Two new provinces were created from the split of the Province of Canada in 1864-67. Which were they?

Discover Canada records this in one direct sentence. The guide writes: The old Province of Canada was split into two new provinces: Ontario and Quebec, which, together with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, formed the new country called the Dominion of Canada. The two provinces the test wants are therefore Quebec and Ontario.

The split returned to an earlier division. Discover Canada writes earlier that "the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the Province of Quebec into Upper Canada (later Ontario), which was mainly Loyalist, Protestant and English-speaking, and Lower Canada (later Quebec), heavily Catholic and French-speaking." So Confederation in 1867 effectively re-split the merged Province of Canada along familiar Anglophone-Francophone lines — Upper Canada becoming Ontario and Lower Canada becoming Quebec.

Four founding provinces emerged. Discover Canada notes that the two new provinces of Ontario and Quebec, "together with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, formed the new country called the Dominion of Canada." So the original Confederation was a four-province federation: Ontario + Quebec (created from the Province of Canada) plus New Brunswick + Nova Scotia (Atlantic founding members). All four became founding provinces on July 1, 1867.

The 1867 founding designed lasting institutions. Discover Canada writes that "each province would elect its own legislature and have control of such areas as education and health." So Confederation didn't just create new provinces — it gave each one an elected legislature and a sphere of provincial responsibility. Today's Canadian federal-provincial structure inherits this 1867 design. Other provinces and territories joined later: Manitoba (1870), British Columbia (1871), Prince Edward Island (1873), and so on, with Nunavut as the most recent (1999).

The question is testing whether new citizens know the two provinces created when the Province of Canada was split. Discover Canada commits to two: Ontario and Quebec. The right test answer matches that.

The wrong answer choices each pick a different combination. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were Atlantic-region founding provinces — already separate from the Province of Canada, not its split. Newfoundland and Labrador joined Canada in 1949, much later. Alberta and British Columbia are western provinces that joined later. Only Ontario and Quebec match the source.