Ontario ( ) is a province located in
east
-central Canada
, the largest
by population and second largest, after Quebec
, in total
area. (Nunavut
and the
Northwest
Territories
are larger but are not provinces.) Ontario is
bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba
to the west
and Quebec to the east,
and 5 U.S. states (from west to east): Minnesota
, Michigan
, Ohio
, Pennsylvania
(the latter two across Lake Erie
) and New
York
to the south and east. Most of Ontario's
2,700 km (1,677 mi) long border with the United States
runs along water, in the west the Lake of the
Woods
and eastward of there either on lakes or rivers
within the Great
Lakes
drainage system: Superior
, St. Marys River
, Huron
, St. Clair
River
, Lake St. Clair
(sometimes referred to as the sixth Great Lake), Erie,
Ontario
and then
runs along the St.
Lawrence River
from near Kingston
to near Cornwall
. For analytical and geographical purposes
Ontario is often broken into two regions,
Northern Ontario, and
Southern Ontario. The great majority of
population and arable land in Ontario is located in the South,
which contrasts with its relatively small land area in comparison
to the North.The easternmost settlement in Ontario is Curry
Hill.
The
capital of Ontario is Toronto
, Canada's
most populous city and metropolitan area. Ottawa
, the capital
of Canada, is located in Ontario as well. The
Ontario Government projected a population
of 13,150,000 people residing in the province of Ontario as of July
2009.
The province takes its name from Lake Ontario, which is thought to
be derived from
Ontarí:io, a
Huron (
Wyandot) word
meaning "great lake", or possibly
skanadario which means
"beautiful water" in
Iroquoian.
The province contains over 250,000 freshwater lakes.
Ontario is Canada's leading
manufacturing province accounting for 52% of
the total national manufacturing shipments in 2004.
Ontario's largest
trading partner is the American state of Michigan.
Geography
The province consists of four main geographical regions:
- The virtually unpopulated Hudson
Bay Lowlands in the extreme north and northeast, mainly swampy
and sparsely forested.
- The temperate and therefore most populous region, the fertile
Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Valley in the south where agriculture
and industry are concentrated. Southern
Ontario is further sub-divided into four regions; Central Ontario (although not actually the
province's geographic centre), Eastern
Ontario, Golden Horseshoe and
Southwestern Ontario (parts of
which were formerly referred to as Western Ontario).
Despite the absence of any mountainous terrain in the province,
there are large areas of uplands, particularly within the Canadian
Shield which traverses the province from northwest to southeast and
also above the
Niagara Escarpment
which crosses the south.
The highest point is Ishpatina
Ridge
at above sea
level located in Temagami, Northeastern Ontario
. In the south, elevations of over 500m (1640')
are surpassed near Collingwood, above the Blue Mountains in the
Dundalk Highlands and in hilltops near the Madawaska River in Renfrew County
.
The
Carolinian forest zone covers
most of the southwestern section, its northern extent is part of
the
Greater Toronto Area at the
western end of Lake Ontario.
The most well-known geographic feature is
Niagara
Falls
, part of the much more extensive Niagara Escarpment. The Saint Lawrence Seaway allows
navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean
as far inland as Thunder Bay
in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario occupies roughly 87% of
the surface area of the province; conversely Southern Ontario
contains 94% of the population.
Point Pelee
National Park
is a peninsula in southwestern Ontario (near
Windsor
and Detroit,
Michigan
) that extends into Lake Erie and is the
southernmost extent of Canada's mainland. Pelee
Island
and Middle Island
in Lake Erie extend slightly farther.
All are
south of 42°N – slightly
farther south than the northern border of California
.
Climate and environment
Climate
Ontario has three main climatic regions. Parts of Southwestern
Ontario have a moderate
humid
continental climate (
Köppen climate
classification Dfa), similar to that of the inland
Mid-Atlantic States and the
Great Lakes portion of the
Midwestern United States. The
region has warm, humid summers and cold winters. Annual
precipitation ranges from and is well distributed throughout the
year with a usual summer peak. Most of this region lies in the lee
of the Great Lakes making for abundant snow in some areas.
Central and Eastern Ontario have a more severe humid continental
climate (Köppen
Dfb). This region has warm and sometimes
hot summers with cold, slightly longer winters with ample snowfall
and roughly equal annual precipitation as the rest of Southern
Ontario. Along the eastern shores of Lake Superior and Lake Huron,
frequent heavy
lake-effect snow
squalls increase seasonal snowfall totals upwards of in some
places.
The northernmost parts of Ontario — primarily north of 50°N
have a
subarctic climate (Köppen
Dfc) with long, severely cold winters and short, cool to
warm summers with dramatic temperature changes possible in all
seasons. With no major mountain ranges blocking sinking
Arctic air masses,
temperatures of are not uncommon, snowfall remains on the ground
for sometimes over half the year. Precipitation is generally less
than .
Severe and non-severe
thunderstorms
peak in summer.
