One major obvious part that was missed is the Canadian shield is granite and lakes. You can't build cities on lakes and it's extremely expensive to blast granite to make roads and level the ground for cities. Power lines are above ground and plumbing becomes difficult since it's very difficulty to put sewers in underground but they'll freeze above. Septic systems don't work well with high population densities. There are many small towns in the shield (usually mining or forestry) but there are also a high amount of secondary homes. This is a very popular cottage country. The amount of people in the area is significantly higher in July than January.
@janellegodin2934: :::; most BS, ever heard not the arctic circle here... statement is ridiculous unless thinking of the arctic ...sault ste marie canada and sault ste marie USA are just across a river from each other do you think the arctic starts on the canadian side .. Distance between Sault Ste. Marie, Canada and the Arctic Circle is 2231 km = 1387 miles.
Actually Northern Ontario is one of the best kept secrets in north america. The mining sector pays extremely well and the cost of housing is low. Most people's houses are paid for and they usually have a nice sized property with a detached garage/ mancave. They have skidoos, side by sides, boats, travel trailers, etc.., Northern life is the best!! Especially if you are an outdoors man/woman. Great hunting, fishing, trapping.
When I was up there for a few years, drinking seemed to be the most popular hobby, and everything other hobby was something to do while drinking, even while operating various kinds motorized vehicles like skidoos and boats.
I love in northern Ontario. I use to live in the GTA and honestly I could not be happier that I moved up here, very very small population, no huge cities, cheaper houses and cleaner air! Honestly it's the BEST!
I was born there & lives 30 + yrs in the city of Thunder Bay. It is a very closed city when it comes to employment. If you know friends or family, you have a "leg up" on the competition. Yes houses are cheaper than TO, but most cities are cheaper than TO (The Big Smoke). The city is in the middle of Nowhere. 8 hrs from Winnipeg; 8 hrs from Sault Ste Marie; 7hrs from Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.; 18 hrs from Toronto.( In the middle of nowhere.). If you like Camping; Fishing; Hunting; & your a part of the Freedom Convoy; u will fit in well with the locals. No Immigrants allowed.
Northern ON (and Canadian landscapes more generally) has absolutely inspired artists! I'd love to see you do a video on the Group of Seven (and Emily Carr for West Coast rep lol)
PLEASE don't tell anyone how fabulous NW Ontario is.We don't want it to get more populated! It's an incredibly beautiful area, particularly just west of Thunder Bay. Full of lakes and trees, (including the massive Lake Superior). 5 minutes from my house I can catch any kind of fish you can imagine. I have a garden and grow vegetables, I think they are talking about commercial farming....because most everyone I know has a garden plot..... Up until very recently I lived on 131 acres in an unorganized township, and paid 29 grand for it in 1998. As far as I am concerned, I'd like to get rid of a few thousand people, haha. It's a fabulous place to live if you like the outdoors, wildlife, fishing, hunting and exploring.
I live in Northern Ontario, it is beautiful and peaceful... I have no problems growing vegetable gardens the soil is rich in minerals.... maybe it isn't good for large scale agriculture because of the longer winters.... because the soil itself is good.... just look at all the trees, water and nature here.
We retired to Sault Ste Marie in Northern Ontario. It's beautiful and yes, our Amazon packages get here next day! We love it here, the people are very diversified. Our older kids were raised in Sudbury, the "Toronto of the North" and we loved it there too. We were born and lived in Southern Ontaro and much prefer it in the north. Lots to do and great community.
My grand-mother was a Finish-Canadian from Sudbury. I visited there with my family 2-3 times when I was a child, before my Finish great-grand-mother died. You can find the largest 5 cent coin there, named the "Big Nickel".
The Hudson Bay played an important part in the development of Canada due to the fur trade. We were taught about the Canadian Shield at school. Seeing it in person up close is pretty impressive. At one point in recent history the rail line to the north was wiped out in a flood in the bog. It took months for the various departments to get it together to get it fixed. They often get groceries flown in which makes them VERY expensive.
It took months because the rail company didn't want to pay for repairing it... and they had neglected maintenance for years. It took the goverment paying for it for the greedy execs to do anything about it.
Hey Tyler! Just putting this out there - I live in Sudbury and have my whole life! It (and Northern Ontario as a whole) is a beautiful place with hundreds of lakes in the city limits and a thriving northern arts and culture scene. We have several post-secondary institutions (my alma mater, Laurentian University, Cambrian College, and College Boreal), and the people are really nice overall. My mom lived in southern Ontario for a long time, so I've visited it alot and don't get me wrong - I also really love the south for its own reasons - but my heart will always belong to the North. :)
I live in Thunder Bay on the North Shore of Lake superior. I wouldn’t live anywhere else. I love the open spaces, the fresh air, the easy proximity to lakes and forests. Tourists who come here enjoy rock and ice climbing, fishing, water sports, camping, hunting, hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, and much more. We also have a symphony and a state of the art auditorium. The arts community is small but vital. There’s always something to do no matter what your interests are. I grow both flowers and vegetables in my yard. The only setback being a short growing season, which is pretty common across Canada. Whenever I holiday in a big city I miss the sky and the quiet and I’m always happy to return home.
I have been a Forest Fire Fighter 33 years I’ve been every corner of Northern Ontario,Good fishing lots of black flies mosquitoes I enjoyed the experience meeting many people in my time doing it.
@miketomasini346 From your experience, should we worry about an increase in forest fires due to drought conditions in Northern Ontario. I live in the Golden Horseshoe and last summer, air quality was poor sometimes due to forest fires in Quebec. Thank you
@@RedRose-il8xj I am interested in @miketomasini's answer too (I suspect he might be happy about all the money he made last summer :-). I would like to offer my own perspective. I was a support worker on a fire base in Red Lake Ontario in the early 1990's and then a silviculture worker for four summers out of Armstrong ON. I have lived in several other northern locales. I found the coverage of last summer's forest fires myopic. It is worth considering that southern Ontario and Quebec were deforested first and that deforestation has expanded northerly over time. Forest fires are a natural part of the life cycle of a forest and indeed are key to the regeneration of many species including blueberries and jack pine. The fact that there was enough fuel (ie regenerated forests) in places like the Ottawa Valley and central Quebec (seen from the south as "northern" should likely be taken as a good sign- it means that forest lands have recovered from early logging sufficiently that they can demonstrate their natural life cycle. I will add that I was confused by all the panic down here (I now live in the South) about the smoke. Of course people with respiratory problems need to be careful but if people in the North cancel life every time there is smoke, they simply wouldn't have a life. Smoke in the summer is like snow in the winter- you need to figure out how to live with it. Forgive me if this sounds judgy but I often think that people in the more populated parts of Canada often panic unnecessarily because they are so disconnected/ protected from nature. The perception down here is skewed. Forests engaging in their natural behaviour is cause for celebration.
@@timmclerk9838 Thank you for your input. I live in the Golden Horseshoe region and I really noticed the strong scent of smoke originating from forest fires last summer. I was surprised that it lasted for so many days. Perhaps air quality also worsened when coupled with pollutants from industrial areas. Not sure how weather patterns played a role. For those of us who suffer with chronic lung disease / asthma, it's a real concern. Thank you for taking the time to share your perspective! Much appreciated
The shield is also the reason we almost never get earthquakes in Quebec (and I would guess Ontario as well) and when we do they NEVER are of any dangerous strength because the shockwaves gets dissipated into the entire rocky shield. In fact Quebec is pretty much one of the best place on earth for protection against natural disasters! Earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes are pretty much inexistant. Of course if you live really near to shore you can get flooding in spring if the snow melts really fast but that’s about it..
@@brenthenderson3983 those are pretty rare (at least problematic ones) and don’t really do much damage except to some trees and making roads slippery. But sure I guess it’s a possible “disaster” like with the huge one in 1998
Although we rarely have noticeable earthquakes in Québec, all refit and new institutional construction (hospitals and schools) have most of their mechanical equipment tied in place, paraseismic ready.
That's not accurate at all. Quebec is the 2nd province in the country most susceptible to massive earthquakes after BC. There's been many major earthquakes in the past, 5 of which ranked higher than 6 on the Richter scale. There's a 15% probability to have another one in the next 50 years. If it were to happen in a densely-populated area it would be devastating. Not only lots of people would die, but Quebec's economy would take a massive blow. Only 4% of home insurance policy holder have an earthquake protection as people either believe they're cover or at low risk. The Charlevoix region is known for it's seismic activity, Kamouraska, along the Ottawa River, etc... The faults are along the Canadian Shield, so along the St-Lawrence River. Just google it, read the Insurance Bureau website and the seismic maps.
Around here in Sault Ste. Marie the weather hasn't been so bad of late. I remenber when I was a kid it snowed from the start of November right thru December everyday. After that it just got cold, like for a few weeks it got down to below -40c for one winter around here. It is a good tourist spot as well. The famous Group of Seven painted alot of landscapes around here. Don't forget the Algoma train ride that runs from June til October. Then you got the Algoma Steel Mill that gets the iron ore from the good state of Minnaesota. Its ok to live here and have a family. The landscape is great in just 10 mins you are in the bush. With the wild bears the come into city once in while and sometime moose as well.
Im from Pickle Lake, Ontario. Farthest north year-round town you can drive to in the province, with a population of 300 people. Your video was good, i enjoyed it. Its beautiful up here. The fishing is great, very few people like you mentioned 1000 times haha. Its abandoned gold mines around here. The industry is a lot of prospecting and aviation. Lots of fly-in reservations further north that need basic goods. The Trans Canada Highway along the north coast of Lake Superior is beautiful, worth a trip.
I've taken the train through that region and it is a long ride. When people found out that I was taking the train from my home province of Nova Scotia to Vancouver, they told me that when the train hits the Prairies, it will be very long and boring. I did not find that as the train seem to take forever to get through Ontario. When we the Prairies, they went by fast and before I knew it, I was in Jasper, seeing the mountains for the first time. There are many place in Northern Ontario where the train will stop to let off or let on hunters as it is one of the few ways to get to their camps, unless their is a lake where they can flay a float plane in. There are many Native reservations along the way as well. Many of the natives will stand beside the tracks and when the train stops, they sell water and food to the passengers.
That train ride is around two days from Toronto to Winnipeg, and another day from Winnipeg to Edmonton, then another day to Vancouver. The portion through the prairies is relatively low grade, with wide curves. The main impediment on that portion is the heavy freight traffic. The Ontario and BC portions, however, are long drags.
I live in Sudbury and I love it up here. To be fair some of it can be rough....black flies for sure but I saw 283 moose this year so if you are outdoorsy this is heaven
I live in Northern Ontario, Thunder Bay to be exact. I wouldnt live anywhere else. The outdoors is our playground. World class fishing and hunting in my backyard. The winters arent that bad, the summers are perfect 20-35c not to hot but hot enough. I love it.
@@TheTwilightKing-zt7dl lol, I love on the edge of a dense forest and to keep my kids out of it I tell them stories of the wendigo. I don't know if I am traumatizing them or I am keeping the legends going, OR both.
