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Cornwall, Ontario

Cornwall is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, situated where the provinces of Ontario and Quebec and the state of New York converge. It is the seat of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry and is Ontario's easternmost city.

Cornwall is named after the English Duchy of Cornwall; the city's coat of arms is based on that of the duchy with its colours reversed and the addition of a "royal tressure", a Scottish symbol of royalty.

It is the urban centre for the surrounding communities of Long Sault and Ingleside to the west; the Mohawk Territory of Akwesasne to the south; St. Andrews West and Avonmore to the north; and Glen Walter, Martintown, Apple Hill, Williamstown, and Lancaster to the east.

The city straddles the St. Lawrence River and is home to the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation, which oversees navigation and shipping activities for the St. Lawrence Seaway. Cornwall is centrally located between the capital city of Ottawa and Montreal, Canada's second-most populous city. It lies within the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor along Ontario Highway 401, is a major port of entry from the United States into Canada, and is positioned to support some of Cornwall's largest industries, which include logistics, distribution, and call centres.

History
Indigenous peoples have lived in and around the area of present-day Cornwall for millennia.

Though accounts suggest Europeans filtered into the area and had scattered settlements for some time, the first documented European settlement was established in 1784 by United Empire Loyalists, primarily from the former British colony of New York. In 1787 this settlement became the first in present-day Ontario to be visited by a member of the royal family, Prince William Henry (later William IV).

After the war for US independence, former colonial soldiers loyal to the Crown and other disbanded soldiers and their families began to settle at the site of Cornwall, which was then called New Johnstown. Many of the new arrivals were of German origin, and the town being named for Johnstown, New York, the origin of many of them.

The main group was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Johnson and had soldiers from the First Battalion King's Royal Regiment of New York and a contingent of the 84th Royal Highland Emigrants. Following the success of rebellious colonists in the American Revolution, many of those were afraid for their lives or uncomfortable in the newly independent United States became United Empire Loyalists as they were later called, and migrated to Canada. The British government helped them settle throughout the Canadas as a reward for their loyalty and to compensate them for their losses in the United States. One of the chief settlement regions was the St Lawrence River Valley, from Kingston to Cornwall, which would later be known as "Loyalist Country."

They founded a permanent settlement north of one of a series of portage points (the point was not a settlement, nor was it even a trading post), sometimes referred to as Pointe Maligne by European explorers. The square mile town was temporarily named "Royal Town #2" then "Johnson" or "New Johnstown." It was later renamed to Cornwall for the Duke of Cornwall by proclamation of Prince George, and in 1834, the town became one of the first incorporated municipalities in the British colony of Upper Canada. Much later, during one of a series of annexations, those former portage points were added to the expanded community.

During the War of 1812, the Battle of Hoople's Creek and the Battle of Crysler's Farm were fought nearby, and Cornwall was occupied by the American Army from November 11-13, 1813.

The construction of the Cornwall Canal between 1834 and 1842 accelerated the community's development into a regional and industrial economic "capital" for a growing hinterland of towns and villages.

In 1846, the population was about 1,600, and there were many brick and stone houses, a stone courthouse and jail, and several government offices. There was little industry, except for a foundry and two tanneries, but there were many independent tradesmen of various types. Other amenities included two bank agencies, eight taverns, and a ladies' school.

Canal and lock construction in the late 1800s and the early 1900s brought work and international business. The Grand Trunk Railway (CN Rail) built an east–west line through Cornwall in 1856. The New York and Ottawa Railway (NY&O) followed with a north–south line crossing the St. Lawrence, with a station in Cornwall dating to 1898. The Canadian Pacific Railway created a succession of subsidiaries and plans for a Cornwall line starting in the 1880s, which culminated in the Glengarry and Stormont Railway in 1915 to connect to CP's Ontario and Quebec Railway mainline to the northeast for an alternative route to Montreal.

The railway connections provided connections between Cornwall and local communities that required access to public services in Cornwall itself, such as high schools and medical services, and helped cement Cornwall's position as a regional centre for a large, rapidly-expanding, and increasingly-populated rural hinterland. The network of villages and towns surrounding Cornwall helped make the city a local entrepot for business, commerce, media and services.

In 1944, the city was rocked by the magnitude 5.8 Cornwall–Massena earthquake. There were no deaths or injuries reported, but several chimneys were destroyed or damaged, along with heavy damage to historical masonry structures. For example, the Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School received heavy damage from masonry work falling through the roof of the gymnasium.

West of Cornwall, along the St. Lawrence River, there were several smaller communities, known as the Lost Villages. They were submerged in 1958 during the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway, providing a reservoir for the Moses-Saunders Power Dam, which regulates water levels flowing from Lake Ontario and maintains the levels required to operate the two adjacent Canada-US hydroelectric power generating stations.

Ethnic history
The post-contact regional population was a mixture of French Canadian, Ojibwe and Mohawk residents. Then came an influx of American Loyalists and refugees from the Thirteen Colonies, along with other French Canadian and Acadian migrants. Then poor Scottish and Irish immigrants and refugees who arrived from overseas and other parts of Canada. The different groups mixed and integrated over time, with family names and histories reflecting a blending of different backgrounds that became typical of Eastern Ontario.

Smaller but impressive contributions in the region were made by a host of other migrants from Jewish traders, craftsmen, and merchants to Eastern European refugees and even a significant body of former slaves. Many of the stories go unreported in standard histories, which pass over the remarkable history of migration in the region. One good example is the story of John Baker, who died in Cornwall in 1871 at the age of 93. Born in Lower Canada, he was said to be the last Canadian born into slavery and had been an active soldier in the War of 1812 who fought in both Canada and Europe. Slavery was ended in the colony of Upper Canada in stages; in 1793, the importing of slaves was banned, and in 1819, Upper Canada Attorney-General John Robinson declared all slaves in the colony to be freed, making Upper Canada the first place in the British Empire and even the world that unequivocally moved towards the formal abolition of chattel slavery. Most of the former slaves settled and integrated into the same communities in which they were freed. By 1833, this process of liberation had succeeded throughout the British Empire by the decision to free all of its slaves. It was the first major state in world history to abolish slavery, and Ontario was the place that the process first bore fruit. John Baker, the last slave to be born into slavery in Canada, died in Cornwall.

"Canada" had been conquered from France after the Seven Years' War and included roughly the areas covered by Quebec and Ontario. In the aftermath of the American Revolution, the British authorities divided the Province of Canada in 1791 into two, Upper Canada for English settlers fleeing persecution in the United States, and Lower Canada for the French. That was designed to accommodate Loyalists who had fled postwar reprisals and persecution in the new United States, but the 5,000 English-speaking settlers in the Eastern Township of Quebec were allowed to stay in the French-speaking area, and many French settlers moved into Ontario. Along with the area's original inhabitants, that made the area a patchwork of intersecting ethnicities that later greatly intermingled. Cornwall and the surrounding area, originally called "Royal Settlement #2" and then "New Jamestown," was initially a rough place and was largely left to its own devices. According to contemporary reports, that bred a local culture of intense self-reliance. Adding to the initial history of pragmatic entrepreneurialism, since very early with the founding of the city, provincial and federal governments have typically neglected the area and treated it as little more than a transit corridor. Those who remained in the region tended to be those who had the fortitude and the energy to survive on their own, with little outside assistance.

"The original 516 settlers arrived in Royal Township #2 with minimal supplies and faced years of hard work and possible starvation. Upon their departure from military camps in Montreal, Pointe Claire, Saint Anne, and Lachine in the fall of 1784, Loyalists were given a tent, one month's worth of food rations, clothes, and agricultural provisions by regiment commanders. They were promised one cow for every two families, an axe, and other necessary tools in the near future. For the next three years, bateaux (boat) crews delivered rations to the township, after which residents were left to fend for themselves."

The region's energetic spirit of enterprise and fortitude was well known in the 19th century. David Thompson, the Welsh-Canadian explorer who mapped the Far West and was called the greatest land geographer in history, drew many of his traveling companions from Cornwall's rural hinterland, with Scottish and native settlers, and he lived in Williamstown.

More recently, Cornwall has seen an increase in the arrival of new immigrants, who tend to integrate and often fare better than immigrants in other parts of the country.

Integration
The Cornwall region was unusually integrated for rural counties in Ontario. For hundreds of years, the local population has been characterized by a mix of economic migrants, refugees, and opportunists. The mixing of different social classes and ethnic backgrounds was common even early in its history because of the interdependence demanded by isolation and the lack of support from or interference by official authorities.

The original Native population was remarkably welcoming, and the Iroquois were especially well known for integrating newcomers into local societies and for adapting to change as it happened. Many people in the region have some Native ancestry as a result, and many communities sit on sites that have been occupied, farmed, or managed for hundreds of years. Some people were pushed out, but others simply blended into new communities in a process that would go on continuously over many generations.

Lack of strict hierarchy was a characteristic of the region. For example, from the 1780s to the 1830s, a "bee" was a social event that pooled local labour resources for people to come together for collective projects or to help out individual families, and it was often a festive occasion. The early "bees" presaged the development of a varied and integrated culture that ultimately drew on many different classes, backgrounds, and ethnic and linguistic groups, all of which were forced by the harsh reality of life in the region to work together for common goals, the primary of which was survival. The "bees" and different forms of collective shared labour were extremely common all over Eastern Ontario, especially in the early villages of the St. Lawrence Valley.

"In her book 'Roughing It in the Bush,' Susanna Moodie observed that 'people in the woods, have a craze for giving and going to bees and run to them with as much eagerness as a peasant runs to a race.' Bees often involved all ranks and nationalities of society. Thomas Need, a sawmill operator in Victoria County, described in 'From Great Wilderness to Seaway Towns' the raising of his facility in 1834 in the following way: 'They assembled in great force and all worked together in great harmony and good will not withstanding their different stations in life.' These gatherings exhibited the lack of aristocracy in the rural loyalist settlement along the St. Lawrence River and residents' disregard for individuals' former social standing or lineage. The harshness and isolation of frontier living prevented the development of an aristocracy and, instead, united all members of the community in a struggle for survival. Early Loyalists, regardless of the amount of land they owned, depended upon the help of their neighbors to clear land, build homes, and share supplies and food during times of poor harvests."

Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Cornwall had a population of $47,845$ living in $21,386$ of its $22,214$ total private dwellings, a change of NaN% from its 2016 population of $46,589$. With a land area of 61.5 km2, it had a population density of in 2021.

As of 2021, 9.9% of Cornwall residents were visible minorities, 5.6% were Indigenous, and the remaining 84.5% were white/European. The largest visible minority groups were South Asian (5.1%) and Black (1.7%).

In 2021, 66.3% of the population were Christian, down from 83.0% in 2011. 50.1% of residents were Catholic, 9.8% were Protestant, 3.4% belonged to other Christian denominations or Christian-related traditions and 3.1% were Christian n.o.s. 26.8% of the population were non-religious or secular, up from 12.1% in 2011. The largest non-Christian religion was Islam, accounting for 3.7% of residents, up from 2.4% in 2011. Hinduism was the second largest, at 1.8% of residents, up from 1.5% in 2011. All other religions and spiritual traditions accounted for 1.4% of the population.

Economy
Cornwall has traditionally been a gateway from the Montreal area to the rest of Canada, and was and remains a major port of entry into Canada (Canada Border Services abandoned the Cornwall Island post on May 31, 2009, but resumed service on July 13, 2009, at temporary facilities on the city's southern edge.) With the completion of the new low-level bridge connecting Cornwall to Cornwall Island, the C.B.S.A. port was moved to a permanent temporary facility on the canal lands. The city is connected to the United States at Roosevelttown near the municipalities of Massena, New York and Malone, New York, via the Three Nations Crossing (Canada, Mohawk, and United States) which traverses the St. Lawrence River.

Cornwall was once home to a thriving cotton processing industry. Courtaulds Canada, Inc.'s viscose rayon manufacturing mill operated until 1992; at one point it employed nearly 3,000 people. A Cellophane factory was opened in 1971 by British Cellophane, a subsidiary of Courtaulds, as an ancillary to the rayon plant, and traded successively under the names TCF of Canada Limited, BCL Canada Inc. and Courtaulds Films; it too closed in 1992. Domtar, a Quebec-based company, operated a paper mill in the city for nearly 100 years, ceasing operations on March 31, 2006. At its peak, Domtar employed nearly 1,500 employees. In addition, Canadian Industries Limited (C.I.L.), has operated a plant in Cornwall since 1935. The facility has been converted into a major derivatives plant. The site has a long history of mercury contamination, given that for decades the chloralkali process was carried out here. This entailed using used mercury cells to convert brine into caustic soda and chlorine.

Cornwall's industrial base has shifted to a more diversified mix of manufacturing, automotive, high tech, food processing, distribution centres and call centres. The city hosts the largest supply chain management distribution centre in Canada, Walmart, its massive 1500000 sqft facility employing nearly 1,000 people. Target Canada built a new distribution centre in Cornwall's Business Park on a 169 acre parcel of land. The Target Canada distribution centre was operated by Eleven Points Logistics. When Target left Canada, their distribution centre was assumed by Walmart. StarTek (closed), and Teleperformance (closed January 2013) both operated call centres in Cornwall. Teleperformance provided in excess of 300 jobs. In late 2008, Shopper's Drug Mart built a 500000 sqft. distribution facility in Cornwall's Business Park. Over 130 new jobs resulted. Service Canada established a new contact centre which opened in 2010. Over 170 new jobs were created. Cornwall's unemployment rate was about 4% at the time.

Cornwall Square, also known as "The Square", is a two-level 250000 sqft shopping mall in Cornwall on Water Street East, opposite to Lamoureux Park.

In 2016, Cornwall had the 11th-lowest household median income in Canada and the second-lowest in Ontario, at $51,712.

Municipal
The Cornwall City Council is governed by an elected eleven-member municipal government composed of a mayor and ten councillors who serve four-year terms and represent the city as a whole. The mayor of Cornwall is Justin Towndale, having been elected in 2022 defeating interim mayor Glen Grant who was appointed by council shortly after mayor Bernadette Clement was appointed to the Senate of Canada in June 2021.

At the 2010 municipal election, 56.5% of eligible voters did not vote as out of 30,655 registered voters, only 13,338 cast ballots (43.5%).

Provincial
Cornwall is located within the Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry riding. The riding is represented by MPP Nolan Quinn (Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario).

Federal
Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry is represented federally by Member of Parliament (MP) Eric Duncan (Conservative). John Sandfield Macdonald, the first Premier of Ontario, was from Cornwall and is buried in St. Andrews West at the Catholic Church cemetery. A heritage plaque facing York Street at 211 Water Street West commemorates the 1897 launch of Cornwall's first permanent hospital in the former John Sandfield Macdonald house at that location.

Culture

The City of Cornwall hosts festivals and special community events, including Canada Day festivities. In 2018, it purchased a building in the downtown core to house its arts and culture centre. The Focus Arts Association organizes multiple exhibitions and coordinates events where artists can connect with and support other artists. Your Arts Council, created to provide artists and the community with the tools and resources they need, offers programs aimed at promoting the work of local artists.

Theatre
The Aultsville Theatre, named after one of the Lost Villages, is a 680-seat performing arts centre on the St. Lawrence College campus and funded in part by the City of Cornwall. The Port Theatre, built in 1941, hosts movies and live music on its stage. Founded in 2006, the Seaway Valley Theatre Company offers plays, musicals, and comedy shows with cabaret-style seating.

Museum
Cornwall is home to the Cornwall Community Museum, which is operated by the SD&G Historical Society. In 2022, the United Empire Loyalists Association of Canada, relocated its Dominion Office, library, and archives from Toronto to the museum.

Gallery
The Cline House Gallery offers Cornwall and the surrounding area rotating exhibitions of visual art featuring the work of both local and visiting artists. The Cailuan Gallery offers local artwork and an ongoing Special Selections exhibition.

Library
The Cornwall Public Library, located in the downtown core, is housed in the former 1953 Cornwall Post Office building, which was renovated and designated a heritage site by the Cornwall Municipal Heritage Committee in 1997.

Kinsmen Cornwall Lift Off
Lift Off was an annual music and hot air balloon festival that took place in July in Lamoureux Park. It was run by a board of volunteers and was a non-profit organization. The event was the only hot air balloon festival in Ontario. Paying individuals could take a 20- or 90-minute ride in one of 25 sponsored balloons.

Kinsmen Cornwall Lift Off promoted a variety of local and national talent. Acts included Glass Tiger, Theory of a Deadman, Marianas Trench, Our Lady Peace, Finger Eleven, Kim Mitchell, Sass Jordan, Tom Cochrane, Trooper, Burton Cummings, and David Wilcox. The 2014 lineup featured Great Big Sea's Alan Doyle, Glass Tiger and 54-40 as headliners. This edition was the first to offer a full day of free entertainment, with Glass Tiger headlining. It was attended by over 9,000 people.

2014 was the final year for the Lift Off festival, as debt from a weather-plagued 2013 event and failure to obtain sponsors forced the cancellation of Lift Off 2015 and resulted in a decision to discontinue the festival.

Ribfest
Cornwall Ribfest is an annual festival held by the Optimist Club of Cornwall. It was originally sponsored by the Cornwall Seaway Lions Club. Taking place over four days in late July, Ribfest attracts many for barbecue, free live music and carnival rides. The 2014 edition of the festival attracted 57,000–60,000 attendees, a number greater than the population of the city.

Education
Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School became a grade 7–12 school after amalgamating with General Vanier Intermediate School for the 2011–12 school year. The school celebrated its bicentennial in 2006 and is one of the oldest schools in Canada. CCVS offers a complete French immersion program in grade 7–12.

St. Joseph's Secondary School is a part of the Catholic District Board and offers French immersion education. The newest high school in Cornwall is Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School for grades 7 to 12, opened in response to overpopulation at St. Joseph's. Both schools offer French immersion education.

Cornwall also has two French high schools: l'École secondaire publique l'Héritage, and l'École secondaire catholique La Citadelle. La Citadelle is part of the Roman Catholic separate, French language school board for the Southeastern region of Ontario (CSDCEO). It is home to students from grade 7 to 12. École secondaire publique l'Héritage is part of the public school board responsible for education in the French language in Eastern Ontario (CEPEO) and is home to grade 7 through 12 students.

St. Lawrence Secondary School hosts students in grades 7–12. It was originally St. Lawrence High School, located where La Citadelle is now. Around 2003, it was turned into a school for grades 7–10. It has transitioned back into a high school for grades 7–12. 2012 was to be the first year since 2003 that grade 12s would graduate from the school.

The Statistics Canada 2016 census education profile indicates 40% of Cornwall's population has a post-secondary certificate, diploma, or degree.

A campus of St. Lawrence College is situated in Cornwall. The St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences is located on the college campus, and, among other academic and vocational offerings, provides an Environmental Technician program. The St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences is a research centre that carries out ecotoxicological studies on large river systems and, in particular, on the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence River ecosystem.

Al-Rashid Islamic Institute is the first Islamic school of any kind in North America, providing higher education in Islamic studies with a boarding facility.

The Seaway Valley Meat Cutting Institute is located in Cornwall, and offers apprenticeship programs.

Cornwall is home to the Canadian Forces School of Aerospace Control Operations (CFSACO). CFSACO offers a range of basic and specialty courses and conversion training to Canadian Forces personnel. Military members are trained to become either Air Traffic Controller/Operators or Air Weapons Controller/Operators.

Nav Canada, Canada's air navigation service provider, formerly conducted training of domestic Air Traffic Controllers in Cornwall at the Nav Canada Training Institute and Conference Centre. The facility was purchased in March 2022 by the Devcore Group, and rebranded as the DEV Hotel and Conference Centre. Nav Canada leases a portion of the property, and continues operations on the site, hosting training for technical operations, and leadership.

