Ontario (IPA: /ɒn.ˈtɛ.ri.oʊ/) is a province located in the central part of Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. (Nunavut and the Northwest Territories are larger but are not provinces.) Ontario is bordered by the provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and the U.S. states (from west to east) of Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania (across Lake Erie), and New York to the south. Most of Ontario's borders with the United States are natural, starting at the Lake of the Woods and continuing through four of the Great Lakes: Superior, Huron (which includes Georgian Bay), Erie, and Ontario, then along the Saint Lawrence River near Cornwall. Ontario is the only Canadian Province that borders the Great Lakes. The capital of Ontario is Toronto, Canada's most populous city and metropolitan area. Ottawa, the capital of Canada, is located in Ontario as well. The 2006 Census counted 12,160,282 residents in Ontario, which accounted for 38.5% of the national population. The province takes its name from Lake Ontario, which is thought to be derived from ontarí:io, a Huron word meaning "great lake", or possibly skanadario which means "beautiful water" in Iroquoian. Along with New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec, Ontario is one of the four original provinces of Canada when the nation was formed on July 1, 1867, by the British North America Act. Ontario is Canada's leading manufacturing province accounting for 52% of the total national manufacturing shipments in 2004. (via Wikipedia)