The Canadian Encyclopedia
The Canadian Encyclopedia is a source of information on Canada published by Historica Canada of Toronto. Articles appear in French, it is available at no cost. The Canadian Encyclopedia includes 14,000 articles in each language on numerous subjects including history, popular culture, people, politics, First Nations and science; the website provides access to the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, The Canadian Encyclopedia Junior Edition, Maclean's magazine articles and Timelines of Canadian history. Canada had been without a national encyclopedia since the 1957 Encyclopedia Canadiana; when looking through the Canadian entries in existing encyclopedias such as Random House, Canadian nationalist and book publisher Mel Hurtig found blatant errors and omissions. In response, in the 1980s he launched a project to create a wholly new Canadian encyclopedia with support from Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed; the Editor-in-Chief James Harley Marsh recruited more than 3,000 authors to write for it. They made index cards for every fact in the encyclopedia, signed off by the researcher, sourced from three sources.
They had to have every article read by three outside readers. The whole thing was proofread by an independent source. There were over 3,000 people who contributed to the content and accuracy of the encyclopedia's entries; the first edition of The Canadian Encyclopedia was published in three volumes in 1985 for $125/set and sold out within days of publication – a Canadian bestseller. A revised and expanded edition was sold out as well, it was the first encyclopedia in the world to use a computer to help compile, typeset and print it. It was encoded in a markup language precursor of HTML. In September 1990, Hurtig published the five-volume Junior Encyclopedia of Canada, the first encyclopedia for young Canadians. Hurtig sold his publishing company with it the encyclopedia. In 1995, the first edition of The Canadian Encyclopedia Plus was published as a digital CD-ROM. In 1999, the Historica Foundation, made a full version of The Canadian Encyclopedia available online. List of online encyclopedias Marsh, James H..
The Canadian Encyclopedia. The Canadian Encyclopedia. ISBN 978-0-7710-2099-5. Official website
1996 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature. April – National Poetry Month established by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States. Summer/Autumn – Ledbury Poetry Festival established in England. November 11 – A memorial to John Betjeman is unveiled in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey by Lady Wilson. Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different. ISBN 978-0-14-058692-3 Roo Borson, Water Memory, ISBN 0-7710-1589-5 American-Canadian Cyril Dabydeen, Another Way to Dance: Contemporary Asian Poetry from Canada and the United States, Toronto: TSAR Kristjana Gunnar, Exiles Among You Dennis Lee, Nightwatch: New and Selected Poems, 1968-1996 Sylvia Legris: ash petals Circuitry of Veins Steve McCaffery, The Cheat of Words George McWhirter, A Staircase for All Souls Erin Mouré, Search Procedures Janis Rapoport, After Paradise Joe Rosenblatt, The Voluptuous Gardener.
Beach Holme Press. Stephen Scobie, Taking the Gate: A Journey Through Scotland Raymond Souster, Close to Home. Ottawa: Oberon Press. Keki N. Daruwalla, A Summer of Tigers, Delhi: Oxford University Press Kamala Das, My Story, New Delhi: Sterling Publishers. R. Ammons, Brink Road Virginia Hamilton Adair, Ants on the Melon, the author's first book of poems, at age 83 Joseph Brodsky: So Forth: Poems, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Russian-American Raymond Carver, All of Us: The Collected Poems Juliana Chang, Quiet Fire: A Historical Anthology of Asian American poetry, 1892-1970, New York: The Asian American Writers' Workshop Ed Dorn, High West Rendezvous Robert Fagles, The Odyssey, from the original Ancient Greek of Homer Donald Hall, The Old Life, four short poems, a long poem and three elegies Robert Hass, Sun Under Wood, lyric poems Louise Glück, Meadowlands Haim Gouri, Milim Be-Dami Holeh Ahavah, selected poems in English translation Detroit: Wayne State University Press, ISBN 0-8143-2594-7 Paul Henry, Captive Audience, Seren Mark Jarman and David Mason, Rebel Angels: 25 Poets of the New Formalism Ronald Johnson, ARK Kenneth Koch, The Art of Poetry, Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press Maxine Kumin, Connecting the Dots James McMichael, The World at Large: New and Selected Poems, 1971-1996 W. S. Merwin Editor, Lament for the Makers: A Memorial Anthology, Washington: Counterpoint Translator, Pieces of Shadow: Selected Poems of Jaime Sabines The Vixen: Poems, New York: Knopf Robert Pinsky, The Figured Wheel