Environment
Cornwall does not enjoy a positive environmental reputation as a result of decades of industrial pollution in the city, the legacy of which is a riverfront contaminated by mercury, zinc, lead, and copper, soil contaminated by coal tar and byproducts, and most evidently, "Big Ben", an 18 ha, 80 m dumpsite within the city filled with wood bark, paper mill sludge, demolition waste and asbestos.

In September 2008, over public opposition and in spite of Ontario Ministry of Environment (M.O.E.) reports indicating off-site leachate impact from the dump and the likelihood of runoff to the St. Lawrence River, the M.O.E. permitted additional dumping at the "Big Ben" site of creosote and bitumen-contaminated soils from Domtar's former No-co-rode Ltd. site.

Although the area is touted as recreational, it is off-limits until winter when the waste is covered and the odours are subdued. It is then used as a ski hill.

For years, the industrial emissions in the Cornwall area fuelled public health concerns about respiratory disease and cancer. In 1995 Health Canada reported the rate of hospitalization for asthma was approximately double that of Ontario industrial cities such as Hamilton, Sudbury and Windsor. Further research, showed that infants under two years of age had four times the expected hospital admission rate for asthma. Lung and male rectal cancer rates were also elevated in comparison with the rest of the province.

The shutdown of the Courtaulds rayon fiber operation (1992) and the Domtar paper mill (2006) have been a significant factor in the city's improved air quality. Cornwall consistently ranks in the top 10 of 40 monitored communities across Ontario. More recently, a Pembina Institute study of 29 communities across Ontario looked at a number of environmental, social and economic factors. Cornwall ranked 13th overall, and its air quality was ranked #1 in the province.

Cornwall was at one point one of only two cities left in the Province of Ontario with only primary sewage treatment facilities. But construction was started in May 2012 on the secondary treatment level plant with the Governments of Canada and Ontario each covering one-third of an estimated $55.5 million construction cost. The City picked up the remaining one-third of the cost of $18.5 million. The secondary treatment level plant was completed in November 2014.

In 2006, the City updated its Strategic Plan, including the objective to develop an environmentally sustainable community.

In 2007, a former city councillor, Naresh Bhargava, began working with the St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences on a project called the Community Carbon Reduction Initiative. City Council provided $5,000 in start-up funding for the project. Earlier progress in energy conservation was made when in 1995, the first municipally owned hot water district heating and cogeneration system in Canada went into operation, providing about 4% of the city's daily electrical needs while at the same time heating a number of buildings, including a hospital site, schools, and a municipal library. Cornwall converted all of its traffic signals in 2002 to energy-efficient LEDs that have reduced power usage by more than 600 kW—enough to light close to 70 homes. The data was contained in a report prepared by the city's public works department.

Climate
Similar to most of Southern Ontario, Cornwall has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfa/Dfb) with cold, snowy winters and warm, humid summers. Precipitation is significant year-round, although the winter months are generally drier than the summer months.

Rail
The Grand Trunk Railway (CN Rail) built an east–west line through Cornwall in 1856 and its original station dated to that year. The New York and Ottawa Railway (NY&O) followed with a north–south line crossing the St. Lawrence, with a station in Cornwall dating to 1898. Canadian Pacific created a succession of subsidiaries and plans for a Cornwall line starting in the 1880s, culminating in the Glengarry and Stormont Railway in 1915, which connected to CP's Ontario and Quebec Railway mainline to the northeast, creating an alternative route to Montréal.

The expansion of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the 1950s significantly disrupted the city's rail infrastructure, resulting in CN relocating its line northward, and the NY&O abandoning its line altogether. A new CN passenger station, which is still in use by Via Rail, was constructed in 1957 and the century-old Grand Trunk station was demolished shortly after, in 1962. The NY&O's passenger service ended in 1957 and its passenger station was demolished in the 1960s as well. CP passenger service ended even earlier, in 1952, and the CP passenger station was demolished in 1969. CP abandoned the line altogether in 1995.

Currently, Cornwall only has one significant rail line, the CN Kingston Subdivision, which functions as the CN mainline between Toronto and Montreal. It also serves as a component of Via Rail's Québec City-Windsor corridor. Passenger trains between Montréal and Toronto stop at the Cornwall railway station, which is located in the city's north end. Via's High-Frequency Rail (HFR) proposal, which would generally improve passenger rail service in Eastern Ontario, would not pass through Cornwall as most of the service improvements are planned to be focused on new lines constructed on abandoned rail rights of way as well as existing Via-owned lines such as the Via Brockville Subdivision.

Street railway
Around the turn of the 20th century, Cornwall had a burgeoning electric street railway system, which transported freight and passengers throughout the city. The Cornwall Electric Street Railway began passenger operations in 1896 and freight operations in 1899. Passenger operations ended in 1949 with a switch to trolleybus service, and electric freight operations ended in 1971 with the system's sale to CN Rail and subsequent dieselization. During its time, the street railway was significant in the city's social and industrial development. Ultimately, its passenger tram service, after conversion to trolleybus, became the present-day Cornwall Transit, which provides municipal diesel bus service to this day.

Public transit
With a fleet of 24 buses, Cornwall Transit operates six days a week (excluding Sundays and holidays) on fixed routes and supplementary rush-hour routes. In addition, there is an on-demand "Handi-Transit" service for the disabled. Cornwall Transit also contracts taxi service at a flat rate for Handi-Transit registrants who are ambulatory. The City-operated transit system transports approximately 860,000 passengers every year.

Air
Cornwall is served by the Cornwall Regional Airport, which is located 10 km east of the city near Summerstown. It is open year-round and licensed for day and night VFR IFR operations. The facilities include a 3500 x runway, a terminal, hangar, and the Canada Border Services Agency (on request). Domestic and international charter flying service from the airport is offered by Cornwall Aviation.

Massena International Airport in New York is 20 minutes by car from Cornwall.

Sea
The City of Cornwall is on the St. Lawrence Seaway just east of the Eisenhower and Snell Locks. The Cornwall Harbour and Government wharf are located on the north bank of the St. Lawrence River in the city's east end.

Sports
Cornwall has two indoor arenas, the Cornwall Civic Complex and the Benson Centre with three ice surfaces.

Hockey

Cornwall has been home to a variety of sports teams, the most notable of which was the Cornwall Royals hockey team which played in both the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and the Ontario Hockey League before moving to Newmarket in 1992. The Royals won the Memorial Cup in 1972, 1980 and 1981.

From 1993 to 1996, the Cornwall Aces were an AHL franchise, which like the Cornwall Royals, played at the Ed Lumley Arena in the Cornwall Civic Complex. They were the farm team for the NHL franchises, the Quebec Nordiques, and the relocated Colorado Avalanche.

The Cornwall Colts are the current Junior A team playing in the Central Canada Hockey League. Cornwall has hosted several major sporting events in its history including the Ontario Winter Games and Special Olympics. In 2008, Cornwall hosted the Royal Bank Cup, the National Championship for Junior A hockey teams. The Cornwall Colts finished third in the series, winning 2 of 5 games. The Cornwall Colts hosted the Fred Page Cup in 2015 for the Eastern Canadian Championship. The teams are represented in the Fred Page Cup are the Maritime Hockey League Champions (Kent Cup), the Ligue de Hockey Junior AAA du Québec Champions (Napa Cup), the Ottawa District champions of the Central Canada Hockey League (Bogart-Nielsen Cup), and a host team chosen by committee two years before the tournament.

The Cornwall River Kings of the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey (LNAH) started playing out of the Cornwall Civic Complex in the fall of 2012 but folded in 2016. The River Kings were replaced by the Cornwall Nationals of the Federal Hockey League, which folded during the 2017–18 season.

Soccer

Cornwall has three soccer areas, the Kinsmen Junior Soccer Field at Second Street West and Haulage Road; The Benson Centre (for indoor soccer); and Optimist Park on Sunnyside Street and St. Michel Drive.

Rugby

Cornwall has competitive men's and women's rugby clubs. After many years without rugby in the community, it saw a resurrection in 2006. Both teams compete in the Eastern Ontario Rugby Union which is located in Ottawa. The home of the Cornwall Crusaders Rugby Football Club is Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School. The men's and women's teams practice Tuesdays and Thursdays from April until the end of August. The men's team won the Eastern Ontario Men's Division 1 Championship in 2009 and 2010 against the Napanee Outlaws and the Gatineau Mirage, respectively.

The sport of rugby continues to grow in the community. Many high schools throughout Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry have junior and senior boys' teams as well as varsity girls' teams. These high school teams serve as feeders to the Cornwall Crusaders. Many of the players who play for the Crusaders come from high schools in the S.D.& G. area.

Roller Derby The Seaway Roller Derby Girls Association is the first roller derby flat track roller derby league in Cornwall and SD&G Counties, established in 2011. The Power Dames is the first official team.

Girls' basketball The United Counties girls' basketball team won provincial and international basketball tournaments in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In addition, the city offered girls' and women's basketball from age eight to college graduates. The San Lawrence College women's team won a college tournament as well. The teams were coached by Adelore Bergeon and Alan Haskvitz.

