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St. John's Facts

Key Facts About St. John's, the Capital City of Newfoundland and Labrador

By Susan Munroe, About.com

The Narrows, St. John's Harbour, Newfoundland

The Narrows, St. John's Harbour, Newfoundland

Courtesy Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism

About the City of St. John's, Newfoundland

St. John's is the capital city of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. St. John's is Canada's oldest city, and it shows its old-fashioned charm in winding, hilly streets lined with colorful buildings. St. John's sits on a deepwater harbour connected by the Narrows, a long inlet to the Atlantic Ocean. The local economy, depressed by the collapse of the cod fishery in the early 1990s, has been brought back to prosperity with petro-dollars from off-shore oil projects.

Location of St. John's, Newfoundland

The easternmost city in North America, St. John's is situated on the east side of the Avalon Peninsula in southeast Newfoundland.

Area of City of St. John's

446.04 sq. km (172.22 sq. miles) (Statistics Canada, 2006 Census)

Population of City of St. John's

100,646 (Statistics Canada, 2006 Census)

Date St. John's Incorporated as a City

1921

Date St. John's Became the Capital City of Newfoundland

In 1832, St. John's became the seat of government of Newfoundland, an English colony at the time, when Newfoundland was granted a colonial legislature by England. St. John's became the capital city of the province of Newfoundland when Newfoundland joined Canadian Confederation in 1949.

Government of City of St. John's, Newfoundland

St. John's municipal elections are held every four years on the last Tuesday in September.

Date of the last St. John's municipal election: Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Date of the next St. John's municipal election: Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The City of St. John's has a partial ward system with a Mayor, Deputy Mayor, five ward councillors and four councillors at large.

St. John's Attractions

Weather in St. John's

St. John's has a temperate climate, without extremes in temperature. The winters are relatively mild and the summers cool. That's somewhat deceptive though, as Environment Canada also rates St. John's high in other aspects of its weather: it is the foggiest Canadian city; it is the windiest Candian city; and it has the greatest number of days of freezing rain per year.

Winter temperatures in St. John's average around -1°C (30°F), while summer days have an average temperature around 20°C (68°F).

City of St. John's Official Site

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