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Ontario, CanadaOntario is the most populous and second-largest in area of Canada's ten provinces. It is found in east-central Canada. Its capital is Toronto. Ottawa, the capital of Canada, is also located in Ontario. Ontario has a population (January 1, 2005) of 12,449,502, representing approximately 37.9% of the total Canadian population (Ontarians) and an area of 1,076,395km² (415,598 sq. mi.).
Largest municipalities by population
HistoryPre-1867Before the arrival of the Europeans, the region was inhabited both by Algonquian (Ojibwa, Cree and Algonquin) and Iroquoian (Iroquois and Huron) tribes. The French explorer Étienne Brûlé explored part of the area in 1610-12. The English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into Hudson Bay in 1611 and claimed the area for England, but Samuel de Champlain reached Lake Huron in 1615 and French missionaries began to establish posts along the Great Lakes. French settlement was hampered by their hostilities with the Iroquois, who would ally themselves with the British. The British established trading posts on Hudson Bay in the late 17th century and began a struggle for domination of Ontario. The 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years War by awarding nearly all of France's North American possessions (New France) to Britain. The region was annexed to Quebec in 1774. From 1783 to 1796, the United Kingdom granted United Empire Loyalists leaving the United States following the American Revolution 200 acres (0.8 km²) of land and other items with which to rebuild their lives. This measure substantially increased the population of Canada west of the Ottawa River during this period, a fact recognized by the Constitutional Act of 1791, which split Quebec into The Canadas: Upper Canada west of the Ottawa River, and Lower Canada east of it. John Graves Simcoe was appointed Upper Canada's first Governor-General in 1793. American troops in the War of 1812 invaded Upper Canada across the Niagara River and the Detroit River but were successfully pushed back by British and Native American forces. The Americans gained control of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, however, and during the Battle of York occupied the Town of York (later named Toronto) in 1813. Not able to hold the town, the departing soldiers burned it to the ground. After the War of 1812, many settlers from the British Isles immigrated to Upper Canada, and began to chafe against the aristocratic Family Compact that governed the region, much as the Château Clique ruled Lower Canada. Accordingly, rebellion in favour of responsible government rose in both regions; Louis-Joseph Papineau led the Lower Canada Rebellion and William Lyon Mackenzie led the Upper Canada Rebellion. For more on the rebellions of 1837. Although both rebellions were crushed, the British government sent Lord Durham to investigate the causes of the unrest. He recommended that self-government be granted and that Lower and Upper Canada be re-joined in an attempt to assimilate the Québécois. Accordingly, the two colonies were merged into the Province of Canada by the Act of Union (1840), with Ontario becoming known as Canada West. Parliamentary self-government was granted in 1848. By about 1850, the English-speaking population of Canada West |
