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The Golden Horseshoe is a densely populated geographical region at the west end of Lake Ontario in southern Ontario, Canada. The built-up region extends from the Niagara Falls region at the eastern end of the Niagara Peninsula, west to Hamilton, and then east again across the northern edge of Lake Ontario, past Toronto to, approximately, Oshawa, with a population of around 6.7 million people.
The "horseshoe" name of the region is derived from the characteristic horseshoe shape with Hamilton in the centre and Niagara Falls and Oshawa at either end. The "golden" is historically attributed to the region's wealth and prosperity (Canadian Oxford Dictionary), although some seem to think that it is derived from its bright, or "golden" appearance from space as a result of city lights (the name, however, is older than satellite photography).
A July 13, 2004 report from the provincial Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal entitled Places to Grow coined the term Greater Golden Horseshoe, extending the bounds west to Waterloo Region, north to Barrie, and east to Peterborough.
The census divisions that constitute the original Golden Horseshoe appear in red on the map. The divisions in green are those that would be considered part of the "Greater" Golden Horseshoe.
External Links
- Places to Grow (http://www.pir.gov.on.ca/userfiles/HTML/cma_4_35657_1.html)
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