Kitchener
—  City  —
City of Kitchener
Flag of Kitchener Flag Official logo of Kitchener Logo
Motto: Ex industria prosperitas (Latin: Prosperity through industry)
Location of Kitchener in Waterloo Region
Coordinates: 43°27′N 80°29′W / 43.45°N 80.483°W / 43.45; -80.483Coordinates: 43°27′N 80°29′W / 43.45°N 80.483°W / 43.45; -80.483
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Region	Waterloo
Founded	1833
Incorporated	1853
Incorporated	1912 (city)
Government
• Mayor	Carl Zehr
Area[1][2]
• City	136.89 km2 (52.85 sq mi)
• Land	136.89 km2 (52.85 sq mi)
• Urban	313.85 km2 (121.18 sq mi)
• Metro	827.07 km2 (319.33 sq mi)
Population (2011)[1][2]
• City	219,153 (22nd)
• Density	1,602.1/km2 (4,149/sq mi)
• Urban	441,380 (10th)
• Urban density	1,346.2/km2 (3,487/sq mi)
• Metro	477,160 (10th)
• Metro density	577/km2 (1,490/sq mi)
Time zone	EST (UTC−5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC−4)
Forward sortation area	N2A to N2R
Area code(s)	519 and 226
Website	www.kitchener.ca

The City of Kitchener ( /ˈkɪtʃɨnər/) is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the seat of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. It was the Town of Berlin from 1854 until 1912 and the City of Berlin from 1912 until 1916. The city had a population of 219,153 in the 2011 Census. The metropolitan area, which includes the neighbouring cities of Waterloo and Cambridge, has 477,160 people, making it the tenth largest Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) in Canada and the fourth largest CMA in Ontario.^[3]. The city is adjacent to the smaller cities of Cambridge to the south, and Waterloo to the north. Kitchener and Waterloo are often referred to jointly as "Kitchener-Waterloo" (K-W), although they have separate municipal governments. Including Cambridge, the three cities are known as "the tri-cities".

The City of Kitchener covers an area of 136.86 square kilometres.

Geography and climate[link]

Geography[link]

Kitchener is located in Southwestern Ontario,in the Saint Lawrence Lowlands. This geological and climatic region has wet-climate soils and deciduous forests. Located in the Grand River Valley, the area is generally above 300m (1000') in elevation.

Kitchener is the largest city situated within the Grand River watershed, and the largest city on the Haldimand Tract. The Haldimand tract was given to the Six Nations (Haudenosaunee) of the Grand River in 1784 and comprises 6 miles on either bank, for the whole length of the Grand River. Just to the west of the city is Baden Hill, in Wilmot Township. This glacial kame remnant formation is the highest elevation for many miles around. The other dominant glacial feature is the Waterloo Moraine, which snakes its way through the region and holds a significant quantity of artesian wells, from which the city derives most of its drinking water. The settlement's first name, Sandhills, is an accurate description of the higher points of the moraine.

Climate[link]

Kitchener has a humid continental climate of the warm summer subtype (Dfb under the Koppen climate classification); this means that there are large seasonal differences, usually very warm (and humid) summers and cold (to occasionaly very cold) winters. Winter like conditions generally last from the mid-December until mid-March, while summer temperatures generally occur between end-May to close to the end-September. March 2012 went down in the history books for Kitchener - between March 16 and March 22 temperates ranged from 21.4C to 27.0C -- 7 record highs in a row. The March 19th high of 24C is one of the highest winter time temperature ever recorded, while the March 22nd high of 27C (81F) is the highest for March in this area. Temperatures during the year can exceed 30℃ (86℉) in the summer and drop below -20℃ (-4℉) in the winter several times a year, but prolonged periods of extreme temperatures are rare. Kitchener averages about 140 frost-free days a year, a much more limited number than cities on the Great Lakes due its inland location and higher elevation. Snowfall averages 160cm per year, high but not nearly as areas more directly affected by lake effect snow.

History[link]

Queen Street South looking North to King Street.

Settlement[link]

In 1784, the land that Kitchener was built upon was an area given to the Six Nations by the British as a gift for their allegiance during the American Revolution; 240,000 hectares of land to be exact. From 1796 and 1798, the Six Nations sold 38,000 hectares of this land to a Loyalist by the name of Colonel Richard Beasley. The portion of land that Beasley had purchased was remote but it was of great interest to German Mennonite farming families from Pennsylvania. They wanted to live in an area that would allow them to practice their beliefs without persecution. Eventually, the Mennonites purchased all of Beasley's unsold land creating 160 farm tracts. By 1800, the first buildings were built,^[5] and over the next decade several families made the difficult trip north to what was then known as the Sand Hills. One of these Mennonite families, arriving in 1807, was the Schneiders, whose restored 1816 home (the oldest building in the city) is now a museum located in the heart of Kitchener.^[6] Other families whose names can still be found in local place names were the Bechtels, the Ebys, the Erbs, the Weavers (better known today as the Webers) the Cressmans and the Brubachers. In 1816 the Government of Upper Canada designated the settlement the Township of Waterloo.

Much of the land, made up of moraines and swampland interspersed with rivers and streams, was converted to farmland and roads. Wild pigeons, which once swarmed by the tens of thousands, were driven from the area. Apple trees were introduced to the region by John Eby in the 1830s, and several grist- and sawmills (most notably Joseph Schneider's 1816 sawmill, John and Abraham Erb's grist- and sawmills and Eby's cider mill) were erected throughout the area. Schneider built the town's first road, from his home to the corner of King Street and Queen Street (then known as Walper corner). $1000 was raised by the settlers to extend the road from Walper corner to Huether corner, where the Huether Brewery was built and the Huether Hotel now stands; a petition to the government for $100 to assist in completing the project was denied.

Immigration to the town increased considerably from 1816 until the 1870s, many of the newcomers being of German (particularly Lutheran, and Mennonite) extraction. Some were from Switzerland, like the founder of The Arthur Pequegnat Clock Company. In 1833 the town was renamed Berlin, and in 1853 Berlin became the County Seat of the newly created County of Waterloo, elevating it to the status of Village.

Post 1850[link]

The extension of the Grand Trunk Railway from Sarnia to Toronto (and hence through Berlin) in July 1856 was a major boon to the community, helping to improve industrialization in the area. Immigrants from Germany, mostly Lutheran and Catholic, dominated the city after 1850 and developed their own newer German celebrations, and influences, such as the Turner societies, gymnastics, and band music. During the First World War Anglophone reaction against all things German led to the abandonment of this heritage. For example, churches switched to English language services. In 1916 following much debate and controversy, the name of the city was changed to Kitchener; named after the late British Field Marshal The 1st Earl Kitchener.^[7] After the war, local historians and civic groups promoted a new heritage that emphasized the county's Pennsylvania Dutch roots. Illustrated souvenir books, a popular novel, and site markers celebrated this simplified, nationalistic version of the founding.^[8]

On June 9, 1912, Berlin was officially designated a city.^[7] On September 17, 1981, the first ever "blue box" recycling program was launched in Kitchener. Today, more than 90% of Ontario households have access to recycling programs and annually they divert more than 650,000 tonnes of secondary resource materials. The blue box program has expanded in various forms throughout Canada and to countries around the world such as the United States, United Kingdom, France and Australia, serving more than 40 million households around the world.