Notable people
Some of the more famous people to hail from the Cornwall area include:
 * Barstool Prophets, three of the four members (Glenn Forrester, Graham Greer, and Bobby Tamas) of the Canadian rock band hailed from Cornwall, where the band had its start
 * Darby Bergin, 1st Canadian Surgeon General
 * Malcolm Burn, musician and record producer
 * Roger Caron, bank robber, author, and recipient of the 1978 Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction for the book Go-Boy!
 * Doug Carpenter, former NHL coach
 * Solomon Yeomans Chesley, War of 1812 veteran; official with the Indian Department; Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada; Mayor of Cornwall (1860–1861)
 * Alain Chevrier, former NHL goaltender
 * Lionel Chevrier, former Member of Parliament, son of former mayor Joseph Chevrier
 * Donald Alexander Cochrane, composer
 * Corbett Denneny, former NHL player
 * Cy Denneny, brother of Corbett, former NHL player, in the Hockey Hall of Fame
 * Lori Dupuis, Olympic gold and silver medalist in women's ice hockey
 * Jacob Gallinger, United States politician
 * Peter Gatien, New York nightlife impresario
 * Ryan Gosling, actor
 * Derek Grant, ice hockey player
 * Christina Julien, current member of the Canadian national women's soccer team
 * Chad Kilger, former NHL player
 * Bob Kilger, former NHL referee, former mayor, former Member of Parliament, father of Chad Kilger
 * Ed "Newsy" Lalonde, captained the Montreal Canadiens in the 1910s and helped the team win its first Stanley Cup in 1916
 * Ed Lumley, former mayor, former Member of Parliament, Member of the Order of Canada
 * Donald Alexander Macdonald, soldier
 * John Sandfield Macdonald, prominent lawyer and the first Premier of Ontario
 * Maggie MacDonald, playwright and musician
 * Don McKay, Governor General's Award-winning poet and essayist
 * Duncan McNaughton, gold medalist in the 1932 Olympics in the high jump
 * Ray Miron, hockey player, coach, and executive, inducted into Cornwall Sports Hall of Fame
 * Andre Payette, former AHL player
 * Scott Pearson, former NHL player, drafted 6th overall to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1988
 * Nathan Phillips, Toronto mayor.
 * George Beverly Shea, noted gospel singer, associated with Billy Graham crusades
 * John Strachan, 19th-century Anglican priest and influential Bishop of Toronto
 * Orval Tessier, former NHL player, coach of the Chicago Blackhawks and scout
 * Colonel The Hon. Philip VanKoughnet, M.P., former landowner of Cornwall
 * John Wensink, former NHL player
 * Jesse Winchester, former NHL player

Radio

 * FM 88.1 – CHRI-FM-1, Christian (relays CHRI-FM Ottawa)
 * FM 92.1 – CHOD-FM, Franco-Ontarian community
 * FM 95.5 – CBOC-FM, CBC Radio One (relays CBO-FM Ottawa)
 * FM 97.3 – CKON-FM, First Nations community (from Akwesasne)
 * FM 98.1 – CBOF-FM-6, Première Chaîne (relays CBOF-FM Ottawa)
 * FM 101.9 – CJSS-FM, classic hits
 * FM 104.5 – CFLG-FM, adult top 40
 * FM 107.7 – CIRG-FM, tourist information

Some stations from other nearby areas, including Ottawa, Montreal and New York's North Country, are also available.

Television

 * Channel 8: CTV CJOH-TV-8 (repeater of CJOH-DT Ottawa; formerly CJSS-TV)
 * YourTV

Print

 * Cornwall Standard-Freeholder is the city's main daily newspaper and is published by Sun Media, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.
 * Seaway News is a weekly newspaper owned by TC Media, and includes pages from the French-language L'Express.
 * The Cornwall Seeker is a locally owned monthly newsmagazine distributed for free in stores and in print. Founded in 2010, the magazine focuses on arts, culture and events.
 * Le Journal de Cornwall is a locally owned weekly newspaper, which predominantly serves the Franco-Ontarian community but publishes some content in English as well.

Internet

 * Cornwall Free News

Twin towns – sister cities
Cornwall is twinned with:
 * Coventry, United Kingdom

title: Cornwall, Ontario


text:
Wikipedia talk:Libel

Suggested possible source material
Some suggested source material to provide guidance on the development of this article (and related policy) include:

 * Myers, Ken S., J.D., "WIKIMMUNITY: Fitting the Communications Decency Act to Wikipedia," Fall, 2006, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology Vol.20, No.1, pp 164-205, School of Law, Harvard University, retrieved June 6, 2017

~ Penlite (talk) 09:53, 7 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Cook, Amy, Esq. (intellectual property attorney, a director of Lawyers for the Creative Arts, Managing Editor of the Chicago Bar Association’s magazine, The Record), "A Writer's Guide to Defamation and Invasion of Privacy," January 22, 2016, Writers Digest.com retrieved June 6, 2017

Criticism sections in biographies of living people
Wikipedia has a few hundred Criticism sections in biographies of living people. Would these sections typically be considered libelous? Jarble (talk) 17:41, 8 October 2018 (UTC)

 * sorry, but this is an article talk page to use to discuss the article itself, and your question isn't relevant here. Perhaps Village pump (policy). Doug Weller  talk 07:20, 9 October 2018 (UTC)

Definition
We point people here from the WP:OS page as a way of establishing whether content requires oversight. We don't actually then help with that decision - this page then redirects again to the defamation article for a definition. We clearly need a better definition than pointing to a 12,000 word article, which is in article space and not WP space nonetheless. As a starter to get people's thoughts, I propose we add the following. We could also add some examples of libelous content.

Best, Darren-M   talk  22:17, 29 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Looks good to me, though it might be worth also notifying WT:OS about this discussion for their thoughts. GeneralNotability (talk) 23:14, 29 June 2020 (UTC)
 * , good shout - done. Darren-M   talk  23:19, 29 June 2020 (UTC)

After a discussion on IRC, amending to: Darren-M  talk  23:29, 29 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Edit conflict: I'll post my objection which does not exactly apply to the revised proposal. No! Wikipedia does not, indeed cannot, give medical advice or legal advice. We have no opinion on the definition of "libel", and anyone wanting to know whether supporting certain content would be safe from litigation needs to consult their lawyer. The point of WP:LIBEL is to state the obvious: any libel will be deleted, using the "I know it when I see it" and cautionary principles. Johnuniq (talk) 23:32, 29 June 2020 (UTC)
 * , the concern that this stems from is that there's no bar for an editor to decide whether to report for revdel or for suppression without reading through a 12,000 word article to decide what defamation is. That seems unhelpful. I'm not precious on the wording, but I think we clearly need to provide more guidance than we currently do. Darren-M   talk  23:35, 29 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Define truth :) I'm also not so sure about defining as libel things which don't have an inline citation, or in fact trying to define it at all to any extent. I also don't think that we should be attempting to re-define the oversight and rev-deletion policies here. For instance, the instructions above don't agree with the relevant policies. Libel is regularly - like really really regularly - just rev-deleted, and this is often the right thing to do for several reasons. Regarding guidance, e-mail is probably just the most straightforward way for most people looking at this page to reach people who can make the relevant decisions. This Libel policy is actually one of my favourites as it is because it doesn't go into definitions and clauses and criteria and caveats, etc. It is a straightforward statement of intent, and I hope it remains so. -- zzuuzz (talk) 23:40, 29 June 2020 (UTC)
 * , yes, but this page does not define libel/defamation and refers editors to a very long page. That isn't terribly helpful to people who have no idea what defamation means. GeneralNotability (talk) 23:46, 29 June 2020 (UTC)
 * This goes to Johnuniq's point of "I know it when I see it", which especially applies to people looking up this page. Perhaps we should remove the link? Not so helpful perhaps, but let's not try and replicate with another definition. -- zzuuzz (talk) 23:49, 29 June 2020 (UTC)
 * , has suggested swapping 'true' for 'verifiable', which I would have no concerns with. I'm not quite awake enough to respond to the rest of your comment but will do so tomorrow! Best,  Darren-M   talk  23:50, 29 June 2020 (UTC)
 * It is a straightforward statement of intent, and I hope it remains so. I don't think wants to turn this page into something that has a dozen clauses and two dozen caveats, what I get from chatting to Darren is that they're looking to provide users with a bit more guidance on what to report. I know and like I know it when I see it but I've got 15 years of experience in deleting, new users coming here for the first time don't, and could do with a bit more guidance and probably a bit more encouragement to report stuff to the appropriate venues. Nick (talk) 17:42, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Fair points. I've really said all I'm going to say on the subject, and won't stand in the way of progress. However I think the more elaborate this policy gets, the more things are going to get twisted ... when you start trying to define libel, or the concept of truth, or even mandatory inline referencing, not to mention directing people to either OS or OTRS or revdel or CSD, etc. I think many people will arrive at this policy simply because they think they are being libeled, and they want to know what our stand is and the single point of contact to e-mail. I don't think oversight is really best placed, as a single point of contact, for the queries this might generate, however if they want to take it on then good luck to them. -- zzuuzz (talk) 18:09, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
 * , this is an accurate summary, and saves me typing anything else of my own up. Cheers! Darren-M   talk  22:13, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

External Link: Gillick note
I’ve deleted the addendum in the External links section attached to the BBC guidance on Libel, which stated "Note that Victoria Gillick actually lost her libel case, the reverse of what this claims", with a 2000 newspaper article as source. While true, its certainly not the whole truth: She won her appeal in 2002, which what the BBC guidance (written in 2004) reflects. There’s a certain irony in the fact that a misleading comment has been sitting here on a legal policy page for the last 9 years, despite the discussion at the time telling the full story. The BBC advice is clear enough, and (I suggest) if anyone really wants to know the ins and outs of the Gillick case (over and above the general point that a person is libelled if a publication "Generally lowers them in the eyes of right thinking members of society") they can always read our article(s) on the subject. Swanny18 (talk) 22:03, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

Defamation that is true?
Our article on defamation notes that, "In several countries, including South Korea, a true statement can also be considered defamation." However, Wikipedia should not remove such "defamation" if it is true, verifiable, and in conformity with the BLP policy. (t · c)  buidhe  12:33, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Wikipedia talk:Libel


text:
Guelph

Guelph (2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as The Royal City, it is roughly 22 km east of Kitchener and 70 km west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wellington County Road 124. It is the seat of Wellington County, but is politically independent of it.

Guelph began as a settlement in the 1820s, established by John Galt, who was in Upper Canada as the first superintendent of the Canada Company. He based the headquarters, and his home, in the community. The area—much of which became Wellington County—was part of the Halton Block, a Crown reserve for the Six Nations Iroquois. Galt is generally considered Guelph's founder.

For many years, Guelph ranked at or near the bottom of Canada's crime severity list. However, the 2017 index showed a 15% increase from 2016. It had one of the country's lowest unemployment rates throughout the Great Recession. In late 2018, the Guelph Eramosa and Puslinch entity had an unemployment rate of 2.3%, which decreased to 1.9% by January 2019, the lowest of all Canadian cities. (The national rate at the time was 5.8%. ) Much of this was attributed to its numerous manufacturing facilities, including Linamar.

