Northern Ontario

That part of the Canadian North West Territories which was transferred to the province of Ontario in the early 1900s – roughly speaking, all of Ontario north of an east-west line drawn north of Sault Ste Marie – plus Algoma (chief cities Sault Ste Marie and Sudbury) and Nipissing (chief city North Bay). Northern Ontario covers 1 million square kilometres and constitutes 90% of the surface area of Ontario, although it contains only 10% of the population.

Most of Northern Ontario is situated on the Canadian Shield, a vast rocky plateau. The climate is characterized by extremes of temperature, extremely cold in winter and hot in summer. The principal industries are mining, forestry, and hydroelectricity.

The chief cities are Thunder Bay, Hearst, Cochrane, Timmins, Kirkland Lake, Sault Ste Marie, Sudbury, and North Bay. There are universities in Thunder Bay (Lakehead University), Hearst (Université de Hearst), and Sudbury (Laurentian University).

The mining boom of the early twentieth century attracted many francophones to northern Ontario, and French is still widely spoken there. However, Ontario still does not recognize French as an official language.