Economy[link]

Benton and Frederick Streets (the name changes at the intersection with King Street in the foreground) form one of the most important corridors for traffic and public transit routes entering Downtown Kitchener

While Waterloo has benefited from the presence of two universities and a number of high tech companies, Kitchener has been a more blue-collar town. The city is home to four municipal business parks: the Bridgeport Business Park, Grand River West Business Park, Huron Business Park and Lancaster Corporate Centre. The largest, the Huron Business Park, is home to a number of industries, from seat manufacturers to furniture components. A number of the old industrial companies of Kitchener have fallen on harder times: the Kaufman shoe manufacturer closed its factory and companies like Electrohome have ceased local production in favour of licensing or supply agreements with overseas makers, however many other manufacturers like Kuntz Electroplating are still successfully operating within the city. Schneider's Foods (a meat producer) has been bought out by Maple Leaf Consumer Foods, but continues operations in Kitchener. The auto-parts manufacturer Budd Canada, now known as Kitchener Frame, continued to employ over 1500 workers until its close in December 2008, due to the ongoing economic crisis. According to the 2006 Census, 24.2% of the labour force is employed in the manufacturing sector.

The city's current city hall opened in September 1993.^[9] Your Kitchener Market, the modern incarnation of its historic farmers market, opened in 2004.^[10] Other projects include an assortment of lofts, utilizing old factories and other buildings. Various plans for 20 floor condo units have been put in place. By 2009, More than 91% of all downtown office space was fully occupied.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the University of Waterloo school of pharmacy and downtown health sciences campus was officially held on March 15, 2006, and the facility opened in spring 2009. The building is located on King Street near Victoria Street, on the site of the old Epton plant, across the street from the former Kaufman shoe factory (now converted to lofts).

Economic and social impacts from the new health sciences campus have already created positive impacts with significant economic benefits associated with related business activities, and spin off business and industry that will diversify the economy and bring additional jobs to the area.

The redevelopment of the 'Centre Block' in downtown Kitchener has its vision set and is planned to start. It will include a 12 story and an 18 story condominium, more retail spaces, the redevelopment of the Mayfair Hotel and a central courtyard.

In spring 2009, work began on a major redevelopment of King Street, which focuses on making the street more pedestrian-friendly with the addition of wide sidewalks and more aesthetically pleasing features such as new planters. Parking on King Street will also be redesigned. The project will extend from Frederick/Benton Streets to Francis Street. Coinciding with the renovation of King Street is the complete overhauling of Speaker's Corner at the corner of King and Benton Streets, and the transformation of a parking lot at the corner of Charles and Benton Streets into a bright, modern, multi-story parking facility to accommodate the influx of vehicles when new businesses open and other parking lots are redeveloped.

The Province of Ontario has committed to building a new provincial courthouse in downtown Kitchener, on the block bordered by Frederick, Duke, Scott and Weber streets. The new courthouse is expected to create new jobs, mainly for the courthouse itself, but also for other businesses, especially law offices. The new courthouse construction began in 2010.

Demographics[link]

At the time of the Canada 2006 Census, the population of Kitchener was 204,668.^[1] As of 2011, the population of Kitchener is estimated to be about 230,000.

By gender, 49.2% of the population was male and 50.8% was female. Children under five accounted for approximately 6.0% of the resident population of Kitchener, compared to 5.5% in Ontario, and 5.3% for Canada overall. Some 11.7% of the resident population in Kitchener was of retirement age, a smaller proportion of the population compared to 13.6% in Ontario, and 13.7% in Canada. The median age was 37 years, younger than the 39 years for Ontario, and 40 years for Canada. In the five years between 2001 and 2006, the population of Kitchener grew by 7.5%, higher than the growth rates for both Ontario (6.6%) and Canada(5.4%). Population density of Kitchener was 1,495 people per square kilometre.

According to the 2006 Census, 15.4 percent of the population claimed to be members of a visible minority. The largest visible minority groups are: Black: 3.2%, South Asian: 3.1%, Latin American: 2.2%, Southeast Asian: 2.0%, Chinese: 1.4%, and Others.^[1]

From the 2001 census, 78.85% of the population adhered to various Christian denominations. Due to the higher concentrations of German Canadians, Protestantism has a greater percentage (41.32%), followed by Roman Catholic (32.44%), while the remaining 5.07% follow other Christian groups such as Eastern Orthodox, LDS, Jehovah's Witness.etc.^[18] Other religions include Islam: 2.24%, Hindu: 1.00%, plus others including Judaism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, while 15.6% claim no religious affiliation at all.

Government[link]

Kitchener City Hall

Kitchener is governed by a council of six councillors, representing wards (or districts), and a mayor. As of the 2010 Municipal Election, Kitchener Council will be composed of one Mayor and 10 Ward Councillors.^[19] Council is responsible for policy and decision making, monitoring the operation and performance of the city, analyzing and approving budgets and determining spending priorities. The residents of each ward vote for one person to be their city councillor; their voice and representative on city council. Kitchener residents also elect four councillors at large to sit with the mayor on the council of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. Municipal elections are held every four years in late October.

The current mayor of Kitchener is Carl Zehr, who was re-elected to his fifth term in October 2010, after first being elected in 1997 and then re-elected in 2000, 2003 and 2006. Before that, he sat as a municipal councillor from 1985-1994. See Kitchener City Council for a complete list of councillors.

In 1976, residents of Kitchener voted almost 2:1 in favour of a ward system. The first municipal election held under the ward system occurred in 1978. In 2010, the city underwent a ward boundary review. A consultant proposed boundaries for a 10 ward system for the 2010 municipal election which means that there will be 4 additional councillors/wards.^[20]

The current Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Kitchener Centre is John Milloy. Other MPPs include Michael Harris (Kitchener-Conestoga) and formerly Elizabeth Witmer, (Kitchener-Waterloo (now vacant) who both represent small portions of the city in addition to adjacent areas. The federal and provincial electoral boundaries are now aligned and the federal Members of Parliament (MPs) as follows: Stephen Woodworth (Kitchener Centre), Harold Albrecht (Kitchener-Conestoga) and Peter Braid (Kitchener-Waterloo).

Education[link]

Kitchener has several public high schools, with Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational School, founded in 1855, being the oldest. It is located in the northern area of the City not far from the boundary of Waterloo. In the 1950s and 1960s several new schools were constructed, including Eastwood Collegiate Institute in what was then the southeastern part of the city in 1956, Forest Heights Collegiate Institute in the western Forest Heights part of the city in 1964, Grand River Collegiate Institute in the northeastern Heritage Park/Grand River Village area in 1966, and Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute in the southern area of the Downtown core in 1967. In 2006, Huron Heights Secondary School opened in southwest Kitchener. It opened with a limited enrollment of only 9th and 10th grade students, and has since expanded to full capacity in the 2008-2009 school year.

The oldest Catholic high school in the city is St. Mary's High School, which opened in 1907. Originally a girls-only Catholic school, it was transformed into a co-ed institution in 1990 after the closure of the neighbouring St. Jerome's High School, which had been a boys-only Catholic school. The same year, a second Catholic high school, Resurrection Catholic Secondary School, opened in the west of the city. In 2002, St. Mary's abandoned its downtown location in favour of a new one in the city's southwest. The former St. Jerome's High School currently houses the Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work from Wilfrid Laurier University. It opened at this location in 2006, bringing 300 faculty, staff and students to downtown Kitchener.^[21] The former St. Mary's High School building, meanwhile, has been transformed into both the head office of the Waterloo Catholic District School Board and the Kitchener Downtown Community Centre.