Before European settlement
First Nations peoples inhabited present-day Guelph as early as 11,000 years ago. Before colonization, the area was considered by the surrounding Indigenous communities to be a "neutral" zone and was inhabited by the Neutral Nation. According to the University of Guelph, "the area was home to a First Nations community called the Attawandaron who lived in longhouses surrounded by fields of corn". The majority of this nation, about 4,000 people, lived in a village near what is now the Badenoch area of Puslinch, near Morriston. In 1784, the British Crown purchased a tract of land, that included present-day Guelph, from the Mississauga people for approximately £1,180.

Founding of Guelph

John Galt, the first Superintendent of the Canada Company, was hired to help colonize Upper Canada. He selected Guelph as the headquarters of this British development firm. Galt was a popular Scottish poet and novelist who also designed the town to attract settlers and farmers to the surrounding countryside. His design intended the town to resemble a European city centre, complete with squares, broad main streets and narrow side streets, resulting in a variety of block sizes and shapes which are still in place today. The street plan was laid out in a radial street and grid system that branches out from downtown, a technique which was also employed in other planned towns of this era, such as Buffalo, New York.

The founding was symbolized by the felling of a tree by Galt and William "Tiger" Dunlop, who would be significant in the history of Goderich, Ontario, on April 23, 1827. That was St. George's Day, the feast day of the patron saint of England.

The name Guelph comes, via the Italian Guelfo, from the Bavarian Welf. It is a reference to the House of Welf, and was chosen to honour King George IV—the reigning British monarch at the time of the city's founding—whose family, the Hanoverians, descended from the Welfs. It is for this reason that the city has the nickname The Royal City. The directors of the Canada Company had actually wanted the city to be named Goderich, because Viscount Goderich had helped form the company, but reluctantly accepted the name Guelph.

Galt constructed what was one of the first buildings in the community to house early settlers and the Canada Company office; "The Priory" (built 1827–1828). was located on the banks of the Speed River near the current River Run Centre for performing arts and could house up to 100 people. The building eventually became the Canadian Pacific Railway Priory station on the Guelph Junction Railway before it was eventually torn down and removed. A historical plaque commemorates John Galt's role with the Canada Company in populating Upper Canada's Huron Tract, calling it "the most important single attempt at settlement in Canadian history". (Galt was responsible for finding settlers for the 42,000 acre Halton Block that would become Guelph and its townships but also for the one million acre Huron Tract that stretched to Goderich, Ontario.)

By the fall of 1827, 70 houses had been built, though some were primitive. In that year, the community had hired its first police constable; the first police station would be opened in 1856 at the town hall and it was moved in 1900 to the Annex building behind the court house. Also in 1827, the first Guelph Farmers' Market was built; the Market House was located in the downtown area. Founded in 1827, James Hodgert's brewery was managed by John Sleeman until he bought a property and opened the Silver Creek Brewery in 1851. (In 1843, there were nine breweries serving the 700 people living in Guelph.)

The first Board of Commerce also started in 1827, to stimulate economic growth; in 1866, it would be renamed the Board of Trade, and in 1919, it became the Chamber of Commerce. In order to eliminate the need for farmers to take their grain to Galt or Dundas for grinding, the Canada Company built the first grist mill; the Guelph Mill was sold to William Allen in 1832. A sawmill was erected in 1833 by Charles Julius Mickle, originally from Scotland, on the Marden Creek which runs into the Speed River; its ruin survives today. The Mickle family also built a home nearby, a year earlier. Both properties were off what is now Highway 6, an area that was Guelph Township at the time.

In 1829, the Canada Company fired Galt because of poor bookkeeping and not obeying company policies. He returned to Great Britain penniless and was imprisoned because he was unable to pay his debts. In 1831, Guelph had approximately 800 residents. For several years, the economy of the village suffered and some residents moved away; relief came in the form of wealthy immigrants from England and Ireland who arrived in 1832.

The Smith's Canadian Gazetteer of 1846 indicates that the town had a jail and court house made of cut stone, a weekly newspaper, five churches/chapels and a population of 1,240; most were from England and Scotland with a few from Ireland. In addition to many tradesmen, the community had 15 stores, seven taverns, and some industry, tanneries, breweries, distilleries and a starch factory. The Post Office was receiving mail daily.

1855 to 1878
Guelph was incorporated as a town in 1855 and the first mayor elected was John Smith. Despite optimism, the population growth was very slow until the Grand Trunk Railway reached it from Toronto, en route to Sarnia, in 1856; the town was also served soon thereafter by the Great Western Railway branch from Harrisburg. In 1856, the village became a town. Two years later, the population was estimated at 4,500, up from 2,000 in 1853. The first city hall, now called the Old City Hall (Guelph), was built in 1856 of Guelph stone; the building contained a market house, offices and an assembly hall. Modifications were made in 1870, 1875 and 1961. The new Guelph City Hall opened in 2009 beside the older building, which was declared a National Historic Site in 1984. The national document refers to the historic building as being "in the Italian Renaissance Revival style".

Two very successful major mills operated in Guelph for many years in the 1800s. The first was Allan's Mill, first established in 1830 on the Speed River and significantly expanded to include a distillery by the next owners, the Allan family, in the 1850s. This business was extensively damaged by fire in 1876 and ceased operation as a mill; the site was later used by manufacturing companies. (In 2019, the current John Sleeman reinstated the Spring Mill Distillery on the site which also includes a condominium apartment complex.)

The more recent business, a sawmill known as the Goldie Mill, was also on the Speed; this building was constructed in 1866 by James Goldie, replacing an earlier mill known as the Wellington Mill and later as the People's Mill. The property, a ruin, was listed on the Canadian Register as a historic place in 2009. Goldie was a perennial Conservative candidate for the riding of Wellington South, and his son Thomas Goldie was mayor of Guelph from 1891 to 1892. The limestone Goldie mill structure was damaged by fire in 1953 and a part of it was removed in 1969; the remaining part still stands today, in Goldie Mill Park at Cardigan Street and London Road East. The ruins, owned by the Grand River Conservation Authority, were stabilized in 2019–2021 to solve a problem created by sinkholes.

The board of the Guelph General Hospital was incorporated in 1861, with James Massie as the chairman. The building was completed in 1875, at the cost of $9,869, and opened on August 16, 1875, with 12 beds, a small infectious room and a dispensary.

The Gothic Revival style Roman Catholic church on Norfolk St., called the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate since December 8, 2014, was built between 1876 and 1888.

By 1869, the community's manufacturing companies were served by both the Grand Trunk Railway and the Great Western Railway. The first section of the Wellington, Grey & Bruce Railway, between Guelph and Elora, opened in 1870; the line would eventually run as far as Southampton, Ontario, with stations in communities such as Palmerston, Harriston, Listowel and Wingham. The company was not very successful, and never did reach Owen Sound as planned, partly because of stiff competition from the Northern Railway of Canada as well as the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway. By the mid-1870s, the Wellington, Grey & Bruce Railway was in financial trouble; it eventually became part of the Grand Trunk system, and later, the Canadian National Railway.

By January 1871, some residents of the town had access to gas, provided by the Guelph Gas Company via pipes, initially to about 100 homes. Electricity would not become commonly available until the early 1900s, from the Guelph Light and Heat Commission.

An 1877 plan to start the Guelph Street Railway, using horse-drawn vehicles to deliver freight and passengers within Guelph, never came to fruition.

A poor house with a farm, The Wellington County House of Industry and Refuge, opened in December 1877 in a rural area near Guelph; many orphans from Guelph were admitted. The building still stands, as the Wellington County Museum and Archives.

After 1878

Guelph was incorporated as a city in 1879 with a Special Act of the Ontario legislature. At this time, Guelph became politically separated from Wellington County and was no longer represented on the Wellington County Council. At separation, the population was about 10,000. During the inauguration, Mayor George Howard first used the term "Royal City". The only "royals" to actually visit were John Campbell, the Marquis of Lorne, and his wife was Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, one of Queen Victoria's daughters.

Construction of the Church of Our Lady Immaculate, known as the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate since late 2014, was already underway but would not be completed until 1883. (The twin towers were not added until 1926.)

A few years later, George Sleeman Sr. founded an electric radial railway, the Guelph Railway Company, an important part of the history of Guelph Transit. Only five miles of track had been laid by 1895, but the line was extended in 1902; the radial railway eventually reached Toronto, as the Ontario Hydro Electric Railways - Guelph District (owned by Ontario Hydro). In addition to carrying passengers, the cars carted coal to heat the Ontario Agricultural College.

By 1886, telephones were quite common in the city. An April news article described the situation as follows. "Telephones are rapidly being introduced into private homes, where they prove a great convenience. Ladies order their groceries, consult their medical advisers, call their husbands home from the club and gossip with their friends by telephone."

In 1903 the City purchased the Guelph Light & Power Company, and four years later created the Board of Light and Heat Commissioners. Guelph was one of 13 municipalities that helped to create the provincial entity that became Ontario Hydro.

The Communist Party of Canada began as an illegal organization in a barn behind a farmhouse on Metcalfe Street in Guelph on 1921.

Guelph was the home of North America's first cable TV system. Fredrick T. Metcalf created MacLean Hunter Television (now part of Rogers Communications) and their first broadcast was Queen Elizabeth's Coronation in 1953. Other news-making items include the fact that the jockstrap was invented here, in 1922, by the Guelph Elastic Hosiery Company and that the man who invented five pin bowling in 1909, Tom Ryan, was originally from Guelph. Other noteworthy items: the city's covered bridge (now part of a walking trail), built by the Timber Framers' Guild in 1992, is one of only two of its type in Ontario, using wooden pins to hold it together. Note too that the Yukon Gold potato was first bred at the University of Guelph in 1966; it became available on the market in 1981.

Guelph's police force had Canada's first municipal motorcycle patrol. Chief Ted Lamb brought back an army motorcycle he used during the First World War. Motorcycles were faster and more efficient than walking.

