Hamilton

Hamilton, located on the western shore of Lake Ontario, is known as a "workingman’s town" and has been famous for its steel production since the nineteenth century. The city is also a major Great Lakes port and a manufacturing center. The city's long history as an industrial center has produced high levels of air and water pollution, but Hamilton has initiated efforts to clean up and rejuvenate its beautiful coastline.

Landscape

Hamilton is located at the western shore of Lake Ontario on Burlington Bay. It is forty-four miles southwest of Toronto, the provincial capital. In fact, many residents of Hamilton commute by rail or bus to work in Toronto.

What is now known as the city of Hamilton is actually a conglomeration of the old city and its surrounding municipalities. The latest consolidation occurred in 2001, when Hamilton was combined with five municipalities (Dundas, Flamborough, Ancaster, Glanbrook, and Stoney Creek) to create a single city, the tenth largest in Canada.

The new city has one mayor and fifteen councilors. The rural municipalities that were forced into the reorganization of Hamilton were not happy about the change and have fought it at every opportunity. Before 2001, the area was known generally as the "Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Municipality."

In the early 1900s, when the city’s population was booming, the residents began to settle on "the mountain," the land atop the Niagara Escarpment. This land remains the primary geographic divider of the city.

In the summer, Hamilton experiences average temperatures ranging from about 16 to 26 degrees Celsius (62 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit). In the winter months, the average temperature ranges between approximately –9 and –3 degrees Celsius (15 and 27 degrees Fahrenheit).

Hamilton’s neighborhoods include Gore Park, home to the city’s main financial and administrative buildings. The Durand district is mainly residential, and Westdale is a middle-class suburb. Ancaster, Dundas, and Waterdown are the older village areas with growing suburbs, while the working-class population tends to live in the east and northeast sections of the city.

People

In 2017, Hamilton had estimated population of 536,917. The population of the greater metropolitan area is approximately 787,195. Italian is among the most prominent nonofficial languages, with nearly twenty thousand Italian-speaking residents in the city. They are followed by large groups of Arabic, Polish, Spanish, and Portuguese speakers.

As with other Canadian cities (Winnipeg, for example), Hamilton's outer municipalities have had periods of growing at a faster rate than the city proper. Ethnic neighborhoods are scattered throughout, usually near churches or business districts.

Hamilton's population has grown in tandem with its economy. Immigration increased between 1900 and 1913, with residents coming from Great Britain, the United States, Italy, and Poland. In the 1920s, the city saw an influx of immigrants from the Baltic region and central Europe. During the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, more immigrants arrived from Portugal, the Philippines, India, and the Middle East.

Economy

Hamilton's economy relies mainly on steel production and manufacturing, although the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries saw declines in the number of Hamilton residents who are employed by the manufacturing industry. Despite the decline in the steel industry across North America, Hamilton remains one of Canada’s largest steel producers. In the early twenty-first century there has been significant growth in the fields of health care, social and educational services, construction, and finance and insurance.

The construction of the Burlington Bay canal in the 1830s and the purchase of the Great Western Railway in the 1850s sparked manufacturing activity in Hamilton. When the railroad boom ended in the late 1850s, the city concentrated on stovepipe and farming implement production. During the American Civil War, manufacturing shifted to clothing and sewing machine equipment.

The city began to prosper after the 1880s, and factory and residential construction increased at the turn of the century. This was aided by the expansion of the Welland Canal, which allowed ships from the Upper Great Lakes to get to Lake Ontario.

In 1913, the Hamilton Blast Furnace Company began to produce pig iron, and the first half of the twentieth century was dominated by production of war-related materials.

During the second half of the twentieth century, the textile industry became less important, and Hamilton began manufacturing household appliances and automobiles. The two main steel companies, Stelco and Dofasco, reduced their workforces in the 1980s and 90s but remained in operation despite the general downturn in steel production, the increase in global competition, and the city’s desire to diversify its economy. (Stelco eventually closed its facilities in 2013 as the steel industry continued to decline.) Other once-thriving industries that went out of business in the latter twentieth century included the Otis Elevator Company and International Harvester.

More recently, the service sector of the economy has become more important, employing a growing proportion of the city's workers in the fields of health care, social assistance, and educational services. Other growth has come from the recycling and waste disposal industry. Traditional manufacturing still remains a viable part of the city’s economy. Large employers in Hamilton in the 2020s included Hamilton Health Sciences, McMaster University, the City of Hamilton, and Dofasco.

