Southwestern Ontario Ontario

Southwestern Ontario is a region of the Canadian province of Ontario, centred on the city of London. It extends north to south from Lake Huron to Lake Erie, and east to west roughly from Kitchener to Windsor. Other cities in the region are Ingersoll, Sarnia, St. Thomas, Stratford, Woodstock Owen Sound. Some definitions reach eastward to as far as Brantford, Guelph or Orangeville, but more recently these cities and towns are included in the growing Greater Golden Horseshoe region. Southwestern Ontario constitutes the western portion of the original province (i.e., the south), which was first settled (Upper Canada).

The region may also be referred to as Western Ontario, particularly in the names of institutions such as the University of Western Ontario. This term is falling into disuse, however. Western Ontario may also designate all the counties of southwestern Ontario except Essex, Kent, and Lambton - that is, the region of which London, Ontario is the central city. Western Ontario was so called because until Ontario expanded in 1912 to incorporate Northern Ontario, Western Ontario was the western part of the province, or at least of the area that was settled.

Southwestern Ontario is a prosperous agricultural region whose chief crops are tobacco, sweetcorn, soybean, winter wheat and tomatoes. Dairy and beef farming, breeding and training of standardbred horses and wine growing and production are also important industries.

Much of Southwestern Ontario was part of the Talbot Settlement, and the region has benefited from the settlement's facilitation of agriculture and of trade in general.

Area Links