitants (2021 census).

Approximately half of the population lives in urban areas, predominantly in Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton. In 1969, New Brunswick passed the Official Languages Act which began recognizing French as an official language, along with English. New Brunswickers have the right to receive provincial government services in the official language of their choice. About two thirds of the population are English speaking and one third is French speaking. New Brunswick is home to most of the cultural region of Acadia and most Acadians. New Brunswick's variety of French is called Acadian French. There are seven regional accents.

Nova Scotia is a province in The Maritimes region of Canada, located on the nation's east coast. With an estimated population of over 1 million as of 2025, Nova Scotia is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. Nova Scotia is also the second-most densely populated province in Canada, and the second smallest province by area. The province comprises the Nova Scotia peninsula and Cape Breton Island, as well as 3,800 other coastal islands. The province is connected to the rest of Canada by the Isthmus of Chignecto, on which the province's sole land border, with New Brunswick, is located.

Nova Scotia's capital and largest city is Halifax, which is home to over 45% of the province's population as of the 2021 census. Halifax is the twelfth-largest census metropolitan area in Canada, the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada, and Canada's second-largest coastal municipality after Vancouver.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon (/ˈmiːkəlɒn/, MEEK-ə-lon), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (French: Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, located near the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. St. Pierre and Miquelon is an archipelago of eight islands, covering 242 km (93 sq mi) of land. It had a population of 5,819 as of the January 2022 census and its residents are French citizens; they elect their own deputy to the National Assembly and participate in senatorial and presidential elections.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon is an Overseas Country and Territory (OCT) of the European Union, although not an integral part of it. It is neither part of the Schengen area, nor of the European customs territory. On the other hand, Saint Pierre and Miquelon is part of the Eurozone, and its inhabitants have European Union citizenship. The territory is also part of the Regional Joint Cooperation Commission (Atlantic Canada Cooperation), the Halifax Search and Rescue Region and the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization.

Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of 405,212 km (156,453 sq mi). As of 2025 the population of Newfoundland and Labrador was estimated to be 549,911. The island of Newfoundland (and its smaller neighbouring islands) is home to around 94 per cent of the province's population, with more than half residing in the Avalon Peninsula. Labrador has a land border with both the province of Quebec, as well as a short border with the territory of Nunavut on Killiniq Island. The French overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon lies about 20 km (12 mi) west of the Burin Peninsula.

According to the 2016 census, 97.0% of residents reported English as their native language, making Newfoundland and Labrador Canada's most linguistically homogeneous province. Much of the population is descended from English and Irish settlers, with the majority immigrating from the early 17th century to the late 19th century.St. John's, the capital and largest city of Newfoundland and Labrador, is Canada's 22nd-largest census metropolitan area and home to about 40% of the province's population. St. John's is the seat of the House of Assembly of Newfoundland and Labrador as well as the province's highest court, the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal.

Eastern Canada (French: Est du Canada, also known as the Eastern provinces, Canadian East or the East) is generally considered to be the region of Canada south of Hudson Bay/Hudson Strait and east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces (from east to west): Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario.

Eastern Canada overlaps into other geographic regions; Ontario and Quebec, Canada's two largest provinces, define Central Canada, while the other provinces in Eastern Canada constitute Atlantic Canada. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island are also known as the Maritime provinces.