Quebec City–Windsor Corridor in the context of "Population of Canada"

Windsor (/ˈwɪndzər/ WIND-zer) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is situated on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from the U.S city of Detroit, Michigan. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southernmost city in Canada and marks the southwestern end of the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city's population was 229,660 at the 2021 census, making it the third-most populated city in Southwestern Ontario, after London and Kitchener. This represents a 5.7 percent increase from Windsor's 2016 population census of 217,188.

The Detroit–Windsor urban area is North America's most populous trans-border conurbation. Linking the Great Lakes Megalopolis, the Ambassador Bridge border crossing is the busiest commercial crossing on the Canada–United States border, carrying about one-quarter of the two countries' trade volume.

Southern Ontario is a primary region of the Canadian province of Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada, with approximately 13.5 million people, approximately 36% of Canada's population of 37 million. The region lies south of the province's other primary region, Northern Ontario, although the exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disputed. However, its core region is situated south of Algonquin Park, the latter being in an area of transition between coniferous forest north of the French and Mattawa Rivers and southern deciduous forest. It covers between 14 and 15% of the province, depending on the inclusion of the Parry Sound and Muskoka districts which also lie in the transitional area between northern and southern forest regions. Southern Ontario differs greatly from Northern Ontario, having a much higher population density, a different climate, and a different culture than its northern counterpart. It is broken into smaller subregions, including Central Ontario, Eastern Ontario, the Golden Horseshoe, and Southwestern Ontario.

The core area of Southern Ontario is part of the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor, which extends northeast into southern Quebec. The transitional northern area of this primary region extends north to the Mattawa River and occupies part of the Grenville Geological Province of the Canadian Shield, which also extends northeast into southern Quebec; most of Northern Ontario lies within the Superior Geological Province.

The Golden Horseshoe (French: Fer à cheval doré) is a secondary region of Southern Ontario, Canada, which lies at the western end of Lake Ontario, with outer boundaries stretching south to Lake Erie and north to Lake Scugog, Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. The region is the most densely populated and industrialized in Canada. Based on the 2021 census, with a population of 7,759,635 people in its core and 9,765,188 in its greater area, the Golden Horseshoe accounts for over 20 percent of the population of Canada and more than 54 percent of Ontario's population. The population of the greater area is estimated to have exceeded 11,000,000 people in 2024. The Golden Horseshoe is part of the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor, itself part of the Great Lakes megalopolis.

The core of the Golden Horseshoe starts from Niagara Falls at the eastern end of the Niagara Peninsula bordering the United States via New York and extends west, wrapping around the western end of Lake Ontario at Hamilton and then turning northeast to Toronto (on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario), before finally terminating at Clarington in Durham Region. The term Greater Golden Horseshoe is used to describe a broader region that stretches inland from the core to the area of the Trent–Severn Waterway, such as Peterborough, in the northeast, to Barrie and Lake Simcoe in the north, and to the Grand River area, which includes cities such as Brantford and Guelph, to the west. The extended region's area covers approximately 33,500 km (13,000 sq mi), out of this, 7,300 km (2,800 sq mi) or approximately 22 percent of the area is covered by the environmentally protected Greenbelt. The Greater Golden Horseshoe forms the neck of the Ontario Peninsula.

Trois-Rivières (French: [tʁwɑ ʁivjɛʁ], Canadian French: [tʁwɔ ʁivjaɛ̯ʁ] ; lit. 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River across from the city of Bécancour. It is part of the densely populated Quebec City–Windsor Corridor and is approximately halfway between Montreal and Quebec City. Trois-Rivières is the economic and cultural hub of the Mauricie region. The settlement was founded by French colonists on July 4, 1634, as the second permanent settlement in New France, after Quebec City in 1608.

The name of Trois-Rivières, which dates from the end of the 16th century, was used by French explorers in reference to the three channels in the Saint-Maurice River formed at its mouth with the Saint Lawrence, as it is divided by two islands, Potherie (Île Caron) and Île Saint-Quentin. The city occupies a location near where Jacques Cartier, in a 1535 trip along the St. Lawrence, stopped to plant a cross on Saint-Quentin island.

King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is an 828-kilometre-long (514 mi) freeway, travelling from Windsor in the west to the Ontario–Quebec border in the east (west of Montreal). The part of Highway 401 that passes through Toronto is North America's busiest highway, and one of the widest in Canada. Together with Autoroute 20 (A-20), it forms the road transportation backbone of the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor, along which over half of Canada's population resides. It is also a Core Route in Canada's National Highway System. The route is maintained by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) and patrolled by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). The speed limit is 100 km/h (62 mph) throughout the majority of its length, with the remaining exceptions being the posted 80-kilometre-per-hour (50 mph) limit westbound in Windsor, in most construction zones, and the 110-kilometre-per-hour (68 mph) speed limit on the 40-kilometre (25 mi) stretch between Windsor and Tilbury that was raised on April 22, 2022, the 7-kilometre (4.3 mi) extension east of the aforementioned, the 35-kilometre (22 mi) stretch between Highway 35 / 115 and Cobourg, the 44-kilometre (27 mi) stretch between Colborne and Belleville, the 66-kilometre (41 mi) stretch between Belleville and Kingston, and the 107-kilometre (66 mi) stretch between Highway 16 and the east end of the freeway that were raised on July 12, 2024.

By the end of 1952, three individual highways were numbered Highway 401: the partially completed Toronto Bypass between Weston Road and Highway 11 (Yonge Street); Highway 2A between West Hill and Newcastle; and the Scenic Highway between Gananoque and Brockville, now known as the "Thousand Islands Parkway". These three sections of highway were 11.8, 54.7, and 41.2 kilometres (7.3, 34.0, and 25.6 mi), respectively. In 1964, the route became fully navigable from Windsor to the Ontario–Quebec border. In January 1965, it was given a second designation, the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway, in honour of two Fathers of Confederation. At the end of 1968, the Gananoque–Brockville section was bypassed and the final intersection grade-separated near Kingston, making Highway 401 a freeway for its entire 817.9-kilometre (508.2 mi) length. In August 2007, a portion of Highway 401 between Trenton and Toronto has been designated as the Highway of Heroes, as the route is travelled by funeral convoys for fallen Canadian Forces personnel from CFB Trenton to the coroner's office in Toronto.

London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River and North Thames River, approximately 200 km (120 mi) from both Toronto and Detroit; and about 230 km (140 mi) from Buffalo, New York. The city of London is politically separate from Middlesex County, though it remains the county seat.

London and the Thames were named after the English city and river in 1793 by John Graves Simcoe, who proposed the site for the capital city of Upper Canada. The first European settlement was between 1801 and 1804 by Peter Hagerman. The village was founded in 1826 and incorporated in 1855. Since then, London has grown to be the largest southwestern Ontario municipality and Canada's 11th largest metropolitan area, having annexed many of the smaller communities that surround it.