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Downtown Kitchener is 440 km from Parliament Hill. It is a journey of about six hours by car.
The riding is served by highways 85, 7, and 8.
Public transportation is provided by Grand River Transit (GRT).
Bald eagles have been spotted in winter months along the Grand River.
Kitchener has a large coyote population that has adapted well to urban life, according to the city.
A number of waterways flow through this riding, including the Grand River, Kolb Creek, Idlewood Creek, Montgomery Creek, Shoemaker Creek, and Henry Sturm Creek. The Grand River forms part of the riding’s eastern border.
About 23.5% of the riding’s population are immigrants, with some of the largest populations born in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Romania.
German, Spanish, and Serbian are the most common non-official mother tongues in the riding. The area has a substantial population of German-Canadians.
Approximately 2% of the riding’s population identify as Aboriginal.
Average individual income is $40,904.
Kitchener-Waterloo’s Oktoberfest is the world’s second-largest. Some years have seen about one million visitors.
Woodside National Historic Site was the childhood Victorian-style home of William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s longest-serving prime minister. The home is filled with many King family heirlooms and period pieces.
William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s longest-serving prime minister, was born here (Kitchener was known as Berlin at the time).
Lois Maxwell, the actress who played Miss Moneypenny opposite James Bond in several films, was also born in Kitchener.
Hockey players and brothers Scott and Mike Stevens both attended Eastwood Collegiate Institute. Scott Stevens was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007.
Kitchener celebrates its manufacturing heritage by preserving defunct industrial machinery as art installations.
Manufacturing, retail trade, and health care/social assistance are the riding’s top sectors. Around 17% of the workforce is employed in manufacturing.
Almost 51% of the workforce has post-secondary education.
The Blue Box recycling program began as a pilot project in Kitchener Centre ward in 1981.
St. Mary’s General Hospital has plans to reduce its energy consumption by replacing any remaining incandescent lights with more efficient LED lights and installing occupancy and daylight sensors.
Berlin became the seat of the newly-formed Waterloo County in 1853. The city’s name changed to Kitchener in 1916 amidst increased anti-German sentiment during the First World War.
Mount Hope Cemetery has records dating as far back to the late 1700s. Mount Hope is actually two cemeteries. The original Mount Hope, once known as Greenbush Cemetery, was Protestant, and the other Mount Hope was Roman Catholic. An 1855 map of the area show that the original Mount Hope Cemetery was on land that is now home to the nearby Grand River Hospital.