The Doon neighbourhood, formerly a separate village but now part of Kitchener, is home to the primary campus of Conestoga College, one of the foremost non-university educational institutions in the province. For nine consecutive years, Conestoga has earned top overall ranking among Ontario colleges on the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) surveys, which measures graduate employment rates and satisfaction levels, and employer and student satisfaction. It is one of only seven polytechnical institutes in Canada.^[22]

The University of Waterloo is proceeding with opening a School of Pharmacy in the downtown area. The City of Kitchener has contributed $30 million from its $110 million Economic Development Investment Fund, established in 2004, to the establishment of the UW Downtown Kitchener School of Pharmacy. Construction began in 2006, and the pharmacy program was launched in January 2008 with 92 students. It is operating out of a temporary location pending the completion of construction on the downtown campus.^[23]

The school is expected to graduate about 120 pharmacists annually and will become the home of the Centre for Family Medicine, where new family physicians will be trained, as well as an optometry clinic and the International Pharmacy Graduate Program. Construction on the $147 million facility was largely finished in spring 2009.

The provincial government has also announced that the University of Waterloo's (UW) Downtown Kitchener Health Sciences Campus will be the site of a new satellite campus of McMaster University's School of Medicine. The Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine is expected to train 15 doctors a year, primarily through distance learning^[24]

The training of medical professionals in downtown Kitchener include developments such as:

• In 2008, the UW School of Pharmacy began admitting 120 students each year.
• Eventually, the UW School of Pharmacy campus will evolve to become the UW Downtown Kitchener Health Sciences Campus, offering more programs and bringing hundreds of faculty, staff and students to the downtown core
• There are plans for an Integrated Primary Health Care Centre on the UW site that will provide as many as 12 more family physicians locally, as well as training for many more medical doctors.
• The Centre for Family Medicine, which is already up and running in the former Victoria School Centre in downtown Kitchener, is slated to move to the UW campus sometime after it opens. Currently, there are six practicing family physicians in the Centre and plans are to boost that number to as many as 14 family physicians.
• New physicians trained either at the new Integrated Primary Health Care Centre or the Centre for Family Medicine will learn in and create holistic health care models of the future.
• In September 2006, the Wilfrid Laurier Faculty of Social Work opened in the former St. Jerome's High School building on Duke Street adding yet another dimension to the "health care" theme in downtown Kitchener.

Health care in Kitchener[link]

Kitchener-Waterloo is served by three hospitals, Grand River Hospital (which is a system of two hospitals), St. Mary's General Hospital, and Cambridge Memorial. Grand River treats patients with a wide range of problems and houses the psychiatric unit, trauma centre, women's and children's services, and the Regional Cancer Care Centre. St Mary's houses the Regional Cardiac Care Centre, serving a population of nearly one million from Waterloo Region, east to Guelph, north to Owen Sound/Tobermory, south to Lake Erie, and west to Ingersoll. It also houses a respiratory centre. Both hospitals have emergency departments and intensive care units. Cambridge Memorial is a general hospital, treating primarily patients from Cambridge and south Kitchener.

Long term rehabilitation and physiotherapy is addressed at the Freeport Health Centre, at the south of the city. Built originally as a tuberculosis sanatorium and home for the terminally ill,^[25] its last link with that past is the palliative care unit. It nestles along the banks of the Grand River, and is part of Grand River Hospital.

Family doctors are in short supply in K-W, and a source of great concern among residents. The Chamber of Commerce runs a waiting list for people looking for a doctor, but as of 2006 the wait is over two years. Two urgent care centres cater for much of the routine services for thousands of people without a family doctor, from routine immunisations and health screening, to repeat prescriptions and referral on to specialist services. A third urgent care centre is being added to a renovated supermarket development in the desirable Forest Heights area of the city.

Announced January 2006 was the inauguration of a new School of Medicine, the Waterloo Regional Campus of McMaster University. The campus currently trains 28 students per year. From 2007, 15 new family doctors will be trained each year in new premises being constructed in the downtown core on rehabilitated industrial lands along the railway.

In 2009, the mental health unit is slated for relocation from the downtown core to an unused floor at the Freeport site. By this, patients needing mental health care shall gain options for local long term care and monitoring. The current site for the unit is in the basement of the downtown hospital in an area in dire need of renovations and the absence of options for local long-term mental care forces the transfer of such patients to neighbouring London, Ontario.

After renovations, the Child and Adolescent Inpatient Program will be moved from a small 9-bed wing to the downstairs in place of the current adult mental health unit. Once moved in 2009, upwards of 26 beds shall be available to this program.

Culture[link]

Kitchener's cultural highlights include CAFKA, The Open Ears Festival, IMPACT theatre festival, the Multicultural Festival, the Kitchener Blues Festival and KidsPark, many of which are free to the public. Kitchener is also home to venues such as Homer Watson House & Gallery, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, THEMUSEUM, JM Drama Alumni and Centre In The Square. Live music by popular artists can be heard at venues such as Centre In The Square and The Aud. The Kitchener Public Library is another community stalwart. Kitchener is also home to independent music label, Busted Flat Records which features the music of many Kitchener-Waterloo based musicians.

Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest[link]

Kitchener-Waterloo's Oktoberfest celebration is an annual nine-day event. Based on the original German Oktoberfest, it is billed as Canada's Greatest Bavarian Festival. It is held every October, starting on the Friday before Canadian Thanksgiving and running until the Saturday after. It is the largest Bavarian festival in the world outside of Germany.

While its best-known draws are the beer-based celebrations, other family and cultural events also fill the week. The best-known is the Oktoberfest Thanksgiving Day Parade held on Thanksgiving Day; as it is the only major parade on Canadian Thanksgiving, it is televised nationally. Another icon of the festival is Miss Oktoberfest. This position was formerly selected in a televised beauty pageant, with the applicants coming from across North America. The position is now selected by a closed committee of judges from a panel of local applicants; community involvement and personal character form the main criteria under the new system. A ribald spin-off of the Miss Oktoberfest pageant is celebrated in some local high schools, in which all participants are male, but dressed as women. Also the Cities recently had two local and regional museums built in the region, one being the Waterloo Region Children Museum and the Doon Heritage Museum.

Kitchener-Waterloo in film and music[link]

Various locations in both Kitchener and Waterloo were used to portray the fictional Ontario town of Wessex in the filming of Canadian television sitcom, Dan for Mayor,^[26] starring Corner Gas star Fred Ewanuick.

A local folk group, Destroy All Robots, wrote a tongue-in-cheek song jibing the town of Kitchener in the song "Battle Hymn of the City of Kitchener, Ontario".^[27]

Kitchener Blues Festival[link]

A 4 day festival in downtown Kitchener dedicated to blues music. The festival has expanded to 5 stages throughout the downtown area, with over 60 performances. The festival has grown from a 1 day event with an attendance of 3,000 to a 4 day event with over 65,000 attending. In 2010 the Kitchener Blues Festival celebrated its 10th year.^[28]

Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Festival[link]

This is a 2-day event in Victoria Park commencing usually on the first weekend of the summer. The festival features foods, dance and music from around the world. The festival also showcases several vendors that sell artifacts and crafts from around the world. This festival has been ongoing for well over 40 years. Well over 50,000 attend every year.^[29]

Recreation[link]

Kitchener's oldest and most important outdoor park is Victoria Park, in the heart of downtown Kitchener. Numerous events and festivities are held in this park.