Guelph has several buildings on the National Historic Sites of Canada register: the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate, McCrae House and Old City Hall. The city is home to the University of Guelph, established in 1964, and Sleeman Breweries Ltd. The Ontario Agricultural College (OAC), the oldest part of the University of Guelph, began in 1874 as an associate agricultural college of the University of Toronto. According to Maclean's, the current University of Guelph, founded in 1964, "grew out of three founding colleges: the Ontario Agricultural College (1874), the Ontario Veterinary College (1862) and the Macdonald Institute (1903)". Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute (GCVI), established in the 1840s, is one of the province's oldest high schools. The Former Canadian National Railways (VIA Rail/GO Transit) Station at 79 Carden Street was listed in 1992.

In 2017, Scientology Canada announced it would move its Canadian headquarters to Guelph. Some residents protested the plan. The facility was opened in the autumn of the year at 40 Baker Street.

A redevelopment plan for Downtown Guelph had been discussed by Council since 2007 and was finalized as the 2018 Baker District redevelopment project. The intent is to transform the Baker St. parking lot and properties fronting Wyndham Street's north end into a mixed-use development, with urban intensification. Both residential and commercial buildings will be included. The final cost was estimated at between $315 million and $369 million. When finished, this area will include a new library, commercial, institutional and office space as well as an underground parking lot. The private enterprise partner for the project is Ottawa-based Windmill Development Group; there was also discussion about an additional partnership with Conestoga College and the YMCA. Actual construction was not expected to start until 2023. Before that date, up to $7.5 million will be spent to acquire the rest of the land that will be required.

In October 2018, the Ontario Energy Board approved the merger of Guelph Hydro and Alectra Utilities Corporation. After the merger was completed in January 2019, the city received a 4.63 per cent stake in Alectra and a one-time dividend of $18.5 million; afterwards, annual dividends would be received. The city has one permanent seat on the company's Board.

Topography and water courses
Downtown Guelph is situated above the confluence of the Speed River and the Eramosa River, which have numerous tributaries. The Speed River enters from the north and the Eramosa River from the east; the two rivers meet below downtown and continue southwest, where they merge with the Grand River (Ontario). There are also many creeks and smaller rivers creating large tracts of densely forested ravines, and providing ideal sites for parks and recreational trails. The city is built on several drumlins and buried waterways, the most notable being an underground creek flowing below the Albion Hotel, once the source of water used to brew beer. Guelph is the largest Canadian city to rely almost entirely on groundwater for its drinking supply, which is sourced from two main aquifers.

Climate
This region of Ontario has cold winters and warm, humid summers, falling into the Köppen climate classification Dfb zone (humid continental), with moderately high rainfall and snowfall. It is generally a couple of degrees cooler than lower elevation regions on the Great Lakes shorelines, especially so in winter, the exception being on some spring afternoons when the lack of an onshore breeze boosts temperatures well above those found lakeside.

The highest temperature ever recorded in Guelph was 38.3 C on August 6, 1918, and July 13, 1936. The coldest temperature ever recorded was -37.2 C on January 25, 1884.

Economy
The city of Guelph's diversified economy helped Guelph obtain the country's lowest unemployment rate at 4.2 per cent in 2011 and at 3.9 per cent in February 2016. The great diversity in the types of employers is a significant factor too; the city is not dependent on a single industry. The workforce participation rate of 72% was the best in Canada in December 2015 according to BMO senior economist Robert Kavcic. The job growth of more than 9 per cent at the same time was also of great value to the community. At the time, the BMO economist also rated Guelph as the top city in Canada for those looking for work. Over subsequent months, the rate increased steadily and the jobless rate was at a more typical 5.9% by October 2017, compared to 5.1% in Kitchener-Waterloo. The rate in June 2018 had decreased to 4.5%. By December 2018, StatsCan was indicating an unemployment rate of only 2.3%, down from 4% in November, and the lowest in Canada at that time.

The overall economy of the Guelph "region" (including the city and the townships of Guelph/Eramosa and Puslinch, Ontario) grew at an average of 3.5% per year over the previous five years and was expected to be 2.1% in 2019 and also in 2020 according to the Conference Board of Canada's August 2019 report. Guelph's real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 3.6% per cent in 2018, the highest among medium-sized cities in Canada. "Although economic growth is poised to moderate in 2019, Guelph will maintain its place as one of Canada’s economic growth leaders," the report predicted.

Manufacturing and education sectors
Manufacturing is the leading sector of the economy of the city with the most significant sector being auto parts manufacturing. The Conference Board of Canada's August 2019 report stated that the Guelph region's manufacturing was experiencing significant growth, averaging 5.9% over the past five years and expected to be 4.2% in 2019.

Linamar is the city's leader in this sector, with 22 manufacturing plants. The company has received government funding for expansion that would create additional jobs, most recently in 2015 ($101 million) and in 2018 ($99 million). The latter would create 1,500 additional jobs and maintain 8,000 others in the Canadian operation.

According to research completed by the City of Guelph in 2010, fabricated metal product manufacturing accounted for 26.1% of the types of industries, followed by machinery manufacturing for 12.8% and miscellaneous manufacturing for 10.4%. The city's Economic Development Strategy identified life science, agri-food and biotechnology firms, environmental management and technology companies as growth industries on which to focus economic development activities.

The city also touts the importance of advanced manufacturing which is its largest employer. The roughly 360 businesses of this type employ approximately 14,755 people (roughly 25% of Guelph's labour force). The category includes "high precision manufacturing and auto parts assembly to plastic injection moulding machines manufacturing and automation devices. This enables advanced manufacturing to be a strong driver of the local economy."

The second largest industry is Educational services, accounting for 11.3%.

Other sectors
Guelph is very attractive to the agri-food and biotechnology market sector, according to the city. It was ranked as the top cluster in Ontario and one of the top two in Canada. This sector includes over 90 companies in Guelph-Wellington, employing approximately 6,500 people.

The City encourages movie and television filming. Parts of several productions have been filmed here, including Agnes of God (1985), American Gods (released in 2017), 11.22.63 (2016) with James Franco, Total Recall (2012), Dream House (2011), The Heretics (2017), Dead Rush (2016) and episodes of Murdoch Mysteries (2013 and 2015).

Guelph Innovation District
As part of the plan to increase development, City Council voted in late 2017 to buy 98 ha south of York Road owned by the Provincial government, including part of the property of the former Wellington Detention Centre. After the acquisition, the city would seek one or more developers to buy the property. The land actually purchased was only 23% of the long-term plan for development in the entire site bounded by Watson Parkway South, the south border of the city and Victoria Road South.

The city decided in late 2018 not to purchase the additional land for economic reasons. In 2019, the remaining 362 acres of Ontario government land was listed for sale by the province.

Employment data
According to the Bank of Montreal's fourth quarter 2018 report, Guelph was the leading city in Canada in terms of job growth and low unemployment. In January 2019, the city had the lowest unemployment rate in Canada.

The 2016 Census indicated a labour force of nearly 76,000, of which about 55% said they worked full-time all year. At the time the data was gathered, 4,610 persons indicated they were unemployed. The top five occupations in terms of the number so employed were Sales and service (16,195), Education, law and social, community and government services (10,205), Business, finance and administration (10,150), Trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations (9,170) and manufacturing and utilities (8,205).

The City of Guelph's published 2016 data was sorting occupations in a different manner. In that report, Professional, Scientific and Technical jobs employed 39,141, Advanced Manufacturing employed 20,735, Retail and Service employed 11,345, Agri-Innovation employed 11,345, Culture and entertainment employed 7,711 and that Distribution, warehousing and wholesale employed 5,909.

The largest private enterprise employers in Guelph (2016) included:

 * Linamar Corporation
 * Cargill Meat Solutions
 * Polycon Industries
 * The Co-operators
 * Guelph Manufacturing Group Inc.
 * Blount Canada Ltd.

The Cooperators was one of the Platinum Winners in Canada's Best Employers 2017 report; the company has been on this list for 14 years.

The largest public sector employers (2016) included:

 * Upper Grand District School Board
 * University of Guelph
 * City of Guelph
 * Wellington Catholic District School Board
 * Guelph General Hospital
 * Homewood Health Centre

The university's staffing fell into three categories in 2015: there were 2,600 regular full-time faculty and staff, 1,890 temporary (full-time and part-time) and 3,690 student employees. The university was among Canada's Best Employers in 2016 according to Forbes magazine, making the top 20 in the list.

Two Guelph companies were among the 2018 winners of the Waterloo Area's Top Employers competition. According to the report, Reid's Heritage Group of Companies, a home builder with 212 full-time employees, "supports employees who are new mothers with maternity leave top-up payments .... [provides] flexible work hours, helps employees balance work and their personal commitments with up to 10 paid personal days ... and offers referral bonuses [for staff hires]." Sleeman Breweries Limited, with 991 full-timers, offers "generous tuition subsidies ... opportunities for the next generation to gain meaningful experience through summer employment and co-op placements ... retirement planning assistance and phased-in work options" as well as bonuses for salaried staff and profit-sharing for those who are unionized.

Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Guelph had a population of $143,740$ living in $56,480$ of its $59,746$ total private dwellings, a change of NaN% from its 2016 population of $131,794$. With a land area of 87.43 km2, it had a population density of in 2021.

At the census metropolitan area (CMA) level in the 2021 census, the Guelph CMA had a population of $165,588$ living in $64,175$ of its $67,685$ total private dwellings, a change of NaN% from its 2016 population of $151,984$. With a land area of 595.08 km2, it had a population density of in 2021.

Guelph was the third fastest-growing city in Ontario, with a 5-year growth of 8.3% from 2011 to 2016. According to the Ontario Places to Grow plan, Guelph's population is projected to be about 144,500 by the year 2021 and 175,000 by 2031. The actual number of residents varies throughout the year because of variations in the University of Guelph student population.

Ethnicity
Approximately 73.1% of residents were European Canadians in 2021, whereas 25.3% were visible minorities and 1.6% were Indigenous. The largest visible minority groups in Guelph were South Asian (7.4%), Black (4.2%), Chinese (3.0%), Filipino (2.7%), Southeast Asian (2.2%), Latin American (1.4%), West Asian (1.4%) and Arab (1.2%).