London
, situated
in Southern Ontario, has the most lightning
strikes per year in Canada, averaging 34 days of thunderstorm
activity per year. In a typical year, Ontario averages 15
confirmed
tornado touchdowns, they are
rarely destructive (the majority between F0 to F2 on the
Fujita scale).
Tropical depression remnants occasionally
bring heavy rains and winds in the south, but are rarely deadly. A
notable exception was
Hurricane
Hazel which struck Toronto, in October 1954.Winter storms can
disrupt power supply and transportation,
ice
storms amongst the most severe also occur, especially in the
east.
Environment
The
Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009 (GEGEA),
takes a two-pronged approach to creating a
renewable-energy economy.
History
Territorial evolution
Land was not legally subdivided into administrative units until a
treaty had been concluded with the
native peoples ceding the land.
In 1788, while part of the
Province of Quebec ,
southern Ontario was divided into four
districts:
Hesse,
Lunenburg,
Mecklenburg, and
Nassau.
In 1792, the four districts were renamed: Hesse became the Western
District, Lunenburg became the Eastern District, Mecklenburg became
the Midland District, and Nassau became the Home District. Counties
were created within the districts.
By 1798, there were eight districts: Eastern, Home,
Johnstown,
London, Midland,
Newcastle,
Niagara, and Western.
By 1826, there were eleven districts:
Bathurst, Eastern,
Gore, Home, Johnstown, London,
Midland, Newcastle, Niagara,
Ottawa, and Western.
By 1838, there were twenty districts: Bathurst, Brock, Colbourne,
Dalhousie, Eastern, Gore, Home,
Huron, Johnstown, London, Midland, Newcastle, Niagara, Ottawa,
Prince Edward,
Simcoe,
Talbot, Victoria,
Wellington, and
Western.
In 1849, the districts of southern Ontario were abolished by the
Province of Canada, and
county governments took over certain municipal
responsibilities.
The Province of Canada also began creating
districts in sparsely populated Northern Ontario with the
establishment of Algoma
District and Nipissing District
in 1858.
The borders of Ontario were provisionally expanded north and west.
When the
Province of Canada was formed, its borders were not entirely clear,
and Ontario claimed to eventually reach all the way to the Rocky Mountains and Arctic Ocean
. With Canada's acquisition of
Rupert's Land, Ontario was interested in
clearly defining its borders, especially since some of the new
areas it was interested in were rapidly growing. After the federal
government asked Ontario to pay for construction in the new
disputed area, the province asked for an elaboration on its limits,
and its boundary was moved north to the
51st parallel north.
The northern and western boundaries of Ontario were in dispute
after
Confederation.
Ontario's right to
Northwestern Ontario was determined by the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council
in 1884 and confirmed by the Canada (Ontario
Boundary) Act, 1889 of the Parliament
of the United Kingdom
. By 1899, there were seven northern
districts: Algoma, Manitoulin, Muskoka, Nipissing, Parry Sound,
Rainy River, and Thunder Bay. Four more northern districts were
created between 1907 and 1912: Cochrane, Kenora, Sudbury and
Timiskaming.
European contact
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the region was inhabited both
by
Algonquian (
Ojibwa,
Cree and
Algonquin) in the western portions and
Iroquois and Wyandot (Huron) tribes more in the
east. During the 1600s, the Algonquians and Hurons fought a bitter
war against the Iroquois. The French explorer
Étienne Brûlé explored part of
the area in 1610-12.
The English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into Hudson Bay
in 1611 and claimed the area for England
, but Samuel de
Champlain reached Lake Huron in 1615, and French
missionaries began to establish posts along the Great Lakes.
French settlement was hampered by their hostilities with the
Iroquois, who allied themselves with the British. From 1634 to
1640, Hurons were devastated by European infectious diseases, such
as
measles and
smallpox, to which they had no immunity.
The British established
trading posts
on Hudson Bay in the late 17th century and began a struggle for
domination of Ontario. The
1763
Treaty of Paris ended the
Seven
Years' War by awarding nearly all of
France's North American
possessions (
New France) to Britain.
The region was annexed to Quebec in 1774.
From 1783 to 1796,
the Kingdom of
Great Britain
granted United
Empire Loyalists leaving the United States following the
American Revolution of land and
other items with which to rebuild their lives. This measure
substantially increased the population of Canada west of the St.
Lawrence-Ottawa River confluence during this period, a fact
recognized by the
Constitutional Act of 1791, which
split Quebec into
the Canadas:
Upper Canada southwest of the St.
Lawrence-Ottawa River confluence, and
Lower
Canada east of it.
John Graves
Simcoe was appointed Upper Canada's first
Lieutenant-Governor in
1793.
Upper Canada
American
troops in the War of 1812 invaded Upper
Canada across the Niagara
River
and the Detroit River
but were defeated and pushed back by British regulars, Canadian
fencibles and militias, and First Nations warriors. The Americans
gained control of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, however.
During the Battle of
York
they occupied the Town of York
(later named Toronto) in 1813. The Americans
looted the town and burned the Parliament Buildings but were soon
forced to leave.
