Hamilton, Ontario

City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Motto: Together Aspire - Together AchieveNickname: Steel City

1,117.11 sq. km.

Population

- City (2001])
- Canadian CD Rank
- Canadian Municipal Rank
- Density
490,268
662,401 (metropolitan area)
710,300 (2005 est.)
Ranked 12th
Ranked 10th
438.9/km²

Time zone

Eastern: UTC-5

Latitude
Longitude

MPs

Dean Allison (CPC), Chris Charlton (NDP), David Christopherson (NDP), Wayne Marston (NDP), David Sweet (CPC)

MPPs

Marie Bountrogianni (OLP), Andrea Horwath (NDP), Judy Marsales (OLP), Ted McMeekin (OLP), Jennifer Mossop (OLP)

Mayor

Larry Di Ianni

Governing body

Hamilton City Council

City of Hamilton

Hamilton is a city located in Canada, in the province of Ontario. It is currently the 8th largest city in Canada, with a population estimated at 714,900 in the metropolitan area. [1] Within the city itself the population was 490,268 in the 2001 census.

Its nicknames — all relating to its waning days as a major industrial centre — include the Ambitious City, Steeltown, the Hammer, Hammertown, and the Lunchbucket City. However, health care has outstripped heavy industry — exemplified by the twin steel giants of Stelco and Dofasco — as the largest employer. Moreover, the education, government, services and technology sectors have all dramatically developed as heavy industry has declined.

Also belying its unfounded reputation as cultural wasteland, Hamilton has built on its historical and social background. Interesting attractions include a museum of aircraft (Canadian Warplane Heritage[2]), a stately residence of a Prime Minister of Upper Canada (Dundurn Castle), a functioning nuclear reactor at McMaster University, a horticultural haven (Royal Botanical Gardens) and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

History

This section summarizes the full entry found at History of Hamilton, Ontario, and stops in 1945.

History to 1913

The Iroquois Confederacy of Five (later Six) Nations first occupied the land now covered by Hamilton. French explorers made transient visits to the area, but major European settlement did not begin until United Empire Loyalists arrived around the American Revolution and War of 1812. In the latter conflict, Britain defeated American invaders at the Battle of Stoney Creek in what is now Hamilton.

Immediately after the war, in 1815, George Hamilton laid out a town site in Barton Township which eventually outstripped close rivals like Dundas. Hamilton was incorporated as a police village in 1833 and as a city in 1846.

Hamilton was part of (and served as seat for) Wentworth County since its creation in 1816. By 1851, the county acquired its final composition of townships: Ancaster, Barton, Beverly, Binbrook, East Flamborough, West Flamborough, Glanford and Saltfleet.

In the second half of the 1800s, Hamilton became identified and self-identified with heavy industry, billing itself as the Ambitious City and the Birmingham of Canada. It became a hotbed of working class activism, and in 1872 the cradle of the Nine Hour Movement which urged the universal limitation of working hours to nine per day.

The easy access to limestone from the Niagara Escarpment, coal mined in Appalachia, iron ore mined from the Canadian Shield and export markets through the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system made Hamilton an important iron- and steel-producing city. Diverse steel works combined to form the Steel Company of Canada in 1910 and the Dominion Steel Casting Company in 1912.

History 1914–1945

Hamiltonians participated in the First World War as combatants, but due to Col. Sir Sam Hughes' mobilization plans for the Canadian Expeditionary Force, there were no major battles associated purely with Hamiltonians. Heavy industry boomed as the Canadian and British governments' war-driven demands for steel, arms, munitions and textiles increased. War profiteering by manufacturers dampened some of the mood, but generally Hamiltonians pulled together.

After the Great War the school-building boom continued, including Memorial School, Allenby School and Earl Kitchener School. In the Roaring Twenties hundreds of low-rise apartment buildings, of three to four stories and six to ten units, grew up across the city, especially in the east end. The Great Depression of the 1930s hit Hamilton hard, with the simultaneous and prolonged decline in domestic consumption and international trade in finished industrial goods and building supplies dried up.

When the Second World War began, Hamiltonians - like most Canadians - welcomed the spike of economic demand but not its cause. In this war, the Canadian Army mobilized its territorially recruited militia units. As a consequence, Hamilton lost hundreds of its young men on a single day in 1942, when the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry [3] was effectively wiped out at Dieppe. Read more of The Hamilton Spectator's coverage of the war. Hamilton also gave The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada (Princess Louise's) to the cause.

Geography and climate

Hamilton is located on the western end of the Niagara Peninsula and at the westernmost part of Lake Ontario, most of the city including the downtown section are on the south shore. Situated in the geographic centre of the Golden Horseshoe and is roughly the midway point between Toronto and Buffalo. The two major physical features are Hamilton Harbour marking the northern limit of the city and the Niagara Escarpment running through the middle of the city across its entire breadth, bisecting the city into 'upper' and 'lower' parts.

Burlington Bay/Hamilton Harbour is a natural harbour with a large sandbar called the Beachstrip. This sandbar was deposited during a period of higher lake levels during the last ice age, and extends southeast through the central lower city to the escarpment. Hamilton's deep sea port is accessed by ship canal through the beach strip into the harbour and is traversed by two bridges, the Skyway Bridge (part of the QEW highway) and the lower Canal Lift Bridge. Hamilton Harbour ranks one of Canada's largest seaports. The Hamilton Port Authority manages the heavily industrial harbour.

The escarpment is in many places a 100 metre (330 foot) vertical wall of limestone shale with many waterfalls and creeks falling over it; including Stoney Creek, Red Hill Creek, Grindstone Creek, Spencer Gorge Waterfall and Chedoke Creek — flow over the Escarpment and into the Harbour. The numerous waterfalls within the City of Hamilton limits has recently inspired local tourism interests to market Hamilton as the "City of Waterfalls." At least 20 waterfalls and cascades flow over Hamilton Mountain within city limits. On average the mountain is 4-5km inland from the Lake Ontario shoreline and at its edge affords some spectacular views of the city and harbour. Outside of the city this feature is more commonly known as Hamilton Mountain, or to locals just "the mountain". The "mountain" is actually an escarpment. The Hamilton portion is part of the larger Niagara Escarpment, that runs from western New York to Georgian Bay. It is the world's longest escarpment.

The climate of Hamilton is humid continental and relatively mild compared with most of Canada. The average January temperature is -3.6C (26.5F) but most days rise just above freezing making for slushy conditions during snowfalls. Winter snowfall averages 113cm (44") with great year-to-year variation. The average July temperature (the average of both day and night) is 22.5C (72.5F) and humidity is usually high during the peak of summer. Daytimes highs in the 30's with humidex values making it feel above 40°C are quite common anytime from May through early October.

It might be noted that the climate of the lower city is in general much more sheltered and milder than on top of "the mountain", which has a shorter growing season and, in winter is prone to more wind whipped snowsqualls. It is not uncommon in the winter for lower city residents, with no snow present in their neighbourhoods, to drive up into the upper city and be surprised at encountering a thick blanket of fresh white snow. The escarpment also greatly affects summer weather; temperature inversions can make the downtown many degrees warmer, particularly at night, and often an inversion will combine with the physical barrier of the escarpment to trap smog in the downtown area, sometimes reducing downtown visibility to less than 2km.

Summer rains can be heavy but in general severe weather is rare. One notable exception occurred November 9, 2005 when a tornado damaged hundreds of houses and lifted off Lawfield Middle School's gymnasium roof on the Upper Mountain, injuring two students and leaving the school structurally unsound. Environment Canada confirmed an F1 tornado struck the area; this was the latest date in any year that a confirmed tornado touched down in Canada.

