Nordland Fylkeskommune - 1 Story

1) Canadisk delstatsminister invitert til Nordland (Geir Johnsen) 27 June 2008
http://www.nfk.no/ncms.aspx?id=49716B01-B392-4265-88DE7D4F06FB0896&design=&ax=center:4fba31d9-53a7-47cb-8e48-c93f0948790c,0

In this story the Norwegian journalist writes: "Canadisk delstatsminister invitert til Nordland." This is not correct. Canada does not have states, and does not have state ministers. It should read: "Canadisk provinsminister invitert til Nordland." Canada has been using the French system of provinces for 345 years since 1663, when Canada first became a Royal Province of France. The British colony of British Columbia, as named by Queen Victoria (Canada's Sovereign at the time), became Canada's 6th province in 1871. The Norwegian word for province is provins. Mexico and the USA are the only two countries in North America with states. Also, there are no "state parliament" in Canada as this person has written: "delstatsparlamentet" because in there are not states in Canada. The Province of British Columbia's provincial parliament in Norwegian would be a "provinsparlament" not "delstatsparlamentet." In addition, the Province of British Columbia is spelt "British Columbia", not "British Colombia" as is written. Colombia is a country located on the continent of South America. It's amazing to think the name of the provincial parliament of British Columbia wrong, the name of Minister Mary Polak's position and title is wrong, and even the wrong spelling of the province in Canada she is from. It is easy to see some Norwegians do not know much about Canada, and seem to just apply the USA's terminology to Canada for some reason, either guessing or assuming it must be the same. The story was changed a few days after contacting Nordland Fylkeskommune. This is an excellent example of how facts are often not verified before printed, and how many in the Norwegian press and other Norwegian organisations just assume of guess about Canada. Unfortunately, many in the Norwegian press often assume or guess or think Canada has states, a president, or other American institutions. This would be like a Canadian journalist describing Norway's political institutions with Germany or France's terminology.