The northern most road (Hwy 11) that serves Kapuskasing, Smooth Rock Falls, Cochrane, (and don't forget Hearst) is about as high north as you can go by car. It was a 12 hour drive from southern Ontario (non-stop). You have to take the train to Moosonee. Most of this area served the pulp and paper industry in the past, and towns are slowly fading away. The only hope will be mining in the future. You are into the "Belt" area that only coniferous tree grow and there are no deciduous trees. I was up in the area about 40 years ago for my friends wedding. Minus 50 in the winter is nothing, the shocks on your car can literally freeze, and a block heater is a necessity. Great if your a trapper, hunter or fisherman. Black files will eat you alive in summer and mosquitoes are just as bad. Lots of fresh air though.
Don't forget Stompin' Tom "Sudbury Saturday Nights" =) I grew up in Elliot Lake and then moved to Sudbury with my family when the mines in EL were shut down, when I was 16. I've since moved moved to Michigan (got married to an American, 18 years in now) but my Home and heart is still in Northern Ontario. Its a long drive, but I need to do it at least once a year, its mostly for Thanksgiving when I can see the most family members as the ones who've moved away come Home as well.
There are three parts of Canada that are mostly empty. The tiny rockies, the obvious arctic, and the shield. Northern Ontario (and northern Michigan) are where the shield dips farthest into what would otherwise be decent land. The big thing to remember is how HUGE this is. It takes us 12 hours to drive across this gap. Northern Ontario is bigger than Texas or Scandinavia or Ukraine. It's more than half the size of Alaska. And Northern Quebec is more of the same, just without the clear boundaries of the lakes.
Videos like the one you watched piss me off a bit actually... When the dude in the video names the settlements to the 'west' of the Canadian Shield, he names Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver.... and completely skips over the entire province of Saskatchewan. As if we don't exist. That's how it goes though.... I mean we only have about 40% of Canada's farmland, supply over 80% of Canada's durum wheat crop, and are a globally recognized food producer, and world's largest exporter of peas, lentils, durum wheat, mustard seed, canola, flaxseed and oats. Also a massive supplier of oil and natural gas. rich uranium deposits and even diamonds! But yeah, typical, no one recognizes the farmers, the miners.... I mean they only keep the country fed, and supplied with oil and minerals. Why bother including them in a list of cities in western Canada. It's not like were an entire province of near a million people, with our own Capital City or anything.... we don't see representation when it comes to elections or federal recognition either. We are used to it.
I can understand your frustration, but I think the guy was focused more on major population centres of a half million or more, and Saskatchewan doesn't have any that large.
Oh we recognize you, it's just more fun to make jokes about it being such a flatland that you can watch your dog run away for four days 😂. (On the serious side as an Albertan I feel your pain bud, the federal government has been doing the same to us for as long as anyone can remember. They consider the entire western half of Canada a joke not worth thinking about. Remember once the prime minister of our country, when asked what he would say to western Canadians who disappeared with his controversial,and let's face it patently illegal at the time, national energy program legislation flippyus all the bird on national television. It's a disgrace.
Last year, I visited 1 province outside Alberta... Saskatchewan. I totally understand how people overlook it, but there is some very beautiful areas out there.
You have to remember, three of those four cities have a metro are population larger than the entire population of Saskatchewan. Even Winnipeg's metro is larger then Saskatoon's and Regina's combined. They also didn't mention Victoria which would be the next largest metro in the west, beating out Saskatoon by a moderate amount.
Québec is 2.33 times larger than Texas and has a bigger area that is mostly uninhabited than Ontarion ever did and ever will : Nord-Du-Québec, population ~ 46 000 for a total landmass of 839 000 km² vs. a population of over 780 000 for a total landmass of 806 708 km² in northern Ontario. 17 times less people than "Canada's empty belt" 😂
@@gustru2078But it's not as obviously distinct as Northern Ontario. There's also a few places where the population jumps dramatically as you cross from Ontario to Quebec. So it seems like Northern Ontario is more empty.
@@tristanridley1601 By "dramatically", you mean Abitibi-Témiscamingue? That's further south but still, its population is only 146k. It's less than 200k with both regions combined.
It does not mean that you cannot grow food. My brother grew all his food and canned it. So individual gardens, perhaps its just not viable for large food production gardens? My dad was a hunter and fishing guide in the north.
it's not fertile enough to handle commercial farms is what it meant. Subsistence farming can be done in many more places than sustained commercial farming.
I live in South Porcupine which is north eastern ON. A problem is that the government is over saturating the south with the large companies and factories and housing, where Northern ON gets little funding. Mining is huge here because of the Canadian shield. People don't know what they are missing by not coming north! Glad I get to enjoy the beauty of our country.
I grew up in Iroquois Falls and went to college at the Porcupine Northern campus. I do NOT miss the winters there, lol (I've lived in the GTA for 25 years now). I still remember playing on the stone ruins behind the drive-in A&W when I was a kid and going to The Fish Bowl restaurant near the Timmins Square. You always knew you were close to Timmins when you saw the buffalo at the mine.
@Terrorific_tray, 🐈I found you on the map. You are near Timmins. Exactly half way between Baie James and the Great Huron or Superior Lakes. 🐾 _Montréal 🇨🇦_
@irondogqueen The fish Bowl is still there. And the Buffalo have been gone for years. Totally different living then in the GTA. I've lived in the Niagara region and still prefer living here. Just so much cleaner. But I do miss being so close to the large cities and all they have to offer.
Ah! I have a friend that lived in Porcupine many many years, now in Haileybury. I've looked into visiting but public transportation doesn't service the journey well from southern Ontario.
Grew up in this area and have to say, the Shield is distinct and the landscape is gorgeous. The video shows a lot of mining devastation or pristine forest (but not much in between), but find examples of where the forests meet the exposed stone and lakes. The solitary feel of trees growing atop stone mountains and rich, fertile areas around untouched lakes. As some others have suggested, the "Group of Seven" did some great work portraying the area in their art. Also, as to why so much of the population stuck so close to the Southern border...where the U.S. had wagon trains and much later the railroads to bring people into the open interior, Canada had a giant waterway to facilitate trade all along the Great Lakes, from traders loading hundreds of pounds of fur pelts onto canoes, to shipping centers loading grain, ore and other resources onto ships bound for the metropolitan areas or transfer for overseas destinations. Camps, forts and towns grew in convenient locations, right on the lakes. But leave the lakes and you run into the Shield, and good luck getting your wagon across that 200 years ago.
I used to live in the city of North Bay (not mentioned in the video)several hours north of Toronto. The air is so fresh, my garden was good, we didn't lack anything for shopping. Winters were cold, but sunny and bright. Lots of tourism in summer. My family was military so we got posted out, sad to leave but have many wonderful memories of the friendly neighbours and beautiful scenery.
As someone who lives in Thunder bay and works all over Northern Ontario all the way up to Hudson's bay. I can confirm, it is harsh. the winters are even more so, and at times the only way to transport goods is over ice roads. It does take a certain type to love it here... and yes. my backyard is more or less endless. bountiful wildlife, and resources. living here and other places in Canada similar to it, we survive and live by helping each other.We are Proud of our communities and heritage ( yes, i own more then one running chainsaw and lumber mill. yes, I wear a lot of plaid, its both comfortable and great fashion. no, I don't want to live somewhere else.)
I’m Canadian and I didn’t even know about the Canadian Shield or the fact very few people live further north in Ontario. I’m in my 40s and it’s not something I learned in school…so this was educational for me as well ❤❤❤
It's some of the most rough mountainous terrain found in North America, there's basically only a two lane highway for a 2 full day drive, all through mountains. It would be so expensive to build a modern highway through it to allow typical access via car. I just did that exact drive this summer 5 times while moving from Southern ontario, to Saskatchewan. It's beautiful, but it takes forever, and the road is rough in some spots, it will literally kill your car if you're carrying any weight, like most tourists do. It can be so dangerous, with how rural, and alone you could be if you break down.
We lived in Northern Ontario for 12 years. We had about 5 acres of bush property on a lake 100 km NW of New Liskeard. Lots of people had seasonal cottages in the area, where they would come up in the summer. With all the lakes and forest, it was popular for fishing and hunting. Agriculture is not non-existent. There were lots of farmers growing corn and canola, as well as forage crops for the animal farms. We moved to SW Ontario because it became more work than we wanted to do to maintain the property as we were getting older. We were also tired of feet of snow from December through May. It was a different kind of lifestyle, and I'm glad we experienced it.
I've gone to fishing lodges about 150 miles north of Lake Superior 8 times. It's beautiful and wild but, the nearest grocery store or gas station is about 160 miles away. Since it's very remote, things are very expensive. I really love this area and keep getting drawn back to it. My girlfriend and I will spend some time there this coming summer. I live in Toronto but, when I'm in northern Ontario, I feel more part of God's creation. It's real, not like the big city.
As a 'golden horseshoe' resident I've not heard the term "Canada's empty belt", and I would I categorize Manitoba as central not west. In case you wonder, Toronto/GTA's population is 6,372,000 million.
As someone who’s born raised and continues to live in northern Ontario, a couple things. 1. Indigenous people still live here. 2. The pace of life is a bit slower and not so busy city esque. 3. Tourism - Hunting, fly-in-fishing, wilderness exploration /camping etc, and “Group of Seven” painters/ scenery are all promoting tourism. 4. Amazon packages come within the week (no next-day shipping).
Amazing video Tyler! I was born and raised up in Sudbury, home to most of the toughest hockey players from Ontario! so this made my day! Keep them coming!
Sounded and looked a lot like home to me. Northern Ontario has strong ties to the Finnish community. The Thunder Bay District represents the highest proportion of people with Finnish ethnic origin in all of Canada (11 %): "Monocle Films Finns of Thunder Bay". Also, Toronto City Hall was designed by a Finnish architect Viljo Revell. Same neck of the woods on the US side: "Michigan's Upper Peninsula An Authentic Finnish Sauna". There was Finnish immigrant communities elsewhere in Canada too, in similar conditions: "CBC News: The National Dreams of Sointula". Finns got along and mixed with the Indigenous peoples of North America, mainly the Ojibwe, which resulted to the group of people called Findians: "indians | FINNISH AMERICAN INDIANS". The problems the Finnish immigrants ran into: "Italian Hall Disaster 1913 | Footprints of Stampede Disaster" and "How the Finns became White (in America)". There's certain irony in one of the oldest log cabins in the US having been built by the Finns and the Gateway Arch having been designed by a Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen: "Why is the Oldest Finnish Log Cabin in New Jersey?" and "Detroit Designs the World | Eero Saarinen". Goes together with a Finnish war hero becoming also an American war hero, and having a character based on him being played by John Wayne, a tried-and-true cowboy, with an allegiance to and an affinity for Western culture in all its forms: "Törni - Sotilaan tarina (A Soldier's Story) English Subtitles. And where else would the US offer to evacuate the Finnish population to, if not to Alaska: "Mandelin Finns in North America". If that would have actually happened: "Runki Pettersson Operation Alaska". Also in Sweden and Norway there's a group of immigrant Finns and their descent known as the Forest Finns: "Karl Skartveit Fremmed blod". Matt Damon might not be that pleased to have discovered about his Finnish ancestry, but it somehow does explains why he went to March and got left behind there to grow his potatoes: "Finland is looking for Matt Damon. Has anyone seen him?" and "The Martian | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX".
