Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
How do the true multinationals measure up against the national oligopolies like the big banks, telecommunication companies, etc.? I didn't mean that Ontario has less of these than other provinces, I meant that a significant proportion of Ontario companies are geared toward serving protected national industries.
There isn't much of a geographical reason why people in British Columbia or Quebec should rely so heavily on Ontarian businesses. Or why Toronto would be a central transportation and logistics hub for the top half of North America. If Ontario were no different from the US, and just another foreign country, I don't think the economy would work that way. Ontario's economy would no doubt adjust but I am not sure why it would do a lot better than, say, Michigan, Ohio, or Illinois.
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Ontario benefits from being Canada's centre hugely. In the world where Canada isn't a thing (say, it is part of the United States), a lot of Ontario simply wouldn't have happened.
I doubt the auto industry would have moved as north as it did without the incentive of having an inside track to our market. Also, the railways wouldn't have been built the way they were - why would you bother building through the Rockies and Northern Ontario muskeg if you could just build from the south to get access to the Prairies or Lower Mainland British Columbia? The financial industry would be based out of New York, Chicago or some city like that.
Ontario would be an extension of New York or Ohio. Toronto would probably be less than a million people and Ottawa wouldn't exist anywhere near the way it does today. Sure, there would be a base of a few million (3-4, maybe) simply due to the farming and mining that took place here and the local services industry needed to support those activities.
I think Ontario knows on which side of its bread is buttered - hence its lack of very polarized political leanings.