1.
Montreal
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Montreal, officially Montréal, is the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec and the 2nd-most populous in Canada as a whole. Originally called Ville-Marie, or City of Mary, it is believed to be named after Mount Royal, the city has a distinct four-season continental climate, with warm-to-hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In 2016, Montreal had a population of 1,704,694, Montreals metropolitan area had a population of 4,098,927 and a population of 1,958,257 in the urban agglomeration, with all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included. Legally a French-speaking city,60. 5% of Montrealers speak French at home,21. 2% speak English and 19. 8% speak neither, Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with 56% of the population able to speak both official languages. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world after Paris, historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was surpassed in population and economic strength by Toronto in the 1970s. It remains an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, culture, tourism, gaming, film, Montreal was also named a UNESCO City of Design. In 2009, Montreal was named North Americas leading host city for international events, according to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress. According to the 2015 Global Liveability Ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit, in the 2017 edition of their Best Student Cities ranking, Quacquarelli Symonds ranked Montreal as the worlds best city to study abroad. Also, Montreal has 11 universities with 170,000 students enrolled, the Greater Montréal region has the highest number of university students per capita among all metropolitan areas in North America. It is the only Canadian city to have held the Summer Olympics, currently, the city hosts the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Just for Laughs festival. In 2012, Montreal was ranked as a Beta+ world city, in Kanien’kéha, or Mohawk language, the island is called Tiohtià, ke Tsi or Ka-wé-no-te. In Anishinaabemowin, or Ojibwe language, the land is called Mooniyaang, though the city was first named by French colonizers Ville Marie, or City of Mary, its current name comes from Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. The most popular theory is that the name derives from Mont Réal, Cartiers 1535 diary entry, naming the mountain, according to the Commission de toponymie du Québec and the Geographical Names Board of Canada, Canadian place names have only one official form. Thus, Montreal is officially spelled with an accent over the e in both English and French. In practice, this is limited to governmental uses. English-speaking Montrealers, including English-language media, regularly omit the accent when writing in English, archaeological evidence demonstrates that First Nations native people occupied the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago. By the year AD1000, they had started to cultivate maize, within a few hundred years, they had built fortified villages. Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at locations in the valley since at least the 14th century
2.
Quebec City
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Quebec City, French, Ville de Québec, officially Québec) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain, Quebec City is one of the oldest cities in North America. The citys landmarks include the Château Frontenac, a hotel which dominates the skyline, and La Citadelle, the National Assembly of Quebec, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, and the Musée de la civilisation are found within or near Vieux-Québec. Thus, Québec is officially spelled with an accented é in both Canadian English and French, although the accent is not used in common English usage. Quebec City is one of the oldest European settlements in North America, while many of the major cities in Latin America date from the sixteenth century, among cities in Canada and the U. S. few were created earlier than Quebec City. Also, Quebecs Old Town is the only North American fortified city north of Mexico whose walls still exist, French explorer Jacques Cartier built a fort at the site in 1535, where he stayed for the winter before going back to France in spring 1536. He came back in 1541 with the goal of building a permanent settlement, Quebec was founded by Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer and diplomat on 3 July 1608, and at the site of a long abandoned St. Lawrence Iroquoian settlement called Stadacona. Champlain, also called The Father of New France, served as its administrator for the rest of his life, the name Canada refers to this settlement. Although called the cradle of the Francophone population in North America, the place seemed favourable to the establishment of a permanent colony. In 1629 there was the surrender of Quebec, without battle, however, Samuel de Champlain argued that the English seizing of the lands was illegal as the war had already ended, he worked to have the lands returned to France. As part of the negotiations of their exit from the Anglo-French War. These terms were signed into law with the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the lands in Quebec and Acadia were returned to the French Company of One Hundred Associates. In 1665, there were 550 people in 70 houses living in the city, one-quarter of the people were members of religious orders, secular priests, Jesuits, Ursulines nuns and the order running the local hospital, Hotel-Dieu. Quebec City was the headquarters of many raids against New England during the four French, in the last war, the French and Indian War, Quebec City was captured by the British in 1759 and held until the end of the war in 1763. France ceded New France, including the city, to Britain in 1763, at the end of French rule in 1763, forests, villages, fields and pastures surrounded the town of 8,000 inhabitants. The town distinguished itself by its architecture, fortifications, affluent homes of masonry and shacks in the suburbs of Saint-Jean. Despite its urbanity and its status as capital, Quebec City remained a small city with close ties to its rural surroundings. Nearby inhabitants traded their farm surpluses and firewood for imported goods from France at the two city markets, during the American Revolution revolutionary troops from the southern colonies assaulted the British garrison in an attempt to liberate Quebec City, in a conflict now known as the Battle of Quebec
3.