After the War of 1812, relative stability allowed for increasing
numbers of immigrants to arrive from Europe rather than from the
United States. As was the case in the previous decades, this
deliberate immigration shift was encouraged by the colonial
leaders. Despite affordable and often free land, many arriving
newcomers, mostly from Britain and Ireland found frontier life with
the harsh climate difficult, and some of those with the means
eventually returned home or went south. However, population growth
far exceeded emigration in the decades that followed. It was a
mostly agrarian-based society, but canal projects and a new network
of plank roads spurred greater trade within the colony and with the
United States, thereby improving previously damaged relations over
time.
Meanwhile, Ontario's numerous waterways aided travel and
transportation into the interior and supplied
water power for development. As the population
increased, so did the industries and transportation networks, which
in turn led to further development. By the end of the century,
Ontario vied with Quebec as the nation's leader in terms of growth
in population, industry, arts and communications.
Many in the colony, however, began to chafe against the
aristocratic
Family Compact who
governed while benefiting economically from the region's resources,
and who did not allow elected bodies the power to effect change
(much as the
Château Clique
ruled Lower Canada). This resentment spurred republican ideals and
sowed the seeds for early
Canadian
nationalism. Accordingly, rebellion in favour of
responsible government rose in both
regions;
Louis-Joseph Papineau
led the
Lower Canada
Rebellion and
William Lyon
Mackenzie led the
Upper
Canada Rebellion.
Canada West
Although both rebellions were put down in short order, the British
government sent
Lord Durham to investigate
the causes of the unrest. He recommended that self-government be
granted and that Lower and Upper Canada be re-joined in an attempt
to assimilate the
French Canadians.
Accordingly, the two colonies were merged
into the Province of Canada by the Act of Union 1840, with the capital
at Kingston, and Upper Canada becoming known as Canada West. Parliamentary self-government was granted in 1848. There
were heavy waves of immigration in the 1840s, and the population of
Canada West more than doubled by 1851 over the previous decade. As
a result, for the first time the English-speaking population of
Canada West surpassed the French-speaking population of
Canada East, tilting the representative balance
of power.
An economic boom in the 1850s coincided with railway expansion
across the province, further increasing the economic strength of
Central Canada. With the repeal of the
Corn
Laws and a reciprocity agreement in place with United States,
various industries such as timber, mining, farming and alcohol
distilling benefited tremendously.
A political stalemate between the
French- and
English-speaking legislators, as well as
fear of aggression from the United States during and immediately
after the
American Civil War, led
the political elite to hold a series of conferences in the 1860s to
effect a broader federal union of all
British North American colonies. The
British North America Act took effect on July 1, 1867,
establishing the Dominion of Canada, initially with four provinces:
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. The Province of
Canada was divided into Ontario and Quebec so that each linguistic
group would have its own province. Both Quebec and Ontario were
required by section 93 of the BNA Act to safeguard existing
educational rights and privileges of Protestant and the Catholic
minority. Thus, separate Catholic schools and
school boards were permitted in Ontario.
However, neither province had a constitutional requirement to
protect its French- or English-speaking minority. Toronto was
formally established as Ontario's provincial capital.
In 1868 the coat of arms and motto of Ontario are created.
Curiously, the motto ("Ut incepit fidelis sic permanent") was added
to the Ontario´s coat of arms by Sir
Henry William Stisted, The First
Governor of Ontario; who was a great friend of the Spanish General
José of Bascarán and Federic, the 27th Lord of Olvera. In one of
his visits to him, Sir Stisted observed the mentioned motto in the
coat of arms that was hung on the wall of lounge of the house of
the General Bascarán, and Sir Henry requested authorization to his
friend in order to include it in the coat of arms of the Spanish
city because he thought that it was representing perfectly the
feelings of the Ontarians.
Province of Ontario
Once constituted as a province, Ontario proceeded to assert its
economic and legislative power. In 1872, the lawyer
Oliver Mowat became
Premier of Ontario and remained as
premier until 1896. He fought for provincial rights, weakening the
power of the
federal government
in provincial matters, usually through well-argued appeals to the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. His battles with the
federal government greatly
decentralized Canada, giving the provinces
far more power than
John A.
Macdonald had intended. He
consolidated and expanded Ontario's educational and provincial
institutions, created districts in Northern Ontario, and fought to
ensure that those parts of Northwestern Ontario not historically
part of Upper Canada (the vast areas north and west of the Lake
Superior-Hudson Bay watershed, known as the
District of Keewatin) would become part
of Ontario, a victory embodied in the
Canada (Ontario Boundary)
Act, 1889. He also presided over the emergence of the province
into the economic powerhouse of Canada. Mowat was the creator of
what is often called
Empire Ontario.
Beginning with Sir John A.
Macdonald's National Policy (1879) and the construction
of the Canadian Pacific
Railway (1875-1885) through Northern Ontario and the Canadian Prairies to British
Columbia
, Ontario manufacturing and industry
flourished. However, population increase slowed after a
large recession hit the province in 1893, thus slowing growth
drastically but only for a few short years. Many newly arrived
immigrants and others moved west along the railroad to the Prairie
Provinces and British Columbia, sparsely settling Northern
Ontario.
