Central Canada (sometimes the Central provinces) is a region consisting of Canada's two largest and most populous provinces: Ontario and Quebec. Due to their high populations, Ontario and Quebec have traditionally held a significant amount of political power in Canada, leading to some amount of resentment from other regions of the country. Before Confederation, the term 'Canada' specifically referred to Central Canada. Today, the term "Central Canada" is less often used than the names of the individual provinces.
Contents |
The name of Central Canada alludes to the region being the median of economic and political power and not to the geographic median of Canada. The region's traditional boundaries were therefore determined by the population distribution which has been skewed to the east. In fact, the region is located entirely in the eastern half of the country, with Quebec extending further east than every province, except for Newfoundland and Labrador. Longitudinally, the middle of Canada is a meridian passing just east of Winnipeg, Manitoba; the geographic centre of Canada is located near Arviat, Nunavut.
Before Confederation, the region known as Canada was what is now called Central Canada. Southern Ontario was once called Upper Canada and later Canada West, and southern Quebec Lower Canada and later Canada East. Both were made part of the United Province of Canada in 1841.[1]
Combined, the two provinces have approximately 20 million inhabitants which represents 62% of Canada's population. They are represented in the Canadian House of Commons by 181 Members of Parliament (Ontario: 106, Quebec: 75) out of a total of 308. The southern portions of the two provinces — particularly the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor — are the most urbanized and industrialized areas of Canada, containing the country's two largest cities, Toronto and Montreal, and the national capital, Ottawa.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||