Brantford

City of Brantford

Logo
Nickname(s): The Telephone City
Coordinates:
Country  Canada
Province  Ontario
Established May 31, 1877
Government
 - City Mayor Mike Hancock
 - Governing Body Brantford City Council
 - MP Phil McColeman (Conservative)
 - MPP Dave Levac (Liberal)
Area
 - City 75 km2 (29 sq mi)
Elevation 248 m (814 ft)
Population (2006)[1]
 - City 90,192 (31st)
 - Density 1,152.2/km2 (2,984.2/sq mi)
 - Metro 124,607 (30th)
  From StatsCanada
Time zone Eastern (EST) (UTC−5)
 - Summer (DST) EDT (UTC−4)
Postal code span N3P, N3R, N3S, N3T, N3V
Area code(s) 519/226
Website http://www.brantford.ca

Brantford is a city located on the Grand River in Southern Ontario, Canada. This single-tier municipality is geographically surrounded by the County of Brant and they are part of the same census division, but Brantford is municipally distinct from it. The city had a population of 90,192 in the Canada 2006 Census.

Brantford is connected to Woodstock in the west and Hamilton in the east by Highway 403 and to Cambridge to the north and Simcoe to the south by Highway 24.

Brantford is sometimes known by the nickname The Telephone City as former city resident Alexander Graham Bell conducted the first distant telephone call from the community to Paris, Ontario in 1876. It is also the birthplace of hockey player Wayne Gretzky, comedian Phil Hartman, as well as Group of Seven member Lawren Harris.

Contents

History

Brant County Courthouse in Brantford

The Attawandaron, or Neutral Nation, lived in the Grand River valley area before the 17th century; their main village and seat of the chief, Kandoucho, was identified by 19th-century historians as having been located on the Grand River where Brantford lies today. This town, like the rest of their settlements, was destroyed when the Iroquois declared war in 1650 and exterminated the Neutral nation. [2]

In 1784, Captain Joseph Brant and the Six Nations Indians left New York for Canada. As a reward for their loyalty to the British Crown, they were given a large land grant, referred to as the Haldimand Tract, on the Grand River. The original Mohawk settlement was on the south edge of the present-day city at a location favourable for landing canoes. Brant's crossing of the river gave the original name to the area: Brant's ford. By 1847, European settlers began to settle further up the river at a ford in the Grand River and named the village Brantford. The Mohawk Chapel, part of the original Mohawk settlement, is Ontario's oldest Protestant church. Brantford was incorporated as a city in 1877.

The history of the Brantford region from 1793 to 1920 is described at length in the book At The Forks of The Grand.

Climate

Climate data for Brantford
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Source: Environment Canada[3]

Demographics

Brantford had a population of 90,192 people in 2006, which was an increase of 4.4% from the 2001 census count. The median household income in 2005 for Brantford was $52,330. Based on the 2006 census, Brantford had an average property value of $200,319. The median mortgage payment was $933. The median rent for Brantford in 2006 was $700.[4]

Economy

Colborne Street

Brantford was an important Canadian industrial centre for the first half of the 20th Century, and was once the number three city in Canada in terms of cash-value of manufactured goods exported. The city is at the deepest navigable point of the Grand River, and was once a railroad hub of Southern Ontario. The combination of water and rails helped Brantford develop from a farming community into a blue collar industrial city based on the agriculture implement industry centred around companies such as Massey-Harris, Verity Plow and the Cockshutt Plow Company. This industry, more than any other, provided the well-paying and steady employment that allowed Brantford to sustain economic growth through most of the 20th century.

By the 1980s and 1990s, the economy of Brantford was in steady decline as a result of the bankruptcies of White Farm Equipment, Massey-Ferguson (and its successor, Massey Combines Corporation), Koering-Waterous, Harding Carpets, and other manufacturers. The bankruptcies and closures of the businesses left thousands of people unemployed and created one of the most economically depressed areas in the country. The unemployment rate, however, has steadily decreased in more recent years, from almost 14% in 1993 down to 6.3% in 2006. This improved employment picture led to the rate of personal bankruptcy in Brantford falling by 6.2% in 2006.

The completion of the Brantford to Ancaster section of Highway 403 in 1997, was intended to provide an increased incentive for business to locate in Brantford because of easy access to Hamilton and Toronto, as well as being along the quickest route through southern Ontario between Detroit and Buffalo. In 2004 Procter & Gamble and Ferrero SpA chose to locate in the city. Though Wescast Industries, Inc. recently closed their local foundry, their corporate headquarters will remain in Brantford.

On February 16, 2005, Brant, including Brantford, was added to the Greater Golden Horseshoe along with Haldimand and Northumberland counties.

Education

Statistics from the 2001 Census indicate that 40% of Brantford residents had not earned a high-school diploma, compared to the provincial average of 33%.

The average annual income is 9% less than the national average.

The W. Ross Macdonald School for blind and deafblind students is located in Brantford.

