Everything about Hamilton Municipality Ontario totally explained
|leader_title3 =
MPPs
|leader_name3 =
|established_title =
Incorporated
|established_date =
June 9 1846
|area_magnitude =
|area_footnotes =
|area_total_sq_mi = 439.4
|area_total_km2 = 1138.11
|area_land_sq_mi = 431.3
|area_land_km2 = 1117.11
|area_water_sq_mi = 8.1
|area_water_km2 = 21
|area_urban_sq_mi = 87.9
|area_urban_km2 = 227.70
|area_metro_sq_mi = 529.6
|area_metro_km2 = 1371.76
|population_as_of = 2006
|population_footnotes =
|population_note =
|population_total = 504559
|population_density_km2 = 451.6
|population_density_sq_mi =
|population_urban =
|population_metro = 692911
|timezone =
EST
|utc_offset = -5
|timezone_DST =
EDT
|utc_offset_DST = -4
|postal_code_type = Postal code span
|postal_code = L8E to L8W
|area_code =
(905) and (289)
|latd=43 |latm=15 |lats=19 |latNS=N
|longd=79 |longm=52 |longs=23 |longEW=W
|elevation_m = 75–324
|elevation_ft = 246–1063
|website = http://www.myhamilton.ca/
|footnotes =
}}
Hamilton (
2006 population 504,559;
UA population 647,634;
CMA population 692,911) is a port city in the
Canadian province of
Ontario. Conceived by
George Hamilton when he purchased the
Durand farm shortly after the
War of 1812, the town of Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of
Lake Ontario known as the
Golden Horseshoe. On
January 1 2001 the new City of Hamilton was formed through amalgamation of the former City with the constituent towns of the
Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Municipality. Residents of the city are known as
Hamiltonians. Since 1981, the metropolitan area has been listed as the
ninth largest in Canada and the third largest in Ontario.
Traditionally, the local economy has been led by the
steel and
heavy manufacturing industries. Within the last decade, there has been a shift towards the service sector, particularly health sciences. The
Hamilton Health Sciences corporation employs nearly 10,000 staff and serves approximately 2.2 million people in the region.
Hamilton is home to the
Royal Botanical Gardens, the
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, the
Bruce Trail,
McMaster University and several colleges. The
Canadian Football Hall of Fame can be found downtown right beside
Hamilton City Hall and across town in the east the
Canadian Football League's
Hamilton Tiger-Cats play at
Ivor Wynne Stadium. Partly because of its diverse locations, numerous
TV and film productions have been filmed in Hamilton regulated by the Hamilton Film Liaison Office. A growing arts and culture sector had garnered media attention in a 2006
Globe and Mail news article, entitled "Go West, Young Artist," focused on the growing art scene in Hamilton. The article highlighted local art galleries, recording studios and independent film production.
History
In pre-
colonial times, the
Neutral Indians used much of the land but were gradually driven out by the
Five (later Six) Nations (Iroquois) who were allied with the
British against the
Huron and their French allies. A member of the Iroquois Confederacy provided the route and name for
Mohawk Road, which originally included King street in the lower city.
In 1784, about 10,000
United Empire Loyalists settled in
Upper Canada (what is now southern Ontario), chiefly in
Niagara, around the
Bay of Quinte, and along the
St. Lawrence River between
Lake Ontario and
Montreal. They were soon followed by many more Americans, some of them not so much ardent loyalists but attracted nonetheless by the availability of inexpensive, arable land. At the same time large numbers of
Iroquois loyal to Britain arrived from the United States and were settled on reserves west of Lake Ontario.
The town of Hamilton was conceived by
George Hamilton (a son of a
Queenston entrepreneur and founder,
Robert Hamilton), when he purchased farm holdings of
James Durand, the local Member of the
British Legislative Assembly, shortly after the
War of 1812. Official City status was achieved on
June 9 1846 by an act of
Parliament, 9 Victoria Chapter 73. a public library in 1890, and the Right House department store in 1893. The first commercial telephone service in Canada, the first telephone exchange in the
British Empire, and the second telephone exchange in all of North America all were established in the city between 1877–78.