Rochdale College
Opened in 1968, Rochdale College was an experiment in student-run alternative education and co-operative living in Toronto, Canada. It provided space for 840 residents in a co-operative living space, it was a free university where students and teachers would live together and share knowledge. The project failed when it could not cover its financing and neighbours complained that it had become a haven for drugs and crime, it was closed in 1975. Rochdale was the largest co-op residence in North America, occupying an 18-storey student residence at Bloor St. and Huron St. in downtown Toronto. It was situated on the edges of the University of Toronto campus, near to Yorkville, Toronto's hippie haven in the 1960s and early 1970s; the college took its name from Rochdale, a town in north-west England, where the world's first cooperative society was established in 1844. The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers is considered the first successful co-operative enterprise, used as a model for modern co-ops, following the'Rochdale Principles'.
A group of 28 weavers and other artisans set up the society to open their own store selling food items they could not otherwise afford. Within ten years there were over 1,000 co-operative societies in the United Kingdom; the college's modern architecture was uniquely designed for communal living. Some areas were divided into independently operated communal units of about a dozen bedrooms, each with its own collective washroom and dining room; each unit was responsible for maintaining its own housekeeping. Other areas consisted of bachelor, one-bedroom, two-bedroom apartments. On the first and second floor were common areas used for socialization and commercial purposes; the roof was used for sunbathing. Clothing was optional. Rochdale began as a response to a growing need for student housing at the University of Toronto, a nineteen-year-old entrepreneur and philosophy student, Howard Adelman, was hired by the Campus Co-operative to meet the housing demand in 1958. With Adelman's advice, Campus Co-op began to acquire more properties, formed Campus Co-operative Residence Incorporated.
A non-profit offshoot of Campus Co-op. After obtaining federal mortgages at well below the market rate, Campus Co-op incorporated Rochdale College in 1964, it was by accident rather than design. Campus Co-op preferred to have the building be built to two times coverage, which would have resulted in a easily managed building whose floor area would be only twice the size of the lot. However, due to Rochdale's location on a busy arterial road, the site was zoned at seven times coverage; this meant an unanticipated jump to 840 residents, a fact, greeted with great enthusiasm, due to the expansionist attitudes of the founders. Zoning regulations stipulated that the site was to be an apartment-hotel, which meant that only half the floor space could be used for apartments with self-contained kitchens; this disadvantage was not appreciated due to faith in a communal system, in which residents would be expected to share the space available to them. Campus Co-op, the parent corporation of Rochdale College, was uncomfortable with education taking a central role at Rochdale, a position held by Rochdale's intellectual leaders such as Dennis Lee.
A decision was made to separate from Campus Co-op. Further emphasis was placed on education when Adelman noted that the college's $175,000 property tax could be avoided if they had a functioning educational program. In Adelman's words, if "we run an education program for $75,000, we'll come out $100,000 ahead."Although many Rochdale founders viewed its education program as a form of tax avoidance, those who were dedicated to Rochdale as an educational institution did not let that deter them from pursuing what they viewed as a more noble purpose. Dennis Lee, the creative talent of the operation, notes plans like the tax avoidance scheme were, "primarily in the thinking of people like Howard who were involved in the planning, they did a good job of keeping their cards close to their chest, it was not something, being passed around it would have made other people furious to hear it at the time." Yet it would be inaccurate to conclude that Adelman, the organizational talent of the operation, did not share its educational goals.
