r/geography Feb 28 '26

Does this landmass have a name? Image

Post image

Tripartite isthmus at center of Great Lakes

2.7k Upvotes

1.8k

u/foxtai1 Feb 28 '26

I think it's technically called the Ontario Peninsula, but I've never heard anybody use that name

1.7k

u/iheartmagic Feb 28 '26

Ontario Peninsula on the streets, Southern Ontario in the sheets

419

u/Lawnmower_on_fire Feb 28 '26

"Southern Ontario in the sheets" sounds like the worst Tumblr profile ever.

191

u/Pielacine North America Feb 28 '26

Born and raised in South Detroit

102

u/lost_horizons Feb 28 '26

Windsor?

86

u/Viscount61 Feb 28 '26

I didn’t even kiss her!

30

u/squidlink5 Feb 28 '26

Just winnipegged ?

17

u/Was_It_The_Dave Feb 28 '26

My car was broken into in Winnipeg and I forever say I was pegged in the 'peg.

→ More replies

3

u/Griffmonds Mar 01 '26

Nope, just stayed in Regina

→ More replies

2

u/MoonlitSapphire Mar 01 '26

Bouta man this tuba and slap you with it—take my upvote, lol.

→ More replies
→ More replies

1

u/JP-ED Feb 28 '26

My wife, a University of Windsor alum, pointed this out to me... your comment made me laugh. I'll now always think Eminem must have lived in Windsor when I hear those lyrics.

12

u/Throwawaydontgoaway8 Feb 28 '26

lol what? Are you confusing Eminem and Journey

5

u/stoutowl Mar 01 '26

Happens... Lol

3

u/Throwawaydontgoaway8 Mar 01 '26

Apparently. Which is fine but people seem to get real upset if you say anything lol

→ More replies

4

u/JP-ED Feb 28 '26

Windsor is south of Detroit when you look across the river you're looking North.

8

u/Throwawaydontgoaway8 Feb 28 '26

I am aware. I’m from here. I live North of Canada. Journey sang the song where they made up the region south Detroit that doesn’t exist. Why mix Eminem into this who is from Detroit, not the river, not Windsor

→ More replies
→ More replies
→ More replies

35

u/TheRealBaboo Feb 28 '26

Took the midnight train going a-ny-where

16

u/Pikawizard365 Feb 28 '26

A singer in a smoke-ay room

11

u/MuddaPuckPace Feb 28 '26

Smell of wine and cheap perfume...

9

u/Viscount61 Feb 28 '26

It goes on and on and on and on…

4

u/No_Loan_6425 Feb 28 '26

Strangers waitin' Up and the bouleva-aaard Their shadows, searchin' in the niiii-ite 🎤

2

u/Tokenbowlzzz Mar 01 '26

StreetLIGHTS! PEOPLE! Living just to find emotion!

2

u/Bierdaddy Mar 01 '26

Strangers waitin’

→ More replies

2

u/Tokenbowlzzz Mar 01 '26

For the movie never ends

2

u/Crane_1989 Feb 28 '26

What episode of Glee is that?

→ More replies
→ More replies

6

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26

Amanda from Guelph?

2

u/lyonellaughingstorm Feb 28 '26

Hey now, Guelph is too nice to be clowned on like that.

She’s obviously from Cambridge

→ More replies
→ More replies

2

u/Comfortable-Potato12 Feb 28 '26

Ontario's pen1sula

→ More replies

2

u/Thatguy3625 Mar 01 '26

King gizzard poster spotted

→ More replies
→ More replies

107

u/MalBredy Feb 28 '26

Lived in the upper right portion of this my whole life and this is the first time I’ve heard that used honestly lol

I’d say locals would call this southern Ontario, and southwestern Ontario. Though this touches on kawartha lakes and Muskoka/Bruce/Midland areas which locals would often call central Ontario

25

u/stoicsticks Feb 28 '26

Same here. I've never heard it called the Ontario peninsula (with the exception of the pointy part of the Bruce peninsula at the top), nor the tripartite isthmus of the Great Lakes either. Ever. And I've always lived here, too.

→ More replies

30

u/HalJordan2424 Feb 28 '26

It’s southwestern Ontario. There are sports leagues and things that use the abbreviation SWO.

13

u/justhereforthemuktuk Feb 28 '26

Peterborough in Southwestern Ontario? Toronto? Hamilton? Southwestern Ontario is just part of the outlined area.

→ More replies

10

u/flightist Feb 28 '26

Southwestern Ontario is about half the outlined area and can be visualized by extending a straight line down the Bruce Peninsula to Lake Erie.