Mineral exploitation accelerated in the late 19th
century, leading to the rise of important mining centres in the
northeast like Sudbury
, Cobalt
and
Timmins
. The province harnessed its water power to
generate hydro-electric power and created the state-controlled
Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, later
Ontario Hydro. The availability of cheap
electric power further facilitated the development of industry. The
Ford Motor Company of
Canada was established in 1904.
General Motors Canada was formed in
1918. The motor vehicle industry would go on to become the most
lucrative industry for the Ontario economy during the 20th
century.
In July 1912, the
Conservative
government of Sir
James Whitney issued
Regulation 17 which severely limited
the availability of French-language schooling to the province's
French-speaking minority. French Canadians reacted with outrage,
journalist
Henri Bourassa denouncing
the "Prussians of Ontario". It was eventually repealed in
1927.
Influenced by events in the United States, the government of Sir
William Hearst introduced
prohibition of alcoholic
drinks in 1916 with the passing of the
Ontario Temperance Act. However,
residents could distil and retain their own personal supply, and
liquor producers could continue distillation and export for sale,
which allowed this already sizable industry to strengthen further.
Ontario became a hotbed for the illegal smuggling of liquor and the
biggest supplier into the United States, which was under complete
prohibition. Prohibition in Ontario came to an end in 1927 with the
establishment of the
Liquor Control Board of
Ontario under the government of
Howard Ferguson. The sale and consumption of
liquor, wine, and beer are still controlled by some of the most
extreme laws in North America to ensure that strict community
standards and revenue generation from the alcohol retail monopoly
are upheld. In April 2007, Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament
Kim Craitor suggested that local brewers
should be able to sell their beer in local corner stores; however,
the motion was quickly rejected by Premier
Dalton McGuinty.
The post-
World War II period was one of
exceptional prosperity and growth. Ontario, and the Greater Toronto
Area in particular, have been the recipients of most immigration to
Canada, largely immigrants from war-torn Europe in the 1950s and
1960s and after changes in federal
immigration law, a massive influx of
non-Europeans since the 1970s. From a largely
ethnically British province, Ontario has
rapidly become very culturally diverse.
The
nationalist movement in Quebec, particularly after the election of
the Parti
Québécois in 1976, contributed to driving many businesses
and English-speaking people out of Quebec to Ontario, and as a
result Toronto surpassed Montreal
as the largest city and economic centre of
Canada. Depressed economic conditions in the
Maritime
Provinces
have also
resulted in de-population of those provinces in the 20th century,
with heavy migration into Ontario.
Ontario has no official language, but
English is considered the
de facto
language. Numerous
French language
services are available under the
French Language Services Act of
1990 in designated areas where sizable
francophone populations exist.
Demographics
Population since 1851
| Year |
Population |
Five-year
% change |
Ten-year
% change |
Rank among
provinces |
| 1851 |
952,004 |
n/a |
208.8 |
1 |
| 1861 |
1,396,091 |
n/a |
46.6 |
1 |
| 1871 |
1,620,851 |
n/a |
16.1 |
1 |
| 1881 |
1,926,922 |
n/a |
18.9 |
1 |
| 1891 |
2,114,321 |
n/a |
9.7 |
1 |
| 1901 |
2,182,947 |
n/a |
3.2 |
1 |
| 1911 |
2,527,292 |
n/a |
15.8 |
1 |
| 1921 |
2,933,662 |
n/a |
16.1 |
1 |
| 1931 |
3,431,683 |
n/a |
17.0 |
1 |
| 1941 |
3,787,655 |
n/a |
10.3 |
1 |
| 1951 |
4,597,542 |
n/a |
21.4 |
1 |
| 1956 |
5,404,933 |
17.6 |
n/a |
1 |
| 1961 |
6,236,092 |
15.4 |
35.6 |
1 |
| 1966 |
6,960,870 |
11.6 |
28.8 |
1 |
| 1971 |
7,703,105 |
10.7 |
23.5 |
1 |
| 1976 |
8,264,465 |
7.3 |
18.7 |
1 |
| 1981 |
8,625,107 |
4.4 |
12.0 |
1 |
| 1986 |
9,101,695 |
5.5 |
10.1 |
1 |
| 1991 |
10,084,885 |
10.8 |
16.9 |
1 |
| 1996 |
10,753,573 |
6.6 |
18.1 |
1 |
| 2001 |
11,410,046 |
6.1 |
13.1 |
1 |
| 2006* |
12,160,282 |
6.6 |
11.6 |
1 |
*2006 Census
Ethnic groups
| Ethnic |
Responses |
% |
| Total population |
12,028,895 |
100 |
| English |
2,971,360 |
24.7 |
| Canadian |
2,768,870 |
23.0 |
| Scottish |
2,101,100 |
17.5 |
| Irish |
1,988,940 |
16.5 |
| French |
1,351,600 |
11.2 |
| German |
1,144,560 |
9.5 |
| Italian |
867,980 |
7.2 |
| Chinese |
644,465 |
5.4 |
| East Indian |
573,250 |
4.8 |
| Dutch |
490,995 |
4.1 |
| Polish |
465,560 |
3.9 |
| Ukrainian |
336,355 |
2.8 |
| North American Indian |
317,890 |
2.6 |
| Portuguese |
282,870 |
2.4 |
| Filipino |
215,750 |
1.8 |
British, not included
elsewhere |
205,755 |
1.7 |
| Jamaican |
197,540 |
1.6 |
| Welsh |
182,825 |
1.5 |
| Jewish |
177,255 |
1.5 |
| Russian |
167,365 |
1.4 |
| Hungarian |
151,750 |
1.3 |
| Spanish |
149,160 |
1.2 |
| Greek |
132,440 |
1.1 |
| American |
113,050 |
0.9 |
| Pakistani |
91,160 |
0.8 |
| Métis |
87,090 |
0.7 |
| Sri Lankan |
85,935 |
0.7 |
| Vietnamese |
83,330 |
0.7 |
| Romanian |
80,710 |
0.7 |
| African, not included
elsewhere |
75,500 |
0.6 |
| Finnish |
72,990 |
0.6 |
| Korean |
72,065 |
0.6 |
| Croatian |
71,380 |
0.6 |
The percentages add to more than 100% because of dual responses
(e.g. "French-Canadian" generates an entry in both the category
"French" and the category "Canadian"). Groups with greater than
200,000 responses are included.
