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Markham (pronounced /?m?rk?m/ Mark-Am) is a town of York Region, located in Southern Ontario and forms a part of the Greater Toronto Area. Markham is regarded as the largest town, and one of the fastest growing municipalities, in Canada, having doubled its population since 1990.The population of Markham according to the 2006 Population Census is 261,573. Within the Greater Toronto Area, Markham is the fourth-most populous municipality after Toronto, Mississauga, and Brampton. Markham is considered as Canada's High-Tech Capital and Silicon-Valley North as it is home to various head offices for international high-tech companies such as IBM, Motorola, Toshiba, Lucent, Sun Microsystems, Apple, AMEX and ATI, which is now part of AMD.

History
Markham was first surveyed as a township in 1793 by William Berczy and in 1794 he led 75 German families from upstate New York to an area of Markham now known as German Mills. Each family was granted 200 acres (0.8 km²) of land, however due to hardships, many opted to returned to York (now Toronto) and Niagara. The area was considered to be remote and lack of roads through the region made travel difficult. German Mills soon after became a ghost town. Between 1803 to 1812, another attempt at settling in the region was made. The largest group of settlers were Pennsylvania Germans, most of whom were Mennonites. These highly skilled craftsmen and knowledgeable farmers had the best chance for survival because they had already survived harsh conditions in Pennsylvania. By 1830, many Irish, Scottish and English famalies immigrated to Upper Canada, many settling in Markham.

Markham's early years blended the rigors of homesteading with the development of agriculture-based industries. The many rivers and streams in the Township soon supported water-powered saw and grist mills and later wooden mills. With improved transportation routes, such as the construction of Yonge Street in the 1800s, along with the growing population, urbanization increased. By 1857, most of the Township had been cleared of timber and was under cultivation. Villages like Thornhill, Unionville and Markham greatly expanded. In 1871, the Toronto and Nipissing Railway company built the first rail line to Markham, which is still used today by the GO Train commuter services. The first form of structured municipal government occurred in 1850 when the Township of Markham was created.

When Markham was incorporated as a town in 1972, its population quickly grew due to urban sprawl from the Greater Toronto Area. In 1976, Markham's population was approximately 56,000. Since that time, the population has more than quintupled with explosive growth in new subdivisions. Much of Markham's farmland has now disappeared, but is still found north of Major MacKenzie Drive. Controversy over the development of the environmentally sensitive Oak Ridges Moraine will likely curb development north of Major MacKenzie Drive.

At present, Markham comprises six major communities, which include Buttonville, Cornell, Markham Village, Milliken, Thornhill, and Unionville. Since the 1980s, the town has been recognized as a suburb of Toronto. Many high-tech companies have head offices located in Markham for the relative abundance of land, low tax rates and good transportation routes. ATI Technologies (now known as AMD), IBM Canada, Apple Computer Canada, Motorola Canada and many other well-known companies have chosen Markham as their home in Canada. Hence, the town has been branding itself as Canada's "High-Tech Capital".

An Ontario Historical Plaque was erected in front of the Markham Museum by the province to commemorate the founding of Markham's role in Ontario's heritage.

Geography
Markham covers an area of 212.47 square kilometres and Markham's Town Centre is at 43°53?N 79°15?W? / ?43.883°N 79.25°W? / 43.883; -79.25. It is bounded by 5 municipalities:

West
Vaughan - boundary along Yonge Street between Steeles Avenue and Highway 7
Richmond Hill - boundary along Highway 7 from Yonge Street to Highway 404 and at Highway 404 from Highway 7 to 19th Avenue and Stouffville Road
South
Toronto - boundary along Steeles Avenue
North
Whitchurch-Stouffville - boundary is from Highway 404 to York-Durham line somewhere between 19th Avenue and Stouffville Road
East
Pickering - along the York-Durham Line.
Topography
Markham's average altitude is at 200 metres and in general consists of genty rolling hills. The town is intersected by two rivers; the Don River and Rouge River, as well as their tributaries. To the north is the Oak Ridges Moraine, which further elevates the elevation towards the north.

Climate
Due to Markham's proximity to Toronto, Markham shares the same climate as Toronto. On an average day, Markham is generally one to two degrees celsius cooler than in downtown Toronto.

