Northern Ontario

Northern Ontario is a geographic and administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario. The geographic region lies north of Lake Huron (including Georgian Bay), the French River, Lake Nipissing, and the Mattawa River. The administrative region has several boundaries further south that vary according to federal and provincial government policies and requirements. The geographic region (which for census purposes, includes a part of Nipissing District that lies south of the Mattawa River) has a land area of 802,000 km2 (310,000 mi2) and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it contains only about 6% of the population. Most of Northern Ontario is situated on the Canadian Shield, a vast rocky plateau. The climate is characterized by extremes of temperature, extremely cold in winter and hot in summer. The principal industries are mining, forestry, and hydroelectricity.

For some purposes, Northern Ontario is further subdivided into Northeastern and Northwestern Ontario. When the region is divided in this way, the three westernmost districts (Rainy River, Kenora and Thunder Bay) constitute "Northwestern Ontario" and the other districts constitute "Northeastern Ontario." Northeastern Ontario contains two thirds of Northern Ontario's population.

In the early 20th century, Northern Ontario was often called "New Ontario", although this name fell into disuse because of its colonial connotations. (In French, however, the region may still be referred to as Nouvel Ontario, although le Nord de l'Ontario and Ontario-Nord are also used.)

The people of Northern Ontario have a strong sense of identity separate from Southern Ontario. There have been movements in the past for the region to separate from the rest of Ontario, all of which have failed. It is economically, politically, geographically, and socially vastly different from the rest of the province. Some organizations effectively treat it as a province — for instance, it is the only provincial or territorial subregion in Canada that sends its own team to the Brier separately from its province.