The majority of Ontarians are of
British or other
European descent. Slightly less than five
percent of the population of Ontario is
Franco-Ontarian, that is those whose native
tongue is French, although those with French ancestry account for
11% of the population.
In relation to natural increase or inter-provincial migration,
immigration is a huge
population growth force in Ontario, as it has been over the last
two centuries.
More recent sources of immigrants with already large or growing
communities in Ontario include Caribbeans
(Jamaicans
, Trinidadian
, Bajan
), South Asians (e.g. Pakistanis
, Indians
, Bangladeshis
and Sri
Lankans
), East Asians (mostly
Chinese and Filipinos
), Latin Americans
(such as Guyanese
, Colombians
, Mexicans
, Hondurans
, Argentinans
, and Ecuadorians
), Eastern Europeans
such as Russians
and Bosnians
, and groups from Somalia
, Iran
, and
West Africa. Most populations
have settled in the Greater Toronto area.
A smaller number have
settled in other cities such as London, Kitchener
, Hamilton, Windsor, Barrie
, and
Ottawa.
Religion
The largest denominations by number of adherents according to the
2001 census were the
Roman
Catholic Church with 3,866,350 (34 %); the
United Church of Canada with
1,334,570 (12 %); and the
Anglican Church of Canada with
985,110 (9 %).
The major religious groups in Ontario, as of 2001, are:
Religion in Ontario in 2001.
| Religion |
People |
% |
| Total |
11,285,545 |
100 |
| Protestant |
3,935,745 |
34.9 |
| Catholic |
3,911,760 |
34.7 |
| No Religion |
1,841,290 |
16.3 |
| Muslim |
352,530 |
3.1 |
| Other Christians |
301,935 |
2.7 |
| Christian Orthodox |
264,055 |
2.3 |
| Hindu |
217,555 |
1.9 |
| Jewish |
190,795 |
1.7 |
| Buddhist |
128,320 |
1.1 |
| Sikh |
104,785 |
0.9 |
| Eastern Religions |
17,780 |
0.2 |
| Other Religions |
18,985 |
0.2 |
Visible minorities and aboriginal peoples
Ontario
is the second most diverse province in terms of visible minorities after British
Columbia, with 22.8 per cent of the population consisting of
visible minorities.
The
Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa, Windsor, Hamilton
and Waterloo Region
are quite diverse cities.
Aboriginal peoples make up two per cent of the population, with
two-thirds of that consisting of
North American Indians and the other
third consisting of
Métis. The number of
Aboriginal people has been increasing at rates greater than the
general population of Ontario.
Economy
Ontario's rivers, including its share of the Niagara River, make it
rich in hydroelectric energy. Since the privatization of Ontario
Hydro which began in 1999,
Ontario Power Generation runs 85%
of electricity generated in the province, of which 41% is
nuclear, 30% is
hydroelectric and 29% is
fossil fuel derived. Much of the newer power
generation coming online in the last few years is natural gas or
combined cycle natural gas plants. OPG is not however responsible
for the transmission of power, which is under the control of
Hydro One. Despite its diverse range of
power options, problems related to increasing consumption, lack of
energy efficiency and aging nuclear reactors, Ontario has been
forced in recent years to purchase power from its neighbours Quebec
and Michigan to supplement its power needs during peak consumption
periods.
An abundance of
natural resources,
excellent transportation links to the American heartland and the
inland Great Lakes making ocean access possible via
container ships, have all contributed to
making
manufacturing the principal
industry, found mainly in the Golden
Horseshoe region, which is the largest industrialized area in
Canada, the southern end of the region being part of the North
American
Rust Belt. Important products
include
motor vehicles,
iron,
steel, food, electrical
appliances, machinery,
chemical,
and
paper. Ontario surpassed Michigan in
car production, assembling 2.696 million
vehicles in 2004.
