From that CNN story...

[pyat]

Searchers had combed the brutal backcountry of rural Ontario for the housewife from the city of Hamilton, who had left her home three days earlier in the middle of a blizzard to grocery shop.

For "brual backcountry" read "Suburbia, 10 miles from a city of 500,000 people and right next to an international airport." It's sort of marginally rural. There are some farms.

Comments

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

Hey now, some of the backcountry is kinda rough. Anything up in Bruce-Grey gets hammered hard in a storm. But Hamilton?

I guess that makes The Red Green Show an epic battle of man and his wits against the elements.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

I disagree.

Mind you, "backcountry" in my mind means that you pretty much have to go north of highway 17 in Ontario, with some exceptions for the towns along highway 11.