Toronto
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Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. With a population of 2,731,571, it is the fourth most populous city in North America after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles. A global city, Toronto is a centre of business, finance, arts, and culture. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited the area now known as Toronto for thousands of years, the city itself is situated on the southern terminus of an ancient Aboriginal trail leading north to Lake Simcoe, used by the Wyandot, Iroquois, and the Mississauga. Permanent European settlement began in the 1790s, after the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase of 1787, the British established the town of York, and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York, York was renamed and incorporated as the city of Toronto in 1834, and became the capital of the province of Ontario during the Canadian Confederation in 1867. The city proper has since expanded past its original borders through amalgamation with surrounding municipalities at various times in its history to its current area of 630.2 km2. While the majority of Torontonians speak English as their primary language, Toronto is a prominent centre for music, theatre, motion picture production, and television production, and is home to the headquarters of Canadas major national broadcast networks and media outlets. Toronto is known for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere. The name Toronto is likely derived from the Iroquois word tkaronto and this refers to the northern end of what is now Lake Simcoe, where the Huron had planted tree saplings to corral fish. A portage route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron running through this point, in the 1660s, the Iroquois established two villages within what is today Toronto, Ganatsekwyagon on the banks of the Rouge River and Teiaiagonon the banks of the Humber River. By 1701, the Mississauga had displaced the Iroquois, who abandoned the Toronto area at the end of the Beaver Wars, French traders founded Fort Rouillé on the current Exhibition grounds in 1750, but abandoned it in 1759. During the American Revolutionary War, the region saw an influx of British settlers as United Empire Loyalists fled for the British-controlled lands north of Lake Ontario, the new province of Upper Canada was in the process of creation and needed a capital. Dorchester intended the location to be named Toronto, in 1793, Governor John Graves Simcoe established the town of York on the Toronto Purchase lands, instead naming it after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. Simcoe decided to move the Upper Canada capital from Newark to York, the York garrison was constructed at the entrance of the towns natural harbour, sheltered by a long sandbar peninsula. The towns settlement formed at the end of the harbour behind the peninsula, near the present-day intersection of Parliament Street. In 1813, as part of the War of 1812, the Battle of York ended in the towns capture, the surrender of the town was negotiated by John Strachan. US soldiers destroyed much of the garrison and set fire to the parliament buildings during their five-day occupation, the sacking of York was a primary motivation for the Burning of Washington by British troops later in the war
4.
