Everything about Western Ontario totally explained
Southwestern Ontario is a region of the
Canadian province of
Ontario, centred on the city of
London. It extends north to south from the
Bruce Peninsula on
Lake Huron to the
Lake Erie shoreline, and east to south-west roughly from
Kitchener to
Windsor. These three urban centres make up the majority of the population of 2,328,987 in 2001. Other significant towns and cities in the region are
Chatham,
Ingersoll,
Owen Sound,
Sarnia,
St. Thomas,
Goderich,
Stratford,
Tillsonburg and
Woodstock. The Bruce Peninsula and
Georgian Bay shoreline, including the
Blue Mountains are also part of the
Georgian Triangle. Southwestern Ontario is bordered by Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers, and Lakes Erie and Ontario.
Another popularly-mentioned sub-region within Southwestern Ontario is "Midwestern Ontario", stretching from roughly
Lake Huron to
Lake Erie, containing
Bruce,
Grey,
Dufferin,
Wellington,
Perth,
Huron, and
Oxford Counties, with some definitions extending into
Brant County, and even
Halton Region and
Norfolk County. The major centres in this region are
Wingham,
Goderich,
Mount Forest,
Walkerton,
Hanover,
Collingwood,
Owen Sound,
Woodstock,
London,
Ingersoll,
Tillsonburg, and
Delhi, with
Brantford and
Orangeville occasionally being considered part of the area. In short, Midwestern Ontario is considered as the eastern quarter of the region along the edge of the Greater Toronto Area, and stretching back through the hilly regions near
Shelburne, back towards
Goderich and
Kincardine.
Some definitions reach eastward to include
Guelph and
Orangeville, though recently these municipalities are also included in on the western side of the growing
Greater Golden Horseshoe region and many of their residents commute into the
Greater Toronto Area.
Southwestern Ontario constitutes the western portion of the original province, present-day southern Ontario, which was first settled as
Upper Canada prior to
1840.
During the
19th century and early
20th century, the largest city in Southwestern Ontario was Windsor, however as both cities grew, Windsor was outpaced by the faster growth of London, and passed the mantle of regional anchor to that city in the 1960s.
The region may also be referred to as
Western Ontario, particularly in the names of institutions such as the
University of Western Ontario. This term is falling into disuse, however, as the region is no longer the westernmost portion of the province.
Western Ontario may also designate all the counties of southwestern Ontario except Essex, Kent, and Lambton—that is, the region of which
London, Ontario is the central city.
Southwestern Ontario is a prosperous agricultural region whose chief crops are
tobacco,
sweetcorn,
soybean,
winter wheat,
canola, and
tomatoes. Dairy and beef farming, breeding and training of
standardbred horses and
wine growing and production are also important industries. Its climate is among the mildest in Canada, although brief periods of winter can be severe, summers are hot and humid with a longer growing season than most of the country.
A large section of Southwestern Ontario was part of the
Talbot Settlement, and the region has benefited from the settlement’s facilitation of agriculture and of trade in general. Its ecomony is heavily tied in with that of the
midwestern
United States, in particular the border state of
Michigan. Auto manufacturing and parts, agriculture and hi-tech industries are key components of the region’s economy. The region also provides important transportation routes for commercial
trucking,
railway and
tanker shipping from
Detroit-Windsor and
Port Huron, Michigan-Sarnia linking Canada with major markets in the eastern and midwestern United States.
List of counties or divisions
Further Information
Get more info on 'Western Ontario'.
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