Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Canada-related articles

Date formatting

I've seen "first used, always used" given as a rule for Canadian date formats; "internally consistent" gets twisted by some people to apply it to all related articles. G. Timothy Walton (talk) 03:23, 1 July 2025 (UTC)

Another point re: date formatting guidance (UK vs. Quebec ties)

I find it odd that in one paragraph, we assert that articles with ties to both Canada and the UK should use the dmy format because of the UK ties but we then, in the very next paragraph, say that for Quebec-related articles, it's not about ties to Quebec, where dmy is more widely used.

Seems like it would be more consistent and more neutral to treat articles with ties to both Canada and the UK the same way as any articles where there's not a clear tie to a singular format; that is, by following MOS:DATEVAR and using whichever format was used in the first major contribution.

This has the added benefit of not appearing to actively favour the UK. Instead, it takes regionality out of the equation by, when ties to multiple formats result in ambiguity, falling back to what happened to be used first. —Joeyconnick (talk) 18:05, 13 July 2025 (UTC)

Is dmy much more widely used than mdy in English in Quebec? (And, even if so, provided it's not used overwhelmingly, I wouldn't really compare that to the case of the UK.) Graham11 (talk) 03:22, 14 July 2025 (UTC)

DMY is the standard form in French in Quebec (but that's because it's the only possible form in the French language, not because Quebec is making any special effort to sound British). It is not automatically any kind of special "Quebec-specific English dialect standard" in English just because of the way the French language formats dates — see, for instance, this news article which is clearly dated August 22, not 22 August, despite coming from CTV Montreal, and this one from the Montreal Gazette, dated August 25 rather than 25 August. English speakers from Quebec do not automatically use DMY in English just because they would have to use DMY in French, and actually show precisely the same wibbly-wobbly "both formats can be found" as any other English speakers in the ROC.

The issue with Governors General is that the pre-Massey ones were British gentry or nobility who lived in the UK for seventy or eighty or ninety years of their lives and in Canada for five at most, meaning there's a very real argument that they're essentially British topics first and Canadian topics second. So, since the British date format is allowable in Canadian articles and mandatory in British ones, there's a real reason why it's the preferred format in that set which is absent from most other topics. Bearcat (talk) 17:58, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

RfC: Update to naming conventions (Indigenous names)

Hello. A formal RfC has been opened at WikiProject Canada to discuss an update to the WP:CANSTYLE guidance regarding the inclusion of Indigenous place names in lead sentences. You can find the discussion and the proposed text here: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Canada#RfC: Inclusion of significant Indigenous names in lead sentences (WP:CANSTYLE) Poketama (talk) 18:34, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

Capitalization

"Capitalize the word Black when referring to groups in racial, ethnic, or cultural terms when related to Canada." Should this also apply to "white"? Volcanoguy 15:08, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

That's a matter of preference. But whichever way you choose to capitalize, it should be consistent throughout the article. It seems that "white" is most commonly uncapitalized, as in Black Nova Scotians and Black Canadians in Ontario, among others. Capitalizing it is not incorrect though. MediaKyle (talk) 15:40, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

It just seems odd and inconsistent that "aboriginal", "indigenous" and "black" should be capitalized but "white" isn't required to be capitalized. Volcanoguy 16:09, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Black is standard usage in Canadian English, but the same cannot be said for White. There's nothing stopping you from using White in your articles, although I wouldn't recommend going around and changing existing usage... Just look up "capitalization of black and white" and you'll find plenty of reading on why this is the way it is. MediaKyle (talk) 16:57, 19 May 2026 (UTC)