Halifax, Nova Scotia
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Halifax, legally known as the Halifax Regional Municipality, is the capital of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The municipality had a population of 403,131 in 2016, the regional municipality consists of four former municipalities that were amalgamated in 1996, Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford, and the Municipality of Halifax County. Halifax is an economic centre in Atlantic Canada with a large concentration of government services. Agriculture, fishing, mining, forestry and natural gas extraction are major resource found in the rural areas of the municipality. Additionally, Halifax has consistently placed in the top 10 for business friendliness of North and South American cities, the first permanent European settlement in the region was on the Halifax Peninsula. The establishment of the Town of Halifax, named after the 2nd Earl of Halifax, the establishment of Halifax marked the beginning of Father Le Loutres War. The war began when Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports, by unilaterally establishing Halifax the British were violating earlier treaties with the Mikmaq, which were signed after Father Rales War. Cornwallis brought along 1,176 settlers and their families, St. Margarets Bay was first settled by French-speaking Foreign Protestants at French Village, Nova Scotia who migrated from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia during the American Revolution. The resulting explosion, the Halifax Explosion, devastated the Richmond District of Halifax, killing approximately 2,000 people, the blast was the largest artificial explosion before the development of nuclear weapons. Significant aid came from Boston, strengthening the bond between the two coastal cities, the municipal boundary thus now includes all of Halifax County except for several First Nation reserves. Since amalgamation, the region has officially been known as the Halifax Regional Municipality, on April 15,2014, the regional council approved the implementation of a new branding campaign for the region developed by the local firm Revolve Marketing. The campaign would see the region referred to in promotional materials simply as Halifax, mayor Mike Savage defended the decision, stating, Im a Westphal guy, Im a Dartmouth man, but Halifax is my city, we’re all part of Halifax. Because when I go and travel on behalf of this municipality, metropolitan Halifax is a term used to describe the urban concentration surrounding Halifax Harbour, including the Halifax Peninsula, the core of Dartmouth, and the Bedford-Sackville areas. It is the Statistics Canada population centre of Halifax, the dense urban core is centred on the Halifax Peninsula and the area of Dartmouth inside of the Circumferential Highway. The suburban area stretches into areas known as Mainland Halifax to the west, Cole Harbour to the east and this urban area is the most populous on Canadas Atlantic coast, and the second largest coastal population centre in the country after Vancouver, British Columbia. Halifax currently accounts for 40% of Nova Scotias population, and 15% of that of Atlantic Canada, Halifaxs urban core is home to a number of regional landmark buildings and retains significant historic buildings and districts. The downtowns office towers are overlooked by the fortress of Citadel Hill with its iconic Halifax Town Clock, Dalhousie Universitys campus is often featured in films and documentaries. Dartmouth also has its share of historic neighbourhoods and this has resulted in some modern high rises being built at unusual angles or locations
5.
Saint John, New Brunswick
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Saint John is a city on the Fundy coast in New Brunswick, Canada. In 2016, the city is the second largest in New Brunswick and has a population of 67,575 over an area of 315.82 square kilometres, Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada. During the reign of Britains George III, the municipality was created by charter in 1785. The Saint John metropolitan area covers a area of 3,362.95 square kilometres across the Caledonia Highlands. Samuel de Champlain landed at Saint John Harbour on June 24,1604 and is where the Saint John River gets its name. S, in 1785, Saint John became the first incorporated city in what would later become Canada. Over the next century, waves of Irish immigration, namely during the Great Famine via Partridge Island, would change the citys demographics. The Mikmaq also ventured into the territory and named the area Měnagwĕs, samuel de Champlain landed at Saint John Harbour in 1604, but the area was in English hands by the end of the Seven Years War. After being incorporated as a city in 1785 with an influx of Loyalists from the Boston States and immigrants from Ireland, in 1851 the city cemented itself internationally when the Marco Polo, built from a Saint John yard, became the fastest in the world. However, the city would experience much struggle with its success. From 1840 to 1860 sectarian violence was rampant in Saint John resulting in some of the worst urban riots in Canadian history. The city experienced an outbreak in 1854 with the death over 1,500 people, as well as a great fire in 1877 that destroyed 40% of the city. 1785, First quarantine station in North America, Partridge Island, in the early 19th century, it greeted sick and dying Irish immigrants arriving with inhospitable conditions. 1820, The first chartered bank in Canada, the Bank of New Brunswick, Canadas oldest publicly funded high school, Saint John High School 1838, The first penny newspaper in the Empire, the tri-weekly Saint John News, was established. 1842, Canadas first public museum, originally known as the Gesner Museum, named after its Nova Scotian founder Abraham Gesner, the museum is now known as the New Brunswick Museum. 1849, Canada’s first labour union, the Laborer’s Benevolent Association that was formed when Saint John’s longshoremen banded together to lobby for regular pay and a shorter workday. One of their first resolutions was to apply to the city council for permission to erect the bell,1854, The automated steam foghorn was invented by Robert Foulis. 1870, Canadas first Y. W. C. A. was established,1870, First Knights of Pythias in British Empire. 1872, Monitor top railroad cars in the world invented by James Ferguson, the original model is in the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John
6.