I grew up in Sault Ste. Marie ON. It's a beautiful place! I'd love to see you do a video on the Sault and the Agawa Canyon. It's a great place for outdoorsy people and there are also a lot of artists living in and around the area. (Algoma District)
Water and granite. Ontario alone has 250,000 lakes containing about one-fifth of the world's fresh water. Mix that with the granite of the Canadian Shield, it's almost impossible to build roads. Canada was populated along the waterways. Firstly, down the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes - which also contained the best farm land, then further westward once roads and rails were built. It was easier to build and farm in Southern Canada, from the East Coast to the West Coast.
There are serious transportation issues for Northern Ontario. The few roads and rail lines that do exist support the small towns established for mining or logging. Tourism in the north is mostly summer based for hunting and fishing, with lodges sporadically located on lakes and rivers. Many are accessible only by aircraft and many of the few roads are inaccessible during winter.
Immediately after I typed that comment below, there was a 15 second time frame of the video played before he felt the need to interrupt it once again. Bravo Tyler bravo!
Canadian Shield is an ancient worn down mountain range, so there is only the bases of the mountains left, but it's hard rock. It's also extremely old: 2.6-3.6 billion years old.
A lot of the Canadian Shield is moose pasture. When the Canadian Pacific Railway was built, the Canadian Shield was practically the toughest stretch of land for the navvies to build on. The parts above water were hard rock, mostly granite. The parts below water were... under water. ======================== Thinking of the Canadian Pacific Railway, you might be interested in "The National Dream", an 8-Part CBC TV series released in 1974 and narrated by Pierre Berton. It's a fascinating story and available on UA-cam.
TL;DR: Ice age. Canada was covered in glaciers, which pulverized and crushed the center of Canada, especially as the glaciation began melting (creating the Great Lakes and Hudson's Bay as a direct consequence of massive melt offs). The resulting, modern landscape of central Ontario is subsequently very, very rocky, as there hasn't been much time (since the end of the last glacial maximum/height of our current ice age) for new soil to be developed on top of the scraped-bare rockface. Enough soil to develop to primordial forests, but it's really just rock beneath those trees. The shield landscape is, for all intents and purposes, very, very young geography that hasn't had the benefit of millions of years of ecological accumulation with which to erode the shield's rock-face and develop soils and organic microbiomes. The shield landscape is a very young, almost primordial ecosphere, relative to other landscapes that haven't been scoured and wiped clean by glaciers. It has very, very little soil at all, that's the main issue. It's not fit for much besides growing very austere, robust evergreens whose entire ecological niche is colonizing once-barren landscapes (and eventually transitioning into other ecological types as the forests grow, die, and in turn contribute to soil mass generation). Basically it all just comes down to dirt, and it's quality (which is more or less directly correlated to it's quantity). Edmonton, conversely, is cold for a large part of the year, but when it's not cold it has *very, very viable farmland,* enabling a high local population before relying on extensive foreign agricultural imports (which are essential in Canada, but also very expensive, given the vast distances that food imports must travel to reach locals).
I live in Northern Ontario in a small town and I get my Amazon packages the next day. I live on the Vermilion river and love the natural surroundings and enjoy kayaking right from my front door. Also the poor soil means the most amazing wild blueberries every summer.
We live in eastern MB about 45 mins from the ON border in the transitional area between the Prairies and the Whiteshell. Spent every summer of childhood at our family cabin on Lake of the Woods. It’s a magical area. I would imagine lots of the tourism is around hunting and fishing. Beautiful cabin country.
For those of us in Southern Ontario, the more southern parts of the shield represent “cottage country” and summer vacations spend fishing and boating. When driving north you’ll suddenly start to see rock cuts along the side of the road where the rock has been blasted out to make the road much flatter, then you know that you’ve entered shield country. When the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway was being constructed in the late 1800’s it was the areas in Ontario north of Superior that gave them the most trouble along with the Rocky Mountains. There were significant areas of muskeg and swampy conditions where they could pour in thousands of tons of rock to form a bed for the tracks only to have it dissapear.
It is northern wilderness, it's usually a 2 to 3 hr drive between towns. Basically after Sault Saint Marie it's 6 hrs to the next city of Thunder Bay, and then 8 hrs to Winnipeg, either a few small towns in between. Cell phone service is sporadic at best.
A lot of the territory that you mention is First Nations Reserves.....not available for to the General Population. All along the shore of James Bay, for example, on both sides are Tribal lands. As well, most of the arable land is in the south. The North of Ontario, for example, is mainly ROCK. The 'tree line' in the north, is where TREES STOP GROWING....it's like somebody drew a line along the ground......seeing it is amazing.
We try to keep our existence a secret. This area has the most beautiful scenery, lots of wildlife, little pollution and friendly people. It can take almost 30 hours to drive across the province from Quebec to Manitoba.
Northern Ontario is so unique. People that have moved there would never leave. The cost of living is crazy high because of no farms for fresh produce. Honestly, the majority of the population there is indigenous. There is a huge national park there called Algonquin Park that many people travel to who enjoy camping in the summer.
That's Northeastern Ontario....there's another one in NW Ontario near Atikokan that's even betterIt's called Quetico. You might not see anyone for days!
The peak of the last ice age was 21,000 years ago and continued to cover the Canadian Shield 14,500 years ago. One can only imagine the ice sheet, which was up to 2.5 miles thick, that advanced from the Arctic, southward into the northern U.SA. to places like Ohio. This unimaginably heavy natural bulldozer pushed across the landscape picking up everything in its' path and plowing the topsoil from the landscape, scraping everything away to expose the granite bedrock. The fertile soils that once covered the Canadian Shield were deposited in places like the fertile Ohio valley, when the glaziers finally stopped advancing south and then began a 6,000 year slow retreat northward as they melted. As the ice sheet melted and retreated, only the contents that were trapped within the ice sheet were re-deposited into the southern Ontario and Quebec regions and northern Ontario had very little topsoil re-deposited. Now, it's a little late to ask the State of Ohio to give back the topsoil of the Canadian Shield. lol.
13:37 "pretty cheap place to buy a home" -- That depends on the location. You may have to factor in the cost of building a road and running hydro lines. Plus a lot of the land is muskeg, which is not good for building houses or roads. It also depends on the materials you want to use. Wood and stone are plentiful, but it may be harder to ship in things like concrete, steel, drywall, etc.
I'm French Canadian, and just saying that , as you know , Canada is a cold country to live in , even though we get our beautiful summers,,, but the further north of Canada you move the colder it gets considering it gets closer to the artic ,, even though many people live there ,, but you got to know on how to dress for the weather and climate ,,but Canada can be very hard to live in if you're not persistent in surviving those different weather changes ,, anyway , I think Canada is beautiful, you just have to do your research before you move there ,, and bring lots of thermos underwear's , and good Parkas , and snow boots ,etc, , but I was born in Ottawa , and I miss Canada now that I live in Australia , Canada is beautiful, you also need to know when is the best time to grow gardens ,, etc ,, be courageous ,, it's worth it ,, Look at Switzerland , they're happy in their cold countries and so our we , just prepare for anything ,
I grew up in Northern Ontario, and worked there as a tree planter for a few summers afterward. Nice little region that not many people know about. Thanks for checking it out!
I'm from Sault Ste. Marie....right across from Soo St. Marie Michigan. They put a pic of the International Bridge. Fun fact if WW3 broke out that area was a target - Canadian side there railway ships, a steel mill, at one time a paper mill all sorts of lumber and mining oh yeah and Canadian side has the largest airport in the area for both sides of the border. As well as the Sault Locks for bigger transport ships. Politically important at one time just due to geography...because of our ability to convert the steel mill to make munitions and close proximity for transport to the St. Mary's River but because WE were not nor do we still not have nuclear capabilities Canada can't be targeted. Soo , Michigan however is American who is capable of nuclear weaponization is a target. The city of Soo, Michigan may not have nukes but America does. So the target is the middle of the river between the 2 cities, which with a big enough payload would take out both. I highly doubt that plan is viable now , but at one time was entirely feesible. Scary shit!
Can confirm! The US military stationed men here during WWII, flying barrage balloons over the Sault Locks, because they feared it would be a high-value target. My grandfather was one of them, and he settled down with a Sault girl.
I grew up in the pic circle. Many of the first towns were established near already existing native settlements and alongside the railroad being built. Subsequent towns popped up due to forestry and minerals. Growing up had its hardships due to weather and isolation and things like gas expenditure and grocery shopping can be very high but you also get cheap hunting and fishing, easy berry picking in the summer, cheap golf on ok 9 hole golf courses, cheap ski passes on small hills with towropes, etc. I remember annual passes being like $75 for teens for unlimited use. If you like the outdoors, you'll be fine. If you are looking for nightlife and a good wine selection at every restaurant, not for you.
As someone who has crossed the country by car on the Trans-Canada Highway, I can vouch for the lack of "civilization" in Northern Ontario. Hours and hours of driving through nothing but trees and rock. Make sure you've got a full tank of gas because gas stations are few and far between.
I'm originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario (Northwestern Ontario) and Yes this area is very spars/devoid of population. Raw industries like Pulp and Paper Mills; Lumber saw Mills; and Mining are some of the few industries. For example Sudbury (Nickle mining), mining and Nickle/Copper Smelting; Timmins (mining), Gold Mining; Thunder Bay, Pulp & Paper Making, Lumber Mills and Great Lakes Shipping (ie. Grain, Coal, Paper Products, Lumber, etc.). Unfortunately a lot of these heavy industries have fallen on hard times. 20yrs ago, Thunder Bay had 4 Pulp and Paper Mills. it now has 1. It had 7 Lumber Mills, it now has 1 remaining. Where it once had 12 Terminal Grain Elevators, it now has 6 elevators. It still ships out Coal and Potash but not at the rate it once did. It is one of the only Northern Ontario Cities which has some manufacturing. The Alstom Commuter Rail Car Plant is alive and well. This plant was the home to WW2 Fighter Plane Manufacturing ( Hawker Sidley Can-Car Plant); the Hawker Hurricane-used by the British and Canadian Airforce during WW2. This plant has produced "Brill' Transit Buses; Can-Car Transport Trailer Vans; Can-Car "Tree Farmer' line of forestry Skidders ( machines for hauling Logs out of the "Bush"; Can-Car Street Cars for Toronto Transit; Bi-Level Passenger Cars for GO Transit and other North American Cummuter Rail Operations. In the near Future, hopefully Thunder Bay may see the construction of a Lithium Refinery producing Lithium for the EV market. There are 4 potential Lithium Mines in the region and other "Critical Metal" mines .
Grandfather's house was built on Canadian Shield. Had to use dynamite to blast out the basement. There is no infrastructure is the main reason, you are right that farming has a huge part of it. Where all the cities formed is around major trading posts and farm land. Many of the areas are only accessible by air during the summer and require winter for the ice roads to open up. If there were highways year round I am sure some of the communities would prosper. With our milder winters some years now the ice roads are not open long enough for the communities to get what can't be sent by air.
