Windsor, Ontario
Windsor (42°18′N 83°01′W / 42.300°N 83.017°W; EST), the southernmost city in Canada, lies at the western end of the heavily-populated Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. It lies across the Detroit River and Lake St Clair from Detroit, Michigan, to which Windsor is linked by the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel for cars, and by the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel for rail traffic. Windsor's motto is "The river and the land sustain us." Windsor, Ontario is located south of Detroit, and is the only major city in Canada where entering the United States involves travelling north.
The current mayor of Windsor is Eddie Francis.
History
Windsor was first settled in 1749 after farms started getting too far from the protection of a fort in Detroit making it the oldest continually inhabited European city in Canada, west of the Quebec border. The area was first named Petite Côte (Little Coast), and the site later became known as La Côte de Misère (Misery Coast) because of the sandy soils near LaSalle. Windsor's French heritage is reflected in many French street names, such as Ouellette, Pelissier, Marentette and Lauzon. There is a significant French speaking minority in Windsor and the surrounding areas. Many of them are in the Stoney Point area.
In 1794, after the American Revolution, the settlement of Sandwich was founded here. It was later renamed to Windsor, after the town in Berkshire, England.
Windsor was established as a village in 1854, then a town in 1858, and ultimately gained city status in 1892.
Windsor's nickname is the "City of Roses" and is home to the University of Windsor and St. Clair College. The university campus is just east of the Ambassador Bridge, and the college campus is situated along the main artery between the Ambassador Bridge and Highway 401. Windsor has several large parks on the waterfront and the Queen Elizabeth II Sunken Garden at Jackson Park. Jackson Park had an actual Lancaster Bomber mounted on a concrete pedestal. It was taken off its pedestal after 40 years on May 26, 2005. The plane will be restored and in its place are mounted a Spitfire replica and a Hurricane replica.
Of the large parks along Windsor's waterfront, the largest is the 5km stretch downtown overlooking the Detroit skyline. It stretches from the Ambassador Bridge to the Hiram Walker Distillery. The western portion of the park contains the Odette Sculpture Park which features over 32 large-scale contemporary sculptures for public viewing, along with the Canadian Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The central portion contains Dieppe Gardens, Civic Terrace and Festival Plaza and the eastern portion has the Bert Weeks Memorial Gardens. The second largest is Coventry Gardens across from Belle Isle. The focal point of this park is the Peace Fountain which actually floats in the Detroit River and has a coloured light display at night.
Windsor competes with Oshawa, Ontario for the title of automotive capital of Canada, due in large part to its proximity to Detroit. Its industries include DaimlerChrysler's minivan assembly plant, several Ford Motor Company engine and casting plants, General Motors' transmission plant and Hiram Walker's Canadian Club plant, along with a myriad of smaller manufacturers that supply the larger plants. Windsor is also very well known as a global leader in the building of molds for the plastic injection industry. Windsor tourist attractions include Casino Windsor, a lively downtown, the Odette Sculpture Park, Ojibway Park, and nearby Point Pelee National Park. Windsor was a major entry point into Canada for refugees from slavery via the Underground Railroad and a major source of liquor during American Prohibition.
Every summer Windsor participates in the two-week-long Windsor-Detroit International Freedom Festival, which culminates in a gigantic fireworks display that celebrates Canada Day and the American Independence Day. The fireworks display is among the world's largest and is held the Wednesday before Canada Day, on the Detroit River between Detroit's Renaissance Center and Windsor's Festival Plaza. Each year, the event attracts over a million spectators to Windsor's riverfront parks.
Labour union membership is very high in Windsor, and both of the city's current federal Members of Parliament are members of the New Democratic Party.
Windsor is also home to the Great Lakes Regional Office of the International Joint Commission.
Media
Because of Windsor's proximity to the Detroit media market, radio and television broadcasters in Windsor are accorded a special status by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, exempting them from many of the Canadian content ("CanCon") requirements most broadcasters in Canada are required to follow. The CanCon requirements are sometimes blamed in part for the decline in popularity of Windsor radio statio CKLW, a 50,000 watt AM radio station that in the late 1960's (prior to the advent of CanCon) had been the number one radio station not only in Detroit and Windsor, but also in the Toledo and Cleveland markets.
Windsor is also exempt from concentration of media ownership rules: all of its commercial broadcast outlets are owned by a single company, CHUM Limited.