Hamilton, Ontario
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Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Residents of the old city are known as Hamiltonians, since 1981, the metropolitan area has been listed as the ninth largest in Canada and the third largest in Ontario. Hamilton is home to the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, McMaster University is ranked 4th in Canada and 94th in the world by Times Higher Education Rankings 2015-16 and has a well-known medical school. Possibly because of its environment, numerous TV and film productions have been filmed in Hamilton, regulated by the Hamilton Film. A growing arts and culture community garnered media attention in 2006 when the Globe and Mail published an article called Go West, the article highlighted local art galleries, recording studios and independent film production. In pre-colonial times, the Neutral Indians used much of the land but were driven out by the Five Nations who were allied with the British against the Huron. A member of the Iroquois Confederacy provided the route and name for Mohawk Road, which originally included King Street in the lower city. In 1784, about 10,000 United Empire Loyalists settled in Upper Canada, chiefly in Niagara, around the Bay of Quinte, and along the St. Lawrence River between Lake Ontario and Montreal. They were soon followed by many more Americans, some of not so much ardent loyalists but attracted nonetheless by the availability of inexpensive. At the same time, large numbers of Iroquois loyal to Britain arrived from the United States and were settled on reserves west of Lake Ontario. The town of Hamilton was conceived by George Hamilton, when he purchased farm holdings of James Durand, nathaniel Hughson, a property owner to the north, cooperated with George Hamilton to prepare a proposal for a courthouse and jail on Hamiltons property. Hamilton offered the land to the crown for the future site, Durand was empowered by Hughson and Hamilton to sell property holdings which later became the site of the town. As he had instructed, Durand circulated the offers at York during a session of the Legislative Assembly. Initially, this town was not the most important centre of the Gore District, a permanent jail was not constructed until 1832 when a cut-stone design was completed on one of the two squares created in 1816, Princes Square. Subsequently, the first police board and the limits were defined by statute on February 13,1833. Official City status was achieved on June 9,1846, by an act of Parliament,9 Victoria Chapter 73, the city had several interurban electric street railways and two inclines, all powered by the Cataract Power Co. Though suffering through the Hamilton Street Railway strike of 1906, with industrial businesses expanding, allan Skyway in 1958, and the first Tim Hortons store in 1964. Since then, many of the industries have moved or shut down operations and the economy has shifted more toward the service sector, such as transportation, education
7.
Kingston, Ontario
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Kingston is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada. It is located on the end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River. The city is located midway between Toronto and Montreal, the Thousand Islands tourist region is nearby to the east. Kingston is nicknamed the Limestone City because of the heritage buildings constructed using local limestone. This outpost, called Fort Cataraqui or Fort Frontenac, became a focus for settlement, after the British conquered New France, the village was renamed Kingston. Kingston was named the first capital of the Province of Canada on February 10,1841, while its time as a political centre was short, Kingston has remained an important military installation. Kingston was the county seat of Frontenac County until 1998, Kingston is now a separated municipality from the County of Frontenac. A number of origins of Cataraqui, Kingstons original name, have been postulated, one is that it is derived from the Iroquois word that means the place where one hides. The name may also be derivations of Native words that mean impregnable, muddy river, place of retreat, clay bank rising out of the water or where the rivers and lake meet. Cataraqui today refers to an area around the intersection of Princess Street and Sydenham Road, Cataraqui is also the name of a municipal electoral district. Cataraqui was referred to as the Kings Town or Kings Town by 1787 in honour of King George III, the name was shortened to Kingston in 1788. Archaeological evidence suggests that people lived in the Kingston region as early as the Archaic Period, evidence of Late Woodland Period early Iroquois occupation also exists. The first more permanent encampments by aboriginal people in the Kingston area began about 500 AD, the group that first occupied the area before the arrival of the French was probably the Wyandot people, who were later displaced by Iroquoian groups. At the time the French arrived in the Kingston area, Five Nations Iroquois had settled along the shore of Lake Ontario. By 1700, the north shore Iroquois had moved south, european commercial and military influence and activities centered on the fur trade developed and increased in North America in the 17th century. Fur trappers and traders were spreading out from their centres of operation in New France, French explorer Samuel de Champlain visited the Kingston area in 1615. Settlement resumed in the early 1780s when the area soon to be called Kingston became a centre for Loyalist refugees who fled north because of the American Revolutionary War. The survey would also determine whether Cataraqui was suitable as a base since nearby Carleton Island on which a British navy base was located had been ceded to the Americans after the war
8.
