A History of Ontario

• Introduction
• Chapter 1 The First Peoples: Indigenous Life in Pre-Colonial Ontario
• Chapter 2 The Arrival of Europeans: French Exploration and the Fur Trade
• Chapter 3 The British Conquest and the Aftermath of the Seven Years' War
• Chapter 4 The Loyalists and the Founding of Upper Canada
• Chapter 5 The War of 1812: A Defining Conflict for Upper Canada
• Chapter 6 The Family Compact and the Seeds of Discontent
• Chapter 7 The Rebellions of 1837-38 and the Fight for Responsible Government
• Chapter 8 The Act of Union and the United Province of Canada
• Chapter 9 The Road to Confederation: Ontario's Role in Nation-Building
• Chapter 10 Building a Province: The Late 19th Century and Early Industrialization
• Chapter 11 The Rise of the North: Mining, Forestry, and the New Frontier
• Chapter 12 Ontario in the First World War: Patriotism and Sacrifice
• Chapter 13 The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression
• Chapter 14 The Second World War: The Province on a War Footing
• Chapter 15 The Post-War Boom: Economic Prosperity and Social Change
• Chapter 16 The Frost Years: Politics and Progress in Mid-Century Ontario
• Chapter 17 The Rise of the New Democratic Party and the Era of Activism
• Chapter 18 The Quiet Revolution's Echo: French-English Relations in Ontario
• Chapter 19 The Changing Face of Ontario: Immigration and Multiculturalism
• Chapter 20 From Manufacturing to a Service Economy: Economic Transformation
• Chapter 21 The "Common Sense Revolution" and the Harris Years
• Chapter 22 The McGuinty-Wynne Era: Liberal Governance in the 21st Century
• Chapter 23 The Rise of Ford Nation: A Populist Shift in Ontario Politics
• Chapter 24 Contemporary Challenges: The Economy, Environment, and Urbanization
• Chapter 25 Ontario Today and Tomorrow: A Province at a Crossroads
• Afterword

To the outside world, and sometimes even to its fellow Canadians, Ontario can seem a bit… beige. It is the sensible older sibling in the family of provinces, the one with a stable job, a mortgage, and a sensible sedan. It is Toronto, the humming, multicultural metropolis that often stands in for Canada on the world stage, and it is Ottawa, the nation’s capital, a city of tidy bureaucracy and grand parliamentary buildings. It is the perceived centre of the Canadian universe, a place so accustomed to being the fulcrum that it often forgets to have a personality of its own. It is, in the popular imagination, the land of "steady as she goes." This book is about the long, often turbulent, and utterly fascinating history that proves this popular imagination wrong.

The story of Ontario is a story of dramatic contradictions, a narrative written across a canvas of staggering geographical scale. This is a province larger than France and Spain combined, a place where the journey from its southern border with the United States to its saltwater coast on Hudson Bay is a monumental trek of more than a thousand miles. It is a land of two vastly different worlds, cleaved in two by the ancient, rugged rock of the Canadian Shield. To the south lies a sliver of fertile, temperate land, cradled by the Great Lakes, home to bustling cities, sprawling suburbs, and the vast majority of the province's population. This is the industrial and agricultural heartland, the political and economic core of the nation.

To the north lies the other Ontario, a place of myth and reality. This is the Ontario of the Group of Seven paintings, a seemingly endless expanse of boreal forest, windswept rock, and countless shimmering lakes and rivers. It is a land of immense natural wealth, of timber, gold, nickel, and uranium, a frontier that has perpetually drawn prospectors, miners, and loggers northward with the promise of fortune. For centuries, this northern expanse was a formidable barrier, a wilderness to be crossed, conquered, or exploited. The tension between the urban, densely populated south and the resource-rich, sparsely populated north is one of the great recurring themes of Ontario’s history, a constant push-and-pull that has shaped its politics, its economy, and its very identity.

Long before the first European sails appeared on the horizon, this land was home to vibrant and complex societies. The history of Ontario does not begin with the arrival of Samuel de Champlain, but with the millennia of human experience that preceded him. From the hunter-gatherer cultures of the north to the sophisticated agricultural and political confederacies of the south, such as the Huron-Wendat and the Iroquois, Indigenous peoples developed intricate social structures, extensive trade networks, and a deep spiritual connection to the land. Their story is the foundational chapter of this history, a narrative of resilience, adaptation, and profound cultural richness that continues to shape the province today.

