Cambridge, Massachusetts

Map of the Region of Waterloo with Cambridge in red.

Cambridge (2001 population 110,372)^[1] is located on the Grand River and Speed River in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

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

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

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

In 1986 Toyota opened a plant in Cambridge that employs 3500 people and it is by far the city's largest employer, although several other industrial companies also call Cambridge home, including Automation Tooling Sytems, Frito-Lay Canada (formerly Hostess), Babcock and Wilcox, and Norstar Aerospace.

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

Demographics

The ethnic make-up of the city is:

• White: 90.2%
• South Asian: 2.9%
• Black: 1.6%

The religious make-up is:

• Protestant: 39.8%
• Catholic: 37.1%
• Christian Orthodox: 1.1%
• Other Christian: 2.2%
• Muslim: 1.5%
• Hindu: 1.2%
• No religion: 15.3%

Transport

Roads

Cambridge straddles Highway 401, with interchanges at Townline Road, Franklin Boulevard, Hespeler Road, and Shantz Hill Road; in good traffic, it is a drive of an hour to ninety minutes to Toronto. Highway 8 travels through the city as Shantz Hill Road, King Street, Coronation Boulevard, and Dundas Avenue, linking Cambridge to Kitchener and Waterloo in the north, and Hamilton in the south. Highway 24 runs through Cambridge as Hespeler Road, Water Street, and Ainslie street, connecting to Guelph in the east and Brantford in the west.

Public transport

Sincce 2000, public transport throughout the Region of Waterloo has been provided by Grand River Transit, which was created by a merger of the former Cambridge Transit and Kitchener Transit. GRT operate a number of bus routes in Cambridge, two of which connect it to Kitchener. In September 2005, they plan to add an express bus from downtown Cambridge through Kitchener to north Waterloo.

Railways

Although freight trains serving the Toyota factory are a common sight in Cambridge, the city at present has no passenger rail service. The nearest VIA Rail stations are in Kitchener and Guelph, but trains are infrequent. Public transport connections to the Kitchener station are poor, and to the Guelph station are non-existent.

The most easily-accessible GO Transit railway station is Milton station. City councillors and public petitions have called for the extension of GO trains to Cambridge, but at present GO do not plan to go beyond already-announced bus links

Air

The closest airport to Cambridge is the Region of Waterloo International Airport in Breslau, but while it is a thriving general-aviation field, it is not heavily-served by scheduled airlines. Most air travellers use either Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport or Hamilton's John C. Munro International Airport. There are no permanent public transport links to any of these airports.