The 2021 Census indicated that 12,210 Italian Canadians lived in Guelph. Many Italians from the south of Italy, particularly from San Giorgio Morgeto, had immigrated to the area in the early 1900s, and also in later years. Historically, however, Guelph's population has been principally British in origin, with 92% in 1880 and 87% in 1921.
 * Note: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses.

Language
The most common mother tongue in 2021 was English; spoken by 74.5% of the population, followed by Chinese languages (2.3%), Punjabi (1.5%), Italian (1.3%), Vietnamese (1.2%), Tagalog (1.2%), Spanish (1.2%), and French (1.1%). 2.7% of residents claimed both English and a non-official language as their first language.

Religion
In 2021, 49.7% of Guelph residents were Christians, down from 61.8% in 2011. 23.9% of residents were Catholics, 13.7% were Protestants, 7.3% were Christians of unspecified denomination, and 2.0% were Christian Orthodox. All other denominations of Christianity and Christian-related traditions accounted for 2.8%. 38.7% of the population stated no religion, up from 30.3% in 2011. All other religions and spiritual traditions combined accounted for 13.6% of the population. The largest non-Christian religions were Islam (4.5%), Hinduism (2.7%), Sikhism (1.5%) and Buddhism (1.5%)

Crime
The national average for the crime severity index was 70.96 per 100,000 people in 2016 while Guelph's was much lower at 55 per 100,000 people according to a study published by Maclean's. In this report, Guelph was at about the middle of the statistics, with the worst community, North Battleford, Saskatchewan, at 353 per 100,000 people and nearby Kitchener-Waterloo at 61. More specific data was also provided:

 * Violent crime severity index: 49 per 100,000 people compared to 75.25 for the national index.
 * Homicide rate: The city had only one homicide in 2016 for a rate of 0.76 per 100,000 people, compared to the national average of 1.68.
 * Assault rate: Guelph was at 181.87 versus the national average of 370
 * Sexual assault rate: This aspect was quite high with 64.22 per 100,000 people compared to the national rate of 56.6.
 * Robbery rate: Guelph had 21.91 per 100,000 people, much lower than the national average of 60.9.
 * Fraud: This aspect has increased notably since 1996; it was at 260.67 per 100,000 people in 2016, versus the national rate of 299.05.
 * Drug offences: The city is well below the national average in all categories.
 * Youth Criminal Justice Act offences: The rate was 8.31 per 100,000 in Guelph, substantially lower than the national average of 16.74.

The 2017 Index showed a 15% increase to 64 per 100,000 people, still well below the national index. Much of the increase was in property crime and sexual assaults. Reporting of the latter type of crimes was up by up 42.7%. This may not indicate the actual increase in the number of sexual assault incidents, as theorized by Chief of Police Jeff DeRuyter. He told a reporter that "We are seeing an increase in sexual assault reporting, and that’s a positive, because we’ve always believed the reporting of sexual assault was under-reported."

As of January 2019, the Chief of Police is former RCMP inspector Gordon Cobey, who replaced Jeff DeRuyter who retired after 35 years of service with the Guelph Police Service. DeRuyter had been Chief since 2015, when he replaced Bryan Larkin who went on to head the Waterloo Regional Police Service.

Facilities for incarceration
The Wellington County Jail (in Late Gothic Revival Style) and the Governor's Residence (in Georgian style) at 74 Woolwich Street were built in 1911; they were designated by the city for "historic and architectural value" and as a National Historic Site in 1983. The property is now an Ontario Court of Justice.

Guelph was home to a major correctional institution from 1911 until 2001, originally the Ontario Reformatory with subsequent names including Wellington Detention Centre and, after 1972, Guelph Correctional Centre. The first inmates had been transferred to the Guelph reformatory from Toronto's Central Prison when it closed in 1915. By 1910, however, a prison farm beside the Eramosa River had begun receiving prisoners. The farm inmates constructed a concrete bridge, a spur line to the CPR and a wooden trestle bridge. The official opening of the farm was September 25, 1911. By 1912, the various buildings on the site housed 300; the correctional operations on the site were fully operational by 1914. Between 1911 and 1915, prisoners had built the Administration building, the cell blocks, ponds and waterways, dry stone walls, stairs, gates, bridges and terraced gardens. By 1916, this was the largest correctional facility in Ontario, housing 660.

During World War I, the property served as the Guelph Military Convalescent Hospital a convalescent hospital for over 900 veterans, from 1917. The prisoners returned in January 1921.

The farm and Reformatory were used to teach inmates useful skills, including agriculture, dry cleaning, metalworking, and other trades. By the late 1940s the facility produced food for all of Ontario's prisons, and also made blankets, wood and metal products; there was a stone quarry stone on site. By 1962 the prison farm accommodated a dairy, piggery, horses, cattle and vegetable farming. The farm area eventually included barns, a woolen mill, abattoir, tailor shop, laundry, bakery, metal shop, broom shop and other facilities. The prison abattoir was eventually sold off and became the privately owned company, later known as Better Beef (purchased by Cargill Canada in 2005), a massive meat processing plant. In 2001, the Ministry of Correctional Services closed the entire facility; the remaining inmates were transferred to larger jails. Afterwards, the property was used for some film shoots and for training emergency personnel. In December 2017, City Council voted to buy 98 ha for subsequent sale to developers, including the area that was then the Turf Grass research building and the jail farm, the so-called York District Land. The actual penal buildings and the land around them were not included in the plan.

In June 2019, 328.6 acres of the land, including 100 acres of natural area, still owned by the province, went on sale. The City of Guelph had not bought the site for the planned Guelph Innovation District, as it had initially considered doing, because of the potential financial risk. A rough estimate in 2017 by the city had suggested that the value of the Detention Centre site was roughly $60 million. The property for sale included the Wellington Detention Centre lands and the nearby Turfgrass Institute but not the buildings or land immediately around the former penal institution.

Education
Four school boards operate in the city. The Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) administers all of Wellington County, as well as adjacent Dufferin County, while the Wellington Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) administers Catholic education in Wellington County, including Guelph. The Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud offers French First language education for students with parents who had elementary and secondary education in French at École Saint-René-Goupil. The Conseil scolaire Viamonde, with similar entrance requirements, operates the École élémentaire L'Odyssée. Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir operates the École élémentaire catholique Saint-René-Goupil.

There are also numerous private schools in Guelph: Cornerstone Canadian Reformed Christian School, Resurrection Christian Academy, Guelph Community Christian School, Guelph Montessori School, Trillium Waldorf School, Wellington Hall Academy, and Wellington Montessori School, Echo Montessori. An International Baccalaureate Program is available at Guelph C.V.I and Bishop Macdonell C.H.S. Sacred Heart C.S. offers the IB Primary Years Program.

Secondary schools
All of Guelph's secondary schools belong to either the Upper Grand District School Board or the Wellington Catholic District School Board. The following is a list of all secondary schools in Guelph:

Public (Upper Grand District School Board):
 * Centennial C.V.I.
 * College Heights C.V.I.
 * Guelph C.V.I.
 * John F. Ross C.V.I.

Catholic (Wellington Catholic District School Board): In January 2018, The Upper Grand District School Board announced new plans to build a secondary school northwest of the Victoria Road at Arkell Road intersection. The project is a part of Ontario's Ministry of Education's plan to build 30 new schools across the province and renovate 40 others. The new secondary school is expected to provide relief for the overpopulated Centennial C.V.I. (currently 40% overcapacity). The school is designed to accommodate 900 students and will cost the government $25.5 million. The school is expected to be complete by 2022.
 * Our Lady of Lourdes C.H.S.
 * Saint James C.H.S.
 * Bishop Macdonell C.H.S.
 * St. John Bosco High School

Post-secondary institutions

 * University of Guelph, (with approximately 25,300 students) is one of Canada's top comprehensive universities, and home to the Ontario Agricultural College and the Ontario Veterinary College.
 * Conestoga College operates a small campus in Guelph but in late 2019, the college advised the news media that a major expansion was planned. "Within five or six years, we will have at least 5,000 students there ... [with] full-service programming," said College President John Tibbits. At the time, the Guelph campus had approximately 1,000 students.

Public library system
Although a private library, run by the Farmers and Mechanics Institute, existed since 1832, a public library did not open in Guelph until 1882, when the Free Libraries Act allowed municipalities to operate libraries. After occupying premises near City Hall, it moved into an Andrew Carnegie-funded building in 1905. The neo-classical (Beaux Art) structure, had been designed in 1902 by W. Frye Colwill. The collection of the Farmers and Mechanics Institute library was contributed to the new library.

The current main library building of the Guelph Public Library, on Norfolk St. was opened in 1965. Guelph is served by a growing library system composed of a main library located in the downtown core, five branches and a Bookmobile. With a membership of over 85,000, the Guelph Public Library system's goals include preserving and indexing public materials relating to the history of Guelph. Although no formal program has been developed, the library acquires municipal records of archival value from the City of Guelph.

A new library location has been discussed since 2018 as part of the redeveloped area downtown, known as the Baker District. This project was approved as part of the 2021 budget and as of July 2021 the library board was reviewing architectural designs.

Museums
The City of Guelph operates Guelph Museums, including the Guelph Civic Museum which showcases the city's history with exhibits, an interactive gallery and special events; this facility has some 30,000 artifacts. Since 1983 when the city took over this facility, the Civic Museum has also operated McCrae House, the birthplace of Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae (1872–1918), author of In Flanders Fields. The Museum also arranged for the restoration and placement of Locomotive 6167, a 1940s steam engine, which was located at the Guelph Central Station, but was moved to John Galt Park in November 2020 in order to make room at the station for future expansion of train service.

Medical facilities
The city currently has one hospital, Guelph General, which is rated as one of the safest in Canada in terms of the hospital standardized mortality ratio; the lower the better. Guelph's facility had a score of 78 in 2017, notably better than the national average of 91. By comparison, Cambridge Memorial Hospital had a score of 95. St. Joseph's Health Centre was previously a hospital, but is now a 240-bed long-term care home with a 91-bed specialty unit for complex continuing, rehabilitation and palliative care. Various outpatient services are also provided at this facility.