Demographics

According to the mid-2001 census, nearly one-quarter of the metropolitan area population of Hamilton was foreign-born, making Hamilton the Canadian city with the third highest proportion of foreign-born citizens after Toronto (44%) and Vancouver (38%).

Hamilton is overwhelmingly populated by people of a white ethnic background - 90.7%[4], almost half having British Isles origin[5], as well as many inhabitants of Italian, German, Romanian, French, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, and Eastern European (mostly Serbian) origins who settled during the city's early 20th-century industrial boom. The eastern side of the city contains a significant and growing East Indian community.

The top countries of birth for the newcomers living in Hamilton in 2001 were: Yugoslavia, Poland, India, the People's Republic of China, the Philippines, Iraq, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. About 8% of immigrants of the 1990s cited Yugoslavia as their country of birth.

The population estimates there were 714,900 people residing in Hamilton, located in the province of Ontario, of whom 48.8% were male and 51.2% were female. Children under five accounted for approximately 5.8% of the resident population of Hamilton. This compares with 5.8% in Ontario, and 5.5% for Canada overall.

In mid-2001, 14.2% of the resident population in Hamilton were of retirement age (65 and over for males and females) compared with 13.2% in Canada, therefore, the average age is 37.8 years of age comparing to 37.6 years of age for all of Canada.

In the five years between 1996 and 2001, the population of Hamilton grew by 6.1%, compared with an increase of 6.1% for Ontario as a whole. Population density of Hamilton averaged 482.9 people per square kilometre, compared with an average of 12.6, for Ontario altogether.

At the time of the census in May 2001, the resident population of the city of Hamilton was 490,268, and census' Hamilton Metropolitan Area was 662,401. The entire province of Ontario was 11,410,050 people.

Religious groups

Christianity is the predominant religion in Hamilton. Protestantism is barely ahead of Catholicism, while Roman Catholicism has strengthened due to mostly Eastern European and Filipino population growth.
*Protestant: 242,940 or 37.0%
*Roman Catholic: 232,435 or 35.4%
*other Christian: 32,760 or 5.0%
*Muslim: 12,880 or 1.9%
*Buddhist: 4,725 or 0.6%

City and suburbs

Downtown began and remains around Gore Park and the intersection of King and James Streets. Central Hamilton extends from the base of the Mountain north to Barton Street, west to Chedoke Creek or Dundurn Street, and east to approximately Wentworth Street or Sherman Avenues. West Hamilton or the west end begins at Dundurn Street or Chedoke Creek. East Hamilton or the east end begins at approximately Ottawa Street or Kenilworth Avenue. North Hamilton or the north end begins at Barton Street or the Canadian National Railways (CN) tracks.

As city limits expanded to include the Mountain, the retronym for the city below the Escarpment became the Lower City (now often just referred to as downtown). The east/west divide line for the mountain is Upper James Street, and the east/west divide line for downtown is James Street. The south Mountain begins at approximately Limeridge Road or the Lincoln M. Alexander Expressway.

The former boroughs of Hamilton-Wentworth Region, are: Stoney Creek, Dundas, Flamborough, Ancaster and Township of Glanbrook. They have maintained their names as wards in the municipal government in the city of Hamilton. Locally these boroughs are referred to as "the suburbs" of Hamilton.

Attractions

Copps Coliseum

Hamilton facing east

Despite its blue-collar reputation, Hamilton has a large variety of historical sites and cultural and educational institutions.

Historical sites

* Canadian Warplane Heritage, static and flying museum, Mount Hope airport
* Dundurn Castle, including the Hamilton Military Museum and Dundurn Park, west end
* Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology, east end
* Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Heritage Museum, downtown
* Whitehern Historic House & Garden, downtown
* Erland Lee House, birthplace of Women's Institutes, Upper Stoney Creek
* Battlefield House Museum, Stoney Creek
* Workers Arts & Heritage Centre, in the former Custom House, a National Historic Site, north end

Cultural institutions

Art

* Art Gallery of Hamilton,[6] downtown. Second largest permanent collection in Ontario
* McMaster Museum of Art, west end
* James Street North Art District
* Imperial Cotton Centre for the Arts
* Transit Gallery
* Arctic Gallery

Music

* Brott Music Festival Hamilton, Dundas, Ancaster, Burlington
* Opera Ontario
* Symphony Hamilton Hamilton, Burlington
* National Academy Orchestra of Canada Hamilton, Dundas, Ancaster, Burlington

Museums

* Workers Arts and Heritage Centre [7], north end
* Green Venture EcoHouse, east end
* Hamilton Children's Museum [8], east end
* Military Museum
* Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum [9], home of one of the last two remaining operational Lancaster bombers, also in operation Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane, Bristol Bolingbroke.

Theatre

* Ron V. Joyce Centre for the Performing Arts at Hamilton Place, downtown
* Theatre Aquarius, Dofasco Centre for the Performing Arts, downtown
* Players' Guild of Hamilton, Inc. plays
* Hamilton Theatre Inc., musical theatre

Outdoor attractions

* Hamilton Waterfront, Hamilton Harbour
* Hamilton's 66 Waterfalls, Along Escarpment
* Royal Botanical Gardens, west end [10]
* Westfield Heritage Centre, Flamborough
* Bruce Trail, Stoney Creek, Hamilton, Dundas, Flamborough
* Hamilton to Brantford Rail Trail, Hamilton, Dundas, Ancaster
* Dundas Valley Conservation Area, Dundas
* Pier 4 Park
* Harbour West
* Cootes Paradise
* Bayfront Park
* Gore Park
* Gage Park
* Beach Strip

Educational institutions

* McMaster University, west end [11]
* Mohawk College, Mountain [12]
* Hillfield Strathallan College, Mountain [13]
* Redeemer University College, south-west Mountain
* Dundas Valley School of Art, Dundas
* École secondaire Georges-P.-Vanier, west end
* École élémentaire Pavillon de la jeunesse
* Columbia International College [14], west end
* Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts
* Divinity College
* Brock University (satellite campus)
* Michael G. DeGroote School of Business

Popular attractions

(see also Sports below)
* Hess Village, a popular summer patio hangout. Many bars, clubs and restaurants feature live music and attractions all year round. Hess Street, downtown.
* African Lion Safari, Flamborough
* Flamboro Downs, horse racing as well as car racing
* Canadian Football Hall of Fame, downtown
* Confederation Park, featuring largest outdoor wave pool, waterslides, lazy river, batting cages, mini put, picnic area
* The Pheasant Plucker, a popular bar on Augusta Street in downtown Hamilton
* Mustard Festival
* Festival of Friends
* Harvest Burger
* It's Your Festival,
* Lakeport Hydroplane Regatta
* Tall Ship Regatta
* Kinsman Parade of Lights
* Dragon Boat Festival Championships
* Worker's Heritage Museum
* Hamilton Industrial Heritage Trail - 19th century
* Hamilton Industrial Heritage Trail - 20th century
* Hamilton Waterfront Trail
* Hamilton Beach Trail
* Redhill Valley Trail
* Trans Canada Trail
* HAIDA
* The Canada Marine Discovery Centre
* Hamilton Port Days
* The Westdale Aviary
* Dundurn Castle and Military Museum
* Haunted Hamilton Tour
* Hamilton Harbour Cruises

Economy and environment

Industrial economy and environment

By the 1940s, the ecological cost of pollution had taken its toll on Hamilton: heavy metals made fish from the Bay inedible, air pollution made breathing difficult and industrial dumps (notably the Lax lands) contaminated land. People recognized there was a problem, but two decades of economic depression and war left them with no stomach to face the costly investments and social changes to fix it.

