Waterloo, Ontario

The City of Waterloo, Ontario has a population of 102,300. It is located in Waterloo Regional Municipality, and is adjacent to the larger city of Kitchener. Kitchener and Waterloo are often jointly referred to as KW (Kitchener-Waterloo) though they have separate municiple governments. There have been many attempts in the past to join the two cities into one.

Table of contents 1 History 2 Law/Government 3 Geography 4 Economy 5 Companies based in Waterloo 5.1 High-tech 5.2 Other 6 Demographics 7 Sites of Interest 8 Colleges/Universities in city 9 Sporting teams 10 External Links

History

Waterloo was founded by Mennonites from Pennsylvania in 1804, including Abraham Erb[?], considered to be the founder of Waterloo because the two lots of land he owned later made up the core of Watelroo. In 1816, the new town was named Waterloo after the site of the famous battle involving Napolean in Europe the previous year. By the 1840s the area was a popular destination for German settlers. The Germans settled mostly in the area to the south-east of Waterloo, which in 1833 was called Berlin, although it was later renamed to Kitchener.

Law/Government

The current mayor of Waterloo is Lynne Woolstencroft[?], who was elected mayor in 2000. The Waterloo city council is made up of the mayor and 5 councillors, each elected in his or her "ward" (sometimes called "riding"). The City of Waterloo itself (which includes municipal workers, city offices, libraries, recreational facilities, etc.) was voted one of the top 100 employers in Canada in 2003.

Geography

• Physical geography (area, unique features)
  
• Major Parks
  

Economy

Through the years breweries and distilleries have been a significant industry in the Waterloo area, until 1993 when a Labatt owned brewery was shut down. Now the only major brewery is Brick brewery. Insurance companies have also had a strong presence in Waterloo, as several Waterloo-based insurance companies appear on the Financial Post's listing of the largest insurance companies. At the present time, the largest industries in Waterloo are high-tech based industries. Waterloo has even become the centre of the "Canadian High-Tech Triangle", made up of Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, and Guelph (Waterloo-Kitchener are often considered as the same city, hence the three points to make up the triangle).

Companies based in Waterloo

High-tech

• Navtech
• CME Telemetrix
• MKS
• Open Text
• Descartes
• Finline
• Turbosonic
• Research in Motion (RIM)
• EMJ
• Dalsa
• Virtek
• Com Dev
• RDM

Other

• Clarica Insurance

Demographics

• city population
  
• racial/ethnic makeup
  
• religious makeup
  

Sites of Interest

Colleges/Universities in city Waterloo has two major Canadian universities, the University of Waterloo, and Wilfred Laurier Univerisity[?]. The University of Waterloo is famous for having the first co-op program in Canada, and it regularly performs well in Macleans Magazine's annual comparison of Canadian universities and colleges. Spinoffs from the University of Waterloo have contributed to a large number of high-tech companies in the area.

Sporting teams

External Links

• [History of Waterloo (http://www.garywill.com/waterloo/history.htm)]