Though suffering through the Hamilton Street Railway strike of 1906, with industrial businesses expanding, Hamilton's population doubled between 1900 and 1914. Two steel manufacturing companies,
Stelco and
Dofasco, were formed in 1910 and 1912, respectively, and
Procter & Gamble and the
Beech-Nut Packing Company opened manufacturing plants in 1914 and 1922, respectively, their first outside the US. Population and economic growth continued until the 1960s, with the 1929 construction of the city's first high-rise building, the Pigott Building, the move of
McMaster University from Toronto to Hamilton, the opening of the second
Canadian Tire store in Canada in 1934, an airport in 1940, a
Studebaker assembly line in 1948, the
Burlington Bay James N. Allan Skyway in 1958, and the first
Tim Hortons store in 1964. Since then many of the large industries have moved or shut down operations
Geography
Hamilton is located on the western end of the
Niagara Peninsula and wraps around the westernmost part of
Lake Ontario; most of the city, including the downtown section, is on the south shore. Hamilton is situated in the geographic centre of the
Golden Horseshoe and is roughly the midway point between
Toronto and
Buffalo, New York. The major physical features are Hamilton Harbour marking the northern limit of the city and the
Niagara Escarpment running through the middle of the city across its entire breadth, bisecting the city into 'upper' and 'lower' parts.
The first aboriginals to settle in the Hamilton area called this bay
Macassa, meaning
beautiful waters. Soderstrom credits
Thomas McQueston and family in the 1930s who "became champions of parks, greenspace and roads" in Hamilton.
Burlington Bay is a natural harbour with a large sandbar called the Beachstrip. This sandbar was deposited during a period of higher lake levels during the last ice age, and extends southeast through the central lower city to the escarpment. Hamilton's deep sea port is accessed by ship canal through the beach strip into the harbour and is traversed by two bridges, the QEW's
Burlington Bay James N. Allan Skyway and the lower Canal Lift Bridge.
The climate of Hamilton is humid continental (Dfa type) and relatively mild compared with most Canadian cities.
Between 1788 and 1793 the townships at the Head-of-the-Lake were surveyed and named. The area was first known as The Head-of-the-Lake for its location at the western end of Lake Ontario.
George Hamilton, a settler and local politician, established a town site in the northern portion Barton Township in 1815. He kept several east–west roads which were originally Indian trails, but the north–south streets were on a regular grid pattern. Streets were designated "East" or "West" if they crossed
James Street or Highway 6. Streets were designated "North" or "South" if they crossed
King Street or Highway 8. The overall design of the townsite, likely conceived in 1816, was commonplace. George Hamilton employed a grid street pattern used in most towns in
Upper Canada and throughout the American frontier. The eighty original lots had frontages of fifty feet; each lot faced a broad street and backed onto a twelve foot lane. It took at least a decade for all of the original lots to be sold, but the construction of the Burlington Canal in 1823, and a new court-house in 1827 encouraged Hamilton to add more blocks around 1828–9. At this time, he included a market square in an effort to draw commercial activity onto his lands, but the natural growth of the town was to the north of Hamilton's plot.
The
Hamilton Conservation Authority owns, leases or manages about
of land with the City operating of parkland at 310 locations. Many of the parks are located along the Niagara Escarpment, which runs from
Tobermory at the tip of the
Bruce Peninsula in the north, to
Queenston at the
Niagara River in the south, and provides views of the cities and towns at the western end of Lake Ontario. The hiking path
Bruce Trail runs the length of the escarpment and through parks with cliffs and waterfalls. Over 90 waterfalls and cascades have been identified here which led to the city being nicknamed "The City of Waterfalls".
Demographics
According to the
2006 Canadian Census, one-fourth of the local population was
not born in Canada. This is the third highest such proportion in Canada after Toronto, and
Vancouver at 24.4%. Between 2001 and 2006, the foreign-born population increased by 7.7%, while the total population of the Hamilton census metropolitan area (CMA) grew by 4.3%. The share of Canada's recent immigrants who settle in Hamilton has remained unchanged since 2001 at 1.9%. Hamilton was home to 20,800 immigrants who arrived in Canada between 2001 and 2006. One-half of them were born in
Asia and the
Middle East, while nearly one-quarter (23%) were from
Europe. Hamilton also had a high proportion of people with
English,
Scottish and
Irish ancestry. Nearly three in ten residents reported English as their sole ethnic origin, or as one of their ancestral origins. As well, nearly one in five reported Scottish ancestry either alone or in combination with another ethnic origin.
The top countries of birth for the newcomers living in Hamilton in the 1990s were:
former Yugoslavia,
Poland,
India,
China, the
Philippines, and
Iraq. The city proper of Hamilton was home to 67,845 visible minorities in 2006, representing 13.6% of its population, up from 10.9% in 2001.
(External Link
) (External Link)Visible minorities comprised 22.8% of Ontario's population, primarily due to high proportions in Toronto
(External Link). The population is 84.8%
White, 3.0%
South Asian/
East Indian, 2.8%
Black, 1.9%
Chinese, 1.5%
Aboriginal, 1.2%
Southeast Asian, 1.1%
Latin American, 1.1%
Arab, 0.8%
Filipino, and 1.8% Other.
