city, southeastern Ontario, Canada. It was formed in 2001 by the merger of the former town of Lindsay and the other communities constituting what until the amalgamation had been Victoria county. It was named for the Kawartha Lakes, a chain of lakes in the region.

It lies along the Scugog River, 21 miles (34 km) west-northwest of Peterborough. Laid out in 1825 as Purdy's Mills (for William Purdy, who built the first mills), it was renamed Lindsay for one of the original land surveyors. The town's growth has been due partly to the Trent Canal (1833) and the improvement of the waterway between Sturgeon and Scugog lakes, including the locks at Kawartha Lakes. The region is a gateway to the Kawartha Lakes recreation area and has lumbering and farming interests and light industries. The annual Kawartha Summer Theatre there features professional stock companies. Inc. town, 1857; city, 2001. Pop. (2006) 74,561.

chain of 14 lakes in southeastern Ontario, Canada. They stretch across Peterborough and Victoria counties, just north and west of Peterborough and 30–70 miles (50–115 km) northeast of Toronto. Ranging in size from 2 to 18 square miles (5 to 47 square km), the lakes form a major link in the Trent Canal, a waterway connecting Georgian Bay in Lake Huron with Lake Ontario. The lakes are Scugog, Sturgeon, Cameron, Balsam, Pigeon, Bald, Sandy, Buckhorn, Chemong, Deer, Lovesick, Stony, Clear, and Katchewanooka. Once the centre of a lumbering region, the lakes now constitute a popular summer-resort region noted for canoeing, boating, and fishing. Kawartha is a Huron Indian word meaning “bright waters and happy lands.”