A cast-bronze statue of Queen Victoria is located in Victoria Park, along with a cannon. The statue was unveiled in May 1911, on Victoria Day (the Queen's birthday) in the tenth year after her death. The Princess of Wales Chapter of the IODE raised the $6,000 needed for the monument.^[30]

Victoria Park

Another significant beauty spot in the city is Rockway Gardens. Adjacent to the Rockway golf course, the gardens occupy a long narrow strip of land alongside King Street as it rushes down to meet the Conestoga Parkway and become Highway 8. Here there are many fountains, ponds, waterfalls and rock grottoes. It is a popular site for wedding photos in the summer months.

Kitchener has an extensive and safe community trail system. The trails, which are controlled and run by the city, are hundreds of kilometres in length. Due to Kitchener's close proximity to the Grand River, several community trails and paths border the river's shores. This convenient access to the Grand River has drawn nature-seeking tourists to the city. However, Kitchener's trails and especially natural areas remain underfunded by city council and as a result, many are not adequately maintained.^[31]

A newly constructed bike park located at McLennan park^[32] in the city's south end has already been hailed as one of the best city run bike parks in Southern Ontario^[33] by BMX and mountain biking enthusiasts. The bike park offers a four-cross (4X) section, a pump track section, a jump park, and a free-ride couse.^[34]

Chicopee Ski Club is also located inside city limit.

Transport[link]

Highways and expressways[link]

Highway 401 in Kitchener looking east towards the Grand River.

Kitchener was very proactive and visionary about its transportation network in the 1960s, with the province undertaking at that time construction of the Conestoga Parkway from the western boundary (just past Homer Watson Boulevard) across the south side of the city and looping north along the Grand River to Northfield Drive in Waterloo. Subsequent upgrades took the Conestoga west beyond Trussler Road and north towards St Jacobs, with eight lanes through its middle stretch.

The Conestoga Parkway bears the provincial highway designations of Highways 7 and 8. King Street becomes Hwy 8 where it meets the Conestoga in the south and leads down to the 401, but Old King Street survives as the street-route through Freeport to the Preston area of Cambridge. Up until construction of the Conestoga, Highland Road through Baden had been the primary highway to Stratford. Victoria Street was then and remains the primary highway to Guelph but this is slated to be bypassed with an entirely new highway beginning at the Wellington Street exit and running roughly north of and parallel to the old route.

There are two interchanges with Highway 401 on Kitchener's southern border. In addition to the primary link where Hwy 8 merges into the Hwy 401, there is another interchange on the west side with Homer Watson Boulevard.

In order to reduce the congestion on Highway 8, a new interchange has been proposed on Highway 401 at Trussler Road, which would serve the rapidly growing west side of Kitchener. Although this proposal is supported by the Region of Waterloo, the MTO has no plans to date to proceed with an interchange at Trussler Road.

Destinations from Kitchener

	Wellesley	Waterloo, Woolwich via Conestoga Parkway	Woolwich, Elora, Fergus
	Wilmot, Stratford via Conestoga Parkway		Woolwich, Guelph via Highway 7
		Kitchener    East
	Woodstock via Highway 401	North Dumfries, Paris	Cambridge via Highway 8

City streets[link]

Unlike most southern Ontario cities whose streets follow a strict British grid survey pattern, Kitchener's streets are laid out in a complex radial pattern on the Continental models most familiar to the German settlers.

There is good historical reason for this. Kitchener was one of the few places in Ontario where the settlers arrived in advance of government surveyors.^{[citation needed]} The Mennonites who had banded together as the German Company to purchase the township from Richard Beasley simply divided their vast parcel of land by the number of shareholder households and then drew random lots to confer title on individual farms.^{[citation needed]} There was no grid survey done—no lines, no concessions, no right-of-way corridors for roads. When it came time to punch roads through the wilderness, the farmers modelled the road network on what was familiar to them, which was the pattern of villages in Switzerland and southern Germany.

This is a Continental Radial pattern and the result was major streets extended through diagonals cutting across the grid of smaller streets and converging at multiple-point intersections which, as the communities became more prosperous and if the automobile had not displaced the horse, might someday have become roundabouts decorated with circular gardens, fountains or statuary in the style of European cities. Five-point intersections created by converging diagonals are legion in the older areas.

In 2004, roundabouts were introduced to the Region of Waterloo.^[35] Besides improving traffic flow, they will help the region lower pollution from emissions created by idling vehicles. In 2006, the first two were installed along Ira Needles Boulevard in Kitchener. Some people argue roundabouts are ideal for intersections in this region because of the aforementioned historical growth along Continental radial patterns versus the British grid systems, but all installs have been at T and cross intersections making the point irrelevant.

For forty years, there has been a sharply controversial plan to extend River Road through an area known as Hidden Valley,^[36] but the pressure of traffic and the absence of any other full east-west arterials between Fairway Road and the Highway 401 is now forcing this development ahead.

Most streets that cross the municipal boundary between Kitchener and Waterloo retain the same street name in both cities. However, several streets which are divided into east and west sections in Kitchener shift to a north-south division in Waterloo. This primarily affects Weber and King Streets and Westmount Road. Since these roads do not actually change their primary directional alignment significantly, (Weber Street and King Street, supposedly "Parallel" streets, cross 3 times), the shift in labelling can create confusion, since each of the aforementioned thoroughfares bears the labels north, south, west, and east on certain segments. However, it also reduces the potential confusion that would result from having separate west and east segments of the same street existing simultaneously in both cities.

The problem with giving streets in Waterloo Region compass-based labels, and attempting to divide each of the cities into quadrants comes from the radial layout of the roads, and the historical patterns of development. Waterloo's quadrants, created by the intersection of King and Erb Streets, roughly correspond to compass directions, but Kitchener's quadrants, delineated by King and Queen Streets, do not resemble compass directions whatsoever. A notable case is that of Lancaster Street, which runs almost exactly north-south, but is designated as east-west, since it crosses Queen Street, which divides the "east" and "west" halves of the city, yet follows a northeast-southwest orientation itself.

Public transport[link]

GRT bus

Since 2000, public transport throughout the Region of Waterloo has been provided by Grand River Transit, which was created by a merger of the former Cambridge Transit and Kitchener Transit. GRT operate a number of bus routes in Kitchener, with many running into Waterloo and two connecting to Cambridge. In September 2005, GRT added an express bus route called iXpress from downtown Cambridge through Kitchener to north Waterloo.^[37]

In 2003, Regional Council unanimously adopted the Regional Growth Management Strategy. As a response, proposals were put forth regarding a rapid transit system serving the downtown cores of all three cities. An Environmental Assessment was completed in 2009 which recommended a light rail transit route starting from Conestoga Mall in north Waterloo and ending at the Ainslie Street bus terminal in Cambridge. In June 2009, Regional Council voted nearly unanimously for the recommendations in the EA. Regional staff are currently negotiating funding agreements with the provincial and federal governments, to cover the estimated $790-million cost for the system.

On October 31, 2009, GO Transit began to provide service to Kitchener with regional bus service from Charles Street Terminal to Mississauga, Ontario (Square One Bus Terminal) on weekdays and weekends. On December 19, 2011, GO Transit began train service to Kitchener with 2 weekday each direction to Union Station in Toronto. The route has been renamed from Georgetown GO Line to Kitchener GO Line to refect this extension.

