Cambridge, Ontario

Cambridge (2006 population 124,371) is a city located on the Grand River and Speed River in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

History

Cambridge was formed in 1973 when the city of Galt merged with the towns of Preston and Hespeler and parts of the townships of Waterloo and North Dumfries. When amalgamation plans were first announced, the combined city was to be named Galt, but Preston and Hespeler successfully petitioned the province to instead give the city a new name, to be selected by a referendum on choices submitted by the three members. A ruffled Galt submitted 'Blair', while Preston and Hespeler combined to back 'Cambridge', after 'Cambridge Mills', an early name for the settlement that became Preston.

The first mayor of Cambridge was Claudette Miller, who at the time was one of the few female mayors, and at 35 the youngest mayor, in Canada.

On May 17, 1974 flooding on the Grand River was so intense it filled city streets with water to a depth of about four feet. Hundreds of businesses and homes were severely damaged.

Economy

In 1988, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada opened a plant in Cambridge, which employed 4,300 people as of July 2005 and is by far the city's largest employer. Although highly beneficial to the town, traffic issues caused by slow-moving and long trains passing through main traffic routes to deliver material to the plant have caused some frustration in residents. Several other industrial companies also call Cambridge home, including Gerdau Ameristeel, ATS Automation Tooling Systems, Frito-Lay Canada (formerly Hostess), Babcock and Wilcox, Northstar Aerospace, Rockwell Automation and Com Dev.

Education

A satellite campus of Conestoga College is located within the city, and the University of Waterloo School of Architecture has moved to downtown Cambridge.

Public English-language schooling is provided by the Waterloo Region District School Board, which operates 26 elementary and five secondary schools in Cambridge. High schools in the city include the 150-year old Galt Collegiate Institute and Vocational School , Ontario's oldest continuously operating public high school. Commonly called the Castle on the Grand because of the architecture and imposing view on the east bank of the River.

Publicly-funded Catholic education is available through schools operated by the Waterloo Catholic District School Board. The WCDSB runs 15 elementary and two secondary schools in the city. Cambridge is also home to the only French Catholic High School in the region; École secondaire Père-René-de-Galinée.

Even with a handful of new schools opening their doors in the city, the literacy rate still hovers at an unimpressive 91%, well below the national average.

Attractions

Cambridge is home to a number of cultural events and activities, including the Mill Race Festival and Rock the Mill music festivals in downtown Galt. There's also the Wings of Paradise butterfly conservatory, the annual dragon boat festival, the cambridge fall fair which has been held annually for over 100 years, and the Southworks Outlets district.

Demographics

Cambridge has been characterised by rapid growth in recent years. According to the 2006 Census, the city has a population of 120,371. This represents an increase of 9.1 percent, or 10,000 people, in five years. The municipality is 112.86 square kilometres in size (43.58 square miles).

According to the most recent figures, Cambridge is overwhelmingly populated by people of a European ethnic background - 90.2%, mostly those of English (31,400), Scottish (20,625), Irish (19,040), German (14,110), Portuguese (10,685) and French (10,040) origins. Many Newfoundlanders (mostly from the Conception Bay and Bell Island area) have migrated to Cambridge, mostly due to global warming. There is also a significant Franco-Ontarian population in Cambridge.

The city is largely Christian at 80.2%, followed by non-religious people who number 15%. Muslims and Hindus and other faiths make a little over 5% of the population. Over the last few years the numbers of Indians, Pakistanis and Afghanis moving in from other urban areas or immigrating from their respective countries, has doubled and tripled. Cambridge is also much younger than the national average. 21.6% of the population are under 14 years of age. Only 11% of the population is over 65, resulting in an average age of 35.2, significantly lower than the national average.

Transport

Roads

Cambridge straddles Highway 401, with interchanges at Exit 286 for Townline Road, Exit 284 at Franklin Boulevard which only allows entrance to the freeway from northbound Franklin Boulevard and exiting the freeway to head south on Franklin Boulevard, Exit 282 at Hespeler Road, Exit 278 at Shantz Hill Road/King Street Kitchener, Exit 275 Fountain Street and Homer Watson Blvd., Kitchener, and Exit 268 for Cedar Creek Road. The driving time to downtown Toronto varies between one and one half hours drive for a total distance of about 98 km (60 mi). Lester B. Pearson International Airport is 79 km (49 mi) and will take forty five minutes to drive.

There are two main arterial roads that form an 'X' through the city. The intersecting point is colloquially referred to as the Delta. Unfortunately, the Delta is adjacent to a Canadian Pacific Rail spur and at peak rush hour times, traffic will back up for miles radiating outwards from the Delta. Highway 8 (Ontario) travels through the city as Shantz Hill Road, King Street in Preston, Coronation Boulevard, and Dundas Street, linking Cambridge to Kitchener and Waterloo in the west, and Hamilton in the east. Highway 24 runs through Cambridge as Hespeler Road, Water Street, and Ainslie Street, connecting to Guelph in the northeast and Brantford in the south.

Public transportation

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 operates a number of routes in Cambridge, four of which travel outside of the city: presently the 52, 61 and 72 buses run to southern Kitchener, while the iXpress limited-stop express route runs from Cambridge through Kitchener to the north end of Waterloo. More than 80 percent of GRT's fleet consists of low-floor vehicles such as the Nova LFS. Low-floor buses run on highly-travelled routes including iXpress, while high-floor vehicles remain operating on routes with low ridership, such as routes 66, 71, and 53. GRT has recently purchased 5 hybrid buses in order to shrink their carbon footprint.