However,
as a result of steeply declining sales, on November 21, 2005,
General Motors announced massive
layoffs at production facilities across North America including two
large GM plants in Oshawa
and a
drive train facility in St.
Catharines
resulting
in 8,000 job losses in Ontario alone. In 2006, Ford Motor Company announced between
25,000 and 30,000 layoffs phased until 2012; Ontario was spared the
worst, but job losses were announced for the St.
Thomas
facility and the Windsor Casting
plant. However, these losses will be offset by
Ford's recent announcement of a hybrid
vehicle facility slated to begin production in 2007 at its
Oakville
plant and GM's re-introduction of the Camaro which will be produced in
Oshawa. On December 4, 2008 Toyota announced the grand opening of the RAV4 plant in Woodstock
, and Honda also has plans to
add an engine plant at its facility in Alliston
.
Toronto, the capital of Ontario, is the centre of Canada's
financial services and banking industry.
Neighbouring cities in the Greater Toronto
Area like Brampton
, Mississauga
and Vaughan
are large product distribution and IT centres, in
addition to having various manufacturing industries.
The
information technology sector
is also important, particularly in the Silicon Valley North section
of Ottawa , as well as
the Waterloo
Region. Government is the single largest employer in
the National Capital Region
employing hundreds of thousands.
Hamilton
is the largest steel manufacturing city in Canada, and Sarnia
is the
centre for petrochemical
production. Construction employs
at least 7% of the work force, this sector has slowed down somewhat
after a ten year plus boom.
Mining and the
forest
products industry, notably
pulp and paper, are vital
to the economy of Northern Ontario. More than any other region,
tourism contributes heavily to the economy of Central Ontario,
peaking during the summer months owing to the abundance of
fresh water recreation and wilderness found
there in reasonable proximity to the major urban centres. At other
times of the year,
hunting,
skiing and
snowmobiling are
popular. This region has some of the most vibrant fall colour
displays anywhere on the continent, and tours directed at overseas
visitors are organized to see them.
Tourism also plays a key role in border
cities with large casinos, among them Windsor, Cornwall, Sarnia and Niagara Falls
, which attract many U.S. visitors.
Agriculture
Once the dominant industry,
agriculture
occupies a small percentage of the population but still a large
part of Southern Ontario's land area. The number of farms has
decreased from 68,633 in 1991 to 59,728 in 2001, but farms have
increased in average size, and many are becoming more mechanized.
Cattle, small grains and
dairy were the common
types of farms in the 2001 census.
The fruit, grape and vegetable growing
industry is located primarily on the Niagara Peninsula
and along Lake Erie, where tobacco farms are also situated. The
Corn Belt continues into the southwestern area of
the province. Apple orchards are a common sight along the southern
shore of Georgian Bay near Collingwood and along the northern shore
of Lake Ontario around Cobourg.
Tobacco production, centred in Norfolk
County
has decreased leading to an increase in some
other new crop alternatives gaining popularity, such as hazelnuts and ginseng. The Ontario origins of
Massey Ferguson, once one of the largest
farm implement manufacturers
in the world, indicate the importance agriculture once had to the
Canadian economy.
Southern Ontario's limited supply
of agricultural land is going out of production at an increasing
rate.
Urban sprawl and farmland
severances contribute to the loss of thousands of acres of
productive agricultural land in Ontario each year. Over 2,000 farms
and of farmland in the GTA alone were lost to production in the two
decades between 1976 and 1996. This loss represented approximately
18% of Ontario's Class 1 farmland being converted to urban
purposes. In addition, increasing rural severances provide
ever-greater interference with agricultural production.
The
500,000, or so, acres (200,000 ha) comprising the black peat soil
Holland Marsh, located just south of
Lake
Simcoe
and near the town of Bradford West Gwillimbury
( north of Toronto) continues to be Canada's premier vegetable
production center.
Energy
The Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009 (GEA), takes a
two-pronged approach to creating a
renewable-energy economy. The first
is to bring more
renewable energy
sources to the province and the second is the creation of more
energy efficiency measures to
help
conserve energy. The bill
would also appoint a
Renewable Energy Facilitator to
provide "
one-window" assistance and
support to project developers in order to facilitate project
approvals. The approvals process for transmission projects would
also be
streamline and for the first
time in Ontario, the bill would enact standards for renewable
energy projects. homeowners would have access to incentives to
develop small-scale renewables such as low- or no-interest
loans to finance the capital cost of renewable energy
generating facilities like solar panels.
Transportation
Historically, the province has used two major east-west routes,
both starting from Montreal in the neighbouring province of Quebec.
The northerly route, which was pioneered by early French-speaking
fur traders, travels northwest from
Montreal along the
Ottawa River, then
continues westward towards Manitoba.
Major cities on or
near the route include Ottawa, North Bay, Sudbury, Sault
Ste.
