Ontario
The Land
The name "Ontario" comes from the Iroquois word "Kanadario" meaning "sparkling water." The name is
fitting: not only is Ontario bordered on the south by the Great Lakes and on the north by Hudson Bay, but
177 390 km2, or one sixth of its terrain, is covered by rivers and lakes.
Three main geological regions make up Ontario: the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands, the Canadian
Shield and the Hudson Bay Lowlands. The latter are narrow coastal plains bordering Hudson Bay and
James Bay; the land is wet and covered by scrub growth. The Canadian Shield, covering the rest of northern
Ontario from Lake Superior to Hudson Bay and extending into the southern part of the province, is a vast
rocky plateau. Although the soil is poor and not well suited to large-scale farming, there is a wealth of
minerals, forests and water power.
The Canadian Shield and the Hudson Bay Lowlands cover 90 percent of the province's 1 068 580 km2 of
territory, but are home to only 10 percent of the population. Although the fur trade was the original catalyst
for development in Northern Ontario, many towns in the northern part of the province were built because of
the railway, and today rails and roads carry the products of the mines and lumber mills southward. Farther
north, travel is often limited to air and water. The extremes of the northern climate are a fact of life there. At
Winisk, mean daily temperatures reach only 12 to 15°C in July, dropping to minus 25°C in January.
The five Great Lakes are the most visible results of the ice age in Ontario, and the biggest, Lake Superior,
is the world's largest body of fresh water.
The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands make up the rest of southern Ontario and contain most of the
population, industry, commerce and agricultural lands. The Lowlands include the Windsor-Thousand
Islands-St. Lawrence Valley triangle. Mean annual summer temperatures reach 22°C in the south, where
the temperate climate and fertile soils nurture a major agricultural industry. This relatively small area has
more than half of Canada's best agricultural land.
Toronto, Ontario's capital and Canada's largest city, with a regional population of more than 4.5 million, is
Canada's leading producer of manufactured goods and headquarters of the majority of Canadian companies.
Ottawa, the bilingual, bicultural national capital, sits at the junction of the Gatineau, Rideau and Ottawa
rivers.
The History
Ontario's first peoples arrived about 10 000 years ago, during the last ice age. The European explorers
encountered the Iroquois and Algonquin descendants of those first migrants in the 17th century. Sailing into
the large bay that bears his name, Henry Hudson became the first European to touch the shores of present-day Ontario in 1610; in 1613, Samuel de Champlain and ÉÉtienne Brûûléé made the first contacts with the
Aboriginal people in the southern part of the province.
In 1774, the British ruled over southern Ontario, then part of the British colony of Quebec. Under the
Constitutional Act of 1791, Quebec was divided in two and Ontario renamed Upper Canada. This became
necessary with the tremendous influx of Loyalist refugees after the American Revolution.
In 1840, the Act of Union saw Upper and Lower Canada reunited, this time with the name Canada. The two
regions, Canada West and Canada East, took part in the Confederation debate of the 1860's and, when the
Dominion of Canada was created in 1867, became the separate provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
The People
From 1779 on, waves of English, Scottish and Irish immigrants followed one another, moving up the St.
Lawrence and populating present-day Ontario. Today, immigration continues to be important to Ontario, and
there are large numbers of people of Italian, German, Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese, Indian, Polish and
Caribbean origin. Approximately 60 percent of all immigrants to Canada settle in Ontario and more than 100
languages and dialects are spoken in the province. In Toronto, cited by the UN as one of the world's most
multi-cultural cities, one-half of its residents are foreign-born. In 1996, Ontario had over 141 000 people of
Aboriginal, Méétis or Inuit origin.
With over 11 million people, Ontario is the country's most heavily populated province. While English is the
official language, Ontario's Francophones play an essential part in the province's cultural life. The provincial
government provides services in French in those regions where the Francophone population is sufficiently
high.
The Economy
Ontario is Canada's most productive province, generating some 40 percent of the country's gross domestic
product (GDP). Its manufacturing industries lead the way. Ontario's competitive advantages include its
natural resources, modern transportation system, large, well-educated labour force, reliable and relatively
inexpensive electrical power, and proximity to key U.S. markets: less than a day's drive puts Ontario's
products within reach of 120 million American consumers.
Automobiles are Ontario's major manufacturing industry and most important export, employing more than
140 000 people. Motor vehicles, parts and accessories accounted for 37 percent of Canada's total exports
in 1998.
Mining has always played an important role in the development of Ontario's economy. Extraction of gold,
nickel, copper, uranium and zinc represents a multi-billion-dollar business. Also, many Ontario towns have
at least one industry connected to forestry. Ninety-one percent of the forest land is owned by the provincial
government, which licenses logging rights. The forest industry accounts for 5.8 percent of Ontario's exports.
Financial industries are also a source of prosperity. Toronto is the world's fourth-largest capital market and
its stock exchange is ranked among the world's top exchanges.
Tourism, the province's third-largest industry, is also important to the Ontario economy. In 1997, tourist
expenditures of $14.1 billion generated about $2.1 billion in total revenue for the province and more than 400
000 direct and indirect jobs.
Ontario official government web sites
Ontario government site
http://www.gov.on.ca/MBS/english/index.html
Ontario: official tourism site
http://www.ontariotravel.net/TcisCtrl?site=consumers&key1=home&language=EN
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