The Ontario Portal
Ontario (/ɒnˈtɛərioʊ/ on-TAIR-ee-oh; French: [ɔ̃taʁjo]) is the southernmost province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it is home to 38.5 percent of the country's population, and is the second-largest province by total area (after Quebec). Ontario is Canada's fourth-largest jurisdiction in total area of all the Canadian provinces and territories. It is home to the nation's capital, Ottawa, and its most populous city, Toronto, which is Ontario's provincial capital.
Ontario is bordered by the province of Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay and James Bay to the north, and Quebec to the east and northeast. To the south, it is bordered by the U.S. states of (from west to east) Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Almost all of Ontario's 2,700 km (1,700 mi) border with the United States follows rivers and lakes: from the westerly Lake of the Woods, eastward along the major rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes/Saint Lawrence River drainage system. There is only about 1 km (5⁄8 mi) of actual land border, made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border.
The great majority of Ontario's population and arable land is in Southern Ontario, and while agriculture remains a significant industry, the region's economy depends highly on manufacturing. In contrast, Northern Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and heavy forestation, with mining and forestry making up the region's major industries. (Full article...)
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Hurricane Hazel was the deadliest, second-costliest, and most intense hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm killed at least 469 people in Haiti before it struck the United States near the border between North and South Carolina as a Category 4 hurricane. After causing 95 fatalities in the US, Hazel struck Canada as an extratropical storm, which raised the death toll by 81 people, mostly in Toronto. As a result of the high death toll and the damage caused by Hazel, its name was retired from use for North Atlantic hurricanes.
In Haiti, Hazel destroyed 40 percent of the coffee trees and 50 percent of the cacao crop, which affected the economy for several years. The hurricane made landfall near Calabash, North Carolina, and destroyed most waterfront dwellings. It then traveled north along the Atlantic coast. Hazel affected Virginia; Washington, D.C.; West Virginia; Maryland; Delaware; New Jersey; Pennsylvania; and New York. It brought gusts near 160 km/h (100 mph) and caused $281 million (1954 USD) in damage. When it was over Pennsylvania, Hazel consolidated with a cold front and turned northwest towards Canada. When it hit Ontario as an extratropical storm, rivers and streams in and around Toronto overflowed their banks, which caused severe flooding. As a result, many residential areas in the local floodplains, such as the Raymore Drive area, were subsequently converted to parkland. In Canada alone, over C$135 million (2023: C$1.5 billion) of damage was incurred.
The effects of Hazel were particularly unprecedented in Toronto because of a combination of heavy rainfall during the preceding weeks, a lack of experience in dealing with hurricanes, and the storm's unexpected retention of power despite traveling 1,100 km (680 mi) over land. The storm stalled over the Toronto area, and although it was now extratropical, it remained as powerful as a category 1 hurricane. To help with the cleanup, 800 members of the military were summoned, and a Hurricane Relief Fund was established that distributed $5.1 million (2023: $57.9 million) in aid.
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Forests, lakes, and rivers dominate much of the Northern Ontario landscape. (from Northern Ontario) -
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Underground Railroad monument, Windsor (from Southern Ontario) -
Köppen Climate Map of Ontario (from Eastern Ontario) -
North Bay is often considered to be the "Gateway" to Northern Ontario (from Northern Ontario) -
Science North in Sudbury. (from Northern Ontario) -
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Ottawa (from Eastern Ontario) -
Ottawa in 2005 (from Southern Ontario) -
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Typical Great Lakes beach (from Southern Ontario) -
Highway 401 at the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto (from Southern Ontario)
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Pamela Margaret McConnell (February 14, 1946 – July 7, 2017) was a Canadian politician who served on Toronto City Council. She was first elected to the Metro Toronto Council in 1994, representing a series of downtown Toronto wards until 2017. She served as a deputy mayor of Toronto, representing Toronto and East York from 2014 to 2017.
McConnell was a teacher before entering politics. She was elected as a public school trustee in 1982 and held that position until she was elected to Metro Council in 1994. After the amalgamation of Toronto, she was elected to the new city council, serving from 1998 until her death in 2017. (Full article...)
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Sunset on North Tea Lake in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario Canada -
A panoramic view of Hamilton, Ontario -
Downtown Ottawa is the central area of Ottawa -
The CN Tower, located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a communications and observation tower standing 553.3 metres (1,815 ft) tall. -
Waterloo, Ontario taken from the North East corner of the Uptown Parkade -
A view of Ruskview, Ontario in 2017, an unincorporated rural community in Mulmur Township, Dufferin County, Ontario -
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The Niagara Falls are voluminous waterfalls on the Niagara River, straddling the international border between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York.
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Did you know? -
- ... that nearly every person in Val Gagné, Ontario, died in the 1916 Matheson Fire, and the settlement was renamed to honour the heroic efforts of the parish priest?
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- Help expand stub articles: There are numerous stub articles relating to Ontario. You can help by expanding them. See Ontario stubs for a list. Also, for geographical (places) stubs, refer to:
- Eastern Ontario: Eastern Ontario geography stubs
- Toronto: Toronto geography stubs
- Ottawa: Ottawa stubs - All stubs relating to Ottawa in general
- Northern Ontario: Northern Ontario geography stubs
- Western Ontario: Western Ontario geography stubs
- Golden Horseshoe: Golden Horseshoe geography stubs
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