Intercity service is served by Greyhound Lines, from a terminal near Highway 401 and Hespeler Road. Commuter service to and from Toronto is the key routing, and no local trips are permitted to or from Kitchener. Coach Canada, who eventually took over Hamilton Street Railway's Canada Coach Lines from Trentway-Wagar, still run almost every two hours during the daytime between Hamilton and Kitchener, and connect to Niagara Falls. As noted below, other services have been cancelled over the last decade within the region, and between other centres, such as Guelph, Brantford, Elmira, and Tillsonburg.

Railways

Although freight trains serving the Toyota factory are a common sight in Cambridge, the city at present has no passenger rail service. The nearest VIA Rail stations in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor are Kitchener station, Guelph station, and Brantford's. Public transport connections from Cambridge to the Kitchener station have improved since Grand River Transit's creation and expansion. However, bus service to Guelph and Brantford is very limited after the demise of the Overland Coaches Van service between Guelph and Simcoe in early 2004.

The most easily-accessible GO Transit railway station is Milton station. City councillors, Regional councillors and public petitions have called for the extension of GO trains from Milton to Cambridge, but at present GO's plans to extend train service to Cambridge are beyond the 10-year capital forecast, which is also well beyond bus links along the 401 which has been announced as an interim feeder service. Greyhound Lines has been reported to be a major player in the proposed bus links between Cambridge and the GTA. The fact that a major bus line such as Greyhound has been reported to be a major player in the proposed bus link expansion demonstrates the local media has a firm grasp of the obvious.

Air

The nearest airport to Cambridge is the Region of Waterloo International Airport in neighboring Breslau, Ontario. While it is a thriving general-aviation field, the airport only offers scheduled flights to Detroit, Elmira, St. Jacob's, Sheffield, Ottawa and Calgary. In 2007 the airport began adding flights to Cuba(once again confirming the Breslau Comunist Party is alive and well), Mexico and Dominican Republic offered by Sunquest Vacations and Signature Vacations. However most air travellers use Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport, Hamilton's John C. Munro International Airport or Buffalo Niagara International Airport in Buffalo, New York. There are no permanent, temporary, or planned future public transport links from Cambridge to any of these airports.

Sports

Cambridge is the home of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League's Cambridge Winterhawks. The Winterhawks are the winners of the 2006 and 2007 Sutherland Cup.

Cambridge also was the home of the four-time Allan Cup winning Cambridge Hornets of the Original OHA Senior A League, the last OHA Senior A Hockey League, and Major League Hockey. The team folded in 2006 after a dispute with its 12 fans and the Ontario Hockey Association. Galt is also home to the oldest operating arena in the world Galt Arena Gardens. It is a true marvel of the town. As the locals say, "It's not good because it's old, it's old because it's good".

Media

Cambridge is also home to Hespeler Minor Hockey Association, which is one of Ontario's oldest operating hockey organizations.

Politics

Members of Parliament

Party		Member of Parliament	From	To	District
Liberal	James Young	1867	1878	Waterloo South
Conservative	Samuel Merner	1878	1882	Waterloo South
Liberal	James Livingston	1882	1900	Waterloo South
Conservative	George A. Clare	1900	1915	Waterloo South
Conservative/Unionist	Frank Stewart Scott	1915	1921	Waterloo South
Progressive	William Elliott	1921	1925	Waterloo South
Conservative	Alexander McKay Edwards	1925	1938	Waterloo South
Conservative/National Government/Progressive Conservative	Karl Homuth	1938	1951	Waterloo South
Progressive Conservative	Howard Meeker	1951	1953	Waterloo South
Liberal	Arthur Walter Adams White	1953	1957	Waterloo South
Progressive Conservative	William Anderson	1957	1962	Waterloo South
Progressive Conservative	Gordon Chaplin	1962	1964	Waterloo South
New Democratic Party	Max Saltsman	1964	1979	Waterloo South/ Waterloo/ Waterloo—Cambridge
Progressive Conservative	Chris Speyer	1979	1988	Cambridge
Progressive Conservative	Pat Sobeski	1988	1993	Cambridge
Liberal	Janko Peric	1993	2004	Cambridge
Conservative	Gary Goodyear	2004	present	Cambridge

Location from Cambridge

Cambridge neighbourhoods

Orientation note: Because Cambridge has three distinct historical business districts surviving from each of its constituent municipalities (from before amalgamation in 1973), it seems more neutral and more convenient to orient people by "the Delta". The Delta is the nickname given to the intersection of Highways 8 and 24 in the industrial zone located where the growing Preston and Galt first came together. These highways cross at a very acute angle, which presents challenges to motorists.

Famous People Who Reside in Cambridge

Professional Wrestlers Derek Graham-Couch (Rory McAllister) and Russell Murray (Robbie McAllister) better known as The Highlanders who wrestled in World Wrestling Entertainment reside in Cambridge. Matthew Graham an accomplished Minimalist sculptor who is from Cambridge, Now resides in Vancouver and NYC. Kirk Maltby, hockey player for the NHL team, the Detroit Red Wings, currently has a residence in Cambridge, which he uses during the offseason.

References

External links

• City of Cambridge official site
• Cambridge Tourism site
• Grand River Transit (serving Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge)