Discover Ontario

Ontario is Canada’s most populous province and its economic centre, wrapped around four of the five Great Lakes. Almost everyone lives in the southern strip along that shoreline, which reaches further south than northern California — Point Pelee, on Lake Erie, is the southernmost point of mainland Canada.

Toronto is the largest city in the country and one of the most internationally mixed anywhere, with around half its residents born outside Canada. Ottawa, on the river that forms the Quebec border, is the national capital, with Parliament Hill above the Rideau Canal — a UNESCO World Heritage site that freezes into the world’s largest skating rink each winter. Niagara Falls is ninety minutes from Toronto, and the escarpment behind it at Niagara-On-The-Lake produces most of Canada’s wine, including the icewine the country is known for.

East along the St Lawrence, Kingston was briefly the capital and guards the Thousand Islands. North of the settled belt the Canadian Shield takes over: granite, pine and tens of thousands of lakes, with Algonquin Park at its southern edge and canoe routes running for weeks beyond it. Thunder Bay, on Lake Superior, is a long way from everything else. Winters are cold and snowy, summers humid, and the hardwood colour in early October is the reason many people come.