Railways[link]

Passenger rail service has long been a point of frustration for residents of Kitchener and its neighbouring cities. Two main lines come westward out of Toronto and then meet up again in London. The northern line passes through Guelph, Kitchener and Stratford to London. The southern line goes along the heavily populated lakeshore to Oakville, then Brantford, Woodstock, and then to London. This southern line is the primary rail corridor for CN, while the northern line through Kitchener is owned by a short-line railway called the Goderich-Exeter Railway (GEXR). The track and signalling conditions on the north and south route are very different, so that trains on the southern route can operate more frequently and faster, while trains on the northern route take 1 hour and 40 minutes on average to get from Kitchener to Toronto. In addition, because it is a single-track route, trains often need to pull into sidings to let oncoming trains pass. Consequently, Kitchener, with a regional population base equal to London and situated much closer to metropolitan Toronto, gets less than one third the frequency of passenger rail service.

Passenger service is provided by Via Rail. Three trains in each direction travelling between Sarnia and Toronto stop at the Kitchener railway station daily. The station is slightly to the northeast of the city's downtown on Weber Street near its intersection with Victoria Street.

GO Transit bus service began in Kitchener on October 31, 2009, connecting to the Milton GO Station and Mississuaga City Centre GO Terminal. The nearest GO Train station to Kitchener is Milton station. City councillors and public petitions have called for the extension of GO Train service to the Region of Waterloo. On September 2008, GO Transit announced a feasibility study into extending GO train service on the Georgetown line through Guelph to Kitchener, with service beginning on December 19, 2011.^[38][39] Freight trains in Kitchener are operated by the Goderich-Exeter Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway. These railways serve several customers (including ThyssenKrupp Budd), many of which are located in industrial parks in southern Kitchener.

Air[link]

The closest airport to Kitchener is the Region of Waterloo International Airport in nearby Breslau, but while it is a thriving general-aviation field, it is not heavily served by scheduled airlines. Most air travellers use Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport or John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport. WestJet has scheduled daily non-stop service to Calgary from Waterloo International Airport using Boeing 737-700 aircraft. They started service out of Waterloo International Airport on May 14, 2007, for the summer season and then decided to fly year-round due to strong passenger demand. As of June 27, 2010, Westjet also flies non-stop daily from Waterloo International Airport to Vancouver. Bearskin Airlines started offering service in the fall of 2007 with three flights daily between Kitchener and Ottawa using a Fairchild Turboprop aircraft. Strong demand has resulted in Bearskin Airlines adding a fourth flight on Fridays. During the winter months Sunwing Airlines offers service to Dominican Republic. Recent upgrades to the runways, approach lighting and terminal building have permitted larger aircraft to use this airport. Air Canada has been in talks with the Region with an eye on starting flights to Montreal and Porter Airlines has been discussing offering flights to Toronto Island.

Media[link]

Neighbourhoods[link]

Districts within Kitchener

	Westmount, Cherry Hill	Mount Hope, Breithaupt Park, Northward	Bridgeport, Bridgeport West, Bridgeport North
	Beechwood Forest, Forest Heights, Forest Hill, Victoria Hills, Highland West/Highland Hills		Central Frederick, Heritage Park, Rosemount, Grand River Village North
		downtown    East
	Country Hills West, Huron Park, Laurentian Hills, Laurentian West, Williamsburg, Southdale	Centreville, Sunnyside, Kingsdale, Rockway, Alpine Village, Country Hills, Country Hills East, Doon, Pioneer Park, Pioneer Tower West, Brigadoon, Deer Ridge, Cedar Hill	Chicopee, Idlewood, Lackner Woods, Stanley Park, Eastwood, Grand River Village

Officially there are 6 wards, and 53 planning communities or neighbourhoods.^[40] There are also 30 neighbourhood associations recognized by the city, which in some cases do not correspond to the names and boundaries of planning communities designated by the City. In some cases the neighbourhood associations cover several neighbourhoods and/or planning communities and the name of one neighbourhood is sometimes used to refer to the entire area. The Stanley Park Neighbourhood Association, for example, covers much of the eastern and southeastern area of the city including the planning communities of Stanley Park, Heritage Park, Idlewood, and Grand River North and South. Further complicating things, is that the first area of development named Stanley Park, which is where Stanley Park school is located and where Stanley Park Conservation Area is located, has been included within the city's planning district of Heritage Park, leaving only later-developed areas of Stanley Park plus an adjacent residential neighbourhood to the south, originally referred to as Sunnyside, in the Stanley Park planning neighbourhood. The Forest Heights Neighbourhood Association includes the Forest Heights neighbourhood/planning district to the east of Forest Heights proper.^[41] At the next city council elections, (2010) there will be ten wards, as recently voted at council, in order to better represent the residents of Kitchener. Boundaries were finalized in 2008.

Real estate[link]

Kitchener-Waterloo has an affordable real estate market compared to locations closer to Toronto. Real estate in the Hidden Valley area is the most expensive in Kitchener.

Fire department[link]

The Kitchener Fire Department has seven fire stations.

Sports teams and leagues[link]

• Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League who play at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium Complex
• Kitchener Panthers of the Intercounty Baseball League who play at Jack Couch Park
• Kitchener Dutchmen of the Ontario Hockey Association who play at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium Complex
• KW Braves Jr. A Lacrosse of the Ontario Lacrosse Association who play at the Waterloo Rec Centre.
• KW Kodiaks Lacrosse of the Major Series Lacrosse who play at the Waterloo Rec Centre.
• Kitchener and District Soccer League, a semi-pro men's soccer league with teams from Kitchener and other surrounding cities
• Kitchener Fastball League contains 14 teams and plays at Budd Park
• Kitchener Minor Hockey Association (KMHA) which helps thousands of children play recreational and house league hockey
• Dutch Boy Drum and Bugle Corps division III Drum and Bugle Corps
• Tri-City Titans of the NAFL who play at the Centennial Stadium, which is also part of the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium Complex
• Tri-City Outlaws of the Northern Football Conference who play at Rogers Field in Cambridge are made up of players from Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, and Guelph
• Kitchener Waterloo Dragons, Indoor field hockey club
• Region of Waterloo Tigers Volleyball Club, a member of the Ontario Volleyball Association that provides youth with both a developmental program as well as competitive teams in Kitchener, Waterloo and surrounding areas. Founded in 1978. For more information go to: http://waterlootigersvbc.org/
• Kitchener-Waterloo Predators Volleyball Club, provides youth volleyball programing within the Ontario Volleyball Association
• There are two lawn bowling clubs in Kitchener: Heritage Greens LBC and Kitchener LBC which both function as part of District 7 of the Ontario Lawn Bowling Association. Both clubs offer programs for all ages.
• Kitchener klassics KMGSA girls softball/fastball league

Notable Kitchener natives and residents[link]

Academia[link]

• James G. Mitchell, computer scientist

Athletics and sports[link]

• Don Awrey, ice hockey player
• Don Beaupre, ice hockey player
• Vivian Berkeley, World Champion blind Lawn Bowler and 1996 Paralympic silver medalist
• Todd Bertuzzi, ice hockey player
• Brian Bradley, ice hockey player
• Christopher Chalmers, freestyle swimmer
• Gary Cowan, golfer
• Gary Dornhoefer, ice hockey player
• Woodrow Wilson Clarence "Woody" Dumart, ice hockey player
• David Edgar, soccer player
• Wayne Erdman, judoka
• John "Jack" Gibson, Hockey Hall of Fame, soccer player
• George Hainsworth, ice hockey player
• Chris Johnson, boxer
• Bobby Kuntz, football player
• Lennox Lewis, boxer
• Scott Manning, football player and stunt pilot
• Howie Meeker, ice hockey player and Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster
• Moe Norman, golfer
• Sarah Pavan, volleyball player
• Pan Qingfu, Kung-Fu Master
• Paul Reinhart, ice hockey player
• Jason Reso, (aka Christian Cage) professional wrestler, former Total Nonstop Action (TNA) wrestler and current World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestler.
• Steven Rice, ice hockey player
• Jim Sandlak, ice hockey player
• Milt Schmidt, ice hockey player, coach, and general manager
• Frank J. Selke, ice hockey general manager
• Darryl Sittler, ice hockey player from St. Jacobs (a town near kitchener)
• Scott Stevens, ice hockey player
• Fitzroy "The Whip" Vanderpool, former World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association champion
• Mike West, backstroke swimmer
• Dennis Wideman, ice hockey player
• Mark Scheifele, ice hockey player, 7th overall pick to the Winnipeg Jets in 2011 NHL draft

Business[link]

• Carl Arthur Pollock, industrialist, Electrohome Ltd
• Walter P. Zeller, founder of Zellers, was born near the city

Literature[link]

• John Robert Colombo, writer
• Kenneth Millar (pseudonym Ross Macdonald)
• Margaret Millar, author
• David Morrell, author
• Dave Sim, creator of the comic book Cerebus the Aardvark
• Edna Staebler, author

Music, entertainment, and the arts[link]

• Raffi Armenian, conductor
• Kimberly Barber, mezzo-soprano
• Norman Blake, musician, member of Teenage Fanclub
• Kristin Booth, actress
• Mel Brown, blues musician
• Courage My Love, alternative rock band
• Nick Hector, film editor
• Helix, a heavy metal band
• Paul MacLeod, singer/songwriter
• Lois Maxwell, actress
• Messenjah, reggae band
• Danny Michel, musician
• Edwin Outwater, conductor, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony
• Jeremy Ratchford, actor
• Homer Watson, landscape artist
• Dawud Wharnsby, singer-songwriter, poet, and performer
• Alana Zimmer, international model

Politics[link]

• Louis Orville Breithaupt, 18th Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario (1952–1957)
• William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada's tenth, and longest serving, prime minister
• Michael Kraus, minister and entrepreneur
• Judy Wasylycia-Leis, NDP member of the Canadian House of Commons

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kitchener, Ontario

• City of Kitchener
• Kitchener Community Profile
• The Record Newspaper (Serving Waterloo Region)
• Grand River Transit (serving Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge)
• Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest

	Waterloo	Woolwich
	Wilmot		Cambridge
		Kitchener    East
		North Dumfries

Ontario
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin) ("Loyal she began, thus she remains")
Capital	Toronto
Largest city	Toronto
Largest metro	Greater Toronto Area
Official languages	English (de facto)
Demonym	Ontarian
Government
Type	Constitutional monarchy
Lieutenant Governor	David Onley
Premier	Dalton McGuinty (Liberal)
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Federal representation	In Canadian parliament
House seats	106 of 308 (34.4%)
Senate seats	24 of 105 (22.9%)
Confederation	July 1, 1867 (1st, with QC, NS, NB)
Area [1]	Ranked 4th
Total	1,076,395 km2 (415,598 sq mi)
Land	917,741 km2 (354,342 sq mi)
Water (%)	158,654 km2 (61,257 sq mi) (14.7%)
Proportion of Canada	10.8% of 9,984,670 km2
Population	Ranked 1st
Total (2011)	12,851,821 [2]
Density (2011)	14 /km2 (36 /sq mi)
GDP	Ranked 1st
Total (2009)	C$614 billion[3]
Per capita	C$43,847 (6th)
Abbreviations
Postal	ON
ISO 3166-2	CA-ON
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4 (most of province) Eastern: UTC-5 (No DST) (Atikokan) Central: UTC-6/-5 (Most of NW Ontario)
Postal code prefix	K L M N P
Flower	White Trillium
Tree	Eastern White Pine
Bird	Great Northern Loon
Website	www.ontario.ca
Rankings include all provinces and territories

Ontario /ɒnˈtɛərioʊ/ is one of the provinces of Canada, located in east-central Canada.^[4][5] It is Canada's most populous province or territory^[6] and fourth largest in total area.^[1] It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto,^[7] and the nation's capital, Ottawa.

Ontario is bordered by the province of Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay to the north, Quebec to the east, and to the south by the U.S. states of Minnesota, Michigan (portions to the west), New York (portions to the east), Ohio and Pennsylvania. All but a small part of Ontario's 2,700 km (1,677 mi) border with the United States follow inland waterways: from the west at Lake of the Woods, eastward along the major rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence River drainage system. These are the Rainy River, the Pigeon River, Lake Superior, the St. Mary's River, Lake Huron, the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River, Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake Ontario, and along the St. Lawrence River from Kingston, Ontario to the Quebec boundary just east of Cornwall, Ontario.

Ontario is sometimes conceptually divided into two regions, Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario. The great majority of Ontario's population and its arable land is located in the south. In contrast, the larger, northern part of Ontario is sparsely populated.

Etymology[link]

The province is named after Lake Ontario, which is thought to have been derived from Ontarí:io, a Huron (Wyandot) word meaning "great lake",^[8] or possibly skanadario which means "beautiful water" in the Iroquoian languages.^[9] Ontario contains about 250,000 freshwater lakes.

Geography[link]

See also List of parks and protected areas of Ontario

Toronto, the capital of Ontario

The province consists of three main geographical regions:

• The thinly populated Canadian Shield in the northwestern and central portions, which comprises over half the land area of Ontario; though this area mostly does not support agriculture it is rich in minerals and in part covered by the Central and Midwestern Canadian Shield forests, studded with lakes and rivers. Northern Ontario is subdivided into two sub-regions: Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Ontario.

• The virtually unpopulated Hudson Bay Lowlands in the extreme north and northeast, mainly swampy and sparsely forested.

• Southern Ontario which is further sub-divided into four regions; Central Ontario (although not actually the province's geographic centre), Eastern Ontario, Golden Horseshoe and Southwestern Ontario (parts of which were formerly referred to as Western Ontario).

Despite the absence of any mountainous terrain in the province, there are large areas of uplands, particularly within the Canadian Shield which traverses the province from northwest to southeast and also above the Niagara Escarpment which crosses the south. The highest point is Ishpatina Ridge at 693 metres (2,274 ft) above sea level located in Temagami, Northeastern Ontario. In the south, elevations of over 500 m (1,640.42 ft) are surpassed near Collingwood, above the Blue Mountains in the Dundalk Highlands and in hilltops near the Madawaska River in Renfrew County.

The Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern region of the province. The temperate and fertile Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Valley in the south is part of the Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests ecoregion where the forest has now been largely replaced by agriculture, industrial and urban development. A well-known geographic feature is Niagara Falls, part of the Niagara Escarpment. The Saint Lawrence Seaway allows navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario occupies roughly 87% of the surface area of the province; conversely Southern Ontario contains 94% of the population.

