The Coolidge examiner., 1933-09-15

Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington, d. C.-WNU Service.
~ NE-NINTH of the area of all
q Canada and one-third of the
~ Dominion's population are in
cluded in Ontarios borders.
And Ontario, like a colossal mo-
tor, is the heart of Canada. EX
ceeded by other provinces in for
estry and fisheries only, Ontario
takes first place in farming, mining,
electric power, banking, and manu-
featuring. Not only that; she is
dominant in many cultural ways.
And while Quebec, New Brunswick,
Manitoba, saskatchewan, Alberta
and British Columbia share the
common frontier with us, all our
relations-social, financial, and eco
nomic-are closest with Ontario.
Toronto papers reveal our kinship
in thought and behavior.
On the map you see Ontario
shaped roughly like a tilted bust,
its face against Hudson bay, meas
uring about 1000 miles up and
down. 1t lies above the Great
Lakes and south of Hudson bay;
roughly, also, Quebec is east of it
and Manitoba on the west.
Its organized districts include
Nipissing. Cochrane, Timiskaming,
Sudbury, Algoma. Thunder Bay,
Rainy river, and Kenora.
Patricia district, still largely un-
explored and uninhabited, is wild
area, comprising nearly two-fifths
of the whole province.
Though Quebec was French, it
was English-speaking people who
first cOlonized what is now Lower
Ontario, while it was yet under the
governor at Quebec. To make life
easier for French-speaking subjects,
the British (by the Quebec act of
1774) left French civil law in force,
although English criminal law was
decreed.
At once language troubles and
other problems came to irk the Eng
disappearing cOlonists, now drift
ing up the st. Lawrence valley be-
yOnd the French settlements. Among
other things. they wanted to own
lands under the English freehold
system. and not to pay yearly tithes
to seigniors, as by French custom.
Creation of the Province.
To this Great Britain agreed in
1871. So new province, called
Upper Canada (now Ontario), was
established. 1t embraced all land
west of the Ottawa river, which still
separates Quebec from Ontario.
Even today the language changes
as you cross the line.
You cannot find a typical On
tario face" any more than you can
identify hometown mind in
America.
When Col. John Graves Simcoe,
first lieutenant governor, set up his
new capital at Niagara village in
1892 and offered free land TO all
comers ready to serve the king. a
stream of immigration began which
was to form the character of the
new province.
For years steady flow came
from the United States. Some were
German Lutherans and Mennonites;
many were United Empire Loyal
lists; but from Scotland, England
and ireland came another stream.
immigration has never stopped.
Toronto today has an East Side"
as polyglot as New York, though
not so named. incidentally, per-
haps $4,000 of it's residents were
born in the United States. OF late
years the French from Quebec, with
their language. faith, habits. and
newspapers, are drifting steadily
west, in nOrtn ontario.
Firms, Russians, Poles, Germans,
and Chinese pack the mines and
lumber camps. Greeks, Syrians, and
Italians are here, engaged as cooks,
walters, bootblacks. gardeners, dry
cleaners, peddlers, hucksters-many
growing rich, just as in the States.
In one country town one may iden-
tify five different races among the
help. In mining towns like Sud-
bury, group after group may pass
you in the Saturday night parade,
their talk lingual riddle.
American Industries There.
Peer cut of your train window as
you reach Toronto or Hamilton.
Look at the familiar names on fac
tory signboards. There seems hard
ly any well-known United States