Demographics
 
Visible Minority Population as of the 2006 Census.Population
Markham has experienced tremendous growth since the 1980s. The Canadian census of 2006 states that the population of Markham was 261,573, which is a 25.4% increase from the 2001 census.According to the Canada 2006 Census:

Population: 261,573 (+25.4% from 2001)
Land area: 212.58 km2 (82.08 sq mi)
Population density: 1,230.5 inhabitants per square kilometre (3,187 /sq mi)
National population rank: Ranked 16th out of 5,008
Median age: 38.1 (males: 37.0, females: 38.9)
Total private dwellings: 81,181
Dwellings occupied by permanent residents: 77,191
Median household income: $77,163

Religion
Markham is home to many religions. According to the Canadian census of 2006 it states:

Religion Percentage
Catholic 25.5%
No Religious Affiliation 23.1%
Protestant 20.6%
Hindu 5.7%
Muslim 5.3%
Jewish 5.3%
Christian Orthodox 4.9%
Other Christian 4.3%
Buddhist 3.4%
Other Religions 0.1%

Race
Markham is home to many immigrants, mainly from Europe and South Asia. The Canadian census of 2006 states 42.6% of the population were Canadian-born population whereas 56.6% were foreign-born. 0.9% are non-residents.[5] According to the 2006 census, the largest racial groups in Markham were;

Ethnic OriginPopulation
Canadian 29,385
English 27,110
Scottish 16,805
Irish 15,055
Chinese 13,890
Italian 11,830
Jewish 10,105
German 7,780
French 6,345
Greek 5,970
Sri Lankan 5,520
Polish 3,990
Iranian 2,470
Dutch 2,245
Ukrainian 2,435
Pakistani 2,120
Russian 2,275
Armenian 1,390
South Asian 1,215

Government
 
Markham Civic CentreSee also: List of mayors of Markham, Ontario
Town Council
The Markham Town Council consists of the Frank Scarpitti as mayor, four regional councillors and eight ward councillors representing one of the town's eight wards. Frank Scarpitti replaced the now retired Donald Cousens, who was a former PC MPP for Markham and Presbyterian church minister. The mayor and four regional councillors are elected by the community to represent the Town of Markham at the regional level. The members of council are elected by the municipality's voters. Councillors are paid by the municipality for their services, but in many municipalities, members of council usually serve part-time and work at other jobs as well. The current members of council were elected by the residents to a four-year term of office, in accordance with standards set by the province. The selection of members for the offices of mayor and regional councillors are made town-wide, while ward councillors are elected by individual ward.

Markham Civic Centre
The town council is located at the Markham Civic Centre at York Regional Road 7 and Warden Avenue. The previous offices on Woodbine Avenue have disappeared where now a funeral home operates. The historic town hall on Main Street is now a restored office building. The Mayor's Youth Task Force was created to discuss issues facing young people in the town and to plan and publicize events. Its primary purpose is to encourage youth participation within the community.

By-Laws
The town is permitted to create and enforce by-laws upon residents on various matters affecting the town. The by-laws are generally enforced by Town By-Law enforcement officers, but they may involve York Regional Police if violations are deemed too dangerous for the officers to handle. In addition the by-laws can be linked to various provincial acts and enforced by the town. Violation of by-laws is subject to fines of up to $20,000 CAD. The by-laws of Markham include:

Animal Control (see Dog Owners' Liability Act of Ontario)
Construction Permits
Driveway Extentions
Fencing and Swimming Pools
Heritage Conservation (see Ontario Heritage Act)
Home-Based Businesses
Noise
Parking
Property Standards
Registration of Basement Apartments and Second Suites
Sewers
Site Alteration
Waste Collection
Water Use
Town Services
Police
There are no courts in Markham, but the town is served by an Ontario Court of Justice in Newmarket, as well as an Ontario Small Claims court in Richmond Hill, Ontario. The Ontario Court of Appeal is located in Toronto, while the Supreme Court of Canada is located in Ottawa. Policing is provided by York Regional Police at a station (5 District) at the corner of McCowan Road and Carlton Road and Highway 7. Highway 404, Highway 407 and parts of Highway 48 are patrolled by the Ontario Provincial Police.

Fire
Hospitals
The main healthcare facility in the town is Markham Stouffville Hospital, located in the far eastern end. Markham is also home to Shouldice Hospital, one of the world's premier facilities for people suffering from hernias.