Tourism as in Hunting, fishing, boating, outdoors and cabin style Tourism in the summer and fall. And Skiing, ice fishing, and snowmobiling Tourism in the winter.
I am from Sault Ste Marie Ontario in this so-called "empty belt". This video is a pile of crock. Between thunder Bay and Sudbury alone you have almost 1 million people. While you drive along highway 17 along the north shore of the great lakes, you can't go more than 15 mins without driving through a community of 1000 people. In fact Sault Ste Marie is a major hub as it contains a major border crossing into Sault Michigan and the locks is the main thoroughfare for ships going from lake Superior into lake Huron.
Born, raised and will probably always live in Thunder Bay. Last summer we held a largeish military patrolling competition outside of Nipigon Ontario. One of the competing teams was from Scotland. A team member of theirs was a very experienced soldier, and had done Cambrian patrol (arguably the hardest military exercise in the world) 12 times. He was adamant in saying that this was by far the most difficult terrain he had ever encountered. Of the nearly 200 soldiers involved we as the medics treated 78 environmental casualties. Some of the Scots there had previously done the jungle warfare course in Brazil and they described northern Ontario as a "cold jungle". Growing up here I never thought of it that way but since hearing that I definitely agree with it. Cold, wet, hostile wildlife and it will generally tear you apart.
You should check out the cottage country(Muskoka )of Ontario. Lots of movie stars live there in the summer and although it's not considered northern Ontario, it is the gateway to it. Everyone says Canada is so beautiful but only show B.C. and Alberta but northern Ontario is stunning in its own right. The highway between Sault Ste Marie and thunder Bay is amazing!
(Northern ontario 802,379 km² ), some northern ontario cities are Greater Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Timmins, Kenora, Elliot Lake, Espanola,Temiskaming Shores, Dryden, and many many small towns. With the exception of the Greater Sudbury municipality, all of northern Ontario's land is divided into districts.
I took the train from Winnipeg to Toronto. It left Friday night and arrived Sunday morning. All day Saturday all I saw was rocks, trees and lakes, and the occasional settlement for railway maintenance workers.
I live in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario it is a great city with a lot of the chain stores and restaurants that are in southern Ontario. The Soo is surrounded native land. I go to Pow Wows and always welcomed. This winter has been unusually warm with very little snow. Not good for all the winter sports and tourism. We will have a lovely summer with lots of sunshine and temperatures below 80. Great fishing, boating and so much more.
Go take a look at some nature pictures of the areas around the Canadian Shield, Tyler, it'll give you a sense of wht a lot of the landscape feels like. Along the highway there will be the usual wild grass and tree landscape of North America, but large rock chunk expanses will crop in a variety of interesting colors will crop out of the ground, not large enough to loom over like mountains, but quite defining the horizontal view of the drives along. Some of the road areas do really look like maybe they were blasted out of this rock, but, again, it isn't like being in a purely rock landscape. Canoeing in Ontario's lakes it's fairly common to find rock islands with trees just managing to exist and a fair bity of colorful lichen and moss. Again this is very cool but fundamentally different than seeing the rocky mountains, which amazed me when I was a tourist in Alberta.
I live in Elliot Lake and have lived all over Northern Ontario between Sault Ste Marie and Sudbury. Fishing is amazing here...so many lakes... Watch out for deer and moose on the highway though. Industry in the area is mainly mining copper and nickle in Sudbury, steel plant in Sault Ste Marie (soo), and alot of forestry all along... Paper mills, lumber, logging .... Winter sucks unless you have a snow machine... Mountains are round and alot of rolling hills... Its nice having alot of untouched wilderness to traverse... I love and its a great place to raise my kid.
Tourism is mostly summer time when people come from Southern Ontario to stay at their cottage or rent one. A lot just go to like, the Muskoka region (which is really like the southern tip of Northern Ontario, so not that far) but a lot go even further north. lots of people with ATVs, dirt bikes and boats come north cause there's a lot of trails and backwoods areas with a ton of lakes around. I live in a small town along one of the main highways and the summer time, and specifically any of the long weekends, lots of RVs and trailers are out.
Around the Thunder Bay Area we have a LOT of Americans that own camps (we don't call them "cottages" up here.) They are usually from the Northern States...Minnesota, Wisconsin, a few from Ohio and Iowa and occasionally further to the south. Most of the fishing resorts just west of Thunder Bay are owned by Americans.
Center of Canada is actually in Manitoba/Nunavut not in Ontario. Constantly seeing video's mistakenly say Ontario is the center. Anything in Ontario is east and Manitoba and Saskatchewan as the "prairies" is more centered. 96°48'35"W (slightly east of Winnipeg) is the actual center, going east to west.
Geography is a funny thing. Living in Winnipeg I think of northern Ontario being closer to Hudson Bay. Because Northern Ontario and Southern Manitoba are basically next to each other on the US border.
As for tourism, the northern parts of the country is popular to European and Asian tourists because they are looking for an experience in the wilderness.
Of course, not many people live there, but it's not trash or junk. If you enjoy fishing & hunting or living close to nature, you can get very happy there. If you're more into urban lifestyle, you' ll prefer the south. There is something for everyone in Canada. And living close to the border ?--we like to visit you guys in USA, so why not stay closer. Have a nice day, Tyler.
I grew up and live in Southern Ontario but my dad is from Northern Ontario. We used to head north frequently in the summer to visit family. It's so easy to tell once you've hit the shield because the granite is so close to the surface. Most of the highway is cut into the rock so the sides of the road are just walls of rock. It is absolutely beautiful though and I've never been anywhere else quite like it. Check out the Group of Seven. They certainly were inspired by its beauty
I was born in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, right on the Michigan border. Lived in Southern Ontario for 19 years and I moved back. I love the scenery of the Canadian Shield. City has a population of 75000
I grew up in a mining town VERY deep in the eastern side of the Canadian Shield. We're right on the border between Labrador and Quebec. It's a different kind of life out there; it's extremely remote and isolated.
Most places up here have a tendency to do this winter thing where it gets really flippin' cold, see? -30=>40 degree C weeks are bad enough...then we get the blasted wind chill. Occasionally we'll get -50 C without wind chill sure...but when the wind comes, holy crap those hours suck! We may be recognized as the superheroes of kindness but don't get it twisted, we find entertainment in watching folk panic about snow falling or it only being -10 C Bundle up...This is, the way
In northern Alberta, there is the biggest one in the world, it’s visible by satellite. It is a huge beaver pond, you would have to hike into it. And also at one point all the water stops, slowing into the Great Lakes and it flows into the arctic circle.
I’m from Sudbury (Dare I say the capital of Northern Ontario) and Sudbury is definitely mining town and has history connected to Chicago in Chicago burned down. The great force of Sudbury were clearcut to help rebuild Chicago and then the mining industry turn Sudbury into a barren wasteland that NASA actually tested moonwalking on in like the 1960s but since then it has been regreened and in my lifetime it was very green. another fascinating thing is as you drive from Sudbury to Ottawa the Earth changes, and as they cut through hills to make highways, you can see the most of the rock is this dark grey with some colorful pink, almost granite, and as you get to the Ottawa river area it becomes limestone, and very very different. And two of the resources that weren’t really mentioned in that video is diamonds and uranium that are both found in northern Ontario . And Shania Twain comes from Timmins 😜 The drive from Sault Ste. Marie to Timmins along the shoreline of Lake Superior, had one of the most beautiful sceneries I’ve seen in Canada (but the drive from Vancouver to Whistler is probably better 😅)
I live in northern canada. Its cold and snowy and we have short days in winter, long days in summer. Our town used to be an indigineous settlement but now its a mining community holding some of the biggest names in mining. Indigenous do get many oppritunities to work up here via various programs and companies. "We took your land, sorry, help us dig oil, we will make it easy for you to ibtain the job". Luckily reclamation is a big priority in canada so when the oil site is complete, its turned into a park.
Be very mindful with « unoccupied land ». There is a long history of settlers thinking because a land seemed void of activity, that it was theirs for the grab. It's called Terra Nullius, but nothing could be further from the truth. Plants, animals and Indigenous peoples inhabit these lands, which are not as comfortable to Whites as modern living in southern cities. So-called empty lands should be considered as unceeded Indigenous lands, and should be left alone.
Check out the group of seven....who were famous artists that painted this region. They are internationally acclaimed
The group did a really good job in Timmins
One major obvious part that was missed is the Canadian shield is granite and lakes. You can't build cities on lakes and it's extremely expensive to blast granite to make roads and level the ground for cities. Power lines are above ground and plumbing becomes difficult since it's very difficulty to put sewers in underground but they'll freeze above. Septic systems don't work well with high population densities.
There are many small towns in the shield (usually mining or forestry) but there are also a high amount of secondary homes. This is a very popular cottage country. The amount of people in the area is significantly higher in July than January.
@janellegodin2934: :::; most BS, ever heard not the arctic circle here... statement is ridiculous unless thinking of the arctic ...sault ste marie canada and sault ste marie USA are just across a river from each other do you think the arctic starts on the canadian side .. Distance between Sault Ste. Marie, Canada and the Arctic Circle is 2231 km = 1387 miles.
Actually Northern Ontario is one of the best kept secrets in north america. The mining sector pays extremely well and the cost of housing is low. Most people's houses are paid for and they usually have a nice sized property with a detached garage/ mancave. They have skidoos, side by sides, boats, travel trailers, etc.., Northern life is the best!! Especially if you are an outdoors man/woman. Great hunting, fishing, trapping.
Sure if u dont mine humming bird size blood suckers, THE black flies. Finaly the winters might be the roughest Canada has outside of the artic.
sounds like newfoundland
When I was up there for a few years, drinking seemed to be the most popular hobby, and everything other hobby was something to do while drinking, even while operating various kinds motorized vehicles like skidoos and boats.
Housing prices have sky rocketed in northern Ontario in the last couple of years because people from Southern Ontario are moving up here.
Sounds like Northern Alberta with less oil
I love in northern Ontario. I use to live in the GTA and honestly I could not be happier that I moved up here, very very small population, no huge cities, cheaper houses and cleaner air! Honestly it's the BEST!
How is the cost of living there?
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I was born there & lives 30 + yrs in the city of Thunder Bay. It is a very closed city when it comes to employment. If you know friends or family, you have a "leg up" on the competition. Yes houses are cheaper than TO, but most cities are cheaper than TO (The Big Smoke). The city is in the middle of Nowhere. 8 hrs from Winnipeg; 8 hrs from Sault Ste Marie; 7hrs from Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.; 18 hrs from Toronto.( In the middle of nowhere.). If you like Camping; Fishing; Hunting; & your a part of the Freedom Convoy; u will fit in well with the locals. No Immigrants allowed.