Veterans returned to the factories just in time to see the founding strike of Local 1005 of the United Steelworkers of America at Stelco, one of four major ones in 1946. Labour peace ensured by the Rand formula, established by Mr. Justice Ivan Rand when he settled the Ford strike in Windsor, allowed the industrial economy to grow. Studebaker set up shop in Hamilton, shutting down in 1966 as its last car factory.

Despite the promise shown in the booming 1960s, signs of trouble were beginning to show. The Harbour dredging scheme (including its associated political scandal) and reports by the International Joint Commission revealed that a few more decades of pollution had all but destroyed the marine environment.

In the early 1980s, Hamilton had entered the economic downturn common to most steel towns in the developed world, such as Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, but survived relatively well. But a couple of bitter strikes at Stelco did not help matters. The days of heavy industry were numbered.

In the last decade, Hamilton's heavy industry reached a stable level, Stelco has returned to profitability in more recent quarters and non-unionized Dofasco is the world's most profitable steel maker. The Hamilton Harbour Commission continues to report healthy shipments and steady increases. Decreased industrial activity and increased pollution control measures have combined to increase water and air quality, and to allow Hamilton to showcase its fine natural attributes in a better light. For those employed in or relying on the industrial sector, prospects are not good.

Stelco is no longer under bankruptcy protection. Dofasco is likely to be bought by a foreign company and in addition to being one of North America's most profitable steel companies, Dofasco has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index seven years in a row.

Today Hamilton still remains Canada's capital of heavy industry. Hamilton's north end and east Hamilton (connected by Burlington Street) is Canada's largest concentration of heavy industry, in a province that is also the country's manufacturing base. Burlington Street was famous for its blue collar rush hour the times during shift changes at the many factories.

Biotechnology cluster

Business, education and government in the Hamilton, Halton and Niagara regions have joined forces to energize existing biosciences strengths and help turn breakthroughs into business success. A regional initiative, the Golden Horseshoe is being transformed into a knowledge-based, economic powerhouse of research, growth and investment.

Golden Horseshoe Biosciences Network

Biggest employers

* Top 100 Employers in Hamilton Ontario

Cultural economy

As the industrial economy has faltered, the local economy by necessity became much more diversified. However, this process was made possible by decisions taken as early as the 1930s as discussed above.

Attempts at nourishing and spreading cultural economic activities paid off. Dundurn Castle was refurbished as Centennial project. Local TV station CHCH introduced Canadians to Smith & Smith, which featured Steve and Morag Smith (the former better known from his stint as Red Green). The Hilarious House of Frightenstein was a Canadian children's television series which was also produced by CHCH in 1971. It was syndicated to television stations across Canada and the United States, and occasionally still appears today in some TV markets. A quirky sketch comedy series, the show's cast included Billy Van, Fishka Rais, Guy Big, Mitch Markowitz, Vincent Price and Julius Sumner Miller. Van, in fact, played the vast majority of the characters. 130 episodes of the series were made, in one single nine-month span of time starting in 1971. "Don Cherry's Grapevine" began airing on CHCH TV in the 1980's.

Hamilton became a moderately important film and television adjunct of the Toronto film market. Notable actors from Hamilton are Second City Television alumni Eugene Levy, Martin Short and Dave Thomas. All three attended McMaster University along with the late John Candy.

Hamilton gave birth or havens to a number of successful musicians of various genres over the years. Jazz-blues musicians The Washingtons were popular in the 1940s, and brother Jackie Washington continues to perform. Folksinger Stan Rogers was born in Dundas, where he lived until his death in 1982. The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra under Boris Brott, although often troubled financially since his departure as Music Director in 1990, achieved wide renown as one of Canada's finest orchestras. The eponymous Brott Music Festival, founded in 1988 is Canada's largest orchestral music festival and is a cornerstone cultural activity of the summer months. It joins the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the Philharmonic, Theatre Aquarius and Opera Hamilton as one of the City's the leading arts organizations.

Among the rock-pop acts formed in Hamilton or by Hamiltonians were: Teenage Head, Forgotten Rebels, Junkhouse, The Kings, Sarah Harmer, and Appleton. Furthermore, Daniel Lanois, a solo artist in his own right and producer for U2, lived in Hamilton and recorded at Grant Avenue Studios. Other Hamiltonians include Saga Drummer Steve Negas, Christian Tanna drummer/ songwriter for I Mother Earth, Lorraine Segato lead vocalist for 1980s New Wave group; The Parachute Club, Skip Prokop Drummer and band leader for Lighthouse + The Paupers and Ian Thomas Singer/ songwriter whose most memorable hit was 1973's "Painted Ladies." Neil Peart drummer and lyricist for the progressive rock band Rush was born just outside of Hamilton in the town of Hagersville.

Oh What a Feeling: A Vital Collection of Canadian Music was a 4-CD box set released in 1996 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Juno Awards. All of the sets feature popular Canadian songs from the 1960s onward. The sets were titled for the song "Oh What A Feeling" by Hamilton Ontario rock band Crowbar. From 1969 to 1970, most of the members of the group had been a backup band for Ronnie Hawkins. However, he fired them, saying "You guys are so crazy that you could **** up a crowbar in three seconds!" They recorded their first album in 1970 as King Biscuit Boy and Crowbar. King Biscuit Boy left the band later in 1970, but continued to appear as a guest performer.

The Sonic Unyon label started and fostered the Hamilton sound in the early 1990s and continues today as one of Canada's most successful independent record labels and distributors.

Hamilton hosted several cultural and craft fairs since the 1970s, notably Festival of Friends and Earthsong, which made it a major tourist destination. Unfortunately, these fair trade venues and celebrators of world music declined in quality, with the cancellation of Earthsong, only the Festival of Friends remains, now in 2006, its 31st season. The Festival of Friends, founded in 1975, is the largest annual free music event in the country. Burton Cummings, Lighthouse and Bruce Cockburn have been among the main stage headliners.

Hamilton also hosts several key venues operated by the Hamilton Entertainment and Convention Facilities organization. Among these facilities is Hamilton's largest venue, Copps Coliseum, a 19,000-seat enclosed arena that serves as the home for the Hamilton Bulldogs(AHL) ice hockey club and routinely features a variety of sport, commercial and concert events throughout the year. Notable artists who have performed at Copps Coliseum include U2, Elton John, Rod Stewart and Aerosmith.

Further events can be found just down the road at Hamilton Place, a 2,100 seat performing arts theatre located less than a two-minute walk from the Coliseum. Hamilton Place is the home of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and boasts one of the leading architectural designs for acoustics in Canada. Notable performances include the annual festive production of 'The Nutcracker' and a number of internationally-recognized entertainers such as Tom Jones, Bill Cosby, Hall & Oates and Billy Connolly.

Other economy

The growth of post-secondary education — heralded by the arrival of McMaster University in 1930 and the foundation of Mohawk College in 1967 — led to numerous direct and indirect jobs in education and research. The addition of a medical school at McMaster in the late 1960s built upon local health care strengths to such an extent that health care has outstripped industry as the region's primary employer. A massive McMaster University research campus called Innovation Centre is planned for development on the former Camco lands near Westdale.

