History of cities in Canada City, Sherbrooke, and Halifax are major regional centres. St John's and Saint John are smaller centres in Atlantic Canada. Whitehorse and Yellowknife are small and more isolated cities in the Canadian north, the serving as the capitals and largest cities of the Yukon and Northwest territories respectively. History of cities in Canada Canada's cities span the continent of North America from east to west, with many major cities located relatively close to the border with the United States. Cities are home to the majority of Canada's approximately 35.75 million inhabitants(as of 2015)—just over 80 percent of Canadians lived in urban
Yellowknife Yellowknife began with the discovery of diamonds north of the city in 1991. The last of the gold mines in Yellowknife closed in 2004. Today, Yellowknife is primarily a government town and a service centre for the diamond mines. On April 1, 1999, its purview as capital of the NWT was reduced when the territory of Nunavut was split from the NWT. As a result, jurisdiction for that region of Canada was transferred to the new capital city of Iqaluit. Consequently, Yellowknife lost its standing as the Canadian capital city with the smallest population. Yellowknife is on the Canadian Shield,