What provinces are referred to as the Atlantic Provinces?

Discover Canada describes the Atlantic Provinces as a four-province grouping along Canada's east coast. The guide writes: The Atlantic provinces. Atlantic Canada's coasts and natural resources, including fishing, farming, forestry and mining, have made these provinces an important part of Canada's history and development. The Atlantic Ocean brings cool winters and cool humid summers. The four provinces the guide names within this grouping are Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.

Each Atlantic province has a distinct profile in Discover Canada. Newfoundland and Labrador is described as "the most easterly point in North America", with its own time zone, the oldest colony of the British Empire, and modern offshore oil and gas, plus Labrador's hydro-electric resources. New Brunswick, sitting in the Appalachian Range, was "founded by the United Empire Loyalists" and has the St. John River system. Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island round out the four — each with its own coastal heritage and strong fishing tradition.

The Atlantic provinces share a common economic base. Discover Canada names "fishing, farming, forestry and mining" as the historic industries that built them. So the four provinces, while distinct, share a maritime economy shaped by the Atlantic Ocean — which the guide describes as bringing "cool winters and cool humid summers" to the region.

The Atlantic Provinces are also part of Canada's expansion timeline. Discover Canada notes that Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were two of the four founding provinces of Confederation in 1867; Prince Edward Island joined in 1873; and Newfoundland and Labrador joined as the most-recent province in 1949.

The question is testing whether new citizens know which four provinces sit on Canada's east coast. Discover Canada commits to a specific four-province group: Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The right test answer matches that.

The wrong answer choices each substitute a non-Atlantic province for one of the four. Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba are not Atlantic Provinces in Discover Canada's account — Ontario and Quebec sit in central Canada, and Manitoba is a prairie province. Only the four-province east-coast group matches.