Winnipeg
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Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is located near the centre of North America and is 110 kilometres from the U. S. border. It is also the place of the confluence of the Red, the city is named after the nearby Lake Winnipeg, the name comes from the Western Cree words for muddy water. The region was a centre for aboriginal peoples long before the arrival of Europeans. French traders built the first fort on the site in 1738, a settlement was later founded by the Selkirk settlers of the Red River Colony in 1812, the nucleus of which was incorporated as the City of Winnipeg in 1873. As of 2011, Winnipeg is the seventh most populated municipality in Canada, being located very far inland, the local climate is extremely seasonal even by Canadian standards with average January lows of around −21 °C and average July highs of 26 °C. Known as the Gateway to the West, Winnipeg is a railway, Winnipeg was the first Canadian host of the Pan American Games. It is home to professional sports franchises, including the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the Winnipeg Jets, Manitoba Moose. Winnipeg lies at the confluence of the Assiniboine and the Red River of the North and this point was at the crossroads of canoe routes travelled by First Nations before European contact. Winnipeg is named after nearby Lake Winnipeg, the name is a transcription of the Western Cree words for muddy or brackish water. Estimates of the date of first settlement in this area are varied, in 1805, Canadian colonists observed First Nations peoples engaged in farming activity along the Red River. The practice quickly expanded, driven by the demand by traders for provisions, the rivers provided an extensive transportation network linking northern First Peoples with those to the south along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The Ojibwe made some of the first maps on birch bark, sieur de La Vérendrye built the first fur trading post on the site in 1738, called Fort Rouge. French trading continued at this site for decades before the arrival of the British Hudsons Bay Company after France ceded the territory following its defeat in the Seven Years War. Many French and later British men who were trappers married First Nations women, their mixed-race children hunted, traded and they gradually developed as an ethnicity known as the Métis because of sharing a traditional culture. Lord Selkirk was involved with the first permanent settlement, the purchase of land from the Hudsons Bay Company, the North West Company built Fort Gibraltar in 1809, and the Hudsons Bay Company built Fort Douglas in 1812, both in the area of present-day Winnipeg. The two companies competed fiercely over trade, the Métis and Lord Selkirks settlers fought at the Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816. In 1821, the Hudsons Bay and North West Companies merged, Fort Gibraltar was renamed Fort Garry in 1822 and became the leading post in the region for the Hudsons Bay Company
9.
Vancouver
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Vancouver is a coastal seaport city in Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2016 census recorded 631,486 people in the city, the Greater Vancouver area had a population of 2,463,431 in 2016, making it the third largest metropolitan area in Canada. Vancouver has the highest population density in Canada with over 5,400 people per square kilometre. With over 250,000 residents, Vancouver municipality is the fourth most densely populated city in North America behind New York City, San Francisco, and Mexico City according to the 2011 census. In that census, Vancouver was one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada, Vancouver is classed as a Beta global city. In 2014, following thirty years in California, the annual TED conference made Vancouver its indefinite home, several matches of the 2015 FIFA Womens World Cup were played in Vancouver, including the final at BC Place Stadium. From that first enterprise, other stores and some hotels quickly appeared along the waterfront to the west, Gastown became formally laid out as a registered townsite dubbed Granville, B. I. As of 2014, Port Metro Vancouver is the third largest port by tonnage in the Americas, 27th in the world, the busiest and largest in Canada, and the most diversified port in North America. While forestry remains its largest industry, Vancouver is well known as an urban centre surrounded by nature, archaeological records indicate the presence of Aboriginal people in the Vancouver area from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. The city is located in the territories of the Squamish, Musqueam. They had villages in various parts of present-day Vancouver, such as Stanley Park, False Creek, Kitsilano, Point Grey, the city takes its name from George Vancouver, who explored the inner harbour of Burrard Inlet in 1792 and gave various places British names. The explorer and North West Company trader Simon Fraser and his became the first known Europeans to set foot on the site of the present-day city. In 1808, they travelled from the east down the Fraser River, perhaps as far as Point Grey. The Fraser Gold Rush of 1858 brought over 25,000 men, mainly from California, to nearby New Westminster on the Fraser River, on their way to the Fraser Canyon, a sawmill established at Moodyville in 1863, began the citys long relationship with logging. It was quickly followed by mills owned by Captain Edward Stamp on the shore of the inlet. This mill, known as the Hastings Mill, became the nucleus around which Vancouver formed, the mills central role in the city waned after the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s. It nevertheless remained important to the economy until it closed in the 1920s. The settlement which came to be called Gastown grew up quickly around the original makeshift tavern established by Gassy Jack Deighton in 1867 on the edge of the Hastings Mill property
10.