A business collaboration between a Canadian hockey player and a retired Hamilton policeman began quietly in 1964 at 65 Ottawa Street North. After the player's untimely death in 1974, an ambitious expansion scheme of the retiree's led Tim Hortons Donuts to become an enormously successful food retailer selling doughnuts, coffee and light snacks. Founder Ron Joyce sold the business to the Wendys fast food empire, but not before bestowing his name on Hamilton Place.

Hamilton's current City Hall

An enthusiasm for urban renewal gripped Hamilton, as it did most other cities in North America, in the 1960s and early 1970s. Historic buildings, including Old City Hall and the original farmers market, were destroyed to make way for wider streets, more parking and large shopping centres. Hamilton's penchant for one-way streets and synchronized traffic lights, only recently reconsidered and slightly modified, date from just before this period.

Outside the industrial sector, a brutal recession from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, combined with the accelerated tendency to relocate commercial activity in the cheaper suburbs, devastated the downtown core, and many small businesses. Qualified or failed attempts at reviving the central business district included the restoration of the Gore Park fountain, the proposed conversion of vacant office space into condominium apartments and allowing two-way traffic on certain downtown streets for the first time in half a century.

More dramatic and successful have been the greening projects of Hamilton undertaken since the 1990s: the Lax lands on Bay Street North were capped with clay and landscaped into a beautiful park, remediation began at Cootes Paradise in west Hamilton, a waterfront trail linking these two places was built, abandoned railway right-of-ways in both the east end and west end were converted to multi-use paths.

Politics

Politically, Hamilton is known for producing groundbreaking, colourful and left-wing politicians — illustrated by the polarizing and erratic career of Sheila Copps. Locally, though, the big political stories have included the controversial amalgamation of Hamilton with its suburbs in 2001, and the destruction of green space around the Red Hill Valley to make way for the Red Hill Creek Expressway.

Municipal politics

Hamilton has had a city charter since 1846. In 1974, it combined with the Wentworth County and the latter's other towns and townships to form the two-tier municipal federation of Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth. Portions of the former county became part of Burlington and Cambridge.

The old city of Hamilton was represented at regional council by one councillor each from its two-councillor wards; the other municipalities by their mayors and an additional regional councillor each. The regional chair was appointed by the Ontario government rather than by the residents or the regional councillors. After a successful drive to make the office elective, the point became moot in 2001.

Municipal powers were divided or shared in turn by the city and the county (or its constituent parts besides Hamilton). For instance, the city and county continued their separate boards of education, while the police service and social services became regional responsibilities, and fire service and business licensing remained second-tier responsibilities.

In 2001, the former two-tier Hamilton-Wentworth region was amalgamated into a one-tier city called Hamilton like one of its predecessor governments. New ward boundaries coincided substantially or exactly with old Hamilton's wards and the former municipal boundaries of its suburbs.

As in most Ontario cities, incumbent councillors and mayors tend to be re-elected in municipal elections marked by low turnout. However, in the 1940s, Hamilton City Council was presided over by Sam Lawrence, a unionized worker called the Labour Mayor. However, for most of the time, moderates of the centre-right or centre-left — such as Lloyd D. Jackson in the 1960s and Robert Morrow in the 1980s — presided over council.

Victor "Vic" Copps was a popular centre-left mayor in the 1970s. While taking part in the Around the Bay Race in 1976, he suffered a stroke which incapacitated him. His wife Geraldine Copps served as a city councillor after that unfortunate event. Copps Coliseum is named after him rather than his daughter, Sheila Copps.

Provincial politics

Hamilton has traditionally been represented by four to six Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) or Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Old Hamilton was always suspicious of its larger neighbour and provincial capital, Toronto and had a reputation for being highly unionized. These factors combined to electing working class and left-wing MPPs, often from the New Democratic (NDP) and Liberal parties, who frequently achieved notoriety if not power outside Hamilton.

Liberal MPP Lily Munro was caught in the Patti Starr scandal which contributed to Premier David Peterson's electoral defeat in 1990. So often under- or unrepresented in at Queen's Park, the old city of Hamilton boasted that each of its three MPPs were ministers in the NDP government of Bob Rae in the 1990s.

In contrast, the former suburbs and rural precincts of old Hamilton voted for less radical and less noteworthy Progressive Conservative representatives, including government backbenchers for Rae's successor, Mike Harris. The Harris government's forced amalgamation of Hamilton was highly controversial among suburban and urban Hamilton voters. It also made provincial riding boundaries and names automatically coincide with those at the federal level, reducing new Hamilton's representation at Queen's Park, the Provincial Legislature, in Toronto, by one member.

Federal politics

Progressive Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker appointed the late Ellen Fairclough as Secretary of State, making her Canada's first female cabinet minister, in 1957. A downtown provincial office building is named in her honour.

John Munro, a Trudeau-era Liberal cabinet minister and a sometime husband of Lily Munro, was the subject of political innuendo and criminal allegations dismissed after an Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) probe. He came in fourth in the first mayoral election for amalgamated Hamilton. The Hamilton International Airport was renamed in his honour.

Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Joe Clark appointed Lincoln "Linc" Alexander, the first Black Canadian Member of Parliament, as Minister of Labour in his short-lived government. Alexander later became Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, another first for blacks in Ontario and Canada. Ironically for a man who never learned to drive, Linc was honoured by having the long-awaited Mountain east-west expressway named after him.

Sheila Copps, daughter of Victor and Geraldine, was a Liberal candidate, first for the Ontario legislature and then for the House of Commons, where she represented Hamilton East from 1984] until 2004. She was a leading and vociferous member of the Liberal "Rat Pack" while the Liberals were in opposition until 1993. An early and strong supporter of the leadership of Jean Chrétien, she served in several posts including Deputy Prime Minister. When Paul Martin became prime minister, Copps' star waned as she was excluded from cabinet and lost her bitter nomination campaign to Tony Valeri in her re-districted riding.

In the 2006 federal election, all three of Hamilton's main urban ridings were won by NDP candidates, Wayne Marston, David Christopherson and Chris Charlton. The two predominantly rural ridings were both won by Conservatives, David Sweet and Dean Allison.

Media

Radio

* AM 820 - CHAM, country
* AM 900 - CHML, news/talk
* AM 1150 - CKOC, oldies
* FM 93.3 - CFMU, McMaster University campus radio
* FM 94.7 - CIWV, ("The Wave"), smooth jazz
* FM 95.3 - CING, ("Country 95.3"), country
* FM 101.5 - CIOI, Mohawk College campus radio
* FM 102.9 - CKLH, ("K-Lite FM"), adult contemporary
* FM 107.9 - CJXY, ("Y108"), classic rock (licensed to Burlington but marketed toward Hamilton)

Television

* Channel 11: CHCH, CH
* Channel 14: Cable 14
* Channel 45: CKXT-1, "Sun TV" (from Toronto)

CTV, CBC, SRC and TVOntario service is received directly from the network's Toronto transmitters; Global service is received from CIII's re-broadcaster in Paris.

Print

The city's main daily newspaper is the Hamilton Spectator. Established in 1876, it has a daily circulation over 100,000 and over 300,000 weekly readers. It is owned by City Media Group, a division of Torstar.

Brabant Newspapers. Publishes weekly editions for Mountain News, Ancaster News, Dundas Star, and Creek News (now owned by City Media.)

Magazine (local weekly)

Magazine (published by Town Media, recently sold to Osprey Media)

Magazine (also published by Town Media)

Recently Hamilton several newspapers and magazines have been launched: H-Magazine, Urbanicity and Mayday Magazine, possibly due to the loss of once-locally-owned print media being sold to Toronto-based corporations.

