![]() |
|
![]() |
Administrative division of Canada
Also known as Province d’Ontario
Total area: 1,068,580 square kilometres (412,581 square miles)
Population:
10,084,885 (1991)
Maximum
elevation: 660 metres (2,165 feet)
Average
elevation: 305 metres (1,000 feet)
Ontario,
one of the central provinces of Canada, bordered on the north by Hudson
Bay and James Bay, on the east by Quebec, on the
south-east by the American state of New York, on the south by Lakes Ontario,
Erie, Huron, and Superior and the American state of Michigan, on the south-west
by the American state of Minnesota, and on the west by Manitoba.
The Ottawa River forms part of the eastern
boundary, the St Lawrence and Niagara rivers part of the south-eastern
boundary, the St Mary's, St Clair, and Detroit rivers part of the southern
boundary, and the Rainy River part of the south-western boundary.
Ontario
became part of the Canadian Confederation on July 1, 1867, as one of the
four original provinces. It had been known as the province of Upper Canada
(1791-1841) and from 1841 to 1867 was united with Quebec into one province.
The province's name is derived from an Iroquois term perhaps meaning "beautiful
lake", a reference to Lake Ontario, or "rocks standing by the water", a
reference to Niagara Falls.
Land and Resources
Ontario
is the second-largest province in Canada; only Quebec
is larger. Ontario covers 1,068,580 sq km (412,579 sq mi), of which 177,390
sq km (68,490 sq mi) are inland water surface. About 0.3 per cent of the
total area is owned by the federal government. The extreme dimensions of
Ontario are about 1,610 km (1,000 mi) from east to west and about 1,690
km (1,050 mi) from north to south. The highest elevation in the province
is 693 m (2,275 ft), at Ishpatina Ridge, near Haileybury; the lowest elevation,
sea level, occurs at James Bay and at Hudson Bay. Ontario has a shoreline
of some 7,600 km (4,725 mi) along four of the five Great Lakes and of some
1,210 km (752 mi) along Hudson and James bays.
Physical Geography
Ontario
can be divided into four geographic regions that are of unequal size-the
Canadian Shield, the Hudson Bay Lowland, the Great Lakes Lowland, and the
St Lawrence Lowland. The Canadian Shield region covers about two-thirds
of the province. It is underlain by ancient Precambrian igneous and metamorphic
rocks, which are the source of most of the mineral wealth of Ontario. These
rocks help form a landscape of flat plateaux and low, rounded hills, interrupted
by numerous steep-sided river valleys and lake basins. The average elevation
in the Canadian Shield region is about 305 m (1,000 ft), but peaks reach
above 660 m (2,165 ft) in the rugged area north and east of Sault Sainte
Marie. The region slopes gently to the north, where it is overlain by flat-lying
sedimentary rocks of the Hudson Bay Lowland.
A
south-eastern extension of the Canadian Shield separates the St Lawrence
and the Great Lakes lowlands, both of which are underlain by flat sedimentary
Palaeozoic limestones, shales, and sandstones. The St Lawrence Lowland
is less than 91 m (300 ft) high and is part of the sand and clay plains
that extend along the St Lawrence River into Quebec. In Ontario, the region
contains several areas of fertile soil. The most dramatic features of the
Great Lakes Lowland are the east-facing cliffs of the Niagara escarpment,
which extends from Niagara Falls through the Bruce Peninsula to Manitoulin
Island.
The
rivers and lakes of Ontario form two large drainage systems-one trending
north to Hudson and James bays and one south to the Great Lakes and the
St Lawrence River. In addition, a smaller region in the west drains into
Manitoba. Among the major rivers that drain the Canadian Shield and the
Hudson Bay Lowland towards the north are the Severn, Winisk, Attawapiskat,
Albany, and Abitibi. Major components of the Great Lakes-St Lawrence drainage
basin include the Ottawa, French, Grand, and Thames rivers. The Niagara
River, between Lakes Erie and Ontario, flows over the Niagara Falls.