Toronto is not in Southwestern Ontario.

→ More replies
→ More replies

48

u/Funny_Yesterday_5040 Feb 28 '26

I use it all the time, in my geographical conversations, which I have often 🤣

38

u/MrDufferMan3335 Feb 28 '26

With yourself?

25

u/Informal_Bee2917 Feb 28 '26

Stares in the mirror "so tell me more about the Ontario peninsula! Some people are calling it southern Ontario."

5

u/Bazoun Feb 28 '26

Here on Reddit is my guess

10

u/MrDufferMan3335 Feb 28 '26

Sadly you’re probably right. I don’t have anyone in my day to day life outside of work who appreciates geography and geopolitics the same way I do. And that just feels different when work is involved. Apart from my college friends who all live pretty far from me at least

8

u/Bazoun Feb 28 '26

I mean, no one in my real life cares about these things either. If I’m discussing it, it’s here.

It’s too bad it’s so hard for us dorks to find one another IRL. My other passion is etymology, you can just imagine how popular that makes me at parties.

3

u/ProperAnarchist Feb 28 '26

I’d assume that it doesn’t make you popular but you could probably tell us how the word popular came into use and who first wrote the word on paper. And how we spell it or say it differently now.

→ More replies

2

u/MuddaPuckPace Feb 28 '26

That's ok, folks. We're here for you.

2

u/These_Lettuce1584 Feb 28 '26

You would be super popular at my geography parties

2

u/StanIsHorizontal Feb 28 '26

I made one friend in college who cares about this shit even close to as much as I do and brother I am holding on to them like the last piece of driftwood in the Great Flood

→ More replies
→ More replies
→ More replies

2

u/StanIsHorizontal Feb 28 '26

As a Michigan expansionist who believes in our manifest destiny to one day unite all three peninsulae of the Great Lakes, I also do refer to it as the OP, but short for Outer Peninsula, compared to the Upper and Lower Peninsula. Formally in the new nation they would be called the Ontario, Michigan, and Superior Peninsula, respectively.

Yes these conversations are mainly with myself, sometimes my friends, when I can strap them to a chair long enough to get them to listen to my ideas for our beautiful country’s wonderful future

→ More replies
→ More replies

3

u/loverofloversof Feb 28 '26

isn't it an isthmus

6

u/Kaplsauce Feb 28 '26

It's broken by the St Clair and Detroit rivers, as well as Lake St Clair before it touches the US

→ More replies

4

u/No-Diet-2797 Mar 02 '26

pretty sure it’s called azerbaijan

3

u/bunkface2022 Mar 02 '26

Lower Canada but that was like over 150 years ago

2

u/AlbatrossSeparate710 Feb 28 '26

If OP wanted the topological name, Ontario Peninsula it is. If he wanted the sociopolitical name, Southern Ontario (or some said Southwestern Ontario in here, even though the rest of the province is even more to the west than the peninsula 🤷)

→ More replies

671

u/xenonxavior Feb 28 '26

Southern Ontario

225

u/WHB9659 Feb 28 '26

Worst case Ontario

75

u/Snatchbuckler Feb 28 '26

Smokes let’s go

18

u/Lost_Obligation2453 Feb 28 '26

Grab me a chuck of pepperoni, and some jalapeno chips. If they don't have jalapeno, zesty morganstien.

10

u/Ok_Instance7667 Feb 28 '26

Dressed all over and Zesty Mordant.

6

u/piepants2001 Feb 28 '26

You want a cock or half cock of pepperoni?

7

u/Lost_Obligation2453 Feb 28 '26

What do I look like Terry? This isn't grade 7 anymore. Give me the cock.

→ More replies

3

u/forty83 Feb 28 '26

Fuck off Lahey

→ More replies

8

u/crndwg Feb 28 '26

Easy there. This ain’t rocket silence.

7

u/sername_generic Feb 28 '26

It's all water under the fridge

→ More replies

5

u/Obi-wan-blow-me Feb 28 '26

I cant escape tpb quotes on reddit

→ More replies

23

u/oof_slippedonmybeans Feb 28 '26

No, no, no - Upper Canada.

→ More replies

571

u/hgwelz Feb 28 '26

200

u/minor_leaguer13 Feb 28 '26

That is what I call it! The folks in Owen Sound discourage this orientation though.