Point Pelee is a peninsula of Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario (near Windsor and Detroit, Michigan) that is the southernmost extent of Canada's mainland. Pelee Island and Middle Island in Lake Erie extend slightly farther. All are south of 42°N – slightly farther south than the northern border of California.

Climate[link]

Summer at Sandbanks Provincial Park on Lake Ontario.

The Niagara Escarpment on the Bruce Peninsula.

Ontario has three main climatic regions. Parts of Southwestern Ontario have a moderate humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfa), similar to that of the inland Mid-Atlantic States and the Great Lakes portion of the Midwestern United States. The region has warm, humid summers and cold winters. Annual precipitation ranges from 750–1,000 mm (30–39 in) and is well distributed throughout the year with a usual summer peak. Most of this region lies in the lee of the Great Lakes making for abundant snow in some areas. In December 2010, the snowbelt between London and Lucan set a new record when it was hit by more than a metre of snow within 48 hours.^[10] Under the Köppen climate parameters, Point Pelee and Middle Island, the southernmost parts of Canada located close to the lake boundary with Ohio, are at the dividing line of a humid continental climate and a humid subtropical climate (Dfa/Cfa).

Central and Eastern Ontario have a more severe humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb). This region has warm and sometimes hot summers with colder, longer winters, ample snowfall and annual precipitation similar to the rest of Southern Ontario. Along the eastern shores of Lake Superior and Lake Huron, frequent heavy lake-effect snow squalls increase seasonal snowfall totals upwards of 3 m (9.8 ft) in some places.

The northernmost parts of Ontario — primarily north of 50°N — have a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc) with long, severely cold winters and short, cool to warm summers with dramatic temperature changes possible in all seasons. With no major mountain ranges blocking sinking Arctic air masses, temperatures of −40 °C (−40 °F) are not uncommon, snowfall remains on the ground for sometimes over half the year. Precipitation is generally less than 70 cm (28 in).

Severe thunderstorms peak in summer. London, situated in Southern (Southwestern) Ontario, has the most lightning strikes per year in Canada, averaging 34 days of thunderstorm activity per year. In a typical year, Ontario averages 15 confirmed tornado touchdowns, where more are reported in the Windsor-Essex - Chatham Kent area, though many are seldom destructive (the majority between F0 to F2 on the Fujita scale) and only few are stronger and very destructive. Tropical depression remnants occasionally bring heavy rains and winds in the south, but are rarely deadly. A notable exception was Hurricane Hazel which struck Southern Ontario, in October 1954.

History[link]

Territorial evolution[link]

Evolution of the borders of Ontario.
View full resolution for time-lapsed evolution

Land was not legally subdivided into administrative units until a treaty had been concluded with the native peoples ceding the land. In 1788, while part of the Province of Quebec (1763–1791), southern Ontario was divided into four districts: Hesse, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, and Nassau.

In 1792, the four districts were renamed: Hesse became the Western District, Lunenburg became the Eastern District, Mecklenburg became the Midland District, and Nassau became the Home District. Counties were created within the districts.

By 1798, there were eight districts: Eastern, Home, Johnstown, London, Midland, Newcastle, Niagara, and Western.

By 1826, there were eleven districts: Bathurst, Eastern, Gore, Home, Johnstown, London, Midland, Newcastle, Niagara, Ottawa, and Western.

By 1838, there were twenty districts: Bathurst, Brock, Colbourne, Dalhousie, Eastern, Gore, Home, Huron, Johnstown, London, Midland, Newcastle, Niagara, Ottawa, Prince Edward, Simcoe, Talbot, Victoria, Wellington, and Western.

In 1849, the districts of southern Ontario were abolished by the Province of Canada, and county governments took over certain municipal responsibilities. The Province of Canada also began creating districts in sparsely populated Northern Ontario with the establishment of Algoma District and Nipissing District in 1858.

The borders of Ontario, its new name in 1867, were provisionally expanded north and west. When the Province of Canada was formed, its borders were not entirely clear, and Ontario claimed to eventually reach all the way to the Rocky Mountains and Arctic Ocean. With Canada's acquisition of Rupert's Land, Ontario was interested in clearly defining its borders, especially since some of the new areas it was interested in were rapidly growing. After the federal government asked Ontario to pay for construction in the new disputed area, the province asked for an elaboration on its limits, and its boundary was moved north to the 51st parallel north.^[11]

The northern and western boundaries of Ontario were in dispute after Confederation. Ontario's right to Northwestern Ontario was determined by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1884 and confirmed by the Canada (Ontario Boundary) Act, 1889 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. By 1899, there were seven northern districts: Algoma, Manitoulin, Muskoka, Nipissing, Parry Sound, Rainy River, and Thunder Bay. Four more northern districts were created between 1907 and 1912: Cochrane, Kenora, Sudbury and Timiskaming.^[12]

European contact[link]

Statue of United Empire Loyalists in downtown Hamilton on Main Street East.

Before the arrival of the Europeans, the region was inhabited both by Algonquian (Ojibwa, Cree and Algonquin) in the northern/western portions and Iroquois and Wyandot (Huron) tribes more in the south/east.^[13] During the 17th century, the Algonquians and Hurons fought a bitter war against the Iroquois.^[14] The French explorer Étienne Brûlé explored part of the area in 1610-12.^[15] The English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into Hudson Bay in 1611 and claimed the area for England.

Samuel de Champlain reached Lake Huron in 1615, and French missionaries began to establish posts along the Great Lakes. French settlement was hampered by their hostilities with the Iroquois, who allied themselves with the British.^[16] From 1634 to 1640, Hurons were devastated by European infectious diseases, such as measles and smallpox, to which they had no immunity.^[17]

The British established trading posts on Hudson Bay in the late 17th century and began a struggle for domination of Ontario. The 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years' War by awarding nearly all of France's North American possessions (New France) to Britain.^[18] The region was annexed to Quebec in 1774.^[19] From 1783 to 1796, the Kingdom of Great Britain granted United Empire Loyalists leaving the United States following the American Revolution 200 acres (81 ha) of land and other items with which to rebuild their lives.^[16]

This measure substantially increased the population of Canada west of the St. Lawrence-Ottawa River confluence during this period, a fact recognized by the Constitutional Act of 1791, which split Quebec into the Canadas: Upper Canada southwest of the St. Lawrence-Ottawa River confluence, and Lower Canada east of it. John Graves Simcoe was appointed Upper Canada's first Lieutenant-Governor in 1793.^[20]

Upper Canada[link]

American troops in the War of 1812 invaded Upper Canada across the Niagara River and the Detroit River, but were defeated and pushed back by British regulars, Canadian fencibles and militias, and First Nations warriors. The Americans gained control of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, however. During the Battle of York they occupied the Town of York (later named Toronto) in 1813. The Americans looted the town and burned the Parliament Buildings but were soon forced to leave.

After the War of 1812, relative stability allowed for increasing numbers of immigrants to arrive from Europe rather than from the United States. As was the case in the previous decades, this deliberate immigration shift was encouraged by the colonial leaders. Despite affordable and often free land, many arriving newcomers, mostly from Britain and Ireland, found frontier life with the harsh climate difficult, and some of those with the means eventually returned home or went south. However, population growth far exceeded emigration in the decades that followed. It was a mostly agrarian-based society, but canal projects and a new network of plank roads spurred greater trade within the colony and with the United States, thereby improving previously damaged relations over time.

