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Central Canada, defined politically.
'Central Canada' (sometimes the 'Central provinces') is a
region comprised of
Canada's two largest and most populous
provinces:
Ontario and
Quebec. Central Canada, with the four
Atlantic provinces, form
Eastern Canada. The term "Central Canada" is less often used than the names of the individual provinces.
Despite its name, Central Canada is located entirely in the eastern half of the country, with Quebec extending further east than every province, except for
Newfoundland and Labrador.
Historically, 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]
Longitudinally, the middle of Canada is a meridian passing just east of
Winnipeg, Manitoba; the
geographic centre of Canada is located near
Arviat, Nunavut.
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 MPs (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.
Major population centres in Central Canada
'
Census Metropolitan Areas, 2007 population estimates'
[2]
#
Toronto: 5,406,300
#
Montreal: 3,666,300
#
Ottawa-Gatineau: 1,158,300
#
Quebec City: 723,300
#
Hamilton: 716,200
#
London: 465,700
#
Kitchener: 463,600
#
St. Catharines–Niagara: 396,800
#
Oshawa: 344,400
#
Windsor: 332,100
#
Sherbrooke: 164,700
#
Sudbury: 162,000
#
Kingston: 155,000
#
Saguenay: 152,100
#
Trois-Rivières: 142,600
#
Thunder Bay: 125,400
References
1. Constitutional Act of 1791, Act of Union 1840, British North America Acts (1867)
2. Statistics Canada - Population of census metropolitan areas (2001 Census boundaries)
See also
★
Eastern Canada
★
Atlantic Canada
★
Northern Canada
★
Western Canada
★
List of regions of Canada