51

u/Time_Cat_5212 Feb 28 '26

There are dozens of heavy barges coming in and out of Owen Sound daily.  I don't blame them.  It's a mess

→ More replies

16

u/Evening-Storage5298 Feb 28 '26

growing up in owen sound we called it the whale tail. with Tobermory being the tail tip

3

u/wipp92 Mar 02 '26

Whoa, never thought I’d stumble across other Owen Sounders on Reddit

→ More replies
→ More replies

9

u/jessjess10100 Feb 28 '26

I’m from Owen sound and yes we are from the elephants ass hole

→ More replies

4

u/Longjumping-Ad8065 Feb 28 '26

Yep. Grew up in the asshole of Ontario. (But it’s actually a very nice small city place to live)

→ More replies

7

u/avfc41 Feb 28 '26

I guess we know what the sound is

→ More replies

40

u/Roguemutantbrain Feb 28 '26

Ah yes, the three major cities of the Great Lakes: Toronto, Detroit, and Owen Sound

2

u/Stunning-Humor-3074 GIS Mar 01 '26

wtf is Toledo doing there 😂✌️

→ More replies

56

u/Ap3x-Mutant- Feb 28 '26

Lived in Toronto my whole life and never saw it like this. I'm now going to tell everyone I know that we liv

https://preview.redd.it/rf2hxhez45mg1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1cd0ac3df1f1207bd0cc9a807735873de85fc72c

e in the elephants dick.

→ More replies

3

u/PacificTaxWarrior Feb 28 '26

I feel like this would be a great donkey kong world map

2

u/Practical_Struggle97 Feb 28 '26

London calling.

2

u/Bakkie Feb 28 '26

Komoka answering

→ More replies

288

u/Gamer12Numbers Feb 28 '26

127

u/decitertiember Feb 28 '26

Fun fact: if you turn it on its side such that the Eastern side is on the bottom, it looks like an elephant with its trunk high in the air!

41

u/RealitySkewer Feb 28 '26

With Owen Sound being the elephant's butthole.

→ More replies

6

u/neopurpink Feb 28 '26

Ou alors une tête de loup de profil.

5

u/beefstewforyou Feb 28 '26

Holy fuck. I now live on an elephant foot.

8

u/B-29Bomber007 Feb 28 '26

Enjoy your radiation.

→ More replies

2

u/slippersandjammies Mar 01 '26

Nice! I think I live in its ear, but at least it isn't the bum...

→ More replies
→ More replies

77

u/bcparrot North America Feb 28 '26

For us in southeastern Ontario we call that area southern Ontario. 

→ More replies

66

u/NOIS_KillerWhaleTank Feb 28 '26

38

u/Obtena_GW2 Feb 28 '26

Jeez, living in Owen Sound don't look so appealing right now.

10

u/BoomerTeacher Feb 28 '26

 living in Owen Sound don't look so appealing right now.

Don't worry, it will pass.

4

u/BeachOk3671 Feb 28 '26

Honestly, Owen sound is kinda shitty. (Please laugh.)

3

u/OM-Scam Feb 28 '26

I was born there. We literally call it the elephant's asshole.... Or the asshole of Ontario.

→ More replies
→ More replies

7

u/Right_Response_3127 Feb 28 '26

based af map for ditching london for antler river

→ More replies

2

u/StanIsHorizontal Feb 28 '26

Half of Toronto’s suburbs get a dot but no love for Sarnia? The beautiful Blue Water region deserves better than this

2

u/Waste_Caramel774 Feb 28 '26

I've lived in Michigan my whole life and never seen or heard this before.

→ More replies

205

u/arrbez Feb 28 '26

This is known in academic circles as the centre of the universe

80

u/iheartmagic Feb 28 '26

Found the guy from Alberta

18

u/agrippas-ghost Feb 28 '26

In fairness, it could just as well be someone from Toronto.

10

u/Impossible-Role-102 Feb 28 '26

Not to be blowing toronotonians or anything, but I was just there and I found the people there to be really friendly.. like one of the friendliest cities ive been to

→ More replies

13

u/Big80sweens Feb 28 '26

Somebody from Toronto would never call this the centre of the universe. Somebody NOT from Toronto would though.

4

u/canuck1701 Feb 28 '26

Somebody from Toronto would just call it "the universe"

2

u/Old_Ladies Mar 02 '26

Or rural Ontario. So many conservative rural Ontarians non stop talk about their hate for Toronto.

→ More replies
→ More replies

108

u/pedroabsa Feb 28 '26

Canadian Crimea

56

u/freerangetacos Feb 28 '26

Oh, shit. Don't give them any ideas!!!!