Web

Local web sites include:
* Raise The Hammer
* Hamilton Scores! - Hamilton Amateur Sports News
* FrogJimmy.com - An eccentric website operated by Hamilton residents
* Haunted Hamilton - Ghosts and History from within Hamilton and around the world.

Sports

Current professional teams

Club	League	Venue	Established!Championships
Hamilton Tiger-Cats	Canadian Football League	Ivor Wynne Stadium	1950	8
Hamilton Bulldogs	American Hockey League	Copps Coliseum	2002	0

Notable residents and former players include Angelo Mosca. The CFL's annual Eastern Division Labour Day classic pits the Hamilton Tiger-Cats against perennial rivals the Toronto Argonauts. Oddly, for many years before his death, Harold Ballard owned both the Tiger-Cats and the Toronto Maple Leafs, the National Hockey League (NHL) franchise in rival city Toronto. The team's prowess has fallen dramatically from its glory days in the 1960s and early 1970s, when it was a powerhouse.

In recent decades, Hamilton has yearned and applied for an NHL franchise. It has been continually disappointed, and voted against by nearby Buffalo and Toronto who would lose revenue if Hamilton had a NHL franchise. 1990 was the Year Hamilton came closest to landing an NHL franchise but was blocked by Seymour Knox III (then owner of the Buffalo Sabres) and the NHL awarded the cities of Tampa Bay Florida and Ottawa Ontario with new expansion teams. The world class arena Victor K. Copps Coliseum was built downtown on Bay Street North. The sports and entertainment arena, named for a former mayor and father of Sheila Copps, has hosted the World Junior Championship Games, the 1987 and 1991 Canada Cups and the 1990 Memorial Cup tournament that featured a young Eric Lindros. It is currently the home ice for the Hamilton Bulldogs of the American Hockey League. The Hamilton Tigers played in the NHL during the early '20s but then moved to New York city and was renamed the New York Americans and became the first pro hockey team to play out of the newly built Madison Square Garden.

The Around the Bay Race circumnavigates Hamilton Harbour or Burlington Bay. Although it is not a proper marathon, it is the longest continuously held long distance foot race in North America. The local newspaper also hosts the amateur Spectator Indoor Games.

Hamilton is twinned with Flint, Michigan, and its amateur athletes compete in the Canusa Games, held alternatively there and here since 1957. Hamilton hosted the very successful World Road Cycling Championship Games in 2003.

The Hamilton Golf Club hosted the 2003 Canadian Open golf championship in which Bob Tway won. The traditional course layout, designed by famed course architect Hary Colt, proved very popular with touring pros and will again host the Canadian Open in 2006.

In 1998, the Ontario Raiders of the National Lacrosse League were based in Hamilton and played at Victor K. Copps Coliseum. In 1999, the team moved to Toronto and became the Toronto Rock.

Since 2002, the Hamilton Thunder have played in the Canadian Professional Soccer League (CPSL). They play at the Brian Timmis Stadium next to the larger Ivor Wynne Stadium. The Hamilton Steelers played in the Canadian Soccer League during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The Hamilton Thunderbirds play in the Intercounty Baseball League.

The Hamilton Wildcats play in the Ontario Australian Football League.

Hamilton were the hosts of the first Commonwealth Games (then called British Empire Games) in 1930, and bid unsuccessfully for the Commonwealth Games in 2010, losing out to New Delhi in India.

Famous athletes from Hamilton

*Dave Andreychuk, retired NHL hockey player.
*Allan Bester, retired NHL hockey goalie, Toronto Maple Leafs
*Jackie Callura, Canadian featherweight Boxer, World featherweight champion 1943.
*Toller Cranston, Canadian Figure Skater- Bronze medal 1976
*Steve Christie, ex-placekicker in the NFL, who holds a Super Bowl record for longest field goal kicked at 54 yards.
*Doug Didero - race car driver
*Ken Dryden, retired NHL hockey player in the NHL, elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983.
*Blake Dunlop, retired NHL hockey player, winner of the 1980-81 Bill Masterton trophy.
*Cecil "Babe" Dye, NHL hockey player, NHL's top goal scorer of the 1920s, inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1970. He was nick named "Babe" because he was 'the Babe Ruth of hockey.'
*Don Edwards, retired NHL hockey goalie, winner of Vezina trophy in 1979-80.
*Nelson Emerson, retired NHL hockey player.
*Ray Emery, pro hockey player playing for the Ottawa Senators (Listed as being born in Cayuga, Ontario on his Wikipedia page).
*Bernie Faloney, was a star football player in the United States and Canada.
*Tony Gabriel, Canadian Football Pass Receiver; inducted into Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1985 (from Burlington ON)
*Todd Harvey, pro hockey player for the Edmonton Oilers.
*Red Horner, ex-pro hockey player, helped Toronto Maple Leafs win their first Stanley Cup in 1932.
*Harry Howell, retired NHL hockey player, winner of the 1966-67 James Norris trophy.
*Willie Huber, retired NHL hockey player, born in Germany, grew up in Hamilton.
*Dick Irvin Sr., ex-pro hockey player. Former head coach of Toronto Maple Leafs & Montreal Canadiens.
*Russ Jackson, Canadian Football quarterback, 3 Grey Cups w/ Ottawa.
*Al Jensen, retired NHL hockey player, winner of the 1983-84 William Jennings trophy.
*The Kelly Twins (Pat & Mike), ex-Pro Wrestlers. Tag team 1970-80s.
*Bobby Kerr, was an Irish-Canadian sprinter. He won the gold medal in the 200 metres and the bronze medal in the 100 metres at the 1908 Summer Olympics.
*Derek King, retired NHL hockey player.
*Joe Krol, Canadian Football quarterback (1932-53), Lou Marsh trophy winner as Canada's top athlete in 1946.
*Ray Lewis, Track & Field, first Canadian-born Black Olympic medalist.
*Billy "Red" Lyons, ex-Pro Wrestler and TV announcer.
*Jamie Macoun, ex-pro hockey player. played 1128 NHL games.
*Adam Mair, pro hockey player for the Buffalo Sabres.
*Joanne Malar, a former freestyle and medley swimmer, who competed in three consequentive Summer Olympics.
*Patricia Messner, Water skiing, 1972 summer Olympics Bronze.
*Brian McGrattan, pro hockey player for the Ottawa Senators. NHL enforcer.
*Marty McSorley, retired NHL hockey player infamous for his assault of Donald Brashear in a game on February 21, 2001.
*Angelo Mosca, was a Canadian Football League player between 1958 and 1969 with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, but he was better known for his pro wrestling career.
*Ric Nattress, retired NHL hockey player.
*Jimmy Nicholl, Northern Irish (Soccer) Football player, 73 International caps.
*Murray Oliver, retired NHL hockey player, played in 1127 NHL games.
*Jessica Rakoczy, female Boxer- WBC lightweight Champion (July-21-2005)
*Dewey Robertson /Missing Link, ex-Pro Wrestler
*Frank O'Rourke, ex-pro baseball player and long time New York Yankees scout.
*Jack Powers, ex-Pro Wrestler. 2-time NWF World champion, 1970, 73
*Keith Primeau, pro hockey player. born in Toronto, grew up in Hamilton.
*Pat Quinn, retired NHL hockey player, and former head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks, Los Angeles Kings and the Philadelphia Flyers.
*Ben & Mike Sharpe, ex-Pro Wrestlers. 18 time NWA World tag champions
*Iron Mike Sharpe Jr., ex-Pro Wrestler.
*William Sherring, was a Canadian athlete, winner of the marathon race at the 1906 Summer Olympics.
*Steve Staios, pro NHL hockey player playing for the Edmonton Oilers.
*Linda Thom, Woman's shooting (25m Pistol) Gold at 1984 summer Olympics.
*John Tonelli, retired NHL hockey player, 1984 Canada Cup MVP.
*Tonya Verbeek, silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in women's wrestling in the 55 kg category - Canada's first woman to medal at the Olympics in wrestling. (Grimsby ON)

