Ontario

The name "Ontario" is derived from the Iroquois word for "shining waters." The province is immense, nearly half a million square miles, from the bustling Great Lakes to the sparsely-populated wilderness of Hudson Bay. It is a province of big cities and family farms, factories and native crafts, miners, loggers, and computer programmers.

Toronto

This city of 3.5 million is the heart of English Canada. A good place to start exploring the city is Yonge Street, "the longest street in the world." This artery starts on the shore of Lake Ontario and stretches 1,000 miles north, under various names, into the Canadian wilderness. In Toronto, Yonge is a shopper's delight, offering a range of items from the funky to the fabulous. A few block from Yonge is the 1,815-foot tall CN Tower, the tallest freestanding structure in the world. From the revolving restaurant and observation tower, visitors can see more than 50 miles. Near Queen's Park and the University of Toronto, one finds the Sigmund Samuel Canadiana Gallery, devoted to art and antiques, the McLaughlin Planetarium, and the city's most fascinating tourist attraction, the Royal Canadian Museum. This facility contains nearly five million human artifacts, fossils, and gems, and has a huge collection of material from China, including a Ming Dynasty Tomb.

Ottawa

Queen Victoria chose the site of the new Dominion of Canada in the mid-nineteenth century. Her choice pleased no one -- the French Canadians had lobbied for Quebec City, and those of English heritage wanted either Toronto of Kingston. By that simple decision, sleepy little Bytown was transformed into Ottawa, a world capital. A good place to start a tour of Ottawa is at the Peace Tower, a neo-Gothic structure that rises nearly 300 feet above Ottawa's Parliament complex. Every day during the summer, if the weather allows it, visitors can see soldiers wearing red coats and bearskin hats change the guard in a ceremony not unlike the one that takes place at Buckingham Palace in London.

Southern Ontario

The area bordered by Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie offers visitors a rich variety of activities for the visitor, including battle sites from the American forays into Canada during the War of 1812, and automobile manufacturing plants at Oshawa and Hamilton. Fans of auto racing might want to visit Mosport, home of the Grand Prix of Canada.