Ontario, Canada

Ontario is a province and a territory of Canada. 38.3% of the Canadian population lives in this province, and it is second in size only to New Brunswick in terms of total area (after Quebec). As a whole, Ontario is the fourth-largest province of Canada in terms of land area when the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are included. The capital of Canada, Ottawa, and the largest city in Ontario, Toronto, makes up the province of Ontario.

There are six states in the United States that border Ontario: Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York (to the west), and Hudson Bay and James Bay (to the north and east). Inland waterways crisscross the 2,700-kilometer (1,678-mile) border between Ontario and the United States, stretching from Lake of the Woods in western Ontario to the Great Lakes/Saint Lawrence River drainage basin in eastern Ontario. Only about 0.6 miles of actual land border can be found on the Minnesota border, which is comprised of portages, including the Height of Land Portage. 

The vast majority of the province's residents and arable land can be found in southern Ontario. There are few people here, and the area is covered in thick forests.

Geographical Description of Ontario

Canadian Shield in the northwest and central parts of Ontario, which accounts for more than half of the province's land surface. Despite the fact that this area is largely unsuitable for farming, it is rich in minerals, partially covered by Central and Midwestern Canadian Shield forests, and dotted with lakes and rivers. Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Ontario are the two regions of Northern Ontario.

The Hudson Bay Lowlands, which are largely marshy and sparsely wooded in the extreme north and northeast.

Central Ontario (which is not the province's geographic center), Eastern Ontario, the Golden Horseshoe, and Southwestern Ontario make up the four subregions of Southern Ontario (parts of which were formerly referred to as Western Ontario).

As a result, the province has extensive uplands, particularly in the Canadian Shield that runs through it from northwest to southeast and above Niagara Escarpment, which runs through the southern part of the province's southwestern border. It is 693 meters (2,274 feet) up on Ishpatina Ridge in Temagami, Ontario's northeastern region. Near Collingwood, the Dundalk Highlands, and the Madawaska River in Renfrew County, 500-meter (1,640-foot) peaks rise above the Blue Mountains in the south.

In the southwest corner of the province, the Carolinian forest zone covers the largest part of the territory. The agricultural, industrial, and urbanized Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests ecoregion includes the temperate and fertile Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Valley in the south. The Niagara Escarpment, which includes Niagara Falls, is a well-known landmark. The Saint Lawrence Seaway connects the Atlantic Ocean with Northwestern Ontario's Thunder Bay thanks to its location in the province's northwest. Nearly 87 percent of Ontario's land area is found in Northern Ontario, while 94 percent of the population lives there.

The southernmost point of the Canadian continent is Point Pelee, a peninsula on Lake Erie in southwest Ontario (near Windsor and Detroit, Michigan). Pelee Island and Middle Island in Lake Erie are a little bigger. All of them are south of 42°N, which is a few degrees south of the northern border of California's state border with Mexico.

Economy of Ontario

In 2004, Ontario accounted for 52% of all manufacturing shipments in Canada, making it the country's most populous province. Ontario's largest trading partner is the state of Michigan in the United States. As of April 2012, Moody's bond-rating agency rated Ontario debt at AA2/stable, while S&P rated it AA-. Dominion Bond Rating Service rated it AA(low) in January 2013. Ontario is expected to have a public debt-to-GDP ratio of 38.4 percent in fiscal year 2023–2024, despite its reputation as a bastion of Canadian manufacturing and financial solvency.

Mines, forestry, and pulp and paper production are major contributors to Northern Ontario's economy. One-third of all cleared land in the United States is treated with herbicides for hardwood suppression each year. Whether the province can afford to spend CAD$2.25 billion on a road from the Trans-Canada Highway near Kenora to the deposit, which is currently valued at CAD$60 billion, is up for debate in relation to the Ring of Fire mineral deposit.

In the Golden Horseshoe region, which is the most industrialized area in Canada, there is an abundance of natural resources and excellent transportation links to North America's heartland. The inland Great Lakes, which make ocean access possible via container ships, have all contributed to the province's manufacturing industry being concentrated in this area. We can't imagine our lives without the likes of automobiles and other metals and materials.

Hamilton is Canada's largest steel producer, while Sarnia is the country's largest petrochemical producer. Construction employed over 6.5% of the province's workforce as of June 2011. The steel industry in Ontario used to be centered in Hamilton. In the fall of 2013, U.S. Steel-owned Stelco announced that it would shut down in 2014, resulting in the loss of 875 jobs in the city of Hamilton. While Canada imported 8 million tons of steel in 2013, a union representative was baffled by the decision to close a plant with a capacity of 2 million tons per year. Sault Ste. Marie is home to an Algoma Steel plant.

In terms of vehicle production, Ontario surpassed Michigan in 2004 with a tally of 2,696,000 vehicles. In Ontario, there are two Chrysler assembly plants in Windsor and Bramalea, two GM assembly plants in Oshawa and one in Ingersoll, a Honda assembly plant in Alliston, Ford assembly plants in Oakville and St. Thomas, and Toyota assembly plants in Cambridge and Woodstock. When General Motors announced mass layoffs in 2005, 8,000 jobs were lost in Ontario alone as a result of the closure of two large GM plants in Oshawa and a drive train facility in St. Catharines. Although Ontario was spared the worst of the layoffs, St. Thomas and Windsor Casting plants were impacted. Ford Motor Company announced between 25,000 and 30,000 layoffs between 2006 and 2012. However, Ford's recent announcement that its Oakville plant will begin producing hybrid vehicles in 2007 and GM's reintroduction of the Camaro, which will be manufactured in Oshawa, will help offset these losses. On December 4, 2008, Toyota announced the grand opening of its RAV4 plant in Woodstock, and Honda announced plans to expand its Alliston plant with an engine plant. Ontario's unemployment rate in May 2013 was 7.3%, compared to 8.7% in January 2010 and roughly 6% in 2007. This is still well below the pre-recession levels of 7.3% and 6.8%, respectively. The Ontario and federal governments pumped $70.9 million and $71.1 million into the Ford plant in Oakville in September 2013, respectively, to secure 2,800 jobs. While energy and mining industries have benefited, "the pressure on the manufacturing sector has intensified, as many firms in this sector were already facing increasing competition from low-cost economies like China," the Bank of Canada noted in a report released in 2013.

The financial services and banking industries in Canada are centered in Toronto, Ontario's capital city. Other cities in the area are home to product distribution, information technology, and manufacturing businesses. The National Capital Region, which includes Ottawa and Gatineau on the Ontario-Quebec border, is dominated by the federal government of Canada.

In Ottawa's Silicon Valley North neighborhood, which houses Canada's largest technology park, the information technology industry is significant. The Waterloo Region, where BlackBerry's headquarters are located, also has a strong IT presence.

During the summer months, Central Ontario's tourism industry is at its peak due to the abundance of fresh water recreation and wilderness close to the major urban centers. hunting, skiing and snowmobiling are popular activities during the winter months. Tours for international visitors are organized to see the region's most vibrant autumn color displays. Large casinos in border cities such as Windsor, Cornwall and Sarnia draw millions of visitors from the United States as well as from other countries every year.