Ontario is the most populous
of Canada's provinces and second
only to Quebec in area. It is
located in east central Canada
and considered one of the provinces
of Central Canada. The capital
is Toronto, which is also the
largest city in Canada. Ottawa,
the capital of Canada, is also
located in Ontario.
The province takes its name from
Lake Ontario, which in turn is
derived from the Iroquois word
Skanadario, meaning "beautiful
lake" or "sparkling
water".
Ontario, along with New Brunswick,
Nova Scotia, and Quebec, is one
of the four original provinces
of Canada when the nation was
formed on July 1, 1867 by the
British North America Act.
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Ontario is bounded on the north
by Hudson Bay and James Bay, on
the east by Quebec, on the west
by Manitoba and on the south by
the U.S. states of Minnesota,
Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and
New York. Ontario's long American
border is formed almost entirely
by lakes and rivers, starting
in Lake of the Woods and continuing
to the Saint Lawrence River near
Cornwall.
The province consists of three
main geographical regions:
- the Canadian Shield in the
northwestern and central portions
covers over half the land area
in the province. Though mostly
infertile land, it is rich in
minerals and studded with lakes
and rivers.
- the Hudson Bay Lowlands in
the extreme north and northeast
- the Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence
Valley in the south where agriculture
and industry are concentrated.
Southern Ontario is further
sub divided into four regions;
Southwestern Ontario, Golden
Horseshoe, Central Ontario (although
not actually the province's
geographic centre) and Eastern
Ontario.
Despite the absence of any mountainous
terrain in the province, there
are large areas of uplands which
traverse the province from northwest
to southeast but also above the
Niagara Escarpment which crosses
the south.
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 85% of
the surface area of the province
while Southern Ontario contains
94% of the population.
Ontario has three main climatic
regions. Southwestern and south
central Ontario including the
southern half of the Golden Horseshoe,
has a moderate humid continental
climate similar to that of the
inland Mid-Atlantic States and
the lower Great Lakes portion
of the U.S. Midwest. The region
has hot, humid summers and cold
winters. It is considered a temperate
climate when compared with most
of Canada.
Most of Central and Eastern Ontario
and the southern part of Northern
Ontario have a more severe humid
continental climate. This region
has warm to hot summers with cold
and somewhat longer winters and
a shorter growing season.
The more northern parts of Ontario
have a subarctic climate with
long, very cold winters and short,
warm summers. In the summer, hot
weather occasionally reaches even
the northernmost parts of Ontario.
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