The arrival of the French in the early seventeenth century marked a dramatic and irreversible turning point. Drawn by the lure of the fur trade, explorers, missionaries, and traders forged a path into the continent's interior, establishing a fragile but extensive empire built on alliances with Indigenous nations. The beaver pelt, more than any crown or flag, dictated the course of early colonial history, sparking bitter rivalries between the French and the English, and drawing First Nations into a global economic web with devastating consequences. This was an era of cultural encounter and violent conflict, where worlds collided along the riverways and in the forests of what would one day be Ontario.

The British conquest of New France in the mid-eighteenth century set the stage for the creation of a new society. The subsequent arrival of tens of thousands of United Empire Loyalists, fleeing the newly independent United States, fundamentally reshaped the demographic and political landscape. These newcomers, loyal to the British Crown, brought with them a deep-seated conservatism and a desire to create a society distinct from the American republic. It was from this influx that Upper Canada was born in 1791, a proudly British colony that would form the bedrock of modern Ontario’s political and legal institutions. The early years were a struggle for survival, culminating in the War of 1812, a defining conflict that forged a sense of local identity and solidified the border with the United States.

The nineteenth century was an age of profound transformation and political turmoil. Power in the young colony of Upper Canada became concentrated in the hands of a small, interconnected group of elites known as the Family Compact. Their control over land, commerce, and government bred widespread resentment, culminating in the explosive, if ultimately unsuccessful, Rebellions of 1837-38. While the rebellions themselves were quashed, the ideals of "Responsible Government"—the principle that the executive should be accountable to the elected assembly—took root. This long, arduous fight for democratic control would see the union of Upper and Lower Canada and eventually pave the way for a much grander political project.

In the great national drama of Confederation, Ontario played a leading role. As the most populous and prosperous part of the United Province of Canada, its political leaders, such as John A. Macdonald and George Brown, were central architects of the 1867 British North America Act, which created the Dominion of Canada. For Ontario, Confederation was a means to unlock a political stalemate and to assert its vision of a vast, transcontinental nation built on British parliamentary traditions and powered by central Canadian industry. From that moment on, Ontario's fate would be inextricably linked to the fate of Canada itself, its demographic weight and economic might often placing it at the centre of national debates.

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw Ontario evolve into an industrial powerhouse. A web of railways spread across the province, connecting its cities and towns, facilitating the movement of goods and people, and opening up the vast resources of the north. Factories sprouted in cities like Toronto, Hamilton, and London, powered by the province’s abundant hydroelectric potential. At the same time, the discovery of massive mineral deposits in the north sparked a new wave of settlement and development, creating boomtowns and a rugged frontier culture that stood in stark contrast to the more settled life of the south. This era cemented Ontario’s reputation as the "workshop" of Canada.

The twentieth century would test the province in unimaginable ways. Two world wars demanded immense sacrifice, with hundreds of thousands of Ontarians serving in uniform. The wars also acted as a powerful catalyst for economic and social change, accelerating industrialization and expanding the role of women in the workforce. The boom years of the Roaring Twenties gave way to the crushing hardship of the Great Depression, which was followed by the unprecedented prosperity of the post-war era. These decades saw the rise of the modern welfare state, the expansion of highways, schools, and hospitals, and the growth of a comfortable, suburban middle class that came to define the Ontario dream.

Politically, the province was long dominated by a brand of pragmatic, cautious governance, most famously embodied by the long-reigning Progressive Conservative dynasty that ran Queen's Park for over four decades. But this stability masked deep undercurrents of change. The rise of new political voices, the growing assertiveness of labour unions, and the social activism of the 1960s and 70s challenged the old order. The province also had to navigate its relationship with a resurgent Quebec nationalism and redefine its own identity in an officially bilingual and multicultural Canada.

Perhaps the most profound transformation in the latter half of the twentieth century was demographic. A wave of post-war immigration from Europe, followed by an even greater influx from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and around the world, fundamentally altered the face of the province. Ontario, and especially the Greater Toronto Area, became one of the most multicultural places on the planet. This shift from a society that was once overwhelmingly Anglo-Protestant to a vibrant, pluralistic one has been a source of immense cultural and economic dynamism, as well as new social challenges.

