"A place stand, a place to grow, Ontario, ari, ari-o!"

All Ontarians can sing the above song. It's a requirement of living here.

Tonight, I was busy blog-stalking and watching tv (go Rick Mercer) in a hotel in Sault Ste Marie (about 950 km or nearly 600 mi from my hometown). Both cities are in Ontario, by the way. Ontario's a big province. I was thinking of how big it is, when that song got stuck in my head. Google "Ontario ari ario" and you can find the song on you-tube. Editorial note: I never said it's a good song, just a catchy one that gets stuck in your head.

So, I'm going to post some information on Ontario, and Canada.

Ontario is big. Over one million square kilometres big. 1,076,395 km2 or 415,598 sq mi, to be exact. That's bigger than your province. Unless you also live in Ontario. Or Québec. La Belle Province is bigger (1,542,056 km2 or 595,391 sq mi).

However, Ontario is bigger than some countries. Like France. Or Spain. France and Spain together is slightly bigger than Ontario. Go ahead, look up the areas on wikipedia. I'll be here.

Believe me? :) Ontario's that big.

Canada is the home of many great things, including Mike Meyers, The Guess Who, Martin Short, Avril Lavigne, Leslie Neilsen, Alanis Morisette, Donald Sutherland and his son Kiefer. Yep. That's just the short list*. I left out the really famous ones, like Blackberry cell phones and Winnie the Pooh.

Oh - you didn't know Winne the Pooh is Canadian? Well, we Canadians have a source of pride called the Heritage Minute. These Heritage Minutes are how the average Canadian is educated about our history, through commercials.

Click here for the story of Winnie the Pooh, famous Canadian bear.

*If you want more information on Canadian actors, just google Canadian actors. Or Canadian comedians. Or Canadian singers. Or Canadian bands. Yes, there's wikipedia articles on each of those topics. I'm sure it was written by Canadians. We're modest that way.