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For the electoral district, see Cambridge (electoral district). For the former township in Ontario, see Cambridge Township, Ontario.

Coordinates: 43°26′N 80°19′W / 43.433, -80.317

Cambridge
Coat of arms
Motto: A fine place for business, a great place to call home.
Coordinates: 43°26′N 80°19′W / 43.433, -80.317
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Region	Region of Waterloo
Established	January 1973
Government
- Mayor	Doug Craig
- Governing Body	Cambridge City Council
Area [1]
- Total	112.82 km² (43.56 sq mi)
Elevation	329 m (1,079 ft)
Population (2006)[1] StatsCanada
- Total	120,371
- Density	1,066.5/km² (2,762.2/sq mi)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
Postal code span	N1(P-T); N3(C-H)
Area code(s)	519/226
Website: City of Cambridge website

Cambridge (2006 population 120,371) is a city located on the Grand River and Speed River in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Contents 1 History 2 Economy 3 Education 4 Attractions 5 Demographics 6 Transport 6.1 Roads 6.2 Public transportation 6.3 Railways 6.4 Air 7 Media 8 Politics 8.1 Members of Parliament 9 Location from Cambridge 10 Cambridge neighbourhoods 11 References 12 External links

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 Millar, 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.

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, and Com Dev.

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.

Cambridge is home to a number of cultural events and activities, including the Mill Race Festival^[1] and Rock the Mill^[2] music festivals in downtown Galt. There's also the Wings of Paradise^[3] butterfly conservatory, and the Southworks Outlets^[4] district.

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.

According to the most recent figures, Cambridge is overwhelmingly populated by people of a European ethnic background - 90.2%^[5], mostly those of English, Scottish, Irish, Portuguese, German, Armenian and Italian origins^[6]. The old West Galt area is known for its mostly white population, especially in the Southwood Secondary School area. The other areas of Cambridge are considered far more diverse. Many Newfoundlanders (mostly from the Conception Bay and Bell Island area) have migrated to Cambridge. There is also a significant Franco-Ontarien population in Cambridge.

The city is largely Christian at 80.2%, followed by non-religious people who number 15%. Muslims and Hindus make a little over 5% each. 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.

Cambridge straddles Highway 401, with interchanges at Townline Road (Exit 286), Franklin Boulevard (Partial Exit - 284), Hespeler Road (Exit 282), Shantz Hill Road/King Street Kitchener (Exit 278), Fountain Street/Homer Watson Blvd., Kitchener (Exit 275), and Cedar Creek Road (Exit 268); in good traffic, it is a drive of about an hour to Toronto and about 40-45 minutes to Lester B. Pearson International Airport.

Highway 8 (Ontario) travels through the city as Shantz Hill Road, King Street (Preston), Coronation Boulevard, and Dundas Street, linking Cambridge to Kitchener and Waterloo in the north, and Hamilton in the south. Highway 24 runs through Cambridge as Hespeler Road (the former Queen Street and Guelph Avenue access into Hespeler were by-passed in the 1990s), Water Street, and Ainslie Street, connecting to Guelph in the northeast and Brantford in the south.

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 and 53.

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.

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 and Guelph station, on a northern route, and Brantford’s on a southern route. Public transport connections from Cambridge to the Kitchener station have improved since Grand River Transit’s creation and expansion, but to the Guelph and Brantford stations are non-existent, especially 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 closest airport to Cambridge is the Region of Waterloo International Airport in nearby Breslau, but while it is a thriving general-aviation field, it has (as at 2007) scheduled flights only to Detroit, Ottawa and Calgary, although it has most recently added flights to Cuba, Mexico and Dominican Republic offered through Sunquest Vacations and Signature Vacations. Most air travellers use either Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International Airport, Hamilton’s John C. Munro International Airport or Buffalo Niagara International Airport over the border in Buffalo, New York. There are no permanent public transport links from Cambridge to any of these airports.

Main article: Media in Waterloo Region

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

Destinations from CAMBRIDGE
Kitchener, Waterloo via Highway 8	Breslau via Fountain St	Guelph via Highway 24
Roseville, Ayr via Highway 401	N W E S	Milton via Highway 401
Paris	Brantford via Highway 24	Dundas via Highway 8

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.

Districts within CAMBRIDGE
Preston	Hespeler, L.S. Lovell Industrial Park, Bridgecam Power Centre	Galt North
Galt West, Blair	N W THE DELTA E S	Galt East, Eastern Industrial Park
St Andrew's, Southwood	Downtown Galt	Little's Corners

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

v • d • e Region of Waterloo
City of Cambridge · City of Kitchener · City of Waterloo
Township of North Dumfries · Township of Wellesley · Township of Wilmot · Township of Woolwich see Ontario Municipalities
Regional services: Grand River Transit · Region of Waterloo International Airport · Waterloo Regional Police
List of municipalities in Ontario