Northern ON (and Canadian landscapes more generally) has absolutely inspired artists! I'd love to see you do a video on the Group of Seven (and Emily Carr for West Coast rep lol)
PLEASE don't tell anyone how fabulous NW Ontario is.We don't want it to get more populated! It's an incredibly beautiful area, particularly just west of Thunder Bay. Full of lakes and trees, (including the massive Lake Superior). 5 minutes from my house I can catch any kind of fish you can imagine. I have a garden and grow vegetables, I think they are talking about commercial farming....because most everyone I know has a garden plot..... Up until very recently I lived on 131 acres in an unorganized township, and paid 29 grand for it in 1998. As far as I am concerned, I'd like to get rid of a few thousand people, haha. It's a fabulous place to live if you like the outdoors, wildlife, fishing, hunting and exploring.
I live in Northern Ontario, it is beautiful and peaceful... I have no problems growing vegetable gardens the soil is rich in minerals.... maybe it isn't good for large scale agriculture because of the longer winters.... because the soil itself is good.... just look at all the trees, water and nature here.
Coniferous forests cause the soil to be too acidic for large scale agriculture. This can be treated with the addition of lime to neutralize the pH.
I lived in Northern Ontario most of my life. I like it.❤
Perfect place to live of the grid if you are a hunter and grow some vegetables
@@marfmang511 absolutely!
We retired to Sault Ste Marie in Northern Ontario. It's beautiful and yes, our Amazon packages get here next day! We love it here, the people are very diversified. Our older kids were raised in Sudbury, the "Toronto of the North" and we loved it there too. We were born and lived in Southern Ontaro and much prefer it in the north. Lots to do and great community.
I feel like Thunder Bay is the Toronto of the North lol
Lucky you getting your Amazon packages the next day! We live in rural S. ON and it’s usually a week or so
@@LoveCats9220 same for me in the north too
My grand-mother was a Finish-Canadian from Sudbury. I visited there with my family 2-3 times when I was a child, before my Finish great-grand-mother died.
You can find the largest 5 cent coin there, named the "Big Nickel".
The subtext is that Sudbury is home to a giant nickel smelting industry.
The Hudson Bay played an important part in the development of Canada due to the fur trade.
We were taught about the Canadian Shield at school. Seeing it in person up close is pretty impressive.
At one point in recent history the rail line to the north was wiped out in a flood in the bog. It took months for the various departments to get it together to get it fixed.
They often get groceries flown in which makes them VERY expensive.
It took months because the rail company didn't want to pay for repairing it... and they had neglected maintenance for years. It took the goverment paying for it for the greedy execs to do anything about it.
Why not? Because we don't want to.😊
Hey Tyler! Just putting this out there - I live in Sudbury and have my whole life! It (and Northern Ontario as a whole) is a beautiful place with hundreds of lakes in the city limits and a thriving northern arts and culture scene. We have several post-secondary institutions (my alma mater, Laurentian University, Cambrian College, and College Boreal), and the people are really nice overall. My mom lived in southern Ontario for a long time, so I've visited it alot and don't get me wrong - I also really love the south for its own reasons - but my heart will always belong to the North. :)
I grew up in Hanmer. Wife from Sudbury
Me too ... from the Sault! ❤
Quite a few communities in that area. Same presenter said same thing about BC. He said BC was mostly empty.
I live in Hanmer..lol all my life
@@ann-mariewickham3108 I grew up near St Joseph St and St Isidore St.
I live in Thunder Bay on the North Shore of Lake superior. I wouldn’t live anywhere else. I love the open spaces, the fresh air, the easy proximity to lakes and forests. Tourists who come here enjoy rock and ice climbing, fishing, water sports, camping, hunting, hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, and much more. We also have a symphony and a state of the art auditorium. The arts community is small but vital. There’s always something to do no matter what your interests are. I grow both flowers and vegetables in my yard. The only setback being a short growing season, which is pretty common across Canada. Whenever I holiday in a big city I miss the sky and the quiet and I’m always happy to return home.
Thunder Bay is amazing, and you forgot to mention the massive Amethyst deposits.
@@milesjohnson4526 I could go on and on. Also hockey and curling is huge here.
I have been a Forest Fire Fighter 33 years I’ve been every corner of Northern Ontario,Good fishing lots of black flies mosquitoes I enjoyed the experience meeting many people in my time doing it.
Thanks for your service!
You can never underestimate black flies
@miketomasini346 From your experience, should we worry about an increase in forest fires due to drought conditions in Northern Ontario. I live in the Golden Horseshoe and last summer, air quality was poor sometimes due to forest fires in Quebec. Thank you
@@RedRose-il8xj I am interested in @miketomasini's answer too (I suspect he might be happy about all the money he made last summer :-). I would like to offer my own perspective.
I was a support worker on a fire base in Red Lake Ontario in the early 1990's and then a silviculture worker for four summers out of Armstrong ON. I have lived in several other northern locales. I found the coverage of last summer's forest fires myopic.
It is worth considering that southern Ontario and Quebec were deforested first and that deforestation has expanded northerly over time. Forest fires are a natural part of the life cycle of a forest and indeed are key to the regeneration of many species including blueberries and jack pine. The fact that there was enough fuel (ie regenerated forests) in places like the Ottawa Valley and central Quebec (seen from the south as "northern" should likely be taken as a good sign- it means that forest lands have recovered from early logging sufficiently that they can demonstrate their natural life cycle.
I will add that I was confused by all the panic down here (I now live in the South) about the smoke. Of course people with respiratory problems need to be careful but if people in the North cancel life every time there is smoke, they simply wouldn't have a life. Smoke in the summer is like snow in the winter- you need to figure out how to live with it.
Forgive me if this sounds judgy but I often think that people in the more populated parts of Canada often panic unnecessarily because they are so disconnected/ protected from nature. The perception down here is skewed. Forests engaging in their natural behaviour is cause for celebration.
@@timmclerk9838 Thank you for your input. I live in the Golden Horseshoe region and I really noticed the strong scent of smoke originating from forest fires last summer. I was surprised that it lasted for so many days. Perhaps air quality also worsened when coupled with pollutants from industrial areas. Not sure how weather patterns played a role. For those of us who suffer with chronic lung disease / asthma, it's a real concern. Thank you for taking the time to share your perspective! Much appreciated
The shield is also the reason we almost never get earthquakes in Quebec (and I would guess Ontario as well) and when we do they NEVER are of any dangerous strength because the shockwaves gets dissipated into the entire rocky shield. In fact Quebec is pretty much one of the best place on earth for protection against natural disasters! Earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes are pretty much inexistant. Of course if you live really near to shore you can get flooding in spring if the snow melts really fast but that’s about it..
And don't forget those ice storms....
Yup, if you can handle the daily assaults on the English language in Quebec, there is no better place to live in Canada.
@@brenthenderson3983 those are pretty rare (at least problematic ones) and don’t really do much damage except to some trees and making roads slippery. But sure I guess it’s a possible “disaster” like with the huge one in 1998
Although we rarely have noticeable earthquakes in Québec, all refit and new institutional construction (hospitals and schools) have most of their mechanical equipment tied in place, paraseismic ready.
That's not accurate at all. Quebec is the 2nd province in the country most susceptible to massive earthquakes after BC. There's been many major earthquakes in the past, 5 of which ranked higher than 6 on the Richter scale. There's a 15% probability to have another one in the next 50 years. If it were to happen in a densely-populated area it would be devastating. Not only lots of people would die, but Quebec's economy would take a massive blow. Only 4% of home insurance policy holder have an earthquake protection as people either believe they're cover or at low risk. The Charlevoix region is known for it's seismic activity, Kamouraska, along the Ottawa River, etc... The faults are along the Canadian Shield, so along the St-Lawrence River. Just google it, read the Insurance Bureau website and the seismic maps.
Around here in Sault Ste. Marie the weather hasn't been so bad of late. I remenber when I was a kid it snowed from the start of November right thru December everyday. After that it just got cold, like for a few weeks it got down to below -40c for one winter around here. It is a good tourist spot as well. The famous Group of Seven painted alot of landscapes around here. Don't forget the Algoma train ride that runs from June til October. Then you got the Algoma Steel Mill that gets the iron ore from the good state of Minnaesota. Its ok to live here and have a family. The landscape is great in just 10 mins you are in the bush. With the wild bears the come into city once in while and sometime moose as well.
Im from Pickle Lake, Ontario. Farthest north year-round town you can drive to in the province, with a population of 300 people. Your video was good, i enjoyed it. Its beautiful up here. The fishing is great, very few people like you mentioned 1000 times haha. Its abandoned gold mines around here. The industry is a lot of prospecting and aviation. Lots of fly-in reservations further north that need basic goods. The Trans Canada Highway along the north coast of Lake Superior is beautiful, worth a trip.
I've taken the train through that region and it is a long ride. When people found out that I was taking the train from my home province of Nova Scotia to Vancouver, they told me that when the train hits the Prairies, it will be very long and boring. I did not find that as the train seem to take forever to get through Ontario. When we the Prairies, they went by fast and before I knew it, I was in Jasper, seeing the mountains for the first time. There are many place in Northern Ontario where the train will stop to let off or let on hunters as it is one of the few ways to get to their camps, unless their is a lake where they can flay a float plane in. There are many Native reservations along the way as well. Many of the natives will stand beside the tracks and when the train stops, they sell water and food to the passengers.
That train ride is around two days from Toronto to Winnipeg, and another day from Winnipeg to Edmonton, then another day to Vancouver. The portion through the prairies is relatively low grade, with wide curves. The main impediment on that portion is the heavy freight traffic. The Ontario and BC portions, however, are long drags.
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I've been dreaming of taking this very trip! Bet there is a lot of waving of hands. Glad you got to see it from sea to sea! 🇨🇦
I live in Sudbury and I love it up here. To be fair some of it can be rough....black flies for sure but I saw 283 moose this year so if you are outdoorsy this is heaven
I live in Northern Ontario, Thunder Bay to be exact. I wouldnt live anywhere else. The outdoors is our playground. World class fishing and hunting in my backyard. The winters arent that bad, the summers are perfect 20-35c not to hot but hot enough. I love it.
Tyler Bucket: why don’t Canadians live in this area of Canada?
Canadians: the Wendigos
@@TheTwilightKing-zt7dl lol, I love on the edge of a dense forest and to keep my kids out of it I tell them stories of the wendigo. I don't know if I am traumatizing them or I am keeping the legends going, OR both.
The northern most road (Hwy 11) that serves Kapuskasing, Smooth Rock Falls, Cochrane, (and don't forget Hearst) is about as high north as you can go by car. It was a 12 hour drive from southern Ontario (non-stop). You have to take the train to Moosonee. Most of this area served the pulp and paper industry in the past, and towns are slowly fading away. The only hope will be mining in the future. You are into the "Belt" area that only coniferous tree grow and there are no deciduous trees. I was up in the area about 40 years ago for my friends wedding. Minus 50 in the winter is nothing, the shocks on your car can literally freeze, and a block heater is a necessity. Great if your a trapper, hunter or fisherman. Black files will eat you alive in summer and mosquitoes are just as bad. Lots of fresh air though.
Neil Young’s song “ Helpless “ is about Northern Ontario.
“Long May You Run” mentions it, too.