With Lee, Adelman edited a collection of articles published in 1968 that constituted a manifesto of sorts for "free university" education, calling for liberation from inhibiting educational institutions. Adelman's contribution was a scathing indictment of the modern university as an institution that stifles innovation and serves only the establishment. Before its construction, there was a tension in Rochdale between fiscal responsibility and idealism. Mietkiewicz writes, "erhaps because of their idealistic preoccupations, few of Rochdale's academic leaders were aware that much of Campus Co-op's enthusiasm for education had stemmed from its vision of the program as a sort of tax dodge." The intended tenants for Rochdale were screened. Screenings were handled by residents of the Rochdale Houses, a precursor "dry-run" to Rochdale conducted at Campus Co-op owned houses, they chose people who were by and large going to be associated with the University of Toronto. However, a construction strike in 1967 that delayed the opening of Rochdale by half a year changed Rochdale's population from what was supposed to be a selected one to a random one.
The screened applicants, most of whom had commitments to the university, could not wait for Rochdale to be completed and many found new acco
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order and the second highest honour for merit in the system of orders and medals of Canada. It comes second only to membership in the Order of Merit, the personal gift of Canada's monarch. To coincide with the centennial of Canadian Confederation, the three-tiered order was established in 1967 as a fellowship that recognizes the outstanding merit or distinguished service of Canadians who make a major difference to Canada through lifelong contributions in every field of endeavour, as well as the efforts by non-Canadians who have made the world better by their actions. Membership is accorded to those who exemplify the order's Latin motto, desiderantes meliorem patriam, meaning "they desire a better country", a phrase taken from Hebrews 11:16; the three tiers of the order are Companion and Member. The Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, is Sovereign of the order and the serving governor general Julie Payette, is its Chancellor and Principal Companion and administers the order on behalf of the Sovereign.
Appointees to the order are recommended by an advisory board and formally inducted by the governor general or the sovereign. As of August 2017, 6,898 people have been appointed to the Order of Canada, including scientists, politicians, athletes, business people, film stars and others; some have resigned or have been removed from the order, while other appointments have been controversial. Appointees receive the right to armorial bearings; the process of founding the Order of Canada began in early 1966 and came to a conclusion on 17 April 1967, when the organization was instituted by Queen Elizabeth II, on the advice of the Canadian prime minister, Lester B. Pearson, assisted with the establishment of the order by John Matheson; the association was launched on 1 July 1967, the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, with Governor General Roland Michener being the first inductee to the order, to the level of Companion, on 7 July of the same year, 90 more people were appointed, including Vincent Massey, Louis St. Laurent, Hugh MacLennan, David Bauer, Gabrielle Roy, Donald Creighton, Thérèse Casgrain, Wilder Penfield, Arthur Lismer, Brock Chisholm, M. J. Coldwell, Edwin Baker, Alex Colville, Maurice Richard.
During a visit to London, United Kingdom in 1970, Michener presented the Queen with her Sovereign's badge for the Order of Canada, which she first wore during a banquet in Yellowknife in July 1970. From the Order of Canada grew a Canadian honours system, thereby reducing the use of British honours. Among the civilian awards of the Canadian honours system, the Order of Canada comes third, after the Cross of Valour and membership in the Order of Merit, within the personal gift of Canada's monarch. By the 1980s, Canada's provinces decorations; the Canadian monarch, seen as the fount of honour, is at the apex of the Order of Canada as its Sovereign, followed by the governor general, who serves as the fellowship's Chancellor. Thereafter follow three grades, which are, in order of precedence: Companion and Member, each having accordant post-nominal letters that members are entitled to use; each incumbent governor general is installed as the Principal Companion for the duration of his or her time in the viceregal post and continues as an extraordinary Companion thereafter.
