Regions and Cities of Northern Ontario

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Region and Cities of Northern Ontario

Northern Ontario has considerable variety in its surface features but, for the most part, it offers little encouragement to the spread of human population. Consequently a map of geographical regions exhibits a great deal of neutral or unorganized space. The recognizable regions are small areas upon which man has placed the impress of a cultural landscape. They are not to be considered as static regions, however, for in some cases they are quite capable of enlargement and may even now have developed a considerable sphere of influence in the neutral territory.

In sparsely populated areas, such as Northern Ontario, a site must have great geographical advantages to attract sufficient population to form a city. Such advantages are to be found at important transportation nodes, such as railway junctions or points of transfer between land and water carriers. Cities may also develop in important mining fields. Forest exploitation may be the mainstay of small towns and may contribute to the development of large cities, but no large cities have arisen solely as a result of lumbering or pulp manufacture.

The cities of Northern Ontario: Sudbury, Fort William, Sault Ste. Marie, Port Arthur, and North Bay. Timmins is a town while Kirkland Lake remains under the administration of the rural township of Teck. Smaller urban centres include Kenora, Fort Frances, Sturgeon Falls, Copper Cliff, Kapuskasing, Cochrane, Geraldton, New Liskeard, Blind River, Cobalt, Haileybury, Coniston and Mattawa.

All of these towns and many smaller ones which might be mentioned tie within the confines of the small regions of Northern Ontario. Some of them, especially the larger ones, may be considered as regional nuclei or capitals. In some cases there may be some doubt as to which city is the actual centre of influence in the region, for, as regions and cities mature, certain adjustments take place. There are also some towns and many smaller settlements which lie within the great outer region of Northern Ontario. Such centres may have arisen at railway division points, ports, mines or centres of forest exploitation. Their ties may be less with the nearest regional centre than with the distant cities of Southern Ontario.