Besides
parts of four of the Great Lakes, Ontario contains thousands of other lakes,
many of which are located in the west.
Climate
Ontario
covers a large area and has a wide range of climates, which can be grouped
into two main regions-an arctic and subarctic climate area in the north
and a humid continental zone in the south. The former region is affected
by very cold air from the Arctic and the Canadian prairies, and the climate
of the latter region is moderated by winds from the Great Lakes. Thus,
Trout Lake, in the north, has a mean January temperature of -24.1°
C (-11.4° F) and a mean July temperature of 15.9° C (60.6°
F), and Toronto, in the south-east, has a mean January temperature of -4.4°
C (24° F) and a mean July temperature of 21.8° C (71.2° F).
The south-eastern part of Ontario gets about 915 mm (36 in) of precipitation
per year, and the remainder of the province gets up to about 635 mm (25
in) annually.
Plants and Animals
The
vegetation of Ontario may be grouped into five main areas. Along the shore
of Hudson Bay is a narrow strip of arctic tundra, made up of low shrubs,
mosses, and lichens underlain by permafrost. A wide subarctic transitional
zone covers most of the Hudson Bay Lowland and the northern half of the
Canadian Shield region. Black spruce is the dominant tree species here.
Drainage is poor, and swamps and muskegs are widespread. A third area,
part of the boreal forest, covers the central section of the Shield and
is the main resource area for pulpwood. Black spruce abounds, and white
spruce, jack pine, and balsam fir occur on drier sites. The Great Lakes
and St Lawrence forests also are major sources of timber. This area extends
from the southern part of the Shield, where the boreal softwoods as well
as red spruce and hemlock occur, to south-eastern Ontario between Lakes
Huron and Ontario, where hardwoods such as maple, beech, oak, basswood,
and walnut dominate. Along the shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario is the
fifth area, made up mainly of southern broadleaf forest, which includes
such trees as beech, hickory, and oak. Altogether, forest covers nearly
70 per cent of the land area of Ontario.
The
animal life of Ontario is rich and varied. Polar bear, white whale, seal,
walrus, and caribou are common in the arctic area along Hudson Bay. The
swampy northern areas and the countless lakes of the Canadian Shield region
provide ideal habitats for many furbearing animals such as beaver, muskrat,
marten, mink, fox, wolverine, and raccoon. In the boreal and Great Lakes
forests are black bear, skunk, deer, moose, wolf, weasel, and smaller mammals
such as squirrel, rabbit, and woodchuck. Common game birds of Ontario include
duck, goose, and ruffed grouse; many other birds, such as heron, diver,
woodpecker, warbler, and finch, also live in the province.
Ontario's
lakes and streams abound in trout, pickerel, pike, perch, whitefish, muskellunge,
and bass.
Resources, Products, and Industries
While
the economy of Ontario was traditionally dominated by agriculture, forestry,
mining, and trapping, manufacturing has become a leading economic sector.
Commerce, banking, insurance, tourism, and government operations are other
major aspects of the Ontario economy. Ontario has great mineral resources,
with vast deposits of nickel, copper, and iron ore as well as substantial
resources of gold, silver, platinum metals, colbalt, lead, and zinc. Other
important mineral resources of Ontario include salt, gypsum, petroleum,
natural gas, napheline syenite, sulphur, and uranium.
Ontario
is the leading agricultural province of Canada. About 63 per cent of cash
receipts from farming is generated by livestock sales and livestock products;
the rest is derived from the sale of crops. A big portion of the crops
produced in Ontario is used as fodder for livestock. The major crops include
corn, potatoes, and other vegetables, soya beans, tobacco, wheat, barley,
and hay. Large quantities of apples, cherries, grapes, peaches, and other
fruit are grown in the Niagara Peninsula. Softwoods harvested in the northern
part of the province are used primarily for furniture making. Commercial
fishing is limited, with harvested species being yellow perch, lake whitefish,
smelt, pickerel, white bass, pike, lake trout, and herring.