In recent decades, Ontario has navigated a series of seismic shifts. The decline of its traditional manufacturing base has forced a transition towards a more diversified, knowledge-based economy. Politically, the province has swung between different ideologies, from the "Common Sense Revolution" of the 1990s, which sought to dramatically reduce the size and scope of government, to subsequent periods of Liberal and populist Conservative governance. All the while, it has grappled with the pressing contemporary challenges of rapid urbanization, environmental sustainability, and the ever-present question of how to balance the needs of its diverse regions.

This book aims to tell this sprawling and multifaceted story. It is a history of political leaders and ordinary people, of economic forces and cultural movements, of conflict and cooperation. It seeks to move beyond the stereotype of a bland and uniform province to reveal a place of constant change and surprising complexity. From the ancient portages of the First Peoples to the glittering skyscrapers of modern Toronto, this is the story of how the land, and the people who have inhabited it, came to be known as Ontario. It is, in many ways, the story of Canada itself.

Long before the cartographer’s pen etched the lines that would one day define Ontario, the land was a mosaic of interconnected human geographies, shaped and named by the peoples who had inhabited it for millennia. Theirs was a history written not in ink, but in the worn footpaths of trade routes, the subtle alignments of celestial knowledge, and the enduring stories passed across generations. The story of this place does not begin with the arrival of ships on the St. Lawrence, but with the retreat of the great ice sheets that had, for a million years, held the land in their grip.

Around 11,000 years ago, as the last glaciers receded, the first humans ventured into a newly exposed landscape of tundra, spruce parkland, and sprawling glacial lakes. Archaeologists call these pioneering groups Paleo-Indians. They were small, mobile bands of hunters, their lives tethered to the movements of large game like caribou and, perhaps, the now-extinct mastodon. Their presence is marked by finely crafted fluted projectile points, stylistically similar to those found across North America, suggesting a shared technological tradition across a vast continent. These early peoples travelled great distances, or were part of extensive networks, evidenced by the use of distinctive types of chert (a type of rock) sourced from quarries hundreds of kilometres apart. The population of the entire region was likely small, perhaps only a few hundred people, living in a landscape dramatically different from today's.

As the climate continued to warm, the environment transformed. Between about 9,500 and 2,900 years ago, a period known as the Archaic, the coniferous forests gave way to the temperate deciduous forests familiar today. This environmental shift prompted new adaptations. The people of the Archaic period became expert foragers, developing a sophisticated understanding of the seasonal rhythms of the land. Their toolkit expanded to include ground stone tools like axes and gouges, better suited for woodworking, and notched or stemmed projectile points. They fished the abundant rivers and lakes, with evidence of one of North America's earliest fish weirs found at Atherly Narrows near Lake Simcoe. Society remained largely egalitarian, based on small, mobile hunting and gathering bands that likely followed a seasonal round, exploiting different resources as they became available.

The Archaic period also saw the expansion of long-distance trade. Copper from the shores of Lake Superior, prized for its malleability, was worked into tools and ornaments and traded across the Great Lakes region. Near the end of this era, more elaborate burial practices emerged, with some individuals interred with significant "grave goods," suggesting the beginnings of social distinction.

A significant technological shift occurred around 2,900 years ago with the introduction of pottery, an innovation that marks the beginning of the Woodland Period for archaeologists. In its early stages, life continued much as it had during the late Archaic, with hunting, fishing, and gathering forming the basis of subsistence. Pottery, however crude at first, offered new ways to cook and store food, a subtle but important change in daily life. During the subsequent Middle Woodland period, pottery became more widespread and decorated with increasingly complex designs.

The most profound transformation in the history of pre-colonial southern Ontario began in the Late Woodland period, starting around 1,300 years ago. It was during this time that agriculture, which had been developing for thousands of years in Mesoamerica, made its way north. The adoption of horticulture, centred on what are known as the "Three Sisters"—corn, beans, and squash—revolutionized society. This reliable and storable food source allowed for a more sedentary existence, larger populations, and the growth of permanent villages.

This agricultural revolution gave rise to the Iroquoian-speaking peoples of southern Ontario. By the time of the first European contact, this region was home to several complex, populous, and politically sophisticated societies. They lived in fortified villages, some housing as many as 2,500 people, composed of numerous bark-clad longhouses. These impressive structures, sometimes over 100 metres in length, sheltered multiple related families. Society was typically matrilineal, with lineage, property, and clan identity passed down through the mother's side. Senior women held considerable influence, including the responsibility for selecting clan chiefs. While men were responsible for hunting, fishing, trade, and warfare, women managed the fields, the home, and the distribution of food, giving them a central role in the community's economic and social life.