Calgary
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Calgary is a city in the Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated at the confluence of the Bow River and the Elbow River in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, the city anchors the south end of what Statistics Canada defines as the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor. The city had a population of 1,239,220 in 2016, making it Albertas largest city, also in 2016, Calgary had a metropolitan population of 1,392,609, making it the fourth-largest census metropolitan area in Canada. The Calgary CMA is home to the second-highest number of head offices in Canada among the countrys 800 largest corporations. In 1988, Calgary became the first Canadian city to host the Winter Olympic Games, Calgary was named after Calgary on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. In turn, the name originates from a compound of kald and gart, similar Old Norse words, meaning cold and garden, alternatively, the name might be Gaelic Cala ghearraidh, meaning beach of the meadow, or Gaelic for either clear running water or bay farm. The Calgary area was inhabited by people whose presence has been traced back at least 11,000 years. Before the arrival of Europeans, the area was inhabited by the Blackfoot, Blood, Peigan, in 1787, cartographer David Thompson spent the winter with a band of Peigan encamped along the Bow River. He was a Hudsons Bay Company trader and the first recorded European to visit the area, John Glenn was the first documented European settler in the Calgary area, in 1873. The site became a post of the North-West Mounted Police, the NWMP detachment was assigned in 1875 to protect the western plains from US whisky traders, and to protect the fur trade. Originally named Fort Brisebois, after NWMP officer Éphrem-A, Brisebois, it was renamed Fort Calgary in 1876 by Colonel James Macleod. When the Canadian Pacific Railway reached the area in 1883, over a century later, the Canadian Pacific Railway headquarters moved to Calgary from Montreal in 1996. Calgary was officially incorporated as a town in 1884, and elected its first mayor, in 1894, it was incorporated as The City of Calgary in what was then the North-West Territories. The Calgary Police Service was established in 1885 and assumed municipal, local duties from the NWMP, the Calgary Fire of 1886 occurred on November 7,1886. Fourteen buildings were destroyed with losses estimated at $103,200, although no one was killed or injured, city officials drafted a law requiring all large downtown buildings to be built with Paskapoo sandstone, to prevent this from happening again. After the arrival of the railway, the Dominion Government started leasing grazing land at minimal cost, as a result of this policy, large ranching operations were established in the outlying country near Calgary. Already a transportation and distribution hub, Calgary quickly became the centre of Canadas cattle marketing and meatpacking industries. By the late 19th century, the Hudsons Bay Company expanded into the interior and established posts along rivers that later developed into the cities of Winnipeg, Calgary
11.