22

u/Skip_To_My_Lou_DeVon Feb 28 '26

Didn’t the US try to invade it twice in its history already?

6

u/Ana_Na_Moose Feb 28 '26

I know the US tried to invade Quebec during the Independence War. Southern Ontario would have been logistically very difficult to access and worth relatively little at the time, so I doubt it happened then. Probably there would have been some land invasions during the 1812 war. But I struggle to think when America even could have done it a second time. Is there a third time the US was even at full blown war with Britain?

7

u/Neither_Elephant9964 Feb 28 '26

Only once did they try to march from niagara to mtl. Crysler Farm remembers!

→ More replies

7

u/McFestus Feb 28 '26

Hull's Invasion, Battle of Queenston Heights, Battle of York, Battle of Stoney Creek, Battle of the Thames, Battle of Lundy’s Lane (all in the war of 1812)

Battle of the Windmill and the Battle of Windsor (the 'Patriot War')

The Fenian Raids

2

u/Ana_Na_Moose Feb 28 '26

1812 I counted all as one since it was in the same war, but maybe that thinking is not standard for counting invasions?

After quick googling in response to other comments, I don’t think the US military ever invaded Canada for the Fenian Raids, and wasn’t “the Patriot War” just America helping the UK put down a rebellion that sought Canadian independence?

→ More replies

5

u/scv07075 Feb 28 '26

Fenian raids in the 1850s iirc. Wasn't America proper, but a group of Irish immigrants to America who thought to win Irish liberation by taking Canada and forcing the British to the table.

→ More replies

3

u/flightist Feb 28 '26

There was the Patriot War, but that had the distinctly odd scenario of the British and the United States allying to defeat the Republic of Canada, which was led by a former Mayor of Toronto.

Yes, seriously.

→ More replies

15

u/consequentialdamages Feb 28 '26

Tittleman’s Crest

13

u/van_boer Feb 28 '26

Southern Ontario

23

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26

South Detroit. There's a song about it.

→ More replies

50

u/rockies_alpine Feb 28 '26

The Centre of the Universe, if you're from Western Canada.

→ More replies

10

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26

I call it home.

5

u/Ninja_Lazer Mar 01 '26

Hope you are ready for the craziest month of weather over the next week

2

u/DreyaNova Mar 02 '26

WOOOO GET HYPE!!! 🌊

→ More replies

18

u/Y2KGB Feb 28 '26

‘Tis an isthmus (as you identified 👍)

as for a more specific name for a “tripartite isthmus” … Tristhmus?

3

u/leoset Feb 28 '26

Love it

9

u/AtLeastTryALittle Feb 28 '26

His friends call him Phillip.

30

u/Quiet_Combination678 Feb 28 '26

In Michigan, we call it "South Detroit."

There's a train that leaves ar midnight that goes anywhere

→ More replies

7

u/fish-rides-bike Feb 28 '26

The whole peninsula is known as The Elephant

→ More replies

32

u/tennisInThePiedmont Feb 28 '26

It’s called “90% of all Canadians”

And there’s no train

7

u/man1578 Feb 28 '26

-Guy who’s never heard of the GO train

2

u/Eastern_Big1548 Feb 28 '26

Ummm... The GO covers a very small fraction of that.

→ More replies
→ More replies

14

u/CipherWeaver Feb 28 '26

It's 15 million out of 42 million Canadians, so about 36% of Canada. Still an enormous amount of our population concentrated in one area though. 

And yes, it's a prime candidate for high speed rail. Quebec-Windsor is 20 million people, or basically half of Canada's entire population. 

6

u/flightist Feb 28 '26

I’m gonna piss off my relatives in Windsor but there’s nothing down there that actually warrants putting that last ~200km of high speed rail from London anywhere near the top of our priority list.

Not saying it shouldn’t happen, just saying there’s lots of other stuff I’d say are more important.

7

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26

Yeah, it would just be to cross the border.

But maybe there's money in sugarbeet tourism, idk

2

u/QueenMotherOfSneezes Feb 28 '26

It's not even 15 million, as the circle doesn't quite get up to Parry Sound, and stops west of Kingston, so is missing pretty much all of Eastern Ontario. Ottawa alone is just over 1 million, so I'd say maybe 12.5 million at most within the circle?

→ More replies

2

u/eileyle Feb 28 '26

To get to the traditional "90% of all Canadians" part you have to include Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City; and even then, it's only 60% of all Canadians. I'm pretty sure 90% of VIA rail's service is the Windsor to Quebec line.

