Ontario

== Government, law and politics ==
{{Further|Monarchy in Ontario|Executive Council of Ontario|Local government in Ontario}}
The ''British North America Act 1867'' section 69 stipulated "There shall be a Legislature for Ontario consisting of the Lieutenant Governor and of One House, styled the [[Legislative Assembly of Ontario]]." The assembly currently has 124 seats (increased from 107 as of the 42nd Ontario general election) representing [[electoral district (Canada)|ridings]] elected in a [[Plurality voting|first-past-the-post]] system across the province.

The legislative buildings at [[Queen's Park (Toronto)|Queen's Park]] are the seat of government. Following the [[Westminster system]], the leader of the party holding the most seats in the assembly is known as the "Premier and President of the Council" (Executive Council Act R.S.O. 1990). The Premier chooses the [[cabinet (government)|cabinet]] or [[Executive Council of Ontario|Executive Council]] whose members are deemed [[ministers of the Crown]].

Although the ''Legislative Assembly Act (R.S.O. 1990)'' refers to "members of the assembly", the legislators are now commonly called MPPs ([[Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario)|Members of the Provincial Parliament]]) in English and ''députés de l'Assemblée législative'' in French, but they have also been called MLAs ([[Member of the Legislative Assembly|Members of the Legislative Assembly]]); both are acceptable but the latter is uncommon. The title of Prime Minister of Ontario, correct in French (''le Premier ministre''), is permissible in English but now generally avoided in favour of the title "Premier" to avoid confusion with the Prime Minister of Canada.

=== Law ===
[[File:One of Osgoode Hall facade during Doors Open Toronto event, 2010.jpg|thumb|[[Osgoode Hall]] houses the [[Court of Appeal for Ontario]], the [[appellate court]] for the province.]]
{{Further|Courts of Ontario}}
Ontario has grown, from its roots in [[Upper Canada]], into a modern jurisdiction. The old titles of the chief law officers, the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General, remain in use. They both are responsible to the Legislature. The Attorney-General draughts the laws and is responsible for criminal prosecutions and the administration of justice, while the Solicitor-General is responsible for law enforcement and the police services of the province. The ''[[Municipal Act]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_01m25_e.htm |website=Government of Ontario | title = ''Municipal Act, 2001'', S.O. 2001, c. 25| date = July 24, 2014| access-date = April 23, 2019| archive-date = March 30, 2015| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150330230859/http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_01m25_e.htm| url-status = live}}</ref> is the main [[statute]] governing the creation, administration and government of [[municipality|municipalities]] in the [[Canada|Canadian]] province of Ontario, other than the [[City of Toronto government|City of Toronto]]. After being passed in 2001, it came into force on January 1, 2003, replacing the previous ''Municipal Act''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/repealedstatutes/english/elaws_rep_statutes_90m45_e.htm |website=Government of Ontario | title = ''Municipal Act, 1990'' R.S.O. 1990, c. M.45| date = July 24, 2014| access-date = April 23, 2019| archive-date = March 7, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140307000559/http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/repealedstatutes/english/elaws_rep_statutes_90m45_e.htm| url-status = live}}</ref> Effective January 1, 2007, the ''Municipal Act'' (the Act) was significantly amended by the ''Municipal Statute Law Amendment Act, 2006'' (Bill 130).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amo.on.ca/AMO-Content/Municipal-101/How-Municipal-Government-Works.aspx|title= How Municipal Government Works|website=AMO |access-date=May 14, 2019|archive-date=April 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423041832/https://www.amo.on.ca/AMO-Content/Municipal-101/How-Municipal-Government-Works.aspx|url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ontario.ca/laws/view|title=Law Document English View|date=July 24, 2014|website=Ontario.ca|access-date=May 14, 2019|archive-date=November 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114010813/https://www.ontario.ca/laws/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Politics ===
{{Main|Politics of Ontario}}
[[File:Ontario Legislative Building, Toronto, South view 20170417 1.jpg|thumb|The [[Ontario Legislative Building]] at [[Queen's Park (Toronto)|Queen's Park]]. The building serves as the meeting place for the [[Legislative Assembly of Ontario]].]]
Ontario has numerous political parties which run for election. The four main parties are the centre-right [[Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario]], the [[Social democracy|social democratic]] [[Ontario New Democratic Party]] (NDP), the centre to centre-left [[Ontario Liberal Party]], and [[Green Party of Ontario]]. The Progressive Conservatives, Liberals and New Democrats have each governed the province, while the Greens elected their first member to the Legislative Assembly in [[2018 Ontario general election|2018]].