Ontario
dominates manufacturing in Canada, accounting for more than half of all
the country's shipments of fabricated goods. The most important manufactured
items include transport equipment, especially motor vehicles, packed meat
and other processed food, beverages, primary metals and metal products,
rubber and leather goods, textiles, clothing, furniture, paper and paper
items, refined petroleum, and printed materials.
Population
According
to the 1991 census, Ontario had 10,084,885 inhabitants, an increase of
10.8 per cent over 1986. The overall population density in 1991 was 9.4
people per sq km (24.4 per sq mi). English was the sole first language
of about 75 per cent of the people; nearly 5 per cent had French as their
only mother tongue. Some 113,000 Native Americans live in Ontario.
Education and Cultural Institutions
The
first elementary (common) school in Ontario was founded in the late 1780s,
and in 1816 the government provided for elementary schools to be established
throughout the province. It was not until the 1870s, however, that all
elementary and secondary schools were made free. Tax- supported elementary
schools today include public (non-denominational) and separate (Roman Catholic)
schools. In the early 1990s Ontario's public and separate elementary and
secondary schools had a combined annual enrolment of nearly 2.1 million
students.
King's
College, the first institution of higher education in Ontario, was established
by a royal charter in 1827 and became the University of Toronto in 1850.
In the early 1990s Ontario had some 54 institutions of higher education
with a total yearly enrolment of about 339,400 students. Besides the University
of Toronto, notable schools included Queen's University (1841) and the
Royal Military College of Canada (1876) in Kingston, McMaster University
(1887) in Hamilton, the University of Ottawa (1848) and Carleton University
(1942) in Ottawa, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (1948) in Toronto, the
University of Windsor (1857) in Windsor, the University of Western Ontario
(1878) in London, and Wilfrid Laurier University (1911) and the University
of Waterloo (1957) in Waterloo.
Ontario
contains a number of excellent museums and other cultural facilities. Toronto
is the site of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum, and
the Ontario Science Centre. Located in Ottawa are the National Gallery
of Canada, the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, the National
Museum of Science and Technology, and the Canadian Museum of Nature. Also
in Toronto the O'Keefe Centre (home of the Canadian Opera Company and the
National Ballet of Canada) and Roy Thomson Hall, home of the Toronto Symphony
Orchestra. The National Arts Centre in Ottawa, another performing-arts
complex, contains an opera house and a theatre. A major annual cultural
event in Ontario is the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, featuring productions
of plays by Shakespeare.
Places of Interest
Ontario's
places of historical interest include Fort Malden National Historic Site
in Amherstburg, containing the remains of a British military post founded
in the 1790s; Fort George National Historic Site in Niagara-on-the-Lake,
encompassing a reconstruction of a British fort used in the War of 1812;
and Fort Wellington National Historic Site in Prescott, with a restored
British fort erected in 1838-1839. Also of note is Bellevue House in Kingston,
a residence of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister.
Sports and Recreation
Ontario's
parks, forests, extensive shoreline, and numerous lakes and rivers provide
excellent conditions for swimming, boating, fishing, hunting, camping,
hiking, skating, ice hockey, and skiing. Major-league ice hockey and baseball
teams play in Toronto, and Hamilton, Ottawa, and Toronto all have entries
in the Canadian Football League. The Hockey Hall of Fame is in Toronto,
and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame is in Hamilton.
Government and Politics
Ontario
has a parliamentary form of government. The chief executive of Ontario
is a lieutenant-governor, who is appointed by the Canadian governor-general
in council to a term of five years. The lieutenant-governor, holds a position
that is largely honorary. The premier (called the prime minister until
1972), who is usually the leader of the majority party in the Ontario legislature,
is the actual head of the provincial government and presides over the executive
council or cabinet. In addition to the premier, the executive council includes
the treasurer, attorney-general, minister of industry, trade, and technology,
minister of education, minister of health, and about 20 other officials.
The unicameral Ontario Legislative Assembly contains 130 seats, including
those of the premier and the members of the executive council. Members
of the legislature are popularly elected to a term of up to five years.
