Ontario Totally Explained

Everything about Ontario totally explained

Ontario is a province located in the central part of Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ottawa, the capital of Canada, is located in Ontario as well. The 2006 Census counted 12,160,282 residents in Ontario, which accounted for 38.5% of the national population. or possibly skanadario which means "beautiful water" in Iroquoian. Along with New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec, Ontario is one of the four original provinces of Canada when the nation was formed on July 1, 1867 by the British North America Act.
Ontario is Canada's leading manufacturing province accounting for 52 per cent of the total national manufacturing shipments in 2004.

Geography

The province consists of four main geographical regions:

The thinly populated Canadian Shield in the northwestern and the central portions which covers over half the land area in the province, though mostly infertile land, it's rich in minerals and studded with lakes and rivers; sub-regions are Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Ontario.
The virtually unpopulated Hudson Bay Lowlands in the extreme north and northeast, mainly swampy and sparsely forested; and
The temperate, and therefore most populous region, fertile 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 (parts of which formerly referred to as Western 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, 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.
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; conversely Southern Ontario contains 94% of the population (see article Geography of Canada). Point Pelee National Park is a peninsula in southwestern Ontario (near Windsor, Ontario 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.

Demographics

Population of Ontario 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	13.1	1

*2006 Census.
Ethnic groups

Ethnic Responses %
Total population 11,285,545 100

Canadian 3,350,275 29.7

English 2,711,485 24

Scottish 1,843,110 16.3

Irish 1,761,280 15.6

French 1,235,765 10.9

German 965,510 8.6

Italian 781,345 6.9

Chinese 518,550 4.6

Dutch (Netherlands) 436,035 3.9

East Indian 413,415 3.7

Polish 386,050 3.4

Ukrainian 290,925 2.6

North American Indian 248,940 2.2

Portuguese 248,265 2.2

Jewish 196,260 1.7

Jamaican 180,810 1.6

Filipino 165,025 1.5

Spanish (Latin America) 147,140 1.3

Welsh 142,740 1.3

Hungarian (Magyar) 128,575 1.1

Greek 120,635 1.0

Russian 106,710 0.9

American (USA) 86,855 0.8

Serbian 78,230 0.7

British, not included
elsewhere 76,415 0.7

Vietnamese 67,450 0.6

Finnish 64,105 0.6

Croatian 62,325 0.6

Métis 60,535 0.5

Lebanese 59,155 0.5

The information regarding ethnicities above is from the 2001 Canadian Census. The percentages add to more than 100% because of dual responses (for example "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 (English, Scottish, Welsh) and Irish ancestry.
   The major religious groups in Ontario, as of 2001, are:
Ontario has three main climatic regions. Most of Southwestern Ontario, plus the lower parts of the Golden Horseshoe, has a moderate humid continental climate (Koppen climate classification Dfa), 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. In the summer, the air masses often come out of the southern United States, as the stronger the Bermuda High Pressure ridges into the North American continent, the more warm, humid air is drawn northward from the Gulf of Mexico. Throughout the year, but especially in the fall and winter, temperatures are moderated somewhat by the lower Great Lakes, making it considerably milder than the rest of the provinces and allowing for a longer growing season than areas at similar latitudes in the continent's interior. Both spring and fall are generally pleasantly mild, with cool nights. Annual precipitation ranges from 750 mm (30 inches) to 1000 mm (40 inches) and is well distributed throughout the year with a summer peak. Most of this region lies in the lee of the Great Lakes and receive less snow than any other part of Ontario.
   The more northern and windward parts of Southern Ontario, plus all of Central and Eastern Ontario and the southern parts of Northern Ontario, have a more severe humid continental climate (Koppen Dfb). This region has warm to hot summers (although somewhat shorter than in Southwestern Ontario) with cold and somewhat longer winters and a shorter growing season. The southern parts of this region lie at the windward side of the lakes, primarily Lake Huron. The Great Lakes also have a moderating effect for shoreline areas. However, the open lakes frequently result in lake effect snow squalls on the eastern and southern shores of the lakes, that affect much of the Georgian Bay shoreline including Killarney, Parry Sound, Muskoka and Simcoe County; the Lake Huron shore from east of Sarnia northward to the Bruce Peninsula, sometimes reaching London. Wind-whipped snow squalls or lake effect snow can affect areas as far as 100 kilometres (62 miles) or greater from the shore, but the heaviest snows usually occur within 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the shoreline. Some snowbelt areas receive an annual average of well over 300 cm (120 inches) of snow annually.
   The northernmost parts of Ontario - primarily north of 50°N - have a subarctic climate (Koppen Dfc) with long, very cold winters and short, warm summers and dramatic temperature changes from time to time. In the summer, hot weather occasionally reaches even the northernmost parts of Ontario, although humidity is generally lower than in the south. With no major mountain ranges blocking Arctic air masses, winters are generally very cold, especially in the far north and northwest where temperatures below -40 °C (-40 °F) are not uncommon. The snow stays on the ground much longer in the region as opposed to any other regions of Ontario; it isn't uncommon to see snow on the ground from October to May here.
   Severe thunderstorms peak in frequency in June and July in most of the province, although in Southern Ontario they can occur at any time from March to November due to the collision of colder, Arctic air and warm, often moist Gulf air. In summer they form from convective heating. These storms tend to be more isolated in nature than those associated with frontal activity. Derecho-type thunderstorms can also occur in summer, often nocturnally, bringing severe straight-line winds over wide areas. These storms usually develop along stationary frontal boundaries during hot weather periods and most areas of the province can be struck. Only the Hudson/James Bay Lowlands region rarely experience one. The regions most prone to severe weather are Southwestern and Central Ontario, due to the effect of the localized Lake Breeze Front. London has the most lightning strikes per year in Canada, and is also one of the most active areas in the country for storms. Tornadoes are common throughout the province, especially in the southwestern/south-central parts, although they're rarely destructive (the vast majority are classified as F0 or F1 on the Fujita Scale). In Northern Ontario, some tornadoes go undetected by ground spotters due to the sparse population; they're often discovered after the fact by aircraft pilots, who observe from the air the sections of destroyed forest left by them. ==
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