Provinces and territories of Canada created from the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories. Yukon lies in the western portion of Northern Canada, while Nunavut is in the east. All three territories combined are the most sparsely populated region in Canada, covering in land area. They are often referred to as a single region, The North, for organisational and economic purposes. For much of the Northwest Territories' early history it was divided into several districts for ease of administration. The District of Keewatin was created as a separate territory from 1876 to 1905, after which, as the Keewatin Region, it became an administrative district of
British Arctic Territories the Province of Manitoba and the new Northwest Territories, which originally included northern Ontario, the rest of Manitoba, all of Saskatchewan and part of Alberta, and what is now Nunavut territory, with the name Northwest Territories retained by the successor government in the region flanked by the Mackenzie River drainage to the north of Alberta. The North-Western Territory was to its northwest, and included parts of British Columbia north of the Stikine Territory and including all of today's Yukon territory, and parts of Alberta not in the Hudson Bay drainage, as well as today's Northwest Territories. Flags of the World