Windsor << WIHN zuhr >>, Ontario (pop. 229,660; met. area pop. 422,630), is the southernmost city of Canada. It is the chief port of entry between Canada and the United States. Windsor lies on the southwest bank of the Detroit River, opposite Detroit. The Windsor-Detroit Tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge connect the two cities. The location of the city on one of the world’s busiest inland waterways makes Windsor a major transportation center. Windsor is one of Canada’s leading centers for the production of automobiles and automotive products.
Description.
Windsor covers 56 square miles (146 square kilometers). Windsor’s metropolitan area covers 696 square miles (1,803 square kilometers). The city is the home of the St. Clair College of Applied Arts and Technology and the University of Windsor. Windsor’s museums include Art Windsor-Essex and Windsor’s Community Museum. The city is the home of the Windsor Light Music Theatre and the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. Windsor has hundreds of parks and other public green spaces.
Economy.
Windsor’s leading industry is the manufacture of transportation equipment, chiefly automobiles and automotive parts. Windsor is sometimes called the City That Put Canada on Wheels. Many of Windsor’s people work in Detroit offices and hospitals. They commute via the bridge and the tunnel that connect the two cities. Other leading industries include chemicals, food and beverages, and metal products. The city’s harbor accommodates oceangoing ships.
Government and history.
Windsor has a council-manager form of government. The city council consists of a mayor and 10 councilors, all of whom are elected to four-year terms. The council appoints a chief administrative officer.
Indigenous (native) Huron and Iroquois people lived in what is now the Windsor area before French explorers claimed it in the mid-1600’s. The French government gave land to settlers who established a village there in the mid-1700’s. English settlers arrived in the 1780’s. A log ferryboat connected the village with Detroit, and in 1812 the people named their community The Ferry. They later changed its name to Richmond. In 1836, a dispute arose over whether to call it The Ferry, Richmond, or South Detroit. The people compromised by renaming it Windsor, the name of a borough near Richmond, England.
Windsor received a city charter in 1892. The Ford Motor Company produced the first Canadian-made car in Windsor in 1904. Two other U.S. automakers, the Chrysler and General Motors corporations, established plants in the city in 1920. Windsor annexed the towns of East Windsor, Sandwich, and Walkerville in 1935, and the city’s population reached 100,000 that year. In the 1960’s, Windsor annexed all or part of four other communities—Ojibway, Riverside, Sandwich East, and Sandwich West.
Windsor’s Main Library opened in 1973. A number of expansion projects were also completed during the 1970’s. These projects involved such institutions as Metropolitan General Hospital (now part of Windsor Regional Hospital), the St. Clair College of Applied Arts and Technology, and the University of Windsor. Ontario’s first casino opened in Windsor in 1994. A hotel and entertainment center opened at the casino in 2006. The province of Ontario owns the casino, which ranks as one of the city’s largest employers.