Transportation

Air

John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport is located on the Mountain at Mount Hope in the former Glanbrook Township is the busiest air cargo hub in Canada and as well the fastest growing airport in Canada. Scheduled passenger service is provided by WestJet, who for several years used the airport as their primary point of access to Southern Ontario over the more expensive Toronto Pearson International Airport, and Air Canada Jazz; other airlines also offer vacation charters. The airport is also a major lower-cost alternative to Pearson for cargo air service.
* Hamilton International Airport

Rail

Canadian National Railways (CN) serves Hamilton for lifting and setting off traffic for the Rail America (Southern Ontario Railway Shortline), but as heavy industry declined and the preferred mode of transportation changed to road, the number of branch lines and feeder tracks has declined dramatically. Until the early 1970s, the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway offered passenger service. Since the late 1980s, GO Transit has offered sporadic passenger train service from its James Street North station. In the late 1990s, GO Transit operations were consolidated at the refurbished Art Deco building on Hunter Street which formerly served the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo service. The TH&B station retains its name today and is now one of the most beautifully-rendered stations on the GO Transit network located in the heart of Hamilton's downtown core. The nearest VIA Rail Canada station is at Aldershot (GO Station) in west Burlington.

Bus

Hamilton has good bus connections with cities in southern Ontario and western New York. GO Transit offers frequent and reliable express bus service to Toronto, now from the TH&B station and formerly from Rebecca Street. Various other companies, such as Greyhound Canada and Coach Canada offer less frequent service to St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, Brantford and London.

Within the city, the Hamilton Street Railway or HSR offers good service in the lower city (especially on east-west routes), reduced service on the Mountain and skeletal service outside the old city of Hamilton (except for Dundas, which is served about as well as the Mountain). Burlington Transit also serves Burlington via York Boulevard and the former Highway 2, and HSR connects downtown Burlington under the Burlington Skyway Bridge.

Highways and expressways

The following controlled access highways and expressways serve Hamilton:
* Queen Elizabeth Way, north Hamilton and Stoney Creek
* Highway 403, Ancaster and west Hamilton
* Highway 6, Flamborough, Hamilton and Glanbrook, including access to Munro Airport
* Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway, ‘The LINC,' Mountain
* Burlington Street (upper deck), north Hamilton

There are several other current or former Ontario highways in Hamilton, but they are not divided, controlled access highways. The controversial Red Hill Creek extension of the LINC is under construction, and will join the existing mountain portion of the LINC with the QEW in east Hamilton.

City streets

All of the old city of Hamilton is on a broken great grid pattern, with major north-south streets spaced approximately one half-mile apart and major east-west streets generally spaced six tenths of a mile apart - thus enclosing 160-acre concessions. Great grid streets on the Mountain bear the name of their lower city counterparts with the prefix "Upper" except for Garth Street, which would be Upper Dundurn Street if the pattern held.

East-west streets on the central and east Mountain are pretty regular, while those in the lower city (especially major ones) and west Mountain are very irregular. King and Main Streets run approximately parallel to one another though they intersect at the Delta. They are usually one way streets in opposite directions, so they are best conceptualized as a single very wide boulevard and are envied by other Ontario cities for their usually efficient flow of traffic.

However, some contend that the very efficiency that makes driving easy discourages pedestrian street life and hurts downtown businesses. Streets that have recently converted from one-way to two-way, like James St. North, have enjoyed a resurgence in local business, reinvestment in buildings, and improving economic activity.

City neighbourhoods

Lower City (below Escarpment)
* Westdale originally an upper-class, master-planned neighbourhood from the 1920s, that forbade eastern Europeans and people of colour from residing there. In later years it ironically became a Jewish neighbourhood with three Jewish Temples. Built around oval streets that surround the centre Westdale Village.
* North End, has a rich history. Infamous for being a rough neighbourhood dating back to the late 19c early 20c. Many new immigrants called the 'north end' home. The north end is separated from downtown by railroad tracks, that give literal meaning to the phrase 'wrong side of the tracks'. Comprised of Irish, Scottish and later Eastern Europeans that worked in the nearby factories or on the shipping docks. It was home to the blueist of blue collar unionized working class. Teamsters, Longshoremen, United Steel Workers of America, and many other labour unions, organized crime and gambling gave this neighbourhood its character and reputation that became synomous with Hamilton.
* Chinatown
* Corktown Irish settlement on the south east side of downtown
* Durand, historically was home to the 'industrialists'. This south of downtown neighbourhood is quite possibly the largest concentration of early 20c castles/mansions in Canada. The grand homes were home to the families whose names graced the signs of the north end factories
* The Delta, where King and Main Streets (normally parallel) intersect
* Bartonville
* Normanhurst
* Rosedale
* Kirkendale
* Greenhill
* Stoney Creek (also Fruitland and Winona, neigbourhoods in Stoney Creek)
* Jamesville
* International Village
* Locke Street
* Hamilton East
* Riverdale
* Dundas
* Little Racalmuto (Italian) A rich italian history, where an entire village in southern Italy immigrated and settled in Hamilton. Today the Italian heritage is strong and is shared with a neighbouring Portuguese population.

Mountain (above Escarpment)
* Concession [15] (oldest settlement area on the mountain, once an African American neighbourhood settled by slaves escaping the U.S. via the underground railroad[16])
* Ancaster Village
* Clappison's Corners
* Mount Hope (site of John C. Munro International Airport)
* Greensville
* Hannon (Stone Church Rd. east of Upper Ottawa)
* Binbrook
* Sherwood (Fennell East between Upper Ottawa and Mountain Brow Blvd.)
* Meadowlands
* Millgrove
* Waterdown
* West Flamborough