Among the most prominent of these societies was the Huron-Wendat Confederacy. Located in a territory they called Wendake, between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay, the Wendat were a league of four or five distinct nations: the Attignawantan (Bear), Atingeennonniahak (Cord), Arendarhonon (Rock), and Tohontaenrat (Deer), and a related group, the Ataronchronon (Bog). Their name for themselves, Wendat, meant "Dwellers on a Peninsula" or "Islanders." Their strategic location at the crossroads of major water routes made them powerful intermediaries in a vast trade network that connected the agricultural south with the hunter-gatherer societies of the north. They traded their surplus corn, as well as other goods, with their Algonquian-speaking neighbours for furs, meat, and other northern products.

To the southwest of the Wendat, in the rolling hills south of Nottawasaga Bay, lived the Tionontati, known to the French as the Petun or Tobacco Nation. Culturally and linguistically very similar to the Wendat, they were renowned for their cultivation of large quantities of high-quality tobacco, a valuable commodity for trade and ceremony. They lived in a confederacy of eight or nine villages and were divided into two primary groups, the Deer and the Wolf clans.

Occupying a large swath of territory in the Niagara Peninsula and southwestern Ontario were the people of the Neutral Confederacy. The French called them "Neutrals" because of their initial position of neutrality in the long-standing conflict between the Wendat and the powerful Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, whose territory lay south and east of Lake Ontario. The Wendat, whose language was different, called them the Attawandaron, meaning "people who speak a slightly different language." The Neutrals were a large and powerful confederacy of up to ten distinct groups, controlling a vital source of flint from quarries near Lake Erie, a resource essential for making stone tools and weapons. One of their largest groups was known as the Chonnonton, or "keepers of the deer," perhaps because they actively managed deer populations for hunting.

South of Lake Ontario, the five nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy—the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca—were a formidable political and military power. Forged under a constitution known as the Great Law of Peace, their confederacy brought an end to internal conflict and created one of the most influential Indigenous political bodies in North American history. While their heartland was in what is now New York State, their influence, trade networks, and hunting parties frequently extended into southern Ontario, where they sometimes clashed with the Wendat and their allies.

The spiritual life of these Iroquoian peoples was rich and complex. They understood the world as being inhabited by powerful spirits, and they held a deep reverence for the forces of nature. Their cosmology told of a Sky Woman, Aataentsic, who fell to a world covered in water and landed on the back of a great turtle, upon which the earth was built. This creation story is why many Indigenous peoples refer to North America as Turtle Island. Ceremonies tied to the agricultural calendar, such as the Green Corn Ceremony, were central to community life, giving thanks for the sustenance the earth provided.

While the agricultural societies transformed the south, the vast, rugged expanse of the Canadian Shield and the boreal forest to the north remained the domain of Algonquian-speaking peoples, including the ancestors of the Ojibwe, Cree, Odawa, and Algonquin. The climate and landscape of the north precluded agriculture, so these groups continued to live a mobile lifestyle based on hunting, fishing, and gathering. They moved in small family groups, following the seasonal availability of game like moose and deer, fish, berries, and wild rice. Their spiritual beliefs were deeply tied to the animals and the landscape they depended on. Archaeological evidence suggests people have lived in the Ottawa Valley, the traditional territory of the Algonquin, for at least 8,000 years.

These northern and southern worlds were not isolated from each other. An extensive and ancient network of trade and kinship connected the Iroquoian farmers with the Algonquian hunters. The river and lake systems served as highways for this commerce. Cornmeal and tobacco from the south were exchanged for furs, dried fish, and copper from the north. These relationships were not just economic; they were also social and political, often cemented by alliances and intermarriage. The Wendat, in particular, were masterful traders, their villages serving as major hubs where goods from as far away as the Gulf of Mexico could be found.

By the end of the sixteenth century, the land that would become Ontario was a dynamic and populated place. It was a land of sophisticated agricultural confederacies with bustling villages and extensive fields in the south, and a land of resilient hunter-gatherer societies intimately adapted to the rhythms of the northern forests. It was a continent connected by intricate networks of trade, diplomacy, and conflict. These were the societies whose histories had already unfolded over thousands of years, and who would soon face a new and unprecedented era of change with the arrival of the first Europeans.