Are you struggling to find a basic shapefile of Canada with provinces and territories? Have you found something only to discover it looks horrible when you zoom in? Does the whole experience make you wonder why something that should be simple is so difficult? Weep no more: we have what you're looking for!

Yes folks, we recommend that you use Statistics Canada's 2016 cartographic boundary shapefile for provinces/territories. What a mouthful for what is a wonderful yet plain outline of Canada and its provinces and territories:

Wait: there's more!

For a presumably unlimited time, the United States of America also has cartographic boundary shapefiles that include all states plus Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands!

As a bonus, if you download both in the next 30 minutes, there are also free boundaries for the world's countries at Natural Earth! You can even find more sources on this excellent webpage! And this webpage lists boundary shapefiles as well as water features, roads, and more!

All of these can be yours for the special introductory price of $0.

If you have any questions, please email us at gis@carleton.ca. That's gis@carleton.ca.