Edmonton
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Edmonton /ˈɛdməntən/ is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, the city anchors the north end of what Statistics Canada defines as the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor. The city had a population of 932,546 in 2016, making it Albertas second-largest city, also in 2016, Edmonton had a metropolitan population of 1,321,426, making it the sixth-largest census metropolitan area in Canada. Edmonton is North Americas northernmost city with a population over one million. A resident of Edmonton is known as an Edmontonian, Edmontons historic growth has been facilitated through the absorption of five adjacent urban municipalities and a series of annexations ending in 1982. Known as the Gateway to the North, the city is a point for large-scale oil sands projects occurring in northern Alberta. Edmonton is a cultural, governmental and educational centre and it hosts a year-round slate of festivals, reflected in the nickname Canadas Festival City. It is home to North Americas largest mall, West Edmonton Mall, in 1754, Anthony Henday, an explorer for the Hudsons Bay Company, may have been the first European to enter the Edmonton area. By 1795, Fort Edmonton was established on the north bank as a major trading post for the Hudsons Bay Company. The new forts name was suggested by John Peter Pruden after Edmonton, London, the home town of both the HBC deputy governor Sir James Winter Lake, and Pruden. In 1876, Treaty 6, which includes what is now Edmonton, was signed between the Aboriginal peoples in Canada and Queen Victoria as Queen of Canada, as part of the Numbered Treaties of Canada. The agreement includes the Plains and Woods Cree, Assiniboine, and other governments of First Nations at Fort Carlton, Fort Pitt. The area covered by the treaty represents most of the area of the current provinces of Saskatchewan. The arrival of the CPR and the C&E Railway helped bring settlers and entrepreneurs from eastern Canada, Europe, U. S. the Edmonton areas fertile soil and cheap land attracted settlers, further establishing Edmonton as a major regional commercial and agricultural centre. Some people participating in the Klondike Gold Rush passed through South Edmonton/Strathcona in 1897, in November 1905, the Canadian Northern Railway arrived in Edmonton, accelerating growth. During the early 1900s, Edmontons rapid growth led to speculation in real estate, in 1912, Edmonton amalgamated with the City of Strathcona, south of the North Saskatchewan River, as a result, the city extended south of the North Saskatchewan River for the first time. Just prior to World War I, the boom ended, many impoverished families moved to subsistence farms outside the city, while others fled to greener pastures in other provinces. Recruitment to the Canadian army during the war contributed to the drop in population
12.
Ottawa
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Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It stands on the bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of southern Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, the two form the core of the Ottawa–Gatineau census metropolitan area and the National Capital Region. The 2016 census reported a population of 934,243, making it the fourth-largest city in Canada, the City of Ottawa reported that the city had an estimated population of 960,754 as of December 2015. Founded in 1826 as Bytown, and incorporated as Ottawa in 1855, the city name Ottawa was chosen in reference to the Ottawa River nearby, the name of which is derived from the Algonquin Odawa, meaning to trade. The city is the most educated in Canada, and is home to a number of post-secondary, research, and cultural institutions, including the National Arts Centre, Ottawa also has the highest standard of living in the nation and low unemployment. It ranked second out of 150 worldwide in the Numbeo quality of life index 2014–2015, with the draining of the Champlain Sea around ten thousand years ago the Ottawa Valley became habitable. The area was used for wild harvesting, hunting, fishing, trade, travel. The Ottawa river valley has archaeological sites with arrow heads, pottery, the area has three major rivers that meet, making it an important trade and travel area for thousands of years. The Algonquins called the Ottawa River Kichi Sibi or Kichissippi meaning Great River or Grand River, Étienne Brûlé, the first European to travel up the Ottawa River, passed by Ottawa in 1610 on his way to the Great Lakes. Three years later, Samuel de Champlain wrote about the waterfalls of the area and about his encounters with the Algonquins, the early explorers and traders were later followed by many missionaries. The first maps of the area used the word Ottawa to name the river, philemon Wright, a New Englander, created the first settlement in the area on 7 March 1800 on the north side of the river, across from Ottawa in Hull. He, with five other families and twenty-five labourers, set about to create a community called Wrightsville. Wright pioneered the Ottawa Valley timber trade by transporting timber by river from the Ottawa Valley to Quebec City, the following year, the town would soon be named after British military engineer Colonel John By who was responsible for the entire Rideau Waterway construction project. Colonel By set up military barracks on the site of todays Parliament Hill and he also laid out the streets of the town and created two distinct neighbourhoods named Upper Town west of the canal and Lower Town east of the canal. Similar to its Upper Canada and Lower Canada namesakes, historically Upper Town was predominantly English speaking and Protestant whereas Lower Town was predominantly French, Irish, bytowns population grew to 1,000 as the Rideau Canal was being completed in 1832. In 1855 Bytown was renamed Ottawa and incorporated as a city, William Pittman Lett was installed as the first city clerk guiding it through 36 years of development. On New Years Eve 1857, Queen Victoria, as a symbolic, in reality, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald had assigned this selection process to the Executive Branch of the Government, as previous attempts to arrive at a consensus had ended in deadlock
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