The [[2018 Ontario general election|2018 provincial election]] resulted in a Progressive Conservative majority government under party leader [[Doug Ford]], who was sworn in as [[Premier of Ontario|Premier]] on June 29. Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath was sworn in as the leader of her Majesty's Loyal Opposition.

===Administrative divisions===
[[File:Ontario census divisions by type.png|thumb|275px|alt=Ontario's census divisions by type from the 2011 federal census|Map of the counties, regional municipalities, districts, and municipalities of Ontario.]]

Ontario has three types of [[List of census divisions of Ontario|first-level administrative divisions]]. They include [[List of census divisions of Ontario#Single-tier municipalities|single-tier municipalities]], upper-tier municipalities (which may be in the form of either [[List of regional municipalities in Ontario|regional municipalities]] or [[United counties|counties]]), and [[Districts of Ontario|district]]s. Upper-tier municipalities and districts are made up of smaller municipalities and other types of administrative divisions.

Administrative divisions differ primarily in the services that they provide to their residents, with the differing structures of these administrative regions resulting in disparities among Ontario's different regions. The administrative regions of Ontario are roughly coterminous with the [[List of census divisions of Ontario|census divisions]] used by [[Statistics Canada]], although some exceptions do exist.{{notetag|[[Statistics Canada]] treats [[Norfolk County, Ontario|Norfolk County]] and [[Haldimand County]] as one single census division; the [[County of Brant]] and [[Brantford|City of Brantford]] are also treated as one single census division. There would otherwise be 51 census divisions instead of the 49 official ones used by Statistics Canada.|name=Haldimand-Norfolk|group=lower-alpha}}

=== Urban areas ===
{{See also|Golden Horseshoe|National Capital Region (Canada)|Detroit–Windsor}}
Statistics Canada's measure of a "metro area", the [[Census Metropolitan Area]] (CMA), roughly bundles together population figures from the core municipality with those from "commuter" municipalities.<ref>{{cite web|title=Population and dwelling counts, for Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations, 2006 and 2001 censuses – 100% data|publisher=Statistics Canada|date=November 5, 2008|access-date=April 1, 2009|url=http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/popdwell/Table.cfm?T=202&PR=35&S=0&O=A&RPP=50|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090504145258/http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/popdwell/Table.cfm?T=202&PR=35&S=0&O=A&RPP=50|archive-date=May 4, 2009}}</ref>