Marie, and Thunder Bay. The much more heavily
travelled southerly route, which was driven by growth in
predominantly English-speaking settlements originated by the United
Empire Loyalists and later other
European immigrants, travels
southwest from Montreal along the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario,
and Lake Erie before entering the United States in Michigan. Major
cities on or near the route include Kingston, Oshawa, Toronto,
Mississauga,
Kitchener-Waterloo,
London, Sarnia, and Windsor. This route was also heavily used by
immigrants to the Midwestern US particularly in the late 19th
century. Most of Ontario's major transportation infrastructure is
oriented east-west and roughly follows one of these two original
routes.
Roads
400-Series Highways make up
the primary vehicular network in the south of province, and they
connect to numerous border crossings with the U.S., the busiest
being the Detroit–Windsor Tunnel
and Ambassador Bridge
(via Highway
401) and the Blue Water Bridge
(via Highway
402). The primary highway along the southern route is
Highway 401/Highway of Heroes, the busiest highway in North America
and the backbone of Ontario's road network, tourism, and economy,
while the primary highways across the north are
Highway 417/
Highway 17 and
Highway 11, both part of the
Trans-Canada Highway.
Highway 400/
Highway 69 connects Toronto to Northern
Ontario. Other
provincial highways
and regional roads inter-connect the remainder of the
province.
Waterways
The
Saint Lawrence Seaway,
which extends across most of the southern portion of the province
and connects to the Atlantic Ocean, is the primary
water transportation route for cargo,
particularly
iron ore and grain. In the
past, the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River were also a major
passenger transportation route, but over the past half century
passenger travel has been reduced to ferry services and sightseeing
cruises.
Railways
Via Rail operates the inter-regional passenger
train service on the Quebec City – Windsor
Corridor, along with "The
Canadian", a transcontinental rail service from Toronto to
Vancouver
, and "The Lake
Superior", a regional rail service from Sudbury to White River.
Additionally, Amtrak
rail connects Ontario with key New York cities including Buffalo
, Albany
, and New York City
. Ontario
Northland provides rail service to destinations as far north as
Moosonee
near James Bay
, connecting them with the south.
Freight rail is dominated by the
founding cross-country
Canadian National Railway and
CP Rail companies, which
during the 1990s sold many
short
rail lines from their vast network to private companies
operating mostly in the south.
Regional
commuter rail is limited to
the provincially owned
GO Transit, which
serves a train/bus network spanning the Golden Horseshoe region,
with its hub in Toronto.
The
Toronto Transit
Commission operates the province's only
subway and
streetcar
system, one of the busiest in North America. Outside of Toronto,
the
O-Train Light rail line operates in Ottawa with expansion
of the line and proposals for additional lines.
Air travel
Toronto
Pearson International Airport
is the nation's busiest and
the world's 29th busiest, handling over 30 million passengers per
year. Other important airports include Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International
Airport
and Hamilton's John C.
Munro Hamilton International
Airport, which is an important courier and freight aviation
centre. Toronto/Pearson and Ottawa/Macdonald-Cartier
form two of the three points in Canada's busiest set of air routes
(the third point is Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau
International Airport
).
Most Ontario cities have regional airports, many of which have
scheduled commuter flights from
Air
Canada Jazz or smaller airlines and charter companies —
flights from the larger cities such as Thunder Bay, Sault Ste.
Marie, Sudbury, North Bay, Timmins, Windsor, London, and Kingston
feed directly into Toronto Pearson.
Bearskin Airlines also runs flights along
the northerly east-west route, connecting Ottawa, North Bay,
Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, and Thunder Bay directly without
requiring connections at Toronto Pearson.
Isolated towns and settlements in the northern areas of the
province rely partly or entirely on
air
service for travel, goods, and even
ambulance services (
MEDIVAC), since much of the far northern
area of the province cannot be reached by road or rail.
Government
The wordmark of the Government of
Ontario, featuring a stylized version of the provincial flower, the
trillium.
This wordmark was introduced in late 2007.
The previous wordmark of the
Government of Ontario, which was in use from the late-1960s until
2007 (apart from the lettering used here).
The
British North America Act 1867 section 69 stipulated
"There shall be a Legislature for Ontario consisting of the
Lieutenant Governor and of One House, styled the
Legislative Assembly of
Ontario." The assembly has 107 seats representing
riding elected in a
first-past-the-post system across
the province.
The legislative buildings at Queen's
Park
in Toronto are the seat of government.
Following the
Westminster system,
the leader of the party holding the most seats in the assembly is
known as the "Premier and President of the Council" (Executive
Council Act R.S.O. 1990). The Premier chooses the
cabinet or
Executive Council whose members
are deemed "ministers of the Crown." Although the
Legislative
Assembly Act (R.S.O. 1990) refers to
members of
the assembly, the legislators are now commonly called MPPs
(
Members
of the Provincial Parliament) in English and
députés
de l'Assemblée législative in French, but they have also been
called MLAs (
Members of the Legislative
Assembly), and both are acceptable. The title of
Prime
Minister of Ontario, correct in French (
le Premier
ministre), is permissible in English but now generally avoided
in favour of the title "Premier" to avoid confusion with the Prime
Minister of Canada.