Radio
- 540 AM - CBEF, La Première Chaîne
- 580 AM - CKWW, oldies
- 800 AM - CKLW, news/talk
- 1550 AM - CBE, CBC Radio One
- 88.7 FM - CIMX, 89X modern rock
- 89.9 FM - CBE, CBC Radio Two
- 91.5 FM - CJAM, University of Windsor campus radio
- 93.9 FM - CIDR, Lite Rock 93.9 adult contemporary
- 95.1 FM - CKUE, The Rock active rock (rebroadcaster of a station from Chatham-Kent)
- 103.9 FM - CJBC-2, Espace Musique
See also AM and FM radio stations in the Detroit market.
Television
- Channel 9 - CBET, CBC
- Channel 32 - CICO-32, TVOntario
- Channel 54 - CBEFT, SRC
- Channel 60 - CHWI, A-Channel
See also TV stations in the Detroit market.
Windsor and its surrounding area is served by the Windsor Star, a daily newspaper operated by CanWest Global Communications.
Demographics
In the 2001 Canadian census, the city had a population of 208,402 and its official metropolitan area (consisting of Windsor, Tecumseh, Amherstburg, LaSalle and Lakeshore) had a population of 307,877. It is often considered to be part of Metro Detroit as well.
The 2005 projectory census indicated a population of 340,000 inhabitants growing at an average 1.4% annually. Windsor is a city that attracts many immigrants from the United States, especially African Americans, and since 9/11 many Arabs and Pakistanis have left Detroit and surrounding towns for Windsor.
According to the mid-2001 census, the Windsor metropolitan area had a population of 307,877 people, 49.3 % male and 50.7 % female. Children under five accounted for approximately 6.3 % of the resident population of Windsor. This compares with 5.8 % in Ontario, and almost 5.6 % for Canada overall.
In mid-2001, 12.0 % of the resident population in Windsor were of retirement age (65 and over for males and females) compared with 13.2 % in Canada, therefore, the average age is 36.0 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 metropolitan Windsor grew by 7.3 %, compared with an increase of 6.1 % for Ontario as a whole. Population density of metro Windsor averaged 301.1 people per square kilometre, compared with an average of 12.6 for Ontario altogether.
- White: 260,425 or 87.4%
- Arab: 7,795 or 2.6%
- Black: 6,960 or 2.3%
- Asian: 6,415 or 2.1%
- Chinese: 5,460 or 1.8%
- mixed: 3,420 or 1.1%
- (based upon multiple responses)
According to the 2001 Statistics Canada, more than four out of five Windsor metropolitan residents self-identified as Christian. This breaks down to 82.2% Christian (52.6% Roman Catholic, 23.9% Protestant, and 6.3% other Christian mostly Orthodox), 11% stating no religion, and minor religions including 3.5% Muslim, 0.7% Buddhist, and 0.4% Hindu. The relatively high Roman Catholic population reflects the large numbers of persons of French, Irish, and Italian origin in the city. Lebanese (Mixed Catholic and Muslims), Iraqi, and Arab populations number around 2% combined.
Transportation
Windsor is the western terminus of Ontario Highway 401, Canada's busiest highway, and of VIA Rail's Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. The city is served by the Windsor Airport with regular, scheduled commuter air service and heavy general aviation traffic, and by the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport across the river in the U.S. It is also located on the St. Lawrence Seaway, and accessible to ocean-going vessels.
Windsor has completed a municipal highway, E.C. Row Expressway, running from east to west through the city. Consisting of 15.7 km (10 miles) of highway, and nine interchanges, the expressway is the fastest way for commuters to travel in the city.
Windsor is linked to the United States by the Ambassador Bridge, the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, and a Canadian Pacific Railway tunnel. The Ambassador Bridge is North America's #1 international border crossing in terms of goods volume: 27% of all trade between Canada and the United States crosses the Ambassador Bridge.
A big problem in Windsor right now is traffic around the Ambassador Bridge. The number of vehicles crossing the bridge has doubled in the past 15 years and, since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, going through customs on the U.S. side takes much longer. The only way to access the bridge is from two municipal streets: Huron Church Road and Wyandotte Street. A large portion of the traffic is 18-wheeler trucks. There are at times a wall of trucks up to 8 km (5 miles) long on Huron Church Road. Huron Church cuts right through the west end of the city and the trucks are the source of many complaints about noise, pollution and pedestrian hazards.