Neighbourhoods and Communities
 
Markham suburbs
Toogood PondMarkham is made up of many original 19th century communities (many of which, despite being technically suburban districts today, are still signed with official 'entering community' signs on major roads) each with a distinctive character:

Almira
Angus Glen
Armadale
Berczy Village
Box Grove
Buttonville
Cachet
Cashel
Cedar Grove
Cornell
Crosby
Downtown Markham
Dickson's Hill
Greensborough
Hagermans Corners
Legacy
Locust Hill
Markham Village
Milliken Mills
Mongolia
Quantztown
Raymerville - Markville East
Rouge Fairways
Sherwood - Amber Glen
Thornhill
Unionville
Victoria Square
Vinegar Hill
Wismer Commons
Thornhill and Unionville are popularly seen as being separate communities. Thornhill actually straddles the Markham-Vaughan town line (portions of it in both municipalities).

Education
High Schools
Markham has a number of both public and catholic high schools. All have consistent high scores on standardized exams and have some of the highest rate of graduates attending universities.[citation needed]

St. Robert Catholic High School
Markville Secondary School
Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School
Unionville High School
Middlefield Collegiate Institute
St. Augustine Catholic High School
Brother André Catholic High School
Markham District High School
Milliken Mills High School
Thornlea Secondary School
Father Michael McGivney Catholic Academy
Bur Oak Secondary School
Thornhill Secondary School,
Bill Crothers Secondary School

Post-Secondary
 
Seneca College's Markham CampusMarkham currently does not have any universities itself, but Seneca College has campuses at Highways 7 and 404 and at Buttonville Airport. Most high school graduates continue to post-secondary education in universities across Ontario. There are local transit services that connect to York University, Ryerson University, University of Ontario Institute of Technology and the University of Toronto, as well as to Toronto campuses of Seneca College, Centennial College, George Brown College, Humber College, The Michener Institute, Durham College and Sheridan College.

Economy
In the 19th century, Markham was a vibrant, independent community with distilleries and breweries around the Highway 7 and 48 intersection. The Speight Wagon Works exported products around the world, and it was said that Markham was more active than York (former name for Toronto) was early on.

Today, it claims to be "Canada's Hi-Tech Capital" with a number of key companies in the area, such as IBM, Motorola, Toshiba, Lucent, Sun Microsystems, Honeywell, Apple Inc., Genesis Microchip, and is home to the head office of graphics card producer ATI (recently merged with AMD).

Markham also maintains economic and cultural cooperation agreements with the city of Laval, Quebec, which is the second largest city of the Greater Montreal Area and has a very high financial profile.

Parks
Further information: List of parks in Markham, Ontario
 
Circular pathway along Berczy Park.Culture
Until the 1970s, Markham was mostly farmland and marsh, which is still reflected in events like the Markham Fair. Markham has several theatres, including the critically acclaimed Markham Little Theatre.[citation needed] and the Markham Youth Theatre.

The Markham Public Library system has 6 branches, with over 600,000 items in its collections.

Sports
Main article: Sports in Markham, Ontario
Town issues
Like most cities and towns in the Greater Toronto Area, Markham has a few issues it must deal with:

Urban growth
There is a desire by the Town to control urban sprawl by requesting higher density for new development. The town plan calls for more growth along Highway 7 and less towards the farmland to the north. A similar development in Cornell promotes the need for services to be closer to residences.

Transit plan
Linked to the concern of urban growth, Markham through York Region Transit (YRT) has implemented a transit system called Viva to ease the strain on the region's congested roads. Viva is similar to YRT but is used as an express bus service with the ability to change traffic signals to help reduce delays. The YRT is also planning to build a transit terminal somewhere near Cornell soon.

