Newfoundland and Labrador is a province of Canada. It became a province on March 31, 1949, the tenth to join Confederation.
Geographically, the province consists of the island of Newfoundland and the mainland Labrador, on Canada's Atlantic coast. On entry into Canada in 1949, the entire province was known as Newfoundland, but since 1964, the province's government has referred to itself as the "Government of Newfoundland and Labrador", and on December 6, 2001, an amendment was made to the Constitution of Canada to change the province's official name to "Newfoundland and Labrador". In general day-to-day conversation, however, Canadians still erroneously refer to the province as a whole by the shorter name Newfoundland, while the Labrador region of the province is usually properly referred to as simply Labrador.
The population of Newfoundland and Labrador, as of 2006, is 509,677, making it the ninth most populous province in Canada.
The capital and largest city of Newfoundland and Labrador is St. John's. Other major communities include Mount Pearl, Corner Brook, Conception Bay South, Grand Falls-Windsor, Bay Roberts, Labrador City, Gander, and Carbonear.
The current Premier of the province is Hon. Kathy Dunderdale, Progressive Conservative. The current Lieutenant Governor is Hon. John Crosbie.
While the name "Newfoundland" is derived from English as "New Found Land", Labrador is named after Portuguese explorer João Fernandes Lavrador. People from Newfoundland are called "Newfoundlanders" (and at times "Newfies", though this can be seen as a pejorative) while people from Labrador are called "Labradorians". Newfoundland has its own dialects of the English, French, and Irish Gaelic languages. The English dialect in Labrador shares much with Newfoundland. Furthermore, Labrador has its own dialects of Innu-aimun and Inuktitut.
