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ONTARIO is an Iroquoian word variously interpreted as: beautiful lake, beautiful water, or rocks standing high beside the water ( apparent reference to Niagara Falls). Ontario is Canada's second largest province-from east to west, it covers 2,080 kilometers (1,300 miles) and one time zone. However, only 10 million people live in this vast area, and 90% of them are within a narrow strip north of the U.S. border.

Ontario is Canada's most urban province; half of its population in four cities whose boundaries have spread to such an extent they almost adjoin. Metropolitan Toronto has more than 2 million people. To the east, Oshawa has 175,000 people and heavily populated suburbs. South and west of Toronto are Hamilton with 550,000, and St. Catharines with 290,000. Half of Ontario's population is of British stock, but successive waves of immigrants over the past century have turned the province into a mini-United Nations. Thunder Bay contains the largest settlement of Finns outside Finland. Toronto has half a million Italians, the largest Chinese community in Canada, the biggest Portuguese colony in North America. More recent arrivals include thousands of West Indians, Vietnamese, Somalis, South Africa and east Europeans, giving Ontario-Toronto in particular-a cosmopolitan flavour rivaling New York or Chicago's.

The towns and cities of northern Ontario are strung along the rail lines that brought them into being. And the discovery of immense deposits of gold, silver, uranium, and other minerals by railway construction gangs sparked mining booms that established such communities as Sudbury, Cobalt, and Timmins, which continue to owe their existence to mining.

Ontario has the most varied landscape of any Canadian province. The most conspicuous topographical feature is the Niagara Escarpment which runs from Niagara to Tobermory at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula in Lake Huron. The northern 90% of Ontario is covered by the Canadian Shield, worn-down mountain ranges of the world's oldest rock, reaching only 2,183 feet above sea level at their highest point.

East of Hamilton toward Niagara Falls is a narrow strip along the south shore of Lake Ontario in a partial rain shadow of the Niagara escarpment. The climate, moderated in winter by Lakes Ontario and Erie allows the growing of tender fruits and grapes, making it Canada's largest wine-producing area.

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