About Burlington

View Larger Map

The City of Burlington is located in southern Ontario on the north shore of Lake Ontario between Hamilton and Toronto. It is a growing municipality with a population of approximately 156,900 located at the western end of the Greater Toronto Area.

MoneySense Magazine 2009 - named Burlington, Ontario the Top City in which to live in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) and the Fourth Best City in Canada!

Burlington on the shores
of Lake Ontario

The Niagara Escarpment, Lake Ontario and the sloping plain between the escarpment and the lake make up the land area. The city is no longer a port; sailing vessels in the area are used for recreational purposes and moor at a small marina in LaSalle Park.

Burlington is located in Canada's largest consumer and industrial market in an area known as the "Golden Horseshoe". Burlington's economy is not dominated by any single employer or sector. The leading industrial sectors, in terms of employment, are food processing, packaging, electronics, motor vehicle/transportation, business services, chemical/pharmaceutical and environmental.

The largest private sector employers in Burlington are Maple Leaf Meats, Cogeco Cable, Boehringer Ingleheim, Gennum and AIC Limited. The largest public sector employers in Burlington are the City of Burlington, the Halton Board of Education, the Halton Catholic District School Board and Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital.

Burlington is home to the Royal Botanical Gardens (which has the world's largest lilac collection). The Burlington Art Centre, has a unique national role in collecting contemporary Canadian ceramics. The Joseph Brant Museum (named after the Mohawk Chief) and Ireland House at Oakridge Farm, a history museum depicting family life from the 1850s to the 1920s are also popular attractions. Burlington has the distinction of having one of the only 2 naturally occurring magnetic hills in Canada. The magnetic hill is located on King Road, north of Bayview Park.

A 30 minute drive from Burlington is Toronto. Its name means "meeting place." With more than 2 million people calling it home, Toronto is Canada's largest city and the capital of Ontario. Toronto is located on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario.

Toronto is currently ranked 14th in the world with over 4,000,000 tourist arrivals a year . Toronto's most prominent landmark is the CN Tower, which currently stands as the second tallest free-standing land structure in the world at 553 metres (1,815 ft). To the surprise of its creators, the tower held the world record for over 30 years, before losing its title to the Burj Dubai in 2007.

Downtown Toronto

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a major museum for world culture and natural history. The Toronto Zoo, one of the largest in the world, is home to over 5,000 animals representing over 460 distinct species. The Art Gallery of Ontario contains a large collection of Canadian, European, African and contemporary artwork. The Gardiner Museum of ceramic art which is the only museum in Canada entirely devoted to ceramics and the Museum's collection contains more than 2,900 ceramic works from Asia, the Americas, and Europe. The Ontario Science Centre always has new hands-on activities and science displays particularly appealing to children, and the Bata Shoe Museum also features many unique exhibitions. The Don Valley Brick Works is a former industrial site, which opened in 1889, and has recently been restored as a park and heritage site. The Canadian National Exhibition is held annually at Exhibition Place, and it is the oldest annual fair in the world. It is Canada's largest annual fair and the fifth largest in the world, with an average attendance of 1.3 million.

The Yorkville neighbourhood is one of Toronto's most elegant shopping and dining areas. On many occasions, celebrities from all over North America can be spotted in the area, especially during the Toronto International Film Festival. The Toronto Eaton Centre is one of North America's top shopping destinations, and Toronto's most popular tourist attraction with over 1 million visitors per week.

Greektown on the Danforth, is another one of the major attractions of Toronto which boasts one of the highest concentrations of restaurants per kilometre in the world. It is also home to the annual "Taste of the Danforth" festival which attracts over one million people in 2 1/2 days. Toronto is also home to Canada's most famous "castle" - Casa Loma, the former estate of Sir Henry Pellatt, a prominent Toronto financier, industrialist and military man. Other notable neighbourhoods and attractions include The Beaches, the Toronto Islands, Kensington Market, Fort York, and the Hockey Hall of Fame.