Ontario is represented in the Canadian Parliament by 24 senators, appointed
by the Canadian governor-general in council, and by 99 members of the House
of Commons, popularly elected to terms of up to five years.
History
The
first explorer to visit parts of what is now Ontario was the Frenchman
Étienne Brûlé, who ascended the Ottawa River in 1610-1611
and again in 1615 with the French explorer Samuel de Champlain; in the
latter year they penetrated to Georgian Bay. A Jesuit mission was established
among the Huron people soon afterwards; it was destroyed when the Huron
were attacked by the Iroquois in 1649. The French constructed a number
of forts and trading posts but made no attempts to colonize the region.
The earliest English settlement in present-day Ontario was Moose Factory,
a Hudson Bay post established in 1671. Rivalry, often bloody, developed
between the British and French over the lucrative fur trade. Under the
terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1763 at the conclusion of the French and
Indian War between France and Great Britain, the region was established
as British territory. In 1774 the area that is now Ontario was attached
to the British colony of Quebec.
After
the American War of Independence thousands of Loyalists left the new republic
to settle in the southern part of the Ontario region. Great Britain created
the separate province of Upper Canada with the Constitutional Act (1791),
which also established a limited form of representative government. Authority
was concentrated in the hands of a small colonial elite, who gave the region
a distinctly conservative cast. The arrival of a host of immigrants from
England, Scotland, and Ireland during the next three decades perpetuated
Ontario's British character into the mid-19th century.
In
the 1820s the authoritarian structure of colonial life was attacked by
the Reformers, and in 1837 the Upper Canadians, led by William Lyon Mackenzie,
rose in rebellion. This rebellion was defeated, and in 1841 the British
government united Upper Canada and Lower Canada (Quebec) into a single
province in a vain effort to Anglicize the French Catholic population.
A new generation of English and French Reformers then became the dominant
force in politics; they introduced a modern form of party government, built
a tax-supported public school system, and established an alliance between
government and business to construct railways. The equal representation
of the two regions in one parliament, however, brought political deadlock
that was broken in 1867 by confederation, in which Upper and Lower Canada
became the separate provinces of Ontario and Quebec respectively.
With
44 per cent of the Canadian population in 1871, Ontario was the dominant
member in the new Dominion. The manufacturing sector grew enormously in
the 1880s and again in the 1900s, as hydroelectric developments at Niagara
Falls ensured plentiful power. The opening of new mines in northern Ontario
after 1900 created additional sources of wealth. These foundations ensured
Ontario's economic dominance throughout the 20th century. Toronto slowly
surpassed Montreal in the realms of finance, commerce, and industry, becoming
Canada's leading city during the 1970s.
Ontario
has always attracted large numbers of immigrants. During the 19th century
the population was made up largely of people of British descent. After
1900 there arrived a new wave of southern and eastern Europeans. A second
wave of European immigrants arrived after 1945. More recently, Ontario
has attracted many people from Commonwealth lands in Africa, the Caribbean,
and Asia. By 1986 over a third of Greater Toronto's 3.4 million people
were immigrants, giving the city a cosmopolitan character.
In
local politics the long-term rule of parties geared to economic growth
has predominated. From Confederation to 1905 Ontario was governed almost
entirely by the Liberal party (successors to the Reformers). Its Progressive
Conservative replacement was even more committed to state-assisted development.
Between 1919 and 1923 a farmer-labour coalition held power, eventually
losing office to the Progressive Conservatives. The crisis of the Great
Depression brought to power in 1934 a Liberal party that proved to be sympathetic
to business interests. In 1943 the Conservatives were returned to office
and, under a succession of leaders, they governed for more than 40 years.
Their rule ended in 1985 with the election of the Liberal David Peterson,
who headed a reform administration allied with the New Democratic party
(NDP) until 1987. Disenchantment with incumbent politicians overwhelmed
Peterson in the 1990 election and brought to power Robert Keith Rae, Ontario's
first NDP premier.