Another major facility, Homewood Health Centre offers treatment for mental health and addiction issues. The facility was founded in 1883 by the Homewood Retreat Association of Guelph as "a private asylum for the Insane and an Asylum for Inebriates" on a 19-acre property which included the Donald Guthrie house. The first patients were admitted in December of that year.

Homewood grew to a 312-bed mental and behavioural health facility and also formed a partnership with R.B. Schlegel Holdings Inc.to operate Oakwood Retirement Communities Inc., a long-term care facility.

Bus
Guelph Transit provides local transportation around the city. On June 20, 2007, Guelph Transit launched a web-based system known as Next Bus. Intercity connections by GO Transit are made at the Guelph Central Station and University of Guelph.

Rail
Guelph was the first municipality in Canada to have its own federally chartered railway, the Guelph Junction Railway. This 25 km link to the CPR is still municipally owned.

Built in 1911, the Guelph Central Station (still in use), was constructed by the Grand Trunk Railway which had arrived in Guelph in 1856; years later, it was taken over by the Canadian National Railway. It is a classic example of early 20th Century Canadian railway station design and has been designated as a heritage structure under the Heritage Railway Stations Protection Act. The Romanesque Revival building, with its Italianate tower, has been listed on the Canadian Register since 2006 and was formally recognized as one of Canada's Historic Places in November 1992. A renovation project in 2016-2017 provided various benefits, including repairs to maintain and restore heritage aspects.

There had also been passenger stations in Guelph that were built by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The first CPR station, from the 1800s, was the Priory House station, converted from the first house in Guelph. It stood opposite the current Priory Square and was eventually dismantled. Its replacement, located between Cardigan Street and the Speed River, was a brick building erected in 1911. After this brick building was no longer used as a rail station, it was converted for other purposes; eventually it was moved to the Galt area of Cambridge, Ontario.

Highways

 * Highway 401 to Toronto and London.
 * Highway 7 to Kitchener and Acton. The MTO has commenced construction of the Hanlon link to Kitchener, Ontario, a controlled-access highway running parallel to the existing Highway 7 from the Hanlon Expressway to Kitchener.
 * Highway 6 to Hamilton and Owen Sound. This highway is known as the Hanlon Expressway for most of its length inside the city.

Municipal
The city is a single-tier municipality governed by a mayor-council system. The structure of the municipal government is stipulated by the Ontario Municipal Act of 2001. There are currently 12 councillors and a mayor, with two councillors representing each of the six wards. The mayor and members of the city council serve four-year terms without term limits, with the next election scheduled for October 2022. Prior to the 2006 election, the mayor and city councillors served three-year terms.

In 2018, incumbent Mayor Cam Guthrie was re-elected with 66.6% of the vote.

Provincial
As of the 2018 election, Guelph occupies a single provincial riding of the same name, and is currently represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by Mike Schreiner, the current leader of Ontario Green Party.

Federal
Guelph also occupies a federal riding of the same name. The member of Parliament is Lloyd Longfield of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Historic sites

 * Downtown Guelph: Several downtown streets are lined with Victorian era buildings now well over a century old. Many of Guelph's historically designated properties are in or near the downtown area. The old City Hall on Carden St., built between 1856 and 1857 and a National Historic Site, is an example of mid-19th century Renaissance Revival architecture. The building, as well as its Annex built c. 1865, are also historically designated by the province. Other historically designated buildings in the area include the Winter Fair Building, the County Jail and Governor's Residence and the Guelph Armoury. The Old Quebec Street Mall was a street built in the 1800s that was enclosed and covered; that work was completed in 1984 and the street has become an indoor shopping mall.
 * The Guelph Civic Museum has been located on "Catholic Hill" (Norfolk St. and Cork St.) adjacent to the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate since 2012, moving to this location from a nationally designated historic site at 6 Dublin St. South. The museum has a collection of pictures, films and other antique materials related to the historical development of the City of Guelph.
 * Among the oldest of the city's neighbourhoods, settled by affluent citizens, the St. George's Park area features heritage homes and mansions in the highest part of Guelph. Much of the city's elite lived on the hill running up Grange Street and many of the homes have been renovated.
 * The Exhibition Park neighbourhood, containing the oldest park in Guelph, is an area that was settled in the 1870s and still contains many Victorian style heritage homes.
 * The Brooklyn and College Hill area south of the Speed River is the city's only district that was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act.
 * St. Patrick's Ward (The Ward) with many old buildings, originally contained both manufacturing facilities and modest homes. Many newcomers from Europe, particularly Italy, settled here after 1850.
 * Allan's Mill
 * Heffernan Street Footbridge: Spanning the Speed River behind St. George's Anglican Church, this structure was built in 1913, and replaced an earlier steel bridge. The footbridge was designated a heritage site and was restored/reconstructed in 1991 to more closely resemble the original design
 * Goldie Mill ruins: Once owned by the Goldie family, an important name in the early Waterloo Region, the mill was operated from 1866 until 1953 when a fire destroyed it. For some years, it served as a venue for outdoor public and private events but the area around the buildings was closed to the public in June 2017 due to soil contamination and sinkholes. Restoration of the ruins was underway in 2019, authorized by the owner, the Grand River Conservation Authority; the site to re-open to the public on February 18, 2021.

National Historic Sites
Nationally designated sites in the city include:
 * Old City Hall, a formal, classical civic building; built in 1856–57.
 * McCrae House, home of John McCrae, author of "In Flanders Fields", built in 1858.
 * Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate, a Roman Catholic church designed by Joseph Connolly, located downtown, is a local landmark and a National Historic Site. The church was built over a number of years, specifically 1876 to 1888.

Outdoor attractions
Most of the natural attractions of Guelph are located beside the two rivers which pass inside the city, Speed River and Eramosa River.
 * Guelph Lake
 * University of Guelph Arboretum
 * Riverside Park, located beside the Speed River at the north of Guelph
 * York Road Park
 * Hanlon Creek Park (Preservation Park)
 * Royal City Park and Wellington Street nature sites

Festivals

 * Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival
 * Guelph Pride and Winter Pride
 * Guelph and District Multicultural Festival
 * Hillside Festival
 * Guelph Spring Festival (1968–2006)
 * Two Rivers Festival
 * John Galt Day
 * Guelph Jazz Festival
 * Guelph Ribfest
 * Guelph Festival of Moving Media
 * Guelph Film Festival
 * Vegfest Guelph
 * Annual Exotic Car Show in Guelph

Arts facilities

 * The Art Gallery of Guelph, formerly Macdonald Stewart Art Centre
 * The Bookshelf Ebar Art Space
 * Ed Video Media Arts Centre
 * River Run Centre
 * Guelph Youth Music Centre

Online media
GuelphToday.com is an online local news source in Guelph, offering the latest breaking news, weather updates, entertainment, sports and business features, obituaries and more.

Print media
The earliest newspaper published in Guelph was the Guelph Herald, which lasted for nine months after it was started in 1842 by Charles McDonnell. The Wellingtonian also lasted for only a short time in 1843. The next one to be published was The Advertiser in 1845. In 1847, the new Guelph Herald was established as a weekly.

Both of those publications disappeared but the city was served by a daily newspaper for 149 years until the Guelph Mercury ceased operations in January 2016 due to declining subscriptions and revenues. At the time, it was owned by Metroland Media Group which also owned the Guelph Tribune, a twice weekly publication with limited news coverage. The latter increased its reporting of local news, assumed publication of the Guelph and District Homes section and, in April 2016, took over operation of the Mercury website. At the same time, the newspaper re-branded with a new title, Guelph Mercury Tribune.

Radio
The city is served by two radio stations: Both stations have been owned by Corus Entertainment since 2000. The University of Guelph station 93.3 CFRU-FM, Campus and Community Radio, has been broadcasting since 1980, currently at 250 watts.
 * Magic 106.1, CIMJ-FM, featuring hot adult contemporary music branded as Today's Best Mix
 * CJOY, 1460, broadcasting an oldies format and branded as Greatest Hits

Radio stations from Kitchener-Waterloo and CTV Kitchener, CKCO-DT television, also provide some coverage of Guelph news. Since 2011, CKCO has not been identified by its call letters.

Entertainment
The Sleeman Centre is a sports and entertainment venue in Guelph. The large, modern facility allows for a variety of events such as concerts, sporting and family events, trade shows and conferences, and it is home to the local hockey team, the Guelph Storm.

Apart from it, the city has Guelph Little Theatre, Guelph Concert Theatre and River Run Centre. Theatre studios of the University of Guelph also present their productions to the public on occasions.

Music
From a Bell Organ factory to the opera singer Edward Johnson, Guelph has been a source of musical contribution. Today, Guelph has a thriving indie rock scene, which has spawned some of Canada's more well-known indie bands, many of which are highlighted in the annual Kazoo Festival. Guelph is also home to the Hillside Festival, a hugely popular music festival held at nearby Guelph Lake during the summer, as well as the Guelph Jazz Festival.

Guelph is also home to the Guelph Symphony Orchestra, and two yearly classical music festivals. The Kiwanis Music Festival of Guelph showcases students from Guelph and surrounding areas, while the Guelph Musicfest offers performances by local professional classical musicians.

Twin cities

 * 🇮🇹 Castelfranco Veneto, Italy
 * 🇮🇹 Riese Pio X, Italy
 * Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
 * 🇵🇪 Cusco, Peru

title: Guelph


text:
User:MyPasswordIsYELLOW

Jimbo Wales on public accounts: "It is a little weird, but we can easily adjust to it."

Jimbo Wales later says:

It strikes me that the very idea here is silly. Anyone can login and change the password *from* yellow to something else. If any of these accounts does anything bad, that account can be banned for it.

I just don't see what the author of these is thinking.

I have no problem with deleting these as fast as they show up. We can treat it like any other vandalism.

--Jimbo

title: User:MyPasswordIsYELLOW