Term Papers on The Relevancy Of The Heartland - Hinterland Distinction In Canadas Economic

Term Paper Title	The Relevancy Of The Heartland - Hinterland Distinction In Canadas Economic
# of Words	1076
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.3

The Relevancy of the Heartland - Hinterland Distinction in Canada's Economic
Geography

Until the early 20th century, Canada was primarily an agricultural nation.
Since then it has become one of the most highly industrialized countries in the
world as a direct result of the development of the ‘heartland'.  To a large
extent the manufacturing industries present in the heartland are supplied with
raw materials produced by the agricultural, mining, forestry, and fishing
sectors of the Canadian economy, a region known as the ‘hinterland'.   The ‘
heartland-hinterland' concept in Canada describes patterns of economic power,
namely, where economic power and control resides within the nation. Thus, the
heartland-hinterland concept distinguishes raw-material and staple-producing
hinterlands from the capital service industrial heartland and reveals the
metropolis or dominating city of the system.  At a national scale, the Canadian
metropolis is Toronto, and the region with the most influence is the Great
Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands.  But while immense influence radiates outward from
the metropolis located in the heartland, the relationship between hinterland and
heartland is one of intimate mutual dependency.  In modern Canadian economics,
neither region can exist without each other, and the well-being of one directly
affects the other.  These two regions show remarkable contrasts, yet they are to
a large extent interdependent on each other, clearly suggesting that the
heartland-hinterland distinction is quite relevant in terms of Canada's economic
geography.

Upon discussing the importance of the heartland-hinterland in Canada, it is
necessary to discuss what each term refers to.  According to McCann the
heartland is an area "… which possesses favourable physical qualities and grant
food accessibility to markets;  they display a diversified profile of secondary,
tertiary, and quaternary industries;  they are characterized by a highly
urbanized and concentrated population which participates in a well-integrated
urban system;  they are well advanced along the development path and possess the
capacity for innovative change."   Literally, hinterland means ‘the land behind',
the area from which a heartland draws its raw materials and which, in turn,
serves as a market for the heartland's manufactured goods.

The demographic and economic characteristics of Canada's heartland are that it
contains over 50% of the nation's population and 70% of its manufacturing
industries in only 14% of the nation's area.  Canada's heartland is southern
Ontario and Quebec stretching from Quebec City to Windsor.  This heartland,
occupying the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands, coincides with several
favourable physical characteristics such as fertile Class 1 and 2 soils in
addition to humid continental climate for optimal agricultural conditions.
However, the "hinterland regions display harsher or more limiting physical
characteristics.  The Cordillera, Interior Plains, Canadian Shield, and
Appalachian regions yield tremendous resource wealth, but their soils,
vegetation, and climatic patterns do not favor wide distributions of population
and concentrated development."    Canada's heartland is illustrated on the map
below.

With the overwhelming presence of the above-mentioned features, this region
dominates Canada's economy due to diverse agricultural production as well as its
accessibility to the heartland of its major international trade partner, the
Untied States, which is focused around New York City.   "It is the heartland
that creates the demand for staple commodities, supplying the hinterland, in
turn, with capital, labour, technology, and entrepreneurship, those factors of
production which are so essential for the initial growth and sustained
development of the hinterland."

The relationship between the hinterland and heartland is complex.  Resources
flowing from hinterland areas largely go directly to other countries wit...

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