This study uses the eastern Canadian continental margin as a type example to assess controls on the distribution of different types of submarine landslides. A brief summary is provided of the major styles of submarine landslides recognized globally, their transport mechanisms, and the factors responsible for both preconditioning and triggering failure. The eastern Canadian continental margin differs along its length as a result of the northward-decreasing age of oceanic rifting and resulting depth of the ocean floor. It has been strongly modified by Quaternary glaciation. Landslides on the margin are recognized from 2D and 3D seismic data, multibeam bathymetry, and 10-m-long cores. The ages of landslides are well defined from regional stratigraphic studies. The distribution of different types of landslides on the eastern Canadian margin depends on whether the margin is progradational or erosional. Progradational slopes have unconsolidated sediment available for retrogressive slumps, whereas on more erosional slopes more consolidated sediment is available to form blocky disaggregated landslides. Most large landslides appear to result from regional failure during large, but rare, passive-margin earthquakes. Preconditioning factors such as sedimentation rate or flux of basinal fluids do not seem to have had a major impact on the distribution of larger failures, but could be locally significant for small landslides.