Politics
Ontario has traditionally operated under a three-party system. In
the last few decades the liberal
Ontario Liberal Party, conservative
Progressive
Conservative Party of Ontario, and social-democratic
Ontario New Democratic Party
have all ruled the province at different times.
Ontario is currently under a Liberal government headed by Premier
Dalton McGuinty. The present
government, first elected in 2003,
was re-elected on October 10,
2007.
Federally, Ontario is known as being the province that offers
strong support for the
Liberal
Party of Canada. Currently, half of the party's 76 seats in the
Canadian House of Commons
represent Ontario ridings, although, in the
2008 federal election, for
the first time since the
Mulroney
government, the
Conservatives won a plurality
of the seats and the vote. As the province has the most seats of
any province in Canada, earning support from Ontario voters is
considered a crucial matter for any party hoping to win a
Canadian federal
election.
Urban areas
Census Metropolitan Areas
Statistics Canada's measure of a "metro area", the
Census
Metropolitan Area (CMA), roughly bundles together population
figures from the core municipality with those from "commuter"
municipalities.
| CMA (largest other included municipalities in brackets) |
2006 |
2001 |
Toronto
CMA (Region of Peel , Region of York , Pickering ) |
5,113,149 |
4,682,897 |
Ottawa CMA (Gatineau , Clarence-Rockland , Russell )* |1,130,761* |1,067,800* |- |[[Hamilton,
Ontario|Hamilton]] CMA ([[Burlington, Ontario|Burlington]],
[[Grimsby, Ontario|Grimsby]]) |692,911 |662,401 |- |[[London,
Ontario|London]] CMA ([[St. Thomas, Ontario|St. Thomas]],
[[Strathroy-Caradoc, Ontario|Strathroy-Caradoc]]) |457,720 |435,600
|- |[[Kitchener, Ontario|Kitchener]] CMA ([[Cambridge,
Ontario|Cambridge]], [[Waterloo, Ontario|Waterloo]]) |451,235
|414,284 |- |[[St. Catharines]] CMA ([[Niagara Falls,
Ontario|Niagara Falls]], [[Welland, Ontario|Welland]]) |390,317
|377,009 |- |[[Oshawa]] CMA ([[Whitby, Ontario|Whitby]],
[[Clarington, Ontario|Clarington]]) |330,594 |296,298 |-
|[[Windsor, Ontario|Windsor]] CMA ([[Lakeshore,
Ontario|Lakeshore]], [[LaSalle, Ontario|LaSalle]]) |323,342
|307,877 |- |[[Barrie]] CMA ([[Innisfil, Ontario|Innisfil]],
[[Springwater, Ontario|Springwater]]) |177,061 |148,480 |-
|[[Greater Sudbury|Sudbury]] CMA ([[Whitefish Lake 6,
Ontario|Whitefish Lake]], [[Wahnapitae First Nation|Wanapitei
Reserve]]) |158,258 |155,601 |- |[[Kingston, Ontario|Kingston]] CMA
|152,358 |146,838 |} *Parts of Quebec (including Gatineau) are included in the Ottawa CMA. The entire
population of the Ottawa CMA, in both provinces, is shown.
Clarence-Rockland and Russell Township are not the second and third
largest municipalities in the entire CMA, they are the largest
municipalities in the Ontario section of the CMA.
Municipalities
- Ten largest municipalities by population
Songs and slogans
During the John Robarts government of
the 1960s, the slogan "Is There Any Other Place You'd Rather Be?"
was in use to promote tourism. During a blizzard early in 1971, highway travellers stranded
at a Highway 401 service centre, with Premier Robarts (in his last
months of office), asked him the slogan in an ironic twist.
In 1967, in conjunction with the celebration of Canada's centennial, the song "A Place to Stand" was
introduced at the inauguration of Ontario's pavilion at the
Expo 67 World's
Fair, and became the background for the province's advertising
for decades.
In 1973 the first slogan to appear on licence plates in
Ontario was "Keep It Beautiful". This was replaced by "Yours to
Discover" in 1982, apparently inspired by a tourism slogan,
"Discover Ontario," dating back to 1927. (From 1988 to 1990,
"Ontario Incredible" gave "Yours to Discover" a brief
respite.)
In 2007, a new song replaced "A Place to Stand" after four decades.
"There's No Place Like
This" (Un Endroit Sans Pareil) is featured in current television advertising, performed
by Ontario artists including Molly
Johnson, Brian Byrne, Tomi Swick (from Hamilton) and Keshia Chanté (from Ottawa).
Famous Ontarians
Please see List of people
from Ontario.
See also
Notes
References
- Michael Sletcher, 'Ottawa', in James Ciment, ed., Colonial
America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and
Economic History, (5 vols., M. E. Sharpe, New York,
2006).
- Virtual Vault, an online exhibition of Canadian
historical art at Library and Archives Canada
External links
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