{|class="wikitable sortable"
|- "
!CMA (largest other included municipalities in brackets)
!2001
!2006
!2011
!2016
!% Change
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Greater Toronto Area|Toronto]] CMA ([[Mississauga]], [[Brampton]])
|4,682,897&nbsp;
|5,113,149&nbsp;
|5,583,064&nbsp;
|5,928,040&nbsp;
|6.2
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[National Capital Region (Canada)|Ottawa]] CMA ([[Gatineau]], [[Clarence-Rockland]]) *
|1,067,800&nbsp;
|1,130,761&nbsp;
|1,254,919
|1,323,783
|4.4
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Hamilton, Ontario|Hamilton]] CMA ([[Burlington, Ontario|Burlington]], [[Grimsby, Ontario|Grimsby]])
|662,401&nbsp;
|692,911&nbsp;
|721,053&nbsp;
|747,545
|3.7
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Kitchener, Ontario|Kitchener]] CMA ([[Cambridge, Ontario|Cambridge]], [[Waterloo, Ontario|Waterloo]])
|414,284&nbsp;
|451,235&nbsp;
|496,383
|523,894
|5.5
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[London, Ontario|London]] CMA ([[St. Thomas, Ontario|St. Thomas]], [[Strathroy-Caradoc]])
|435,600&nbsp;
|457,720&nbsp;
|474,786&nbsp;
|494,069
|4.1
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[St. Catharines]] CMA ([[Niagara Falls, Ontario|Niagara Falls]], [[Welland]])
|377,009&nbsp;
|390,317&nbsp;
|392,184&nbsp;
|406,074
|3.5
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Oshawa]] CMA ([[Whitby, Ontario|Whitby]], [[Clarington]])
|296,298&nbsp;
|330,594&nbsp;
|356,177&nbsp;
|379,848
|6.6
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Windsor, Ontario|Windsor]] CMA ([[Lakeshore, Ontario|Lakeshore]], [[LaSalle, Ontario|LaSalle]])
|307,877&nbsp;
|323,342&nbsp;
|319,246&nbsp;
|329,144
|3.1
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Barrie]] CMA ([[Innisfil]], [[Springwater, Ontario|Springwater]])
|148,480&nbsp;
|177,061&nbsp;
|187,013&nbsp;
|197,059
|5.4
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Greater Sudbury|Sudbury]] CMA ([[Whitefish Lake 6, Ontario|Whitefish Lake]], [[Wahnapitae First Nation|Wanapitei Reserve]])
|155,601&nbsp;
|158,258&nbsp;
|160,770&nbsp;
|164,689
|1.0
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Kingston, Ontario|Kingston]] CMA
|146,838&nbsp;
|152,358&nbsp;
|159,561&nbsp;
|161,175
|1.0
|}

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Parts of Quebec (including [[Gatineau]]) are included in the Ottawa CMA. The population of the Ottawa CMA, in both provinces, is shown.  The Ontario portion of the CMA is about 75% of the total population of the CMA.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1710013501 | title = Population estimates, July 1, by census metropolitan area and census agglomeration, 2016 boundaries | date = April 17, 2019 | access-date = 16 November 2023}}</ref>

;Ten largest municipalities by population<ref name="ON2006MuniPops">{{cite web|url=http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/popdwell/Table.cfm?T=302&SR=1&S=3&O=D&RPP=25&PR=35|title=Population and dwelling counts, for Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities), 2006 and 2001 censuses – 100% data|work=[[Statistics Canada]], 2006 Census of Population|date=March 13, 2007|access-date=March 13, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070912162730/http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/popdwell/Table.cfm?T=302&SR=1&S=3&O=D&RPP=25&PR=35|archive-date=September 12, 2007}}</ref>
{|class="wikitable sortable"
|- "
!Municipality
!2001
!2006
!2011
!2016
!2021
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Toronto]]
|2,481,494
|2,503,281
|2,615,060
|2,731,571
|2,794,356
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Ottawa]]
|774,072
|812,129
|883,391
|934,243
|1,017,449
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Mississauga]]
|612,925
|668,549
|713,443
|721,599
|717,961
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Brampton]]
|325,428
|433,806
|523,911
|593,638
|656,480
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Hamilton, Ontario|Hamilton]]
|490,268
|504,559
|519,949
|536,917
|569,353
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[London, Ontario|London]]
|336,539
|352,395
|366,151
|383,822
|422,324
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Markham, Ontario|Markham]]
|208,615
|261,573
|301,709
|328,996
|338,503
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Vaughan]]
|182,022
|238,866
|288,301
|306,233
|323,103
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Kitchener, Ontario|Kitchener]]
|190,399
|204,668
|219,153
|233,222
|256,885
|- style="text-align:right;"
|style="text-align:left;" |[[Windsor, Ontario|Windsor]]
|209,218
|216,473
|210,891
|217,188
|229,660
|}