Attractions
Markham has retained its historic past in part of the town. Here a just few places of interest:

Frederick Horsman Varley Art Gallery
Heintzman House - Home of Colonel George Crookshank, Sam Francis and Charles Heintzman of Heintzman & Co., the piano manufacturer.
Markham Museum
Markham Village
Markham Heritage Estates - a unique, specially designed heritage subdivision owned by the Town of Markham
Reesor Farm Market
Cathedral of the Transfiguration
Thornhill village
Heritage streets preserve the old town feeling:

Main Street Markham (Markham Road/ Highway 48)
Main Street Unionville (Kennedy Road)/ Highway 7
There are still farms operating in the northern reaches of the town, but there are a few 'theme' farms in other parts of Markham:

Devonshire Stables & Country Bumpkins Pony Farm
Galten Farms
Whittamore's Farm
Forsythe Family Farms
Adventure Valley
Markham GO Station - built in 1871 by Toronto and Nipissing Railway and restored in 2000
Locust Hill Station - built in 1936 and re-located to the grounds of the Markham Museum
Unionville Station - built in 1871 by the Toronto and Nipissing Railway and restored as a community centre
Performing arts
 
Markham Theatre For Performing ArtsMarkham is home to several locally-oriented performing arts groups:

Markham Little Theatre
Markham Youth Theatre
Unionville Theatre Company
Markham Concert Band
York Symphony Orchestra
A key arts venue is the 'Markham Theatre For Performing Arts', at the Markham Civic Centre located at Highway 7 and Warden Avenue.

Annual events
Events taking place annually include the Markham Youth Festival, Unionville Festival, Markham Village Music Festival, Markham Jazz Festival, Milliken Mills Children's Festival, Thornhill Village Festival, Markham Fair, Markham Festival of Lights, Markham Santa Claus Parade, Olde Tyme Christmas Unionville, Markham Ribfest & Music Festival, Cornell Garden Festival and the Cornell Easter Egg Hunt.

Shopping
 
The Pacific Mall is the largest Asian mall in North America and some of the most expensive retail space in Canada.Markham is home to several large malls of 100+ stores. These include:

Market Village (170 stores)
Markville Shopping Centre (250 stores)
Pacific Mall (450 mini-shops)
There are also a lot of higher-profile malls in nearby Toronto, and elsewhere in York Region. Many shopping centres in Markham are also Asian-oriented. This is a reflection of the large Asian, particularly Chinese Canadian, population found in Markham. They carry a wide variety of traditional Chinese products, apparel, and foods.

On Highway 7, between Woodbine and Warden Avenues, is First Markham Place, containing numerous shops and restaurants; this is several kilometres east of Richmond Hill's Chinese malls. Further east along Highway 7 is an older plaza is at the southwest quadrant with the intersection with Kennedy Road.

Pacific Mall is the most well-known Chinese mall in Markham, located at Kennedy Road and Steeles Avenue East, which, combined with neighbouring Market Village Mall and Splendid China Tower, forms the second largest Chinese shopping area in North America, after the Golden Village in Richmond, British Columbia. In close proximity, at Steeles East and Warden Avenue, there is the New Century Plaza mall and a half-block away there is a plaza of Chinese shops anchored by a T & T Supermarket.

There are also some smaller shopping centres in Markham, such as:

Metro Square
Peachtree Centre
New Kennedy Square
The Shops on Steeles and 404
Thornhill Square

Local media
Markham Economist and Sun - local paper owned by Metroland Publishing
The Liberal - serving Thornhill and Richmond Hill
The York Region Business Times - business news
York Region Media Group - Online news
North of the City - magazine for York Region
Rogers Cable 10 - local community TV station for York Region, owned by Rogers Media
The Cornell Crier - local news and lifestyle
 

Transportation
Main article: Transportation in Markham, Ontario
 

Roads
Main articles: List of municipal roads in Markham, Ontario and List of regional roads in York Region, Ontario
Major highways passing through Markham include Highway 404 (from Toronto to Newmarket) and Highway 407, a toll highway that passes north of Toronto and connects Markham with Vaughan, Brampton and Burlington.

Highway 407 runs parallel to Highway 7, also known as York Road 7, which is a major east-west artery suffering from congestion due to development along its route. Other major east-west routes include 16th Avenue, Major MacKenzie Drive, and Steeles Avenue which forms Markham's southern boundary with Toronto.

Rail
Public Transit
 
A VIVA busYork Region Transit (YRT) connects Markham with surrounding municipalities in York Region, and was created in 2001 from the merger of Markham Transit, Richmond Hill Transit, Newmarket Transit and Vaughan Transit. YRT to connects to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) subway system by way of Viva Bus Rapid Transit from Finch station along Yonge Street, and Don Mills station through Unionville and on to Markville Mall.

The TTC also provides service in Markham on several north-south routes, such as Don Mills Road, Warden Avenue, Birchmount Road, McCowan Road and Markham Road. These routes charge riders a double