North to Canada! Part One

Once I almost visited Windsor, Ontario, Canada.  Daughter #8, Jeannie, and her husband lived in the Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. area.  We visited the big city of Detroit, went downtown to the island park in the middle of the Detroit River, and had a grand time. It was December and I had never before seen ice floes in a river.  They pointed across the river and said, "There's Canada."  I had no idea it was so close!  We planned on visiting at another time but, alas, they moved south.  I never had the occasion to travel that far north since then.

Thus, I will make my first acquaintance with Ontario through the pages of the National Geographic Magazine.  A writer familiar to me, Frederick Simpich, writes in the August, 1932, issue, Ontario, Next Door: Alert, Energetic, and Resourceful, Its British Pluck and Skill in Arts and Trades Gain for This Province a High Place Under the Union Jack.

"Ontario. . . is the heart of Canada. Here lives a third of all the Dominion's people. Here is more than a third of all Canadian wealth," (p. 131).

In 1932, Canada was part of the British Commonwealth of Nations which also included Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, the Union of South Africa and the Irish Free State with representation from India.  The Province of Ontario is directly north of the American states of Michigan, Ohio and New York, with its southern boundary the Great Lakes.  In 2014, although Canada is independent, it is still a voluntary member of the British Commonwealth which includes 53 nations.

"Exceeded by other provinces in forestry and fisheries only, Ontario takes first place in farming, trapping, mining, electrical power, banking and manufacturing," (p. 133).  The British and the French were the most numerous settlers in Canada but the British system of Parliament rules the land.  Although much of Canada is bilingual, east of Ontario, French is the dominant language and in Ontario, English is commonly spoken.  There were other immigrants from many other European and Asian countries.  The primary impetus for the settling of Canada was the fur trade from trapping and the Christianizing of the Native Canadians.

The city of Ottawa in eastern Ontario is the capital of Canada.  "Ask any question you will about Canada's history, its people, or industries, and Ottawa can answer.  It is packed as thick as Washington with government offices," (p. 149).  As you can imagine, Canada's history is closely intertwined with our American history.

In the northern back country of Ontario in 1932, there were many areas inaccessible by roads.  "The canoe in summer and the dog sled in winter are the chief forms of transport in the wilder parts of Ontario," (photo caption, p. 153).

There  must have been an incredible array of wildlife in the open country of Ottawa, in 1932 and now.  Mr. Simpich reports a conversation he engaged in with two other passengers on a train.  "The first time I rode this line," said one of them, "the conductor stopped the train so passengers could watch three wolves chasing a moose across a frozen lake," (p. 155).

We will report on the rest of this long article in the next blog, beginning with "Minerals."