Landmarks

Covering more than 2,400 acres, Hamilton’s Royal Botanical Gardens is a tranquil natural area in the middle of an industrial steel town. The gardens are located along the shore of the harbor and include a rose garden, a rock garden, a lilac garden, and a Mediterranean garden. The rock garden is located in a former quarry, and the Mediterranean garden takes up a large conservatory that includes plants from all over the globe. A related landmark is Cootes Paradise, a nature sanctuary located in the gardens.

Another notable landmark in Hamilton is Dundurn Castle, a Greek-columned villa built in the 1830s. The castle was built by former prime minister and founder of the Great Western Railway, Sir Allan Napier MacNab. The castle contains a museum and over thirty-five rooms restored to period furnishings.

Though Hamilton has the FirstOntario Centre (formerly known as the Copps Coliseum), it lost its professional hockey team back in 1924. The city hosts the Hamilton Tiger-Cats professional football team and the Hamilton Bulldogs hockey team. The city is also home to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and hosts an annual run around the bay.

History

Hamilton was part of the seventeenth-century territory of the Iroquoian-speaking First Nations people known as the Neutral Nation for their status during the Huron-Iroquois wars. The region was first visited by French adventurer Étienne Brulé in 1616 and then again in 1624. Jean De Brébuef, the Jesuit missionary, also came to the area in 1641.

However, the first real European settlers were the British loyalists, fleeing the American Revolution in 1778. Officially incorporated in 1840, the city was laid out by local politician George Hamilton, for whom it was named.

In general, there was slow growth in the area until the 1820s, when a new canal called Burlington Bay was constructed. This allowed schooners and steamships to move from Hamilton’s harbor to Lake Ontario. The small town was soon transformed into a busy port.

There were plans to bring the railroad to the city in the 1830s, but these were delayed because of the rebellions of 1837, which were related to a resurgence of French-Canadian nationalism across lower Canada. The railroad did come to Hamilton in 1852, when the city bought the Great Western Railway as well as other railway lines. However, the resulting economic boom collapsed in 1857.

Industry in the second half of the nineteenth century was concentrated on metalworking and textiles. As the twentieth century began, the steel industry dominated the city’s economy. The city expanded into the mountain in the early 1900s, which had previously stood in the way of proper city planning and growth.

In part because of its industrial focus, Hamilton has long been a stronghold for labor unions. Unions have been a primary force in the city’s economic and historic landscape since 1872, when workers organized to argue on behalf of the nine-hour workday. Since then, there have been cycles of union activity to promote a variety of labor issues, from paid vacations to higher wages.

Since initiating cleanup and preservation efforts in the late 1990s, the city has reversed its reputation for air and water pollution and has made great efforts to restore fish and wildlife to the region. In 1993, it opened the Bayfront Park, and in July 2000, it opened the Waterfront Trail inside the park, which is on the bay’s southwest shore. In addition, the waterfront is now home to the Parks Canada Discovery Centre on Marine Conservation. Hamilton hosted several events during the 2015 Pan American Games (officially hosted by Toronto).

Trivia

• The first Canadian-built locomotives (and passenger and freight cars) were manufactured in Hamilton. Previously, railways cars and locomotives had been imported from Great Britain and the United States. In addition, Samuel Sharpe designed and manufactured the first railway sleeper car in Hamilton.
• Hamilton is the birthplace of comedians Martin Short and Eugene Levy.

Bibliography

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Carter, Adam. "Hamilton Thrives while Steel Industry Struggles." CBC News, 31 Jan. 2013, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/headlines/hamilton-thrives-while-steel-industry-struggles-1.1312399. Accessed 28 Mar. 2014.

"Census Profile, 2016 Census: Hamilton [Census Metropolitan Area], Ontario and Ontario [Province]." Statistics Canada,24 Apr. 2018, www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CMACA&Code1=537&Geo2=PR&Code2=35&Data=Count&SearchText=hamilton&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&TABID=1. Accessed 21 Aug. 2018.

Freeman, Bill. Hamilton: A People's History. Lorimer, 2001.

Jamieson, Susan M., and Marit K. Munson. Before Ontario: The Archaeology of a Province. McGill-Queen's UP, 2013.

Kristofferson, Robert B. Craft Capitalism: Craftsworkers and Early Industrialization in Hamilton, Ontario. U of Toronto P, 2007.

Weaver, John C. "Hamilton." The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada, 11 Mar. 2019, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/hamilton/. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.