Windsor paid world famous traffic consultant Sam Schwartz to produce a proposal for a solution to the traffic problem. The city councillors have overwhelmingly endorsed the proposal and it was presented to the federal government as the solution that the city can live with. Unfortunately, not all of the surrounding residents support the plan the city paid for. The problem with the plan is that it would go right through protected green areas and parks such as Ojibway Park. The federal government wasn't expecting the city to be able to agree upon a proposal of any sort and are now pushing for short term, cheaper solutions.
On November 14, 2005, the joint Canadian-American committee studying the options for expanding the border crossing announced that its preferred option was to directly extend Highway 401 westward, using a new bridge or tunnel to cross the Detroit River and interchange with Interstate 75 somewhere between the existing Ambassador Bridge span and Wyandotte. The exact route of this new highway connection has not yet been determined. [1]
Sports Teams
Windsor's sports fans tend to support the major professional sports league teams in nearby Detroit, but the city itself is home to the following minor league, college and youth teams:
In addition to these teams, Windsor has been lobbying for a Canadian Football League franchise. This franchise (if awarded) would play its regular-season home games in Windsor and possibly their playoff games in Pontiac, a suburb of Detroit (though this is extremely unlikely). Current CFL commissioner Tom Wright met with Windsor mayor Eddie Francis about possible expansion to Windsor during the run-up to Super Bowl XL, in which Windsor played a major role although the game itself was held in Detroit. Shortly thereafter, media in the Windsor Star and other local news sources criticized this as an unrealistic pipe dream. There is no possible way for Windsor to have a CFL team if it cannot even build a decent arena for their junior Windsor Spitfires team.
Famous people from Windsor
Windsor has its fair share of hometown heroes and those who have made it big around the country and around the world. Here are a few:
Sports and Culture
- Oshiomogho Atogwe, NFL football player
- Iain Baxter, conceptual artist, Order of Canada, Governor General's award
- Bob Boughner, NHL hockey player
- Scott D'Amore, professional wrestler & booker for TNA Wrestling
- Doug Brode, writer and illustrator
- Bob Butterfield, radio personality and writer
- Tie Domi, NHL hockey player
- Marc Gabbana, motion picture concept artist and illustrator
- Marty Gervais, poet and publisher
- Barbara Gowdy, novelist
- Richie Hawtin, techno musician
- John Jaciw, artist and coin designer "Royal Canadian Mint 2000 Feb. 'Ingenuity' Coin."
- Dennis J. Jaciw, pyrotechnician "Freedom Fireworks International" designer of "World Record Superstring."
- Ed Jovanovski, NHL hockey player
- Karl Mamer, journalist and cartoonist for the Toronto Sun
- Steve Moore, NHL hockey player
- Terry Pickford, award-winning Hollywood TV producer/editor
- Oliver Platt, television and film actor
- Joel Quenneville, NHL hockey coach and former player
- Jack Scott, rockabilly singer
- Larry Shreve aka Abdullah the Butcher, National Wrestling Alliance and All Japan Pro Wrestling legend
- Alexander 'Skip' Spence, composer, multi-instrumentalist, member of Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape
- Tamia, R&B singer
- Misty Thomas, Canadian basketball hall-of-famer
- Paul Thomas, basketball coach
- Shania Twain, singer and songwriter
- Kyle Wellwood, NHL hockey player
- Petey Williams, professional wrestler for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
- Ron Wilson, NHL hockey coach
- Daniel Wnukowski, concert pianist
- Alexander Zonjic, jazz flautist
Politicians
- Ernie Eves, former premier of Ontario
- Herb Gray, former Liberal Member of Parliament and former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
- Paul Martin, Liberal former Prime Minister of Canada
- Paul Martin, Sr., longtime federal cabinet minister and father of the former PM
Sciences
- David H. Hubel, research scientist and Nobel Prize winner.
- Mike Lazaridis, research scientist and CEO of Research in Motion
External links
Template:Mapit-Canada-cityscale
- City of Windsor website
- Windsor on WikiTravel
- WindsorEats.com: Windsor's & Essex County's Online Menu Guide
- Windsor Public Library historic site tour
- Guide to Windsor website
- Windsor Resident & Visitor Information
- Street photographs of Windsor
- University of Windsor
- St. Clair College
| North: Detroit, Michigan | ||
| West: Detroit, Michigan | Windsor | East: Tecumseh |
| South: Lasalle |
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| Geography | ||
| Culture | ||
| Economy | ||
| Transportation | ||
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