Miscellaneous Hamilton

* McMaster University is home to Albert Einstein's brain. An autopsy was performed on Einstein by Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey, who removed and preserved his brain. Harvey found nothing unusual with his brain, but in 1999 further analysis by a team at McMaster University revealed that his parietal operculum region was missing and, to compensate, his inferior parietal lobe was 15% wider than normal. The inferior parietal region is responsible for mathematical thought, visuospatial cognition, and imagery of movement. Einstein's brain also contained 73% more glial cells than the average brain.
* The first automobile driven in Canada was by textile manufacturer John Moodie in 1898; A one-cylinder Winton he imported from Cleveland. John Moodie was also one of the founders of Canada's automobile club, the Hamilton Automobile Club, which was founded in 1903 when there were 18 cars in town. By 1920, there were 6,000 and Hamilton's ratio of one car for every 15 people was higher than that of New York, Chicago, Boston or Toronto.
* Hamilton Ontario is the largest city in Canada without a CBC affiliate - and the largest with just one daily newspaper; The Hamilton Spectator.
* The Lister Block building in Hamilton Ontario was the first indoor commercial mall in Canada.
*The Centre Mall was Canada's first mall, built in 1955. One of the first shopping malls in North America, original plans for an enclosed mall were abandoned.
* Hamilton's Lakeport Brewery is Canada's No.1 co-packer of beer, non-alcohol and spirit-based products. The company is also said to be North America's most modernized beverage alcohol production facility.
* Westinghouse in Hamilton was the first company in Canada to manufacture radios (1923) and electric air cleaners (1944).
* Conway Twitty, singer-songwriter and his band were in town nearly 50 years ago and were playing the Flamingo Lounge where Hamilton Place is located today. Legend has it that the drummer, Jack Nance, wrote 'It's Only Make Believe' between sets, although another story puts them at the nearby Fischer Hotel. The song was recorded in 1958 and became the first of nine Top 40 hits for Twitty, selling eight million copies.
* The first telegraph wire in Canada is strung between Hamilton and Toronto on December 1846.
* 1856- Daniel C. Gunn engine shop on Wellington Street North, Hamilton, Ontario, produces first Canadian-built locomotives.
* May 15, 1879- Hamilton is the site of the first commercial long distance telephone line in the British Empire.
* 1902- International Harvester is the first major United States industry to locate in Hamilton.
* 1914- Hamilton is connected to Toronto by the first concrete highway built in Canada, the King's Highway No. 2
* The first British Empire Games - now the Commonwealth Games - were held in Hamilton in 1930 as a result of the efforts of Melville Marks Robinson.
* 1948- Canadian Westinghouse designs and builds first Canadian television set.
* Hamilton is the birthplace of the Pioneer gas station. Nov-29-1956 on Upper James street. Today over 140 locations across Ontario (8% market share in Ontario) making it one of Canada's largest independent gasoline retailers.
* Hamilton is the birthplace of Canadian Tire Corporation. Two brothers John W. Billes and Alfred J. Biles with a combined savings of $1,800, buy Hamilton Tire and Garage Ltd. and rename it "Canadian Tire" because it sounds big. (1934-first official associate store opens up in Hamilton Ontario).
* Hamilton is the birthplace of the Tim Hortons chain (1964). The original store ("Store #1") still operates on Ottawa Street.
* November, 1985- Hamilton Street Railway uses first Natural Gas Vehicle (N.G.V.) busses in North America.
* Hamilton is home to the Mustard Festival because Hamilton is home to the largest miller of dry mustard in the world.
* Hamilton is home to one of two WW2 Lancaster bombers still flying in the world, based at the Warplane Heritage Museam.
* Canada's first Birth Control clinic was in Hamilton in 1931, as the advocates of Birth Control, led by Mary (Chambers) Hawkins, the American wife of a prominent city executive, and aided by some of Hamilton society's leading women, it aimed to meet the needs of people whose health and family lives suffered tremendously during the Great Depression.
* The National Office of the Supreme Council 33° of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of Canada whose Grand Orient is in Hamilton, Ontario, is located adjacent to this historic Scottish Rite building.

Films shot in Hamilton

* Strange Brew (1983); Dave Thomas
* Youngblood (1986); Rob Lowe
* Hearts of Fire (1987); Bob Dylan
* The Air Up There (1994); Kevin Bacon
* Camilla (1994); Bridget Fonda, Jessica Tandy
* Canadian Bacon (1995); Alan Alda, John Candy
* The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996); Samuel L Jackson
* The Big Hit (1998); Mark Wahlberg, Lou Diamond Phillips
* Detroit Rock City (1999); Rock group KISS
* Daydream Believers: The Monkees Story (2000)
* Rated-X (2000); Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez
* X-Men (2000); Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart
* Finding Forrester (2000); Sean Connery
* Exit Wounds (2001); Steven Seagal
* John Q (2002); Denzel Washington
* Avenging Angelo (2002); Sylvester Stallone
* Death to Smoochy (2002); Robin Williams
* Global Heresy (2002); Peter O'Toole
* Against the Ropes (2004); Meg Ryan
* Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004); Milla Jovovich
* Land of the Dead (2005); Dennis Hopper
* The Man (2005) Samuel L Jackson, Eugene Levy
* Cinderella Man (2005) Russell Crowe
* Return of Zoom (2005); Tim Allen, Courtney Cox
* Riding the Bus with my Sister (2005); Rosie O'Donnell
* Four Brothers (2005); Mark Wahlberg
* Cheaper by the Dozen II (2005); Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt
* Man of the Year (2006); Robin Williams, Christopher Walken
* Silent Hill (2006); Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean

Hamilton Film Office

Notable Hamiltonians

Film and television

*Jean Adair, actress. Although she worked primarily on stage (sometimes billed as Jennet Adair), she made several film appearances late in her career, most notably as one of the misguided murdering aunts of Cary Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace.
*Robert Beatty, Canadian actor who worked in radio, film and television for most of his career and was especially known in the United Kingdom.
*Rick Campanelli, He was a MuchMusic Video Jockey, currently works for ET Canada.
*Wendy Crewson, Canadian actress.
*Douglass Dumbrille, was an actor and one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood.
*Jonathan Frid, is a noted theater, television and movie actor. He is most famously known for the role of Barnabas Collins - a vampire - on the first incarnation of the Gothic TV serial Dark Shadows.
*Currie Graham, stage, film and television actor. Graham is best known for playing Lt. Thomas Bale in the TV program NYPD Blue.
*Torri Higginson, Canadian actress. She is most well-known for her roles in the TekWar movies and series, The English Patient and Stargate Atlantis.(Burlington Ontario)
*Florence Lawrence, was an inventor and silent film actress, who is often referred to as "The First Movie Star." She was also known as "The Biograph Girl" and "The Girl of a Thousand Faces". During her lifetime, Lawrence appeared in more than 270 films for various motion picture companies.
*Chris Lazar, Canadian actor best known for his role as Young Zach on the series Dark Angel.
*Ashley Leggat, Canadian actress who is known for her role as "Casey" in the Disney Channel series Life With Derek.
*Eugene Levy, Jewish-Canadian actor, television director, producer and writer. Best known internationally for his role as the father in the American Pie movies.
*Brian Linehan, Canadian television host, best known for his celebrity interviews on City Lights, a program produced by Citytv in Toronto.
*Del Lord, was a film director and actor best known as a director of Three Stooges films. (Grimsby Ontario)
*Patrick McKenna, is a Canadian comedic and dramatic actor. He is best known for the television series The Red Green Show and Traders, and the Trudeau miniseries. McKenna is also an SCTV alumnus.
*Paul Popowich, Canadian actor. Beside his theatre appearances, he has performed in many television series (such as Beverly Hills 90210) and features.
*Frank Powell, was a stage and silent film actor, screenwriter, and director in the United States.
*Leon Pownall, Canadian actor and director.
*Ivan Reitman, Slovakian-born, Canadian-raised Jewish film actor, producer, and director. He is most remembered for directing and producing a string of comedies, mostly in the 1980s and 1990s (Meatballs, Stripes and Ghostbusters). A founder of the McMaster Film Board at McMaster University.
*Kathleen Robertson, Canadian actress. She was cast in Beverly Hills 90210, where she remained until 1997.
*Martin Short, actor, writer, and producer best known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live.
*Sarah Taylor, MuchMusic VJ, Sarah now co-hosts many of MuchMusic's popular shows, including Combat Zone, MuchOnDemand and Take Over.
*Brian Williams (sportscaster), Canadian sportscaster who is best known for his coverage of the Olympic Games. (Born in Winnipeg, raised in Hamilton)

Journalists

*Jason Jones, senior correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
*Stephen Brunt, the lead sports columnist for The Globe and Mail since 1989.
*John H. Bryden, Canadian politician, journalist, historian.
*Damien Cox, sports columnist for the Toronto Star.
*Sylvia Fraser, Canadian novelist and travel writer.
*Gary Lautens, was a Canadian humorist and newspaper columnist. He wrote for the Toronto Star from 1962 until his death.
*David Macfarlane, Canadian journalist, playwright and novelist.
*Steve Paikin, journalist, film producer and author, best known for hosting TV Ontario's newsmagazines Studio 2 and Diplomatic Immunity.
*Sue Prestedge, is a Canadian sports broadcaster, who was one of Canada's first and most influential female sports journalists.
*Melville Marks Robinson, founder of the Commonwealth Games.
*Doug Saunders, well-known Canadian journalist, European Bureau Chief for the Globe and Mail.
*Steve Simmons, sports columnist for the Toronto Sun.
*David Vienneau, was a Canadian journalist, moved to television in April 1998 as Ottawa bureau chief at for Global Television, where he remained until his death from pancreatic cancer on December 1, 2004.