Additionally, any governor general, viceregal consort, former governor general, former viceregal consort, or member of the Canadian Royal Family may be appointed as an extraordinary Companion, Officer, or Member. Promotions in grade are possible, though this is ordinarily not done within five years of the initial appointment, a maximum of five honorary appointments into any of the three grades may be made by the governor general each year; as of March 2016, there have been 21 honorary appointments. There were in effect, only two ranks to the Order of Canada: Companion and the Medal of Service. There was, however a third award, the Medal of Courage, meant to recognize acts of gallantry; this latter decoration fell in rank between the other two levels, but was anomalous within the Order of Canada, being a separate award of a different nature rather than a middle grade of the order. Without having been awarded, the Medal of Courage was on 1 July 1972 replaced by the autonomous Cross of Valour and, at the same time, the levels of Officer and Member were introduced, with all existing holders of the Medal of Service created as Officers.
Lester Pearson's vision of a three-tiered structure to the order was thus fulfilled. Companions of the Order of Canada have demonstrated the highest degree of merit to Canada and humanity, on either the national or international scene. Up to 15 Companions are appointed annually, with an imposed limit of 165 living Companions at any given time, not including those appointed as extraordinary Companions or in an honorary capacity; as of August 2017, there are 146 living Companions. Since 1994, substantive members are the only regular citizens who are empowered to administer the Canadian Oath of Citizenship. Officers of the Order of Canada have demonstrated an outstanding level of talent and service to Canadians, up to 64 may be appointed each year, not including those inducted as extraordinary Officers or in an ho
1976 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature. Two poems written in 1965 by Mao Zedong just before the Cultural Revolution, including "Two Birds: A Dialogue", are published on January 1 Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different. Les Murray, The Vernacular Republic Selected Poems John Tranter, The Alphabet Murders, Angus & Robertson Chris Wallace-Crabbe, The Foundations of Joy, Sydney: Angus & Robertson. Earle Birney: Alphabeings and Other Seasyours. London, Ont.: Pikadilly Press. The Rugging and the Moving Times: poems new and uncollected 1976. Coatsworth, ON: Black Moss Press. Gary Geddes, War & Other Measures Roland Giguere, Miron translated from French Archibald Lampman, Lampman’s Sonnets: The Complete Sonnets of Archibald Lampman, Margaret Coulby Whitridge ed.. ISBN 978-0-919594-50-0 Irving Layton, For My Brother Jesus. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. Irving Layton, The Uncollected Poems of Irving Layton: 1936-59.
Ed. W. David John. Ottawa, ON: Mosaic Press. Dennis Lee; the Death of Harold Ladoo. Vancouver: Kanchenjunga Press. Al Purdy, Sundance at Dusk James Reaney, Selected Longer Poems. Joe Rosenblatt, Top Soil, Selected Poems. Press Porcepic. Charles Sangster, Norland echoes and other strains and lyrics, ed. Frank M. Tierney Raymond Souster, To Hell with Poetry. Burton, Ohio. AnthologiesNew Provinces reprinted—first anthology of modernist poetry in Canada, including work by F. R. Scott, E. J. Pratt, Robert Finch, A. J. M. Smith, Leo Kennedy, A. M. Klein. Arun Kolatkar, Bombay: Clearing House, India. Nissim Ezekiel: Hymns in Darkness, Oxford University Press Poster Prayers, Gieve Patel, How Do You Withstand, Bombay, Clearing House, Indian poetry in English-language Keki Daruwalla, Crossing of Rivers, an experimental work published by the author's own publishing house. Arundhathi Subramaniam, Nine Enclosures, Mumbai: Clearing House Gauri Deshpande, An Anthology of Indo English Poetry, Delhi: Hind Pocket Books Nolini Kanta Gupta, Collected Works, five vols, published from 1971 to this year.
