Which Canadian province was originally called Upper Canada?

Ontario was originally called Upper Canada. The British colony was created in 1791 when the Constitutional Act divided the former Province of Quebec into Upper Canada and Lower Canada.

“Upper” referred mainly to geography: Upper Canada lay upstream along the Great Lakes and the upper St. Lawrence system, while Lower Canada, corresponding mainly to present-day Quebec, lay downstream toward the Atlantic. Upper Canada included most of modern-day Southern Ontario and parts of what is now Northern Ontario.

The colony attracted many United Empire Loyalists who left the United States after the American War of Independence. English law and institutions predominated, distinguishing Upper Canada from largely French-speaking Lower Canada. Its early capital was Newark, now Niagara-on-the-Lake, before the seat moved to York in 1796; York became Toronto in 1834.

Upper Canada ended as a separate political entity when the Act of Union merged it with Lower Canada in 1841. At Canadian Confederation in 1867, its territory became the province of Ontario.