Don't forget Stompin' Tom "Sudbury Saturday Nights" =) I grew up in Elliot Lake and then moved to Sudbury with my family when the mines in EL were shut down, when I was 16. I've since moved moved to Michigan (got married to an American, 18 years in now) but my Home and heart is still in Northern Ontario. Its a long drive, but I need to do it at least once a year, its mostly for Thanksgiving when I can see the most family members as the ones who've moved away come Home as well.
There are three parts of Canada that are mostly empty. The tiny rockies, the obvious arctic, and the shield. Northern Ontario (and northern Michigan) are where the shield dips farthest into what would otherwise be decent land.
The big thing to remember is how HUGE this is. It takes us 12 hours to drive across this gap. Northern Ontario is bigger than Texas or Scandinavia or Ukraine. It's more than half the size of Alaska.
And Northern Quebec is more of the same, just without the clear boundaries of the lakes.
Thunder Bay (as Port Arthur and Fort William) predates Toronto. So much for his theory about populations growing where the earliest settlements were.
Videos like the one you watched piss me off a bit actually...
When the dude in the video names the settlements to the 'west' of the Canadian Shield, he names Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver.... and completely skips over the entire province of Saskatchewan. As if we don't exist.
That's how it goes though.... I mean we only have about 40% of Canada's farmland, supply over 80% of Canada's durum wheat crop, and are a globally recognized food producer, and world's largest exporter of peas, lentils, durum wheat, mustard seed, canola, flaxseed and oats. Also a massive supplier of oil and natural gas. rich uranium deposits and even diamonds!
But yeah, typical, no one recognizes the farmers, the miners.... I mean they only keep the country fed, and supplied with oil and minerals. Why bother including them in a list of cities in western Canada. It's not like were an entire province of near a million people, with our own Capital City or anything.... we don't see representation when it comes to elections or federal recognition either. We are used to it.
Quite a chip on your shoulder bud! Are you sure you don’t belong to Alberta?
I can understand your frustration, but I think the guy was focused more on major population centres of a half million or more, and Saskatchewan doesn't have any that large.
Oh we recognize you, it's just more fun to make jokes about it being such a flatland that you can watch your dog run away for four days 😂. (On the serious side as an Albertan I feel your pain bud, the federal government has been doing the same to us for as long as anyone can remember. They consider the entire western half of Canada a joke not worth thinking about. Remember once the prime minister of our country, when asked what he would say to western Canadians who disappeared with his controversial,and let's face it patently illegal at the time, national energy program legislation flippyus all the bird on national television. It's a disgrace.
Last year, I visited 1 province outside Alberta... Saskatchewan. I totally understand how people overlook it, but there is some very beautiful areas out there.
You have to remember, three of those four cities have a metro are population larger than the entire population of Saskatchewan. Even Winnipeg's metro is larger then Saskatoon's and Regina's combined. They also didn't mention Victoria which would be the next largest metro in the west, beating out Saskatoon by a moderate amount.
Three reasons, Blackflies ,Mosquitoes and Cold weather.
That’s where black flies the size of your hand come from right?
I wish they were the size of my hand! They would be defeatable! The little blighters are
small and live in hordes!😅@terrancebrown87
Deerflies that fly away after you smack them with your shoe!
Not true, really. It's the shield. Rock, no soil. Barely any farms. Hard to start a city on that, historically.
Ticks, ticks and more ticks! Lol
Just for reference, Ontario is 1.55 times the size of Texas.
Québec is 2.33 times larger than Texas and has a bigger area that is mostly uninhabited than Ontarion ever did and ever will : Nord-Du-Québec, population ~ 46 000 for a total landmass of 839 000 km² vs. a population of over 780 000 for a total landmass of 806 708 km² in northern Ontario. 17 times less people than "Canada's empty belt" 😂
@@gustru2078But it's not as obviously distinct as Northern Ontario. There's also a few places where the population jumps dramatically as you cross from Ontario to Quebec. So it seems like Northern Ontario is more empty.
@@tristanridley1601 By "dramatically", you mean Abitibi-Témiscamingue? That's further south but still, its population is only 146k. It's less than 200k with both regions combined.
@@gustru2078But it's French.
@@Yooper2024 Lol, that's irrelevant. Btw, it is First Nations territory
It does not mean that you cannot grow food. My brother grew all his food and canned it. So individual gardens, perhaps its just not viable for large food production gardens? My dad was a hunter and fishing guide in the north.
it's not fertile enough to handle commercial farms is what it meant. Subsistence farming can be done in many more places than sustained commercial farming.
I live in South Porcupine which is north eastern ON. A problem is that the government is over saturating the south with the large companies and factories and housing, where Northern ON gets little funding. Mining is huge here because of the Canadian shield. People don't know what they are missing by not coming north! Glad I get to enjoy the beauty of our country.
Have to add that in my lifetime, I do not remember a Feb that was warmer then -20c. Right now it is -2c. WooHoo! No jacket required!!!
I grew up in Iroquois Falls and went to college at the Porcupine Northern campus. I do NOT miss the winters there, lol (I've lived in the GTA for 25 years now). I still remember playing on the stone ruins behind the drive-in A&W when I was a kid and going to The Fish Bowl restaurant near the Timmins Square. You always knew you were close to Timmins when you saw the buffalo at the mine.
@Terrorific_tray,
🐈I found you on the map.
You are near Timmins.
Exactly half way between
Baie James and the
Great Huron or Superior Lakes.
🐾 _Montréal 🇨🇦_
@irondogqueen The fish Bowl is still there. And the Buffalo have been gone for years. Totally different living then in the GTA. I've lived in the Niagara region and still prefer living here. Just so much cleaner. But I do miss being so close to the large cities and all they have to offer.
Ah! I have a friend that lived in Porcupine many many years, now in Haileybury. I've looked into visiting but public transportation doesn't service the journey well from southern Ontario.
majority of Québec population is located along the st-Laurent valley
Grew up in this area and have to say, the Shield is distinct and the landscape is gorgeous. The video shows a lot of mining devastation or pristine forest (but not much in between), but find examples of where the forests meet the exposed stone and lakes. The solitary feel of trees growing atop stone mountains and rich, fertile areas around untouched lakes. As some others have suggested, the "Group of Seven" did some great work portraying the area in their art. Also, as to why so much of the population stuck so close to the Southern border...where the U.S. had wagon trains and much later the railroads to bring people into the open interior, Canada had a giant waterway to facilitate trade all along the Great Lakes, from traders loading hundreds of pounds of fur pelts onto canoes, to shipping centers loading grain, ore and other resources onto ships bound for the metropolitan areas or transfer for overseas destinations. Camps, forts and towns grew in convenient locations, right on the lakes. But leave the lakes and you run into the Shield, and good luck getting your wagon across that 200 years ago.
I used to live in the city of North Bay (not mentioned in the video)several hours north of Toronto. The air is so fresh, my garden was good, we didn't lack anything for shopping. Winters were cold, but sunny and bright. Lots of tourism in summer. My family was military so we got posted out, sad to leave but have many wonderful memories of the friendly neighbours and beautiful scenery.
As someone who lives in Thunder bay and works all over Northern Ontario all the way up to Hudson's bay. I can confirm, it is harsh. the winters are even more so, and at times the only way to transport goods is over ice roads. It does take a certain type to love it here... and yes. my backyard is more or less endless. bountiful wildlife, and resources. living here and other places in Canada similar to it, we survive and live by helping each other.We are Proud of our communities and heritage ( yes, i own more then one running chainsaw and lumber mill. yes, I wear a lot of plaid, its both comfortable and great fashion. no, I don't want to live somewhere else.)
also. myself and many of your viewers would welcome you to visit, and you will find out why Tourism is a big draw to people from all over the World.
I’m Canadian and I didn’t even know about the Canadian Shield or the fact very few people live further north in Ontario. I’m in my 40s and it’s not something I learned in school…so this was educational for me as well ❤❤❤
You should take a look at the artist Group of Seven Northern Ontario's greatest painters
It's some of the most rough mountainous terrain found in North America, there's basically only a two lane highway for a 2 full day drive, all through mountains. It would be so expensive to build a modern highway through it to allow typical access via car.
I just did that exact drive this summer 5 times while moving from Southern ontario, to Saskatchewan. It's beautiful, but it takes forever, and the road is rough in some spots, it will literally kill your car if you're carrying any weight, like most tourists do. It can be so dangerous, with how rural, and alone you could be if you break down.
We lived in Northern Ontario for 12 years. We had about 5 acres of bush property on a lake 100 km NW of New Liskeard. Lots of people had seasonal cottages in the area, where they would come up in the summer. With all the lakes and forest, it was popular for fishing and hunting. Agriculture is not non-existent. There were lots of farmers growing corn and canola, as well as forage crops for the animal farms. We moved to SW Ontario because it became more work than we wanted to do to maintain the property as we were getting older. We were also tired of feet of snow from December through May. It was a different kind of lifestyle, and I'm glad we experienced it.
I've gone to fishing lodges about 150 miles north of Lake Superior 8 times. It's beautiful and wild but, the nearest grocery store or gas station is about 160 miles away. Since it's very remote, things are very expensive. I really love this area and keep getting drawn back to it. My girlfriend and I will spend some time there this coming summer. I live in Toronto but, when I'm in northern Ontario, I feel more part of God's creation. It's real, not like the big city.
I met Mother Nature up there.
🐾_Montréal 🇨🇦_
As a 'golden horseshoe' resident I've not heard the term "Canada's empty belt", and I would I categorize Manitoba as central not west.
In case you wonder, Toronto/GTA's population is 6,372,000 million.
I have travelled through Northern Ontario in both the summer and the autumn. While the summer is beautiful, the autumn is stunning!❤
As someone who’s born raised and continues to live in northern Ontario, a couple things. 1. Indigenous people still live here. 2. The pace of life is a bit slower and not so busy city esque. 3. Tourism - Hunting, fly-in-fishing, wilderness exploration /camping etc, and “Group of Seven” painters/ scenery are all promoting tourism. 4. Amazon packages come within the week (no next-day shipping).
Amazing video Tyler! I was born and raised up in Sudbury, home to most of the toughest hockey players from Ontario! so this made my day! Keep them coming!
