Northern Ontario (continued)
3. Resources. Frankly, I don't know how Paradox came up with cattle for some of the provinces. Or the fishing up north. Northern Ontario lies within the precambrian Canadian Shield geologic region. Very little agriculture: some dairy farms immediately around the larger urban centers; subsistence hunting and fishing by natives everywhere else -- that's about it. Definitely nothing that would show up on a WM. Forest products and mining exclusively I should say. Although there is also gold here, to try to work in a gold resource would also ahistorically cause pops to flood here. So rightly no gold.
Dryden, Fort Severn, Fort William, Fort Albany and Sault Sainte Marie should all be timber provinces. Vicky/Ricky has Fish for the provinces bordering Hudson/James Bay. Again, there is only subsistance activity in these two provinces. If any economically substantial activity were to take place up there it would have to be timber.
Now a big ommission is that Sudbury DEFINITELY should be an iron resource. 30% of the world's nickel (not to mention other minerals) comes out of there. Analogous to Chilean copper mines being iron resource provinces. Just a couple of quotes from Wikipedia articles (links at end of my post): "As a result of these metal deposits, the Greater Sudbury area is one of the world's major mining communities. The region is one of the world's largest suppliers of nickel and copper ores." And: "The (Canadian) Shield is one of the world's richest areas in terms of mineral ores. It is filled with substantial deposits of nickel, gold, silver, and copper. Throughout the Shield there are many mining towns extracting these minerals. The largest, and one of the best known, is Sudbury, Ontario."
Besides correcting a big ommission it would also allow a Canadian player to support the steel industry of Sault Ste Marie and Hamilton (ie. steel industry for the state of Ontario) that exists even up to today. One could argue to make both Sault Sainte Marie and Sudbury iron provinces to better balance the logging/mining duality in the six provinces but certainly Sudbury as a minimum should be one.
A bit OT but a strong case could be made to make Fort William an iron resource for the HOI period. During WWII the Steep Rock Lake mine was developed and eventually it produced 78 million tonnes of iron ore over 35 years (1943 to 1979). It was "the largest undeveloped and the richest deposit of hematite iron ore on the North American continent" and "the mining project at the time was the largest mega project undertaken in Canada". (Link below). Ie: Canada's Manhattan Project! The ore was railed to a terminal in Fort William for shipment to Sault Ste. Marie and other steel mills.
I only record this here in case Clio gets "future ported" to HOI at some point. Resources don't appear on HOI maps -- only in the ledger panels on the upper-left on the HOI interface. Conversely, if Clio is "pre ported" to earlier period then one has to consider the fur industry (ie. the Northwest and Hudson Bay Company, etc) instead.
Anyway, very, very strongly suggest Sudbury getting an Iron. It would be criminal to continue keeping it as a cattle resource. Sudbury to Canadians is synonymous with mining and nickel (just like Chilean copper mines become iron in Vicky/Ricky. The situation is the same for Sudbury).
4. Terrain. The terrain should be Broken/Forest for Dryden, Fort William, Sault Sainte Marie and Sudbury. Fort Severn and Fort Albany should be Marshes/Forest. The Canadian Shield has some of the most formidable terrain in Canada -- an unremitting expanse of rock outcroppings, dense forest, lakes and bogs. The TransCanada highway even today is still a two-way highway through this region. The railways I believe are also still single tracked. If they've been doubled then it would have been a relatively recent development.
5. Pops. I don't know enough about the populations in 1836. My own gut feeling is it should be even lower than what Vicky/Ricky has.
To sum up the change suggestions: rename Thunder Bay to Fort William; straighten/widen the borders; iron for Sudbury timber for the rest (maybe iron for Sault Sainte Marie as well); broken/forest terrain for four and marshes/forests for the two Hudson/James Bay provinces. Finally, smaller/fewer pops throughout.
Regards,
Puddler
Some links:
General:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ontario
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder_Bay
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sault_Ste._Marie,_Ontario
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryden,_Ontario
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenora
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Bay
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Severn,_Ontario
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Albany_67,_Ontario
Historical interest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_William,_Ontario
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur,_Ontario
Regarding resources/terrain:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_Basin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Shield
Regarding Steep Rock Lake iron (OT):
http://www.v-g-s.ca/PastMonthly/03_01_22Talk.html