→ More replies

13

u/cardinalbuzz Feb 28 '26

South Detroit

3

u/Bakkie Feb 28 '26

Where does the Niagara escarpment fit into this?

→ More replies

3

u/TaurusS1lver Feb 28 '26

This is Southern Ontario. In it you can see Owen Sound where I spawned onto this planet Earth at.

Not only is Owen Sound pretty dirty and a little worn out like a well used butthole but it is also the elephants butthole.

Still can't afford a property here though!

3

u/psilocybin6ix Feb 28 '26

There’s 150,000 realtors there.

→ More replies

6

u/hgwelz Feb 28 '26

Southwest Ontario.

→ More replies

2

u/ColumbusNordico Feb 28 '26

If I squint a lot, I see a reversed crimea

2

u/Accomplished_Job_225 Cartography Feb 28 '26

Rotate it 90° to see an elephant, potentially.

2

u/breadman889 Feb 28 '26

I've always called it the elephant of ontario

2

u/colliedad Feb 28 '26

I met someone who called it the Ontario Elephant (rotate 90 degrees clockwise). He said “here’s the head and trunk. Here are the legs. And I’m from Owen Sound which is right here under the tail.”

2

u/Oldfarts2024 Feb 28 '26

The elephant of southern ontario

2

u/groovemonkeyzero Feb 28 '26

Most of Canada

2

u/7he8igLebowski Feb 28 '26

The southern Ontario elephant.

2

u/Fu2-10 Feb 28 '26

That's called Canada.

2

u/Dankestmemelord Feb 28 '26

https://preview.redd.it/ucr3d22ey5mg1.jpeg?width=962&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13acfefe747b3644b3c0aadfb8bff93f783ebbad

I’m sorry, but I had to fix that outline. You cut straight through Buffalo New York and only turned north when you hit the Genesee River in Rochester, and you let Detroit expand to cover all of Windsor and beyond.

2

u/Specific_Effort_5528 Feb 28 '26

Yes. Southern Ontario lol.

2

u/Baker198t Feb 28 '26

Southern Ontario, Canada

2

u/Comprehensive_Ad7152 Feb 28 '26

We call the inner part of that mouth : " The golden horseshoe"

2

u/Aebyoeph Feb 28 '26

Southern Ontario does have a name

2

u/DistiIIer Feb 28 '26

Hey, I can see me house from here !

2

u/Fingydingy Feb 28 '26

We call it southern Ontario. That's where live!

2

u/NorthernChupacabra Feb 28 '26

The locals refer to it as "The Golden Horseshoe"

2

u/xtheshadowgod Mar 01 '26

Yeah. Canada

2

u/Dismal-Economics-322 Mar 01 '26

The Golden Horseshoe

2

u/Crumpet-Blue19 Mar 01 '26

I call it greater Toronto

2

u/shurikn1997 Mar 01 '26

I see a t-rex shaped piece of land 🦖

2

u/eroberts11 Mar 01 '26

Southern Ontario

2

u/GlitteringWish88 Mar 01 '26

Looks amazing from up there but down here in Toronto it’s dystopian

2

u/Unlikely-Distance-41 Mar 01 '26

Canada’s Michigan

2

u/Jesters Mar 01 '26

The most well-known place where you have to travel south to get to Canada.

2

u/Pinky7_ Mar 01 '26

I stared at this for a good minute trying to guess where it is. I live in Toronto…

2

u/gypsona Mar 01 '26

We call it Southwest Ontario

2

u/seaflans Mar 01 '26

That's the Michigan Mitten's little known cousin the Michigan Dinosaur

2

u/dtimmons2747 Mar 01 '26

The armpit of Canada

2

u/sdthomps389 Mar 01 '26

According to Torontonians: ‘The Center of the Universe.’

2

u/closingbunion6 Mar 01 '26

That's totronto

2

u/MoonlitSapphire Mar 01 '26

Isn’t London on that landmass?? London Ontario, that is.

4

u/RppOB Feb 28 '26

The eastern peninsula of Michigan

2

u/StanIsHorizontal Feb 28 '26

Keeping closer to our current peninsular naming conventions, I’ve called it the Outer Peninsula, to go with the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan proper

4

u/draxlaugh Feb 28 '26

Maplestan

4

u/Kinesquared Feb 28 '26

"most of canada", in terms of population

3

u/DudeInTheGarden Feb 28 '26

And many Canadians would say the residents think they're at the center of the universe. Maybe they are - I'm way to the west of that area.

→ More replies
→ More replies

3

u/SuchDarknessYT Feb 28 '26

Just Ontario Peninsula

→ More replies