page_title: Geography of Ontario
section_title: Water
hierarchical_section_title: Geography of Ontario / Physical geography / Water
context_page_description: Ontario is located in East/Central Canada. It is Canada's second largest province in total land area. Its physical features vary greatly from the Mixedwood Plains in the southeast to the boreal forests and tundra in the north. Ontario borders Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay and James Bay to the north, Quebec to the east, and the Great Lakes and the United States to the south. The province is named for Great Lake Ontario, an adaptation of the Iroquois word Onitariio, meaning "beautiful lake", or Kanadario, variously translated as "beautiful water". There are approximately 250,000 lakes and over 100,000 kilometres of rivers in the province.
  Almost 94% of the population is concentrated within Southern Ontario, where the population was over 12,100,000 in the 2006 census. The Golden Horseshoe is the most populous part of Southern Ontario with a population of 8,102,163.
context_section_description: Ontario is known for the large number of lakes and rivers it contains. About one-fifth of the world's fresh water can be found in Ontario. Ontario is also known for being the only province in Canada that touches the Great Lakes. Ontario touches four of the Great Lakes: Huron, Lake Ontario (the province is named after the lake), Erie and Superior.
  Ontario's vast rivers and lakes originally opened the province for exploration and have made possible hydroelectric power, mills and various forms of industrialization. Most of Ontario is fed by rainfall, and in most parts snow is relied on. Precipitation is most common in the southern and central parts of Ontario where variations among the seasons are not especially great; but winter and spring are less aqueous than in northern and northwestern Ontario.
caption: Niagara Falls, one of Ontario's most noted tourist destination and a source for hydroelectricity
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