Editing Town (section)

=== Canada ===
{{Main|List of towns in Canada|Municipal government in Canada}}
The legal definition of a town in Canada varies by [[Provinces and territories of Canada|province or territory]], as each has jurisdiction over defining and legislating towns, cities and other types of municipal organization within its own boundaries.

The province of [[Quebec]] is unique in that it makes no distinction under law between towns and cities. There is no intermediate level in French between {{lang|fr|village}} and {{lang|fr|ville}} (''municipality'' is an administrative term usually applied to a legal, not geographical entity), so both are combined under the single legal status of ''[[ville]]''. While an informal preference may exist among English speakers as to whether any individual {{lang|fr|ville}} is commonly referred to as a city or as a town, no distinction and no objective legal criteria exist to make such a distinction under law.

[[Ontario]] allows municipalities to select whichever administrative term they like with no legal distinction existing between towns, townships, cities, and villages.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www2.oboa.on.ca/digitizer/pdf/106.pdf | title=The municipal councillor's guide 2014 | access-date=2024-08-16 | website=www2.oboa.on.ca}}</ref> Instead all municipalities, with the exception of Toronto and Ottawa, fall into one of three legal categories under the Municipalities Act: Single-tier (I.e. towns that are located within a region or county but that are considered separate for municipal purposes such as [[Hamilton, Ontario|Hamilton]]), lower-tier (i.e. municipalities that are part of a region or county such as [[St. Catharines]]), or upper-tier (i.e. regional municipalities such as [[Regional Municipality of Niagara|Niagara]]).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.amo.on.ca/about-us/municipal-101/ontario-municipalities | title=Ontario Municipalities &#124; AMO }}</ref>  Accordingly, many larger municipalities continue to use the title of town due to it better reflecting the character of the municipality. For example, [[Oakville, Ontario|Oakville]] (2021 Population: 213,759) is the largest municipality to use the title of town to reflect its largely suburban character while other municipalities such as [[Richmond Hill, Ontario|Richmond Hill]] (2021 Population: 202,022) have opted to change their status from "town" to "city" to encourage investment.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.yorkregion.com/news/council/richmond-hill-changes-status-from-town-to-city/article_d325a940-7cba-5c36-b905-5b42ee49de06.html? | title=Richmond Hill changes status from town to city | date=26 March 2019 }}</ref>