Lower Ontario in 1718, Guillaume de L'Isle map, approximate province area highlighted.

Meanwhile, Ontario's numerous waterways aided travel and transportation into the interior and supplied water power for development. As the population increased, so did the industries and transportation networks, which in turn led to further development. By the end of the century, Ontario vied with Quebec as the nation's leader in terms of growth in population, industry, arts and communications.^[21]

Many in the colony however, began to chafe against the aristocratic Family Compact who governed while benefiting economically from the region's resources, and who did not allow elected bodies the power to effect change (much as the Château Clique ruled Lower Canada). This resentment spurred republican ideals and sowed the seeds for early Canadian nationalism. Accordingly, rebellion in favour of responsible government rose in both regions; Louis-Joseph Papineau led the Lower Canada Rebellion and William Lyon Mackenzie led the Upper Canada Rebellion.

Canada West[link]

Although both rebellions were put down in short order, the British government sent Lord Durham to investigate the causes of the unrest. He recommended that self-government be granted and that Lower and Upper Canada be re-joined in an attempt to assimilate the French Canadians. Accordingly, the two colonies were merged into the Province of Canada by the Act of Union 1840, with the capital at Kingston, and Upper Canada becoming known as Canada West. Parliamentary self-government was granted in 1848. There were heavy waves of immigration in the 1840s, and the population of Canada West more than doubled by 1851 over the previous decade. As a result, for the first time the English-speaking population of Canada West surpassed the French-speaking population of Canada East, tilting the representative balance of power.

An economic boom in the 1850s coincided with railway expansion across the province, further increasing the economic strength of Central Canada. With the repeal of the Corn Laws and a reciprocity agreement in place with United States, various industries such as timber, mining, farming and alcohol distilling benefited tremendously.

A political stalemate between the French- and English-speaking legislators, as well as fear of aggression from the United States during and immediately after the American Civil War, led the political elite to hold a series of conferences in the 1860s to effect a broader federal union of all British North American colonies. The British North America Act took effect on July 1, 1867, establishing the Dominion of Canada, initially with four provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. The Province of Canada was divided into Ontario and Quebec so that each linguistic group would have its own province. Both Quebec and Ontario were required by section 93 of the British North America Act to safeguard existing educational rights and privileges of Protestant and the Catholic minority. Thus, separate Catholic schools and school boards were permitted in Ontario. However, neither province had a constitutional requirement to protect its French- or English-speaking minority. Toronto was formally established as Ontario's provincial capital.

Provincehood[link]

Downtown London at night.

Once constituted as a province, Ontario proceeded to assert its economic and legislative power. In 1872, the lawyer Oliver Mowat became Premier of Ontario and remained as premier until 1896. He fought for provincial rights, weakening the power of the federal government in provincial matters, usually through well-argued appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. His battles with the federal government greatly decentralized Canada, giving the provinces far more power than John A. Macdonald had intended. He consolidated and expanded Ontario's educational and provincial institutions, created districts in Northern Ontario, and fought to ensure that those parts of Northwestern Ontario not historically part of Upper Canada (the vast areas north and west of the Lake Superior-Hudson Bay watershed, known as the District of Keewatin) would become part of Ontario, a victory embodied in the Canada (Ontario Boundary) Act, 1889. He also presided over the emergence of the province into the economic powerhouse of Canada. Mowat was the creator of what is often called Empire Ontario.

Beginning with Sir John A. Macdonald's National Policy (1879) and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (1875–1885) through Northern Ontario and the Canadian Prairies to British Columbia, Ontario manufacturing and industry flourished. However, population increase slowed after a large recession hit the province in 1893, thus slowing growth drastically but only for a few short years. Many newly arrived immigrants and others moved west along the railway to the Prairie Provinces and British Columbia, sparsely settling Northern Ontario.

Mineral exploitation accelerated in the late 19th century, leading to the rise of important mining centres in the northeast like Sudbury, Cobalt and Timmins. The province harnessed its water power to generate hydro-electric power and created the state-controlled Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, later Ontario Hydro. The availability of cheap electric power further facilitated the development of industry. The Ford Motor Company of Canada was established in 1904. General Motors Canada was formed in 1918. The motor vehicle industry would go on to become the most lucrative industry for the Ontario economy during the 20th century.

Celebrating V-E Day in Ottawa in 1945

In July 1912, the Conservative government of Sir James Whitney issued Regulation 17 which severely limited the availability of French-language schooling to the province's French-speaking minority. French Canadians reacted with outrage, journalist Henri Bourassa denouncing the "Prussians of Ontario". It was eventually repealed in 1927.

Influenced by events in the United States, the government of Sir William Hearst introduced prohibition of alcoholic drinks in 1916 with the passing of the Ontario Temperance Act. However, residents could distil and retain their own personal supply, and liquor producers could continue distillation and export for sale, which allowed this already sizable industry to strengthen further. Ontario became a hotbed for the illegal smuggling of liquor and the biggest supplier into the United States, which was under complete prohibition. Prohibition in Ontario came to an end in 1927 with the establishment of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario under the government of Howard Ferguson. The sale and consumption of liquor, wine, and beer are still controlled by some of the most extreme laws in North America to ensure that strict community standards and revenue generation from the alcohol retail monopoly are upheld. In April 2007, Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament Kim Craitor suggested that local brewers should be able to sell their beer in local corner stores; however, the motion was quickly rejected by Premier Dalton McGuinty.

The post-World War II period was one of exceptional prosperity and growth. Ontario, and the Greater Toronto Area in particular, have been the recipients of most immigration to Canada, largely immigrants from war-torn Europe in the 1950s and 1960s and after changes in federal immigration law, a massive influx of non-Europeans since the 1970s. From a largely ethnically British province, Ontario has rapidly become very culturally diverse.

The nationalist movement in Quebec, particularly after the election of the Parti Québécois in 1976, contributed to driving many businesses and English-speaking people out of Quebec to Ontario, and as a result Toronto surpassed Montreal as the largest city and economic centre of Canada. Depressed economic conditions in the Maritime Provinces have also resulted in de-population of those provinces in the 20th century, with heavy migration into Ontario.

Ontario has no official language, but English is considered the de facto language. Numerous French language services are available under the French Language Services Act of 1990 in designated areas where sizable francophone populations exist.

Demography[link]

The percentages add to more than 100% because of dual responses (e.g., "French and Canadian" response generates an entry in both the category "French Canadian" and the category "Canadian"). Groups with greater than 200,000 responses are included.

The majority of Ontarians are of English or other European descent. Slightly less than 5% of the population of Ontario is Franco-Ontarian, that is those whose native tongue is French, although those with French ancestry account for 11% of the population. In relation to natural increase or inter-provincial migration, immigration is a huge population growth force in Ontario, as it has been over the last two centuries. More recent sources of immigrants with large or growing communities in Ontario include Caribbeans, Asians, Latin Americans, Europeans, and Africans. Most populations have settled in the larger urban centres.

Ontario is the second most diverse province in terms of visible minorities after British Columbia, with 22.8% of the population consisting of visible minorities.^[22] The Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa, Windsor, Hamilton and Waterloo Region are quite diverse metropolitan areas. Aboriginal peoples make up 2% of the population, with two-thirds of that consisting of North American Indians and the other third consisting of Métis. The number of Aboriginal people has been increasing at rates greater than the general population of Ontario.^[23]