Deb Kumar Das, Winterbird Walks, Calcutta: Writers Workshop Jagannath Prasad Das, First Person, Delhi: Arnold Heinemann Mukand R. Dave, Some Sheets of Paper, Aligarh: Skylark Pub. R. Parthasarathy, Ten Twentieth Century Indian Poets, Delhi: Oxford University Press Ciarán Carson: The New Estate, Blackstaff Press, Wake Forest University Press John Ennis, Night on Hibernia Oldcastle: The New Gallery Press, ISBN 978-0-902996-46-5 Michael Longley, Man Lying on a Wall - Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom George McWhirter, Queen of the Sea, Northern Ireland poet published in Canada James K. Baxter, posthumous The Bone Chanter: Unpublished Poems 1945–72, edited by J. E. Weir The Holy Life and Death of Concrete Grady: Various Uncollected and Unpublished Poems, edited by J. E. Weir Alan Brunton, Black & White Anthology, a 33-part sequence with an Asian setting, Hawk Press Vincent O'Sullivan, James K. Baxter, New Zealand Kenneth Allott, Collected Poems W. H. Auden, Collected Poems of W. H. Auden, edited by Edward Mendelson Pam Ayres, Some of Me Poetry and Some More of Me Poetry Frances Bellerby, The First Known Zoë Brooks, Owl Shadows and Whispering Stone "parallel booklets" George Mackay Brown, Winterfold Ciarán Carson: The New Estate, Blackstaff Press, Wake Forest University Press Elizabeth Daryush, Collected Poems David Day, Brass Rubbings Patric Dickinson, The Bearing Beast Gavin Ewart, No Fool Like an Old Fool Ruth Fainlight, Another Full Moon Tony Flynn, Separations Alistair Fowler, Catagomb Suburb Thom Gunn, Jack Straw's Castle, Other Poems Adrian Henri, One Year, Lancashire: Arc Publications, ISBN 978-0-902771-47-5 Ted Hughes, Season Songs Clive James, Peregrine Prykke's Pilgrimage Through the London Literary World and Britannia Bright's Bewilderment in the Wilderness of Westminster, Australian poet resident in the United Kingdom Glyn Jones, Selected Poems Peter Levi, Collected Poems Michael Longley, Man Lying on a Wall Northern Ireland poet published in the United Kingdom Hugh MacDairmid, Collected Poems Hugh Maxton, The Noise of the Fields Humphrey John Moore, Collected Poems Eleanor Murray and Sepia Luke Parsons, Last Poems Brian Patten, Vanishing Trick Rodney Pybus, Bridging Loans Peter Reading, The Prison Cell and Barrel Mystery Jon Silkin, The Little Time-Keeper Derek Walcott, Sea Grapes David Wright, A View of the North Edmund Leo Wright, The Horwich Hennets Paul Yates, Sky Made of Stone Elaine Feinstein and translator, Three Russian Poets: Margarite Aliger, Yunna Morits, Bella Akhmadulina, Carcanet Press F. E. S. Finn and Human Antonia Fraser, Scottish Love Poems Dannie Abse, Poetry Dimension Annual 4 Howard Sergeant, New Poems 1976/1977, P.
E. N. Anthology Diane Ackerman, The Planets Paul Auster
1968 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature. January 1 – Cecil Day-Lewis is announced as the new Poet Laureate of the UK. May 19 – The Last Poets comprising Felipe Luciano, Gylan Kain and David Nelson, form at Marcus Garvey Park in East Harlem, New York City, on Malcolm X's birthday. November 23 – Roy Fuller is elected professor of poetry at Oxford University to succeed Edmund Blunden, who unexpectedly left. Other nominees were Enid Starkie and Yevgeni Yevtushenko; the Arvon Foundation is established by young poets John Fairfax and John Moat in the UK to promote creative writing. The Belfast Group, a grouping of poets in Belfast, Northern Ireland, started in 1963 in poetry and lapsed in 1966 when founder Philip Hobsbaum left for Glasgow, is reconstituted this year by Michael Allen, Arthur Terry, Seamus Heaney. At various times, the group includes Michael Longley, James Simmons, Paul Muldoon, Ciaran Carson, Stewart Parker, Bernard MacLaverty and the critic Edna Longley.
Meetings are held at Marie Heaney's house on Ashley Avenue. The group will last until 1972; the first translations and book-length discussion of Enheduanna's work is published. She is a Sumerian priestess and poet of the 23rd century BC and the earliest named author known to history; the Honest Ulsterman, a long-running Northern Ireland literary magazine, is established this year by James Simmons. It is edited for 20 years by Frank Ormsby. Listed by nation where the work was first published and again by the poet's native land, if different. Dennis Lee, Civil Elegies. Toronto: Anansi. Dorothy Livesay, The Documentaries. Poems from the 1930s and 1940s, including "Roots", a long poem Pat Lowther, This Difficult Flowering Jay Macpherson, The Boatman and Other Poems. Toronto: Oxford UP. E. J. Pratt, Selected Poems of E. J. Pratt, Peter Buitenhuis ed. Toronto: Macmillan. Al Purdy, Wild Grape Wine Joe Rosenblatt, Winter of the Luna Moth. Toronto: Anansi. W. W. E. Ross, Shapes & sounds: poems of W. W. E. Ross.
Raymond Souster and Found: Uncollected Poems. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin. Anthologies in CanadaMary Alice Downie and Barbara Robertson, The Wind Has Wings, anthology of 77 Canadian poems for children Dennis Lee, editor, T. O. Now, anthology of 13 "apprentice poets living in Toronto" R. ParthasarathyPoetry from Leeds. Leeds: Oxford University Press, UK 1968. G. S. Sharat Chandra, Bharat Natyam Dancer and Other Poems, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India. Deb Kumar Das, The Eye of Autumn: An Experiment in Poetry, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India' Ira De, The Hunt and Other Poems, revised edition, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India Gauri Deshpande, Between Births, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India Indira Devi Dhanrajgir, Partings in Mimosa, Hyderabad Guari Deshpande, Between Births, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India Paul Jacob, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India S. R. Mokashi-Punekar, P. Lal: An Appreciation, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India Dom Moraes, My Son's Father, autobiography Srinavas Rayaprol, Bones & Distances, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India Pradip Sen, And Then the Sun, revised edition (first edition, 1960, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India Vinay K. Varma,Poppies and Ashes Swami Vivekananda, Search of God and Other Poems, Calcutta: Advaita Ashram Suniti Namjoshi and Sarojini Namjoshi, Poems of Govindagraj, translated from Marathi, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, India W. H. Auden: Collected Longer Poems Secondary Worlds, lecture given in October Selected Poems Dannie Abse, A Small Desperation Kingsley Amis, A Look Round the Estate Edward Brathwaite, Masks Basil Bunting, Collected Poems Charles Causley, Underneath the Water Stewart Conn, Stoats in Sunlight Tony Connor, Kon in Springtime Maureen Duffy, Lyrics for the Dog Hour D. J. Enright, Unlawful Assembly Gavin Ewart, The Deceptive Grin of the Gravel Porters James Fenton, Our Western Furniture Roy Fuller, New Poems William R. P. George - Cerddi'r Neraig Zulfikar Ghose, Jets from Orange Robert Graves, Poems 1965–1968 Harry Guest, Arrangements John Heath-Stubbs and Epigrams Adrian Henri, Tonight at Noon John Hewitt, Northern Irish poet published in the United Kingdom, The Day of the Corncrake Norman Jackson, Beyond the Habit of Sense A. Norman Jeffares, A New Commentary On The Poems Of W.
B. Yeats, criticism James Kirkup, Paper Windows George MacBeth, The Night of Stones Norman MacCaig, Rings on a Tree Derek Mahon, Night-Crossing, Oxford University Press Adrian Mitchell, Out Loud Edwin Morgan, The Second Life, his first collection and the first in Britain to be typeset by computer Richard Murphy, The Battle of Aughrim Ruth Pitter, Poems 1926–1966 J. H. Prynne, Kitchen Poems Edith Anne Robertson, Translations Into the Scots Tongue of Poems By Gerard Manley Hopkins Muriel Spark, Collected Poems Volume 1 R. S. Thomas, Not That He Brought Flowers J. R. R. Tolkien, The Road Goes Ever On, first published in the United States 1967 Vernon Watkins, Fidelities John Bishop and Sweet Poetry, poems about music Rodney Hall and Thomas Shapcott, New Impulses in Australian Poetry Howard Sergeant, Poetry from Africa, including work from Gabriel Okara, Gaston Bart-Williams, Kwesi Brew (Gha
Ontario
Ontario is one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada and is located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province accounting for 38.3 percent of the country's population, is the second-largest province in total area. Ontario is fourth-largest jurisdiction in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are included, it is home to the nation's capital city and the nation's most populous city, Ontario's provincial capital. Ontario is bordered by the province of Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay and James Bay to the north, Quebec to the east and northeast, to the south by the U. S. states of Minnesota, Ohio and New York. All of Ontario's 2,700 km border with the United States follows inland waterways: from the west at Lake of the Woods, eastward along the major rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes/Saint Lawrence River drainage system; these are the Rainy River, the Pigeon River, Lake Superior, the St. Marys River, Lake Huron, the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River, Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake Ontario and along the St. Lawrence River from Kingston, Ontario, to the Quebec boundary just east of Cornwall, Ontario.
There is only about 1 km of land border made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border. Ontario is sometimes conceptually divided into Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario; the great majority of Ontario's population and arable land is in the south. In contrast, the larger, northern part of Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and heavy forestation; the province is named after Lake Ontario, a term thought to be derived from Ontarí:io, a Huron word meaning "great lake", or skanadario, which means "beautiful water" in the Iroquoian languages. Ontario has about 250,000 freshwater lakes; the province consists of three main geographical regions: The thinly populated Canadian Shield in the northwestern and central portions, which comprises over half the land area of Ontario. Although this area does not support agriculture, it is rich in minerals and in part covered by the Central and Midwestern Canadian Shield forests, studded with lakes and rivers. Northern Ontario is subdivided into two sub-regions: Northeastern Ontario.
The unpopulated Hudson Bay Lowlands in the extreme north and northeast swampy and sparsely forested. Southern Ontario, further sub-divided into four regions. Despite the absence of any mountainous terrain in the province, there are large areas of uplands within the Canadian Shield which traverses the province from northwest to southeast and above the Niagara Escarpment which crosses the south; the highest point is Ishpatina Ridge at 693 metres above sea level in Temagami, Northeastern Ontario. In the south, elevations of over 500 m are surpassed near Collingwood, above the Blue Mountains in the Dundalk Highlands and in hilltops near the Madawaska River in Renfrew County; the Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern region of the province. The temperate and fertile Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Valley in the south is part of the Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests ecoregion where the forest has now been replaced by agriculture and urban development. A well-known geographic feature is part of the Niagara Escarpment.
The Saint Lawrence Seaway allows navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario occupies 87 percent of the surface area of the province. Point Pelee is a peninsula of Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario, the southernmost extent of Canada's mainland. Pelee Island and Middle Island in Lake Erie extend farther. All are south of 42°N – farther south than the northern border of California; the climate of Ontario varies by location. It is affected by three air sources: cold, arctic air from the north; the effects of these major air masses on temperature and precipitation depend on latitude, proximity to major bodies of water and to a small extent, terrain relief. In general, most of Ontario's climate is classified as humid continental. Ontario has three main climatic regions; the surrounding Great Lakes influence the climatic region of southern Ontario. During the fall and winter months, heat stored from the lakes is released, moderating the climate near the shores of the lakes.
This gives some parts of southern Ontario milder winters than mid-continental areas at lower latitudes. Parts of Southwestern Ontario have a moderate humid continental climate, similar to that of the inland Mid-Atlantic states and the Great Lakes portion of the Midwestern United States; the region has warm to cold winters. Annual precipitation is well distributed throughout the year. Most of this region lies in the lee of the Great Lakes. In December 2010, the snowbelt set a new record when it was h
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