Radio

*Richard Alway, is a former Canadian radio broadcast commentator and is the current and first lay President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St. Michael's College.
*Doug Farraway, On-air radio personality at the Fan 590 Toronto.
*Barry Taylor, ON-air DJ for the edge102 Toronto.

Medicine and sciences

*John Callaghan, Canadian cardiologist who pioneered open-heart surgery.
*John Charles Fields, was a Canadian mathematician and the founder of the Fields Medal for outstanding achievement in mathematics. the Fields Medal, is considered by some to be the Nobel Prize in Mathematics.
*Harold E. Johns, was a Canadian medical physicist, noted for his extensive contributions to the use of ionizing radiation to treat cancer.
*Sir William Osler 1st Baronet, the Father of Modern Medicine.
*The Honourable William Winegard, Canadian educator, engineer, scientist and former Member of Parliament.

Inventors

*George Klein, often called the most productive inventor in Canada in the 20th century; electric wheelchairs, microsurgical staple gun, the ZEEP nuclear reactor and the Canadarm.
*Simon Sunatori, Canadian engineer and inventor, best known for the invention of the Sunatori Pen.
*Thomas Willson, Canadian inventor.

Architects and designers

*Daniel Gauthier, is a Canadian designer of over 100 freeware TrueType fonts, and is based in Hamilton, Ontario.
*Bruce Kuwabara, Canadian architect; (Kitchener City Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario Phase III).
*John M. Lyle, Canadian architect in the late 19th Century; New York Public Library (1897), Royal Alexandra Theatre, in Toronto (1907), Union Station (Toronto) 1914-1921.

The Arts

*Frank Augustyn, From 1972 to 1989 he was the principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada.
* Lida Baday, (b.1957) fashion designer. Her namesake label is sold at Holt Renfrew across Canada, and at such illustrious department stores as Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom's and Bergdorf Goodman in the US
* Frank Panabaker, (1904 - 1992) painter
*Blaine, political cartoonist.
*Karen Kain, principal dancer for the National Ballet of Canada.
*Almuth Lütkenhaus, sculptor.
*Graeme MacKay, editorial cartoonist.
*Dave Sim, Canadian comic book writer and artist.
*Paul Szep, editorial cartoonist for the Boston Globe from 1967- 2001.

Military

*Harry Crerar, was a Canadian general and the country's "leading field commander" in World War II.
*Sydney Chilton Mewburn, was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He was the Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence from October 12th 1917 - January 15th 1920 under Sir Robert Borden's Union Government in 1917.

Business

*Jack Kent Cooke, was one of the most widely-known executives in professional sports.
*Michael DeGroote, billionaire, best known as a major private donor to McMaster University.
*Dr. Peter George (professor), Canadian economist and university administrator. He is currently president of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
*Richard Hatt, was a businessman, judge and political figure in Upper Canada.
*Ron Joyce, was Tim Horton's partner and first franchisee for his Canadian donut chain.
*Michael Lee-Chin, CEO of AIC Diversified Canada Split Corp. and The National Commercial Bank of Jamaica.
*The Honourable Gordon Osbaldeston, is a former Canadian civil servant. In 1981 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 1997. He has been a director of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., National Film Board of Canada, Export Development Corporation, Federal Business Development Bank, DeHavilland Aircraft Co.,International Development Research Center, The Molson's Co. Ltd., Canada Packers Co. Ltd., DuPont Canada Ltd., Rockwell International Canada, National Bank of Canada, Bell Canada, London Medical Association, Bow Valley Energy Corp., Ellis-Don Ltd., Life Imaging Systems Inc., Great West Lifeco Inc., London Life Insurance Co., Canada Life Insurance Co., and Honorary Director of "Let's Talk Science".
*E.D. Smith, Canadian businessman and politician who founded a food company that bears his name.
*Bob Young, started a self-publishing web-site that claims to be the world's fastest-growing provider of print-on-demand books at Lulu.com also owns the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the CFL.
*Joyce Young, Canadian woman famous for a single act of philanthropy and for being the aunt of Red Hat founder Bob Young.

Politics

*Lincoln Alexander, served as the 24th Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario from 1985 to 1991. Alexander is a Governor of the Canadian Unity Council.
*Ellen Fairclough, was the first female member of the Canadian Cabinet.
*Sir John Strathearn Hendrie, was Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1914 to 1919.
*James McMillan, was a U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan.
*Thomas McQuesten, was an athlete, militiaman, lawyer, politician and government appointee who lived in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. McQuesten helped encourage McMaster University to relocate from downtown Toronto to the west Hamilton in 1930.
*Father Sean O'Sullivan, Canadian politician and religious leader.

Music

*Nicole Appleton, singer. Born in Hamilton but raised in Toronto, Nicole is one of two Canadian members of the British pop group All Saints which disbanded in 2001. Nicole and her sister Natalie later formed a second British-based pop group named Appleton which has enjoyed moderate success.
*Rita Chiarelli, Canadian blues singer.
*Crowbar, Canadian rock band, probably best known for their 1971 hit "Oh, What a Feeling".
*Colin Cripps, Canadian musician and record producer.
*Forgotten Rebels, Canadian Punk Rock group.
*Joydrop, alternative rock band in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
*Junkhouse, noted Canadian alternative rock band of the 1990s.
*The Kings, 1980s hit "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide"
*Daniel Lanois, a solo artist in his own right and producer for U2, lived in Hamilton and recorded a Grant Avenue Studios.
*Steve Negas, Saga drummer.
*Skip Prokop, Drummer and band leader for Lighthouse + The Paupers.
*Stan Rogers, Canadian folk singer.
*Lorraine Segato, lead vocalist for 1980s New Wave group; The Parachute Club "Rise Up!"
*Tomi Swick, singer/songwriter
*Christian Tanna, drummer/songwriter for I Mother Earth.
*Jagori Tanna, guitar player for I Mother Earth.
*Teenage Head, 1980s Canadian Punk/ New Wave group.
*Ian Thomas, Singer/ songwriter whose most memorable hit was 1973's "Painted Ladies."
*Warsawpack, Canadian indie rock group.
*Jackie Washington, legendary Canadian Blues singer.
*Tom Wilson, Canadian rock musician.

Novelists

*Hugh Cook, Canadian novelist.

Gangsters and criminals

* Barton Sherman Gang.
* Evelyn Dick, committed infanticide and was convicted (then acquitted) of having murdered her husband.
* "Johnny K-9"
* "Luce"
* Luppino Family.
* Musitano Crime Family.
* Johnny "Pops" Papalia, Ontario Godfather until assassinated in Hamilton in 1998
* Parkdale Gang
*Rocco Perri, Canada's bootleg King in the 1920s.
* Scibetta Family.