(External Link)
Children 14 and under accounted for 17.8% of the population while those 65 years of age and older constituted 14.9%, resulting in an average age of 39.6 years.
(External Link)
The most described
religion in Hamilton is
Christianity though other religions brought by immigrants are also growing. The 2001 census indicates that 77.56% of the population adheres to a Christian denomination,
Protestants constituting 37.08% of the population, while
Roman Catholics number 35.48% (significantly lower than the national average), while
Christ the King Cathedral is the seat of the
Diocese of Hamilton. The remaining 5.0% consists of
Orthodox and independent Christian churches. The largest non-Christian religion is
Islam with 12,880 adherents or 1.96% of the total population. Other religions, including
Judaism,
Buddhism and
Hinduism, constitute less than one percent each. Those with no religious affiliation account for 115,510 (17.63%) in 2001.
Environics Analytics, a geodemographic marketing firm that created 66 different "clusters" of people complete with profiles of how they live, what they think and what they consume, sees a future Hamilton with younger upscale Hamiltonians—who are tech savvy and university educated—choosing to live in the downtown and surrounding areas rather than just visit intermittently. More two- and three-storey townhouses and flats will be built on downtown lots; small condos will be built on vacant spaces in areas such as
Dundas and
Westdale to accommodate newly retired seniors; and more retail and commercial zones will be created. The city is also expected to grow by more than 28,000 people and 18,000 households by the year 2012.
Economy
The most important economic activity in Ontario is
manufacturing, and the Toronto–Hamilton region is the most highly industrialized section of the country. The area from
Oshawa, Ontario around the west end of Lake Ontario to Niagara Falls, with Hamilton at its centre, is known as the "Golden Horseshoe" and had a population of 6,704,598 in the 2001 census. "Golden Horseshoe" The phrase was first used by
Westinghouse President, Herbert H. Rogge, in a speech to the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, on
January 12 1954. "Hamilton in 50 years will be the forward cleat in a 'golden horseshoe' of industrial development from Oshawa to the Niagara River...150 miles long and 50 miles wide...It will run from Niagara Falls on the south to about Oshawa on the north and take in numerous cities and towns already there, including Hamilton and Toronto."
With sixty percent of Canada's steel being produced in Hamilton by
Stelco and
Dofasco the city has become known as the Steel Capital of Canada. After nearly declaring bankruptcy, Stelco returned to profitability in 2004 and on August 26, 2007
United States Steel Corporation acquired Stelco for $38.50 (Canadian) in cash per share, owning more than 76 percent of Stelco's outstanding shares. Dofasco, in 1999, was the most profitable steel producer in North America and in 2000 the most profitable in Canada. It currently has approximately 7,300 employees at its Hamilton plant and produces over four million
tons of steel annually, representing about 30% of Canada's flat rolled sheet steel shipments. Dofasco is one of North America's most profitable steel companies, and Dofasco was named to the
Dow Jones Sustainability World Index in 2006 for the seventh year in a row. Dofasco’s produces steel products for the automotive, construction, energy, manufacturing, pipe and tube, appliance, packaging and steel distribution industries.
Originally, in the 1940s the
John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport was used as a wartime air force training station. Today TradePort International Corporation manages and operates the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport. Under TradePort management, passenger traffic at the Hamilton terminal has increased from 90,000 in 1996 to approx. 900,000 in 2002. The airport's mid-term target for growth in its passenger service is five million air-travelers annually. The air cargo sector of the airport has 24-7 operational capability and strategic geographic location allowing its capacity to increase by 50% since 1996; 91,000
metric tonnes (100,000
tons) of cargo passed through the airport in 2002. Courier companies with operations at the airport include
United Parcel Service and Cargojet Canada. In
2003, the city began developing a 30-year growth management strategy which called, in part, for a massive
aerotropolis industrial park centred around Hamilton Airport. The aerotropolis proposal, now known as the
Airport Employment Growth District, is touted as a solution to the city's shortage of employment lands. Hamilton turned over operation of the airport to TradePort International Corp. in 1996. In 2007 YVR Airport Services (YVRAS), which runs the
Vancouver International Airport, took over 100 per cent ownership of TradePort in a $13-million deal. The airport is also home to the
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum.
A report by Hemson Consulting identified an opportunity to develop of greenfields (the size of the Royal Botanical Gardens) that could generate an estimated 59,000 jobs by 2031. A proposed
aerotropolis industrial park at Highway 6 and 403, has been debated at City Hall for years. Opponents feel the city needs to do more investigation about the cost to taxpayers before embarking on the project.
