Canada had 1,137 municipalities that held city, town or ville[a] status as of 2011.[1] This list presents the 100 largest of these municipalities by land area in square kilometres at the time of the 2011 census.[2]
The geographically massive cities in Quebec – three of them larger than the entire province of Prince Edward Island – were created in the 1990s, when the provincial government added some vast unorganized areas (territoires non organisés) into self-governing municipalities, centred on a single dominant urban centre and surrounded by extensive tracts of forest and sparsely populated expanses.
The geographically massive cities in Ontario were created in the 1990s, when the provincial government converted some counties and regional municipalities into self-governing rural single-tier municipalities, centred on a single dominant urban centre and what were formerly its suburbs and relatively nearby satellite towns and villages, including large tracts of rural land. (This article uses loose imprecise translation of “Ville” and the first 4 on the list are “Municipalities” and not “Cities”)
^According to Statistics Canada, both "city" and "town" can translate to "ville" in French.[1] Thus, those municipalities in Quebec holding "ville" status are considered equivalents of cities or towns for the purpose of this list.
