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

[renface.livejournal.com]

I grew up in a town of less than 400 people. It had one church, two bars, and a gas station. We could not get cable TV or pizza delivery. That's rural.

Well, compared to the city of 250,000 that I currently call home...