Government
Citizens of Hamilton are represented by three tiers of Government. The federal representation consists of five members of parliament serving in the Parliament of Canada. At the provincial tier there are five elected members who serve in the Legislature of Ontario. The municipal tier consists of one mayor, elected city wide, and 15 city councillors, elected individually by each of the 15 ward divisions, to serve on the Hamilton City Council. Additionally, at the municipal tier, each ward elects a school board trustee for each of the school boards serving in their respective area.
The Hamilton City Council is granted authority to govern by the province through the Municipal Act of Ontario. The Province of Ontario has supervisory privilege over the municipality and the power to redefine, restrict or expand the powers of all municipalities in Ontario. Further, the province provides oversight of Hamilton City Council through the
Ontario Municipal Board.
The Criminal Code of Canada is the chief piece of legislation defining criminal conduct and penalty. The
Hamilton Police Service is chiefly responsible for the enforcement of federal and provincial law. Although the Hamilton Police Service has authority to enforce, bylaws passed by the Hamilton City Council are mainly enforced by Provincial Offences Officers employed by the City of Hamilton.
Education
Hamilton is home to several post-secondary institutions that have created numerous direct and indirect jobs in education and research.
McMaster University moved to the city in 1930 and today has over 27,000 enrolled students, of whom almost two-thirds come from outside the immediate Hamilton region.
Brock University of
St. Catharines, Ontario has a satellite campus used primarily for teacher education located in Hamilton. Colleges in Hamilton include:
Public education for students from kindergarten through high school is administered by three school boards. The
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board manages approximately 120 public schools, while the
Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board operates 60 schools in the greater Hamilton area. The
Conseil scolaire de district du Centre-Sud-Ouest offers two French immersion schools.
Hillfield Strathallan College as well as Calvin Christian School/Hamilton District Christian High School are private K-12 schools in the area.
The Dundas Valley School of Art is an independent art school which has serviced the Hamilton region since 1964. Students range from 4-year olds to senior citizens and enrollment at the school as of February 2007 is close to the 4,000-mark. In 1998 a new fulltime diploma programme was launched as a joint venture with McMaster University. The faculty and staff are highly regarded regional artists.
The Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts is home to many of the areas talented young actors, dancers, musicians, singers and visual artists. The school is equipped with a Keyboard Studio, spacious dance studios, art and sculpting studios, gallery space and a 300-seat recital hall. HCA offers over 90 programs for ages 3–93, creating a “united nations” of arts under one roof.
Culture
Hamilton has built on its historical and social background with attractions including the
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, the
HMCS Haida National Historic Site (Canada's most famous warship and the last remaining Tribal Class in the world),
Dundurn Castle (the residence of a Prime Minister of
Upper Canada), the
Royal Botanical Gardens, the
Canadian Football Hall of Fame, the
African Lion Safari park, and the
Christ the King Cathedral.
Founded in 1914, the Art Gallery of Hamilton is Ontario's third largest public art gallery. The Gallery has 8,500 works in its permanent collection that focus on three areas: 19th-century European, Historical Canadian and Contemporary Canadian.
The McMaster Museum of Art, founded on campus in 1967, houses McMaster University’s collection of more than 6,000 works of art, including exhibitions on the historical and contemporary work and the Herman Levy collection of Impressionist painting.
Growth in the arts and culture sector has garnered high level media attention for Hamilton. A
Globe and Mail article in 2006, entitled "Go West, Young Artist," focused on the growing art scene in Hamilton. The Factory: Hamilton Media Arts Centre, opened up a new home on James Street North in 2006. Art galleries are springing up on many streets across the City:
James Street,
Locke Street and
King Street, to name a few. This, coupled with growth in the Downtown condo market which is drawing people back to the Core, is having an impact on the cultural fabric of the City. The opening of the Downtown Arts Centre on Rebecca Street has spurred further creative activities in the Core. The Community Centre for Media Arts (CCMA) continues to operate in Downtown Hamilton. The CCMA works with marginalized populations and combines new media services such as website development, graphic design, video, and information technology, with arts education and skills development programming.
Sports
» Professional sports teams
| Club |
League |
Venue |
Established |
Championships |
| Hamilton Tiger-Cats |
Canadian Football League |
Ivor Wynne Stadium |
1950 |
8 |
| Hamilton Bulldogs |
American Hockey League |
Copps Coliseum |
1996 |
1 |
| Hamilton Rockstars |
American Basketball Association |
Copps Coliseum |
2008 |
0 |