Sounded and looked a lot like home to me. Northern Ontario has strong ties to the Finnish community. The Thunder Bay District represents the highest proportion of people with Finnish ethnic origin in all of Canada (11 %): "Monocle Films Finns of Thunder Bay". Also, Toronto City Hall was designed by a Finnish architect Viljo Revell. Same neck of the woods on the US side: "Michigan's Upper Peninsula An Authentic Finnish Sauna". There was Finnish immigrant communities elsewhere in Canada too, in similar conditions: "CBC News: The National Dreams of Sointula". Finns got along and mixed with the Indigenous peoples of North America, mainly the Ojibwe, which resulted to the group of people called Findians: "indians | FINNISH AMERICAN INDIANS". The problems the Finnish immigrants ran into: "Italian Hall Disaster 1913 | Footprints of Stampede Disaster" and "How the Finns became White (in America)". There's certain irony in one of the oldest log cabins in the US having been built by the Finns and the Gateway Arch having been designed by a Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen: "Why is the Oldest Finnish Log Cabin in New Jersey?" and "Detroit Designs the World | Eero Saarinen". Goes together with a Finnish war hero becoming also an American war hero, and having a character based on him being played by John Wayne, a tried-and-true cowboy, with an allegiance to and an affinity for Western culture in all its forms: "Törni - Sotilaan tarina (A Soldier's Story) English Subtitles. And where else would the US offer to evacuate the Finnish population to, if not to Alaska: "Mandelin Finns in North America". If that would have actually happened: "Runki Pettersson Operation Alaska". Also in Sweden and Norway there's a group of immigrant Finns and their descent known as the Forest Finns: "Karl Skartveit Fremmed blod". Matt Damon might not be that pleased to have discovered about his Finnish ancestry, but it somehow does explains why he went to March and got left behind there to grow his potatoes: "Finland is looking for Matt Damon. Has anyone seen him?" and "The Martian | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX".
I am in northern Ontario. we have a norad base here, and smart Americans come up here for fishing and hunting
I faught many forest fires up north
Shhh! Hey we don’t need them all knowing!
northern canada is known for a lot of camp grounds and where people are building there cabins for the peace and quiet
I grew up in Sault Ste. Marie ON. It's a beautiful place! I'd love to see you do a video on the Sault and the Agawa Canyon. It's a great place for outdoorsy people and there are also a lot of artists living in and around the area. (Algoma District)
My home
Water and granite.
Ontario alone has 250,000 lakes containing about one-fifth of the world's fresh water.
Mix that with the granite of the Canadian Shield, it's almost impossible to build roads.
Canada was populated along the waterways. Firstly, down the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes - which also contained the best farm land, then further westward once roads and rails were built. It was easier to build and farm in Southern Canada, from the East Coast to the West Coast.
Correct but not 20% of the world's fresh water. The 20% pertains to the entire country.
There are serious transportation issues for Northern Ontario. The few roads and rail lines that do exist support the small towns established for mining or logging. Tourism in the north is mostly summer based for hunting and fishing, with lodges sporadically located on lakes and rivers. Many are accessible only by aircraft and many of the few roads are inaccessible during winter.
I love your take on Canada 'eh'...you even taught me a few things I didn't know about my country! ❤
Immediately after I typed that comment below, there was a 15 second time frame of the video played before he felt the need to interrupt it once again. Bravo Tyler bravo!
Canadian Shield is an ancient worn down mountain range, so there is only the bases of the mountains left, but it's hard rock. It's also extremely old: 2.6-3.6 billion years old.
A lot of the Canadian Shield is moose pasture. When the Canadian Pacific Railway was built, the Canadian Shield was practically the toughest stretch of land for the navvies to build on. The parts above water were hard rock, mostly granite. The parts below water were... under water.
========================
Thinking of the Canadian Pacific Railway, you might be interested in "The National Dream", an 8-Part CBC TV series released in 1974 and narrated by Pierre Berton. It's a fascinating story and available on UA-cam.
I forgot about National Dream! I loved that show.
TL;DR: Ice age. Canada was covered in glaciers, which pulverized and crushed the center of Canada, especially as the glaciation began melting (creating the Great Lakes and Hudson's Bay as a direct consequence of massive melt offs). The resulting, modern landscape of central Ontario is subsequently very, very rocky, as there hasn't been much time (since the end of the last glacial maximum/height of our current ice age) for new soil to be developed on top of the scraped-bare rockface. Enough soil to develop to primordial forests, but it's really just rock beneath those trees. The shield landscape is, for all intents and purposes, very, very young geography that hasn't had the benefit of millions of years of ecological accumulation with which to erode the shield's rock-face and develop soils and organic microbiomes.
The shield landscape is a very young, almost primordial ecosphere, relative to other landscapes that haven't been scoured and wiped clean by glaciers. It has very, very little soil at all, that's the main issue. It's not fit for much besides growing very austere, robust evergreens whose entire ecological niche is colonizing once-barren landscapes (and eventually transitioning into other ecological types as the forests grow, die, and in turn contribute to soil mass generation).
Basically it all just comes down to dirt, and it's quality (which is more or less directly correlated to it's quantity). Edmonton, conversely, is cold for a large part of the year, but when it's not cold it has *very, very viable farmland,* enabling a high local population before relying on extensive foreign agricultural imports (which are essential in Canada, but also very expensive, given the vast distances that food imports must travel to reach locals).
Visiting in the autumn is breath taking.
I live in Northern Ontario in a small town and I get my Amazon packages the next day. I live on the Vermilion river and love the natural surroundings and enjoy kayaking right from my front door. Also the poor soil means the most amazing wild blueberries every summer.
We live in eastern MB about 45 mins from the ON border in the transitional area between the Prairies and the Whiteshell. Spent every summer of childhood at our family cabin on Lake of the Woods. It’s a magical area.
I would imagine lots of the tourism is around hunting and fishing. Beautiful cabin country.
As a Canadian in Manitoba, I can't fathom people living everywhere, and having towns everywhere.
For those of us in Southern Ontario, the more southern parts of the shield represent “cottage country” and summer vacations spend fishing and boating. When driving north you’ll suddenly start to see rock cuts along the side of the road where the rock has been blasted out to make the road much flatter, then you know that you’ve entered shield country. When the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway was being constructed in the late 1800’s it was the areas in Ontario north of Superior that gave them the most trouble along with the Rocky Mountains. There were significant areas of muskeg and swampy conditions where they could pour in thousands of tons of rock to form a bed for the tracks only to have it dissapear.
Still cold in northern Ontario, -50C is not unusual.
Growing up in BC’s Lower Mainland in the 70s… we weren’t ever taught this… I am today years old learning about this. 😊
It is northern wilderness, it's usually a 2 to 3 hr drive between towns. Basically after Sault Saint Marie it's 6 hrs to the next city of Thunder Bay, and then 8 hrs to Winnipeg, either a few small towns in between. Cell phone service is sporadic at best.
But there are many smaller towns in between about 100 km apart.
A lot of the territory that you mention is First Nations Reserves.....not available for to the General Population. All along the shore of James Bay, for example, on both sides are Tribal lands. As well, most of the arable land is in the south. The North of Ontario, for example, is mainly ROCK. The 'tree line' in the north, is where TREES STOP GROWING....it's like somebody drew a line along the ground......seeing it is amazing.
We try to keep our existence a secret. This area has the most beautiful scenery, lots of wildlife, little pollution and friendly people. It can take almost 30 hours to drive across the province from Quebec to Manitoba.
Northern Ontario is so unique. People that have moved there would never leave. The cost of living is crazy high because of no farms for fresh produce. Honestly, the majority of the population there is indigenous. There is a huge national park there called Algonquin Park that many people travel to who enjoy camping in the summer.
That's Northeastern Ontario....there's another one in NW Ontario near Atikokan that's even betterIt's called Quetico. You might not see anyone for days!
The peak of the last ice age was 21,000 years ago and continued to cover the Canadian Shield 14,500 years ago. One can only imagine the ice sheet, which was up to 2.5 miles thick, that advanced from the Arctic, southward into the northern U.SA. to places like Ohio. This unimaginably heavy natural bulldozer pushed across the landscape picking up everything in its' path and plowing the topsoil from the landscape, scraping everything away to expose the granite bedrock. The fertile soils that once covered the Canadian Shield were deposited in places like the fertile Ohio valley, when the glaziers finally stopped advancing south and then began a 6,000 year slow retreat northward as they melted. As the ice sheet melted and retreated, only the contents that were trapped within the ice sheet were re-deposited into the southern Ontario and Quebec regions and northern Ontario had very little topsoil re-deposited. Now, it's a little late to ask the State of Ohio to give back the topsoil of the Canadian Shield. lol.
Great explanation, thank you
13:37 "pretty cheap place to buy a home" -- That depends on the location. You may have to factor in the cost of building a road and running hydro lines. Plus a lot of the land is muskeg, which is not good for building houses or roads. It also depends on the materials you want to use. Wood and stone are plentiful, but it may be harder to ship in things like concrete, steel, drywall, etc.
I'm French Canadian, and just saying that , as you know , Canada is a cold country to live in , even though we get our beautiful summers,,, but the further north of Canada you move the colder it gets considering it gets closer to the artic ,, even though many people live there ,, but you got to know on how to dress for the weather and climate ,,but Canada can be very hard to live in if you're not persistent in surviving those different weather changes ,, anyway , I think Canada is beautiful, you just have to do your research before you move there ,, and bring lots of thermos underwear's , and good Parkas , and snow boots ,etc, , but I was born in Ottawa , and I miss Canada now that I live in Australia , Canada is beautiful, you also need to know when is the best time to grow gardens ,, etc ,, be courageous ,, it's worth it ,, Look at Switzerland , they're happy in their cold countries and so our we , just prepare for anything ,
♥️
I grew up in Northern Ontario, and worked there as a tree planter for a few summers afterward. Nice little region that not many people know about. Thanks for checking it out!
I grew up in that circle. It’s underrated. It’s quiet & beautiful.
I'm from Sault Ste. Marie....right across from Soo St. Marie Michigan. They put a pic of the International Bridge. Fun fact if WW3 broke out that area was a target - Canadian side there railway ships, a steel mill, at one time a paper mill all sorts of lumber and mining oh yeah and Canadian side has the largest airport in the area for both sides of the border. As well as the Sault Locks for bigger transport ships. Politically important at one time just due to geography...because of our ability to convert the steel mill to make munitions and close proximity for transport to the St. Mary's River but because WE were not nor do we still not have nuclear capabilities Canada can't be targeted. Soo , Michigan however is American who is capable of nuclear weaponization is a target. The city of Soo, Michigan may not have nukes but America does. So the target is the middle of the river between the 2 cities, which with a big enough payload would take out both. I highly doubt that plan is viable now , but at one time was entirely feesible. Scary shit!
Can confirm! The US military stationed men here during WWII, flying barrage balloons over the Sault Locks, because they feared it would be a high-value target. My grandfather was one of them, and he settled down with a Sault girl.
Very intetesting...
BC
I live in Sudbury Ontario. This has been the mildest winter ever so far. Plus we pronounce it Sudbuurrrry😂😂 cause the winter can get pretty cold
I grew up in the pic circle. Many of the first towns were established near already existing native settlements and alongside the railroad being built. Subsequent towns popped up due to forestry and minerals. Growing up had its hardships due to weather and isolation and things like gas expenditure and grocery shopping can be very high but you also get cheap hunting and fishing, easy berry picking in the summer, cheap golf on ok 9 hole golf courses, cheap ski passes on small hills with towropes, etc. I remember annual passes being like $75 for teens for unlimited use. If you like the outdoors, you'll be fine. If you are looking for nightlife and a good wine selection at every restaurant, not for you.
As someone who has crossed the country by car on the Trans-Canada Highway, I can vouch for the lack of "civilization" in Northern Ontario. Hours and hours of driving through nothing but trees and rock. Make sure you've got a full tank of gas because gas stations are few and far between.