Universities and colleges

Secondary schools

Politics

Brantford City Hall

The Brantford City Council was elected to a four-year term in November, 2006, and is headed by Mayor Mike Hancock. Two councillors were elected to represent each of five wards. The current councillors are: Jennifer Kinneman and Mark Littell(Ward 1), Vince Bucci and John Sless (Ward 2), Greg Martin and Dan McCreary (Ward 3), Richard Carpenter and James Calnan (Ward 4), and John Bradford and Marguerite Ceschi-Smith (Ward 5).

At the federal and provincial levels of government, Brantford is part of the Brant riding.

Media

Print

The Brantford Expositor, which started printing in 1852, is published six times a week (everyday excluding Sunday), and is published by Osprey Media a subsidiary of Sun Media, a Quebecor Media Company. The Brantford Expositor has a daily, paid circulation of 20,000. The Expositor's website, www.brantfordexpositor.ca is the area's leading source for online information pertaining to Brantford and Brant County. [6]

The Brantford Expositor also publishes Your Brant Connection, a free weekly community paper (delivered every Thursday), which has a verified distribution of 52,500 to all homes in the Brantford / County of Brant area.

The Brant News is a weekly paper (delivered Thursday) that also carries breaking news online. [7]

Radio

Television

Brantford's only local television service comes from Rogers TV (cable 20), a local community channel on Rogers Cable. Otherwise, Brantford is served by stations from Toronto, Hamilton and Kitchener.

Film

Several movies have had scenes shot in Brantford, including Welcome to Mooseport and Where the Truth Lies, which were filmed at the Brantford Airport. An episode of Due South, "Dr. Long Ball", was filmed at Arnold Anderson Stadium in Cockshutt Park. A more recent filming was Weirdsville, which was filmed downtown in 2006. "Silent Hill" was filmed in the downtown in 2005. Many Brantfordians observed in jest that very little work needed to be done to make Downtown look decayed and haunted. Brantford's Sanderson Centre for the Performing Arts was used as "The New Burbage" mainstage theatre in the series Slings & Arrows.

Transportation

Air

Brantford Municipal Airport is located west of the city. It hosts an annual air show, featuring the Snowbirds. The John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton is located about 35 km east of Brantford. Toronto Pearson International Airport is located in Mississauga, about 100 km northeast of Brantford.

Rail

The train station is located just north of downtown Brantford. VIA Rail has daily passenger trains on the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. Trains travel between Windsor and Union Station in Toronto.

Bus

Brantford Transit services the city with nine regular routes operating on a half-hour schedule from the downtown Transit Terminal on Darling Street, with additional school service.

Greyhound Canada has intercity service to Toronto, Hamilton, London, Windsor, etc.

All Around Transportation operates a Paris/Brantford shuttle bus.

Provincial Highways

Entertainment and attractions

Brantford is home to the Brantford OLG Casino.

The Armoury

The Sanderson Centre offers nightly performances of musicals, operas, concerts, and other performing arts. The Kinsmen Club of Brantford offer many entertaining throughout the year, including a weekly game which runs every Thursday evening.

The Ford Plant is an independent, not-for-profit music venue that has hosted concerts by many musical artists, including Arcade Fire, Wintersleep, Blue Rodeo, and more. The week-long Murdered City Music Festival is held here to showcase independent Canadian music.

Brantford's Canada Day Festival

Brantford hosts the region’s largest Canada Day Festival each July 1. A grassroots, not-for-profit, organization was formed in the fall of 2004 after a call from the Mayor to re-establish the event when nobody was able to organize one in 2004. Since then Brantford’s Canada Day Festival[5] has presented family events and Canadian Juno Award winning entertainment. A 2006 and 2009 Shining Stars Tourism Awards[6] winner and with a budget of nearly $250,000.00, this one day festival draws an estimated crowd of 35,000 or more people.

Past main stage headliners have included:

2005 – Jeff Healy
2005 – Lighthouse
2007 – The Trews
2008 – Theory of a Deadman
2009 - Theory of a Deadman

Sports teams and tournaments

Current intercounty or major teams

Defunct teams

Tournaments

Other

People

Service clubs

Religion

Brantford is home to many churches and religious temples. It is estimated there are over 35 churches in Brantford, including Anglican, Baptist, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, Salvation Army, Presbyterian, United, Christadelphian, and Mormon. There are two mosques - a Sunni mosque and a Sufi mosque. There is also one Sikh temple.

Twin city

Brantford is twinned with:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Statistics Canada
  2. ↑ Reville, F. Douglas. "The History of the County of Brant", vol. 1, pp. 15-20. Brantford: Hurley Printing Company, 1920. [1]
  3. ↑ Environment Canada—Canadian Climate Normals 1971–2000, accessed 29 October 2009
  4. ↑ "Statistics Canada 2006 Community Profile, Brantford". http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/prof/92-591/details/page_Print-Imprimer.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CSD&Code1=3529006&Geo2=PR&Code2=35&Data=Count&SearchText=brantford&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&Custom=. Retrieved 2009-11-02. 
  5. ↑ [2]
  6. ↑ [3]
  7. ↑ [4]
  8. ↑ [5]
  9. ↑ Brantford Expositor - City gets a twin

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