Ontario, province, Canada: Economy and Higher Education

Economy and Higher Education

The most important economic activity in Ontario is manufacturing, and the Toronto-Hamilton region is the most highly industrialized section of the country. The area from Oshawa around the west end of Lake Ontario to Niagara Falls is known as the “Golden Horseshoe.” Major industrial products include motor vehicles and parts; iron, steel, and other metal products; foods and beverages; electrical goods; machinery; chemicals; petroleum and coal products; and paper products. Ontario has many high-technology companies, especially around Ottawa and in the “Canadian Technology Triangle” region around Waterloo-Kitchener, Guelph, and Cambridge, and its service industries are second in importance only to manufacturing.

Agriculture is also significant, with cattle, dairy products, and hogs producing the most income. Other major crops are corn, wheat, potatoes, and soybeans. On the shores of the eastern Great Lakes are orchards and tobacco plantations. In the Canadian Shield region iron ore, copper, zinc, gold, silver, and uranium are mined. The area around Sudbury is particularly rich in copper and nickel. Ontario is also a major producer of lumber and pulp and paper.

Among the province's institutions of higher education are Brock Univ., at St. Catherines; Carleton Univ. and the Univ. of Ottawa, at Ottawa; Laurentian Univ., at Sudbury; McMaster Univ., at Hamilton; Queen's Univ., at Kingston; Ryerson Univ. and the Univ. of Toronto, at Toronto; Trent Univ., at Peterboro; the Univ. of Waterloo and Wilfred Laurier Univ., at Waterloo; the Univ. of Western Ontario, at London; and York Univ., at North York.

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