I remember as a kid driving through and seeing a sign that said next fuel stop in 250 km!
It’s how we weed out the weak! 😉
I'm originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario (Northwestern Ontario) and Yes this area is very spars/devoid of population. Raw industries like Pulp and Paper Mills; Lumber saw Mills; and Mining are some of the few industries. For example Sudbury (Nickle mining), mining and Nickle/Copper Smelting; Timmins (mining), Gold Mining; Thunder Bay, Pulp & Paper Making, Lumber Mills and Great Lakes Shipping (ie. Grain, Coal, Paper Products, Lumber, etc.). Unfortunately a lot of these heavy industries have fallen on hard times. 20yrs ago, Thunder Bay had 4 Pulp and Paper Mills. it now has 1. It had 7 Lumber Mills, it now has 1 remaining. Where it once had 12 Terminal Grain Elevators, it now has 6 elevators. It still ships out Coal and Potash but not at the rate it once did. It is one of the only Northern Ontario Cities which has some manufacturing. The Alstom Commuter Rail Car Plant is alive and well. This plant was the home to WW2 Fighter Plane Manufacturing ( Hawker Sidley Can-Car Plant); the Hawker Hurricane-used by the British and Canadian Airforce during WW2. This plant has produced "Brill' Transit Buses; Can-Car Transport Trailer Vans; Can-Car "Tree Farmer' line of forestry Skidders ( machines for hauling Logs out of the "Bush"; Can-Car Street Cars for Toronto Transit; Bi-Level Passenger Cars for GO Transit and other North American Cummuter Rail Operations. In the near Future, hopefully Thunder Bay may see the construction of a Lithium Refinery producing Lithium for the EV market. There are 4 potential Lithium Mines in the region and other "Critical Metal" mines .
Grandfather's house was built on Canadian Shield. Had to use dynamite to blast out the basement. There is no infrastructure is the main reason, you are right that farming has a huge part of it. Where all the cities formed is around major trading posts and farm land. Many of the areas are only accessible by air during the summer and require winter for the ice roads to open up. If there were highways year round I am sure some of the communities would prosper. With our milder winters some years now the ice roads are not open long enough for the communities to get what can't be sent by air.
Tourism as in Hunting, fishing, boating, outdoors and cabin style Tourism in the summer and fall. And Skiing, ice fishing, and snowmobiling Tourism in the winter.
14:30 Forget your Amazon packages... there are parts of Canada where just milk is over $20, because of how hard it is to get it out there.
l'm in Sudbury. Milk costs about 5.80 for 4 litres.
I really enjoyed your video and learning more about the world around me.
I am from Sault Ste Marie Ontario in this so-called "empty belt". This video is a pile of crock. Between thunder Bay and Sudbury alone you have almost 1 million people. While you drive along highway 17 along the north shore of the great lakes, you can't go more than 15 mins without driving through a community of 1000 people. In fact Sault Ste Marie is a major hub as it contains a major border crossing into Sault Michigan and the locks is the main thoroughfare for ships going from lake Superior into lake Huron.
Born, raised and will probably always live in Thunder Bay. Last summer we held a largeish military patrolling competition outside of Nipigon Ontario. One of the competing teams was from Scotland. A team member of theirs was a very experienced soldier, and had done Cambrian patrol (arguably the hardest military exercise in the world) 12 times. He was adamant in saying that this was by far the most difficult terrain he had ever encountered. Of the nearly 200 soldiers involved we as the medics treated 78 environmental casualties. Some of the Scots there had previously done the jungle warfare course in Brazil and they described northern Ontario as a "cold jungle". Growing up here I never thought of it that way but since hearing that I definitely agree with it. Cold, wet, hostile wildlife and it will generally tear you apart.
You should check out the cottage country(Muskoka )of Ontario. Lots of movie stars live there in the summer and although it's not considered northern Ontario, it is the gateway to it. Everyone says Canada is so beautiful but only show B.C. and Alberta but northern Ontario is stunning in its own right. The highway between Sault Ste Marie and thunder Bay is amazing!
(Northern ontario 802,379 km² ), some northern ontario cities are Greater Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Timmins, Kenora, Elliot Lake, Espanola,Temiskaming Shores, Dryden, and many many small towns. With the exception of the Greater Sudbury municipality, all of northern Ontario's land is divided into districts.
I've never been there, but I'm under the impression that a lot of the tourism in northern Ontario is sport fishing.
Fishing and hunting are major part of tourism, but also canoeing or just enjoying the beauty of nature.
I took the train from Winnipeg to Toronto. It left Friday night and arrived Sunday morning. All day Saturday all I saw was rocks, trees and lakes, and the occasional settlement for railway maintenance workers.
I live in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario it is a great city with a lot of the chain stores and restaurants that are in southern Ontario. The Soo is surrounded native land. I go to Pow Wows and always welcomed. This winter has been unusually warm with very little snow. Not good for all the winter sports and tourism. We will have a lovely summer with lots of sunshine and temperatures below 80. Great fishing, boating and so much more.
Go take a look at some nature pictures of the areas around the Canadian Shield, Tyler, it'll give you a sense of wht a lot of the landscape feels like. Along the highway there will be the usual wild grass and tree landscape of North America, but large rock chunk expanses will crop in a variety of interesting colors will crop out of the ground, not large enough to loom over like mountains, but quite defining the horizontal view of the drives along. Some of the road areas do really look like maybe they were blasted out of this rock, but, again, it isn't like being in a purely rock landscape. Canoeing in Ontario's lakes it's fairly common to find rock islands with trees just managing to exist and a fair bity of colorful lichen and moss. Again this is very cool but fundamentally different than seeing the rocky mountains, which amazed me when I was a tourist in Alberta.
Fun fact... there are more lakes in Canada than the rest of the world combined! And we hold 20% of the GLOBAL reserves of freshwater.
I live in Elliot Lake and have lived all over Northern Ontario between Sault Ste Marie and Sudbury. Fishing is amazing here...so many lakes... Watch out for deer and moose on the highway though. Industry in the area is mainly mining copper and nickle in Sudbury, steel plant in Sault Ste Marie (soo), and alot of forestry all along... Paper mills, lumber, logging .... Winter sucks unless you have a snow machine... Mountains are round and alot of rolling hills...
Its nice having alot of untouched wilderness to traverse... I love and its a great place to raise my kid.
Oh... dont forget the bears lol..... lots of bears
Tourism is mostly summer time when people come from Southern Ontario to stay at their cottage or rent one. A lot just go to like, the Muskoka region (which is really like the southern tip of Northern Ontario, so not that far) but a lot go even further north. lots of people with ATVs, dirt bikes and boats come north cause there's a lot of trails and backwoods areas with a ton of lakes around. I live in a small town along one of the main highways and the summer time, and specifically any of the long weekends, lots of RVs and trailers are out.
Around the Thunder Bay Area we have a LOT of Americans that own camps (we don't call them "cottages" up here.) They are usually from the Northern States...Minnesota, Wisconsin, a few from Ohio and Iowa and occasionally further to the south. Most of the fishing resorts just west of Thunder Bay are owned by Americans.
Center of Canada is actually in Manitoba/Nunavut not in Ontario. Constantly seeing video's mistakenly say Ontario is the center. Anything in Ontario is east and Manitoba and Saskatchewan as the "prairies" is more centered. 96°48'35"W (slightly east of Winnipeg) is the actual center, going east to west.
Geography is a funny thing.
Living in Winnipeg I think of northern Ontario being closer to Hudson Bay.
Because Northern Ontario and Southern Manitoba are basically next to each other on the US border.
As for tourism, the northern parts of the country is popular to European and Asian tourists because they are looking for an experience in the wilderness.
Of course, not many people live there, but it's not trash or junk. If you enjoy fishing & hunting or living close to nature, you can get very happy there. If you're more into urban lifestyle, you' ll prefer the south. There is something for everyone in Canada. And living close to the border ?--we like to visit you guys in USA, so why not stay closer. Have a nice day, Tyler.
I grew up and live in Southern Ontario but my dad is from Northern Ontario. We used to head north frequently in the summer to visit family. It's so easy to tell once you've hit the shield because the granite is so close to the surface. Most of the highway is cut into the rock so the sides of the road are just walls of rock. It is absolutely beautiful though and I've never been anywhere else quite like it. Check out the Group of Seven. They certainly were inspired by its beauty
I was born in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, right on the Michigan border. Lived in Southern Ontario for 19 years and I moved back. I love the scenery of the Canadian Shield. City has a population of 75000
Love the Sault!
I have no idea how we’re such a well-kept secret!
I grew up in a mining town VERY deep in the eastern side of the Canadian Shield. We're right on the border between Labrador and Quebec. It's a different kind of life out there; it's extremely remote and isolated.
Most places up here have a tendency to do this winter thing where it gets really flippin' cold, see? -30=>40 degree C weeks are bad enough...then we get the blasted wind chill. Occasionally we'll get -50 C without wind chill sure...but when the wind comes, holy crap those hours suck! We may be recognized as the superheroes of kindness but don't get it twisted, we find entertainment in watching folk panic about snow falling or it only being -10 C
Bundle up...This is, the way
I think if you check out the northern parts o most provinces you will find them empty also it's not just Ontario
In northern Alberta, there is the biggest one in the world, it’s visible by satellite. It is a huge beaver pond, you would have to hike into it. And also at one point all the water stops, slowing into the Great Lakes and it flows into the arctic circle.
I’m from Sudbury (Dare I say the capital of Northern Ontario) and Sudbury is definitely mining town and has history connected to Chicago in Chicago burned down. The great force of Sudbury were clearcut to help rebuild Chicago and then the mining industry turn Sudbury into a barren wasteland that NASA actually tested moonwalking on in like the 1960s but since then it has been regreened and in my lifetime it was very green. another fascinating thing is as you drive from Sudbury to Ottawa the Earth changes, and as they cut through hills to make highways, you can see the most of the rock is this dark grey with some colorful pink, almost granite, and as you get to the Ottawa river area it becomes limestone, and very very different.
And two of the resources that weren’t really mentioned in that video is diamonds and uranium that are both found in northern Ontario .
And Shania Twain comes from Timmins 😜
The drive from Sault Ste. Marie to Timmins along the shoreline of Lake Superior, had one of the most beautiful sceneries I’ve seen in Canada (but the drive from Vancouver to Whistler is probably better 😅)
I live in northern canada. Its cold and snowy and we have short days in winter, long days in summer. Our town used to be an indigineous settlement but now its a mining community holding some of the biggest names in mining.
Indigenous do get many oppritunities to work up here via various programs and companies. "We took your land, sorry, help us dig oil, we will make it easy for you to ibtain the job".
Luckily reclamation is a big priority in canada so when the oil site is complete, its turned into a park.
Be very mindful with « unoccupied land ». There is a long history of settlers thinking because a land seemed void of activity, that it was theirs for the grab. It's called Terra Nullius, but nothing could be further from the truth. Plants, animals and Indigenous peoples inhabit these lands, which are not as comfortable to Whites as modern living in southern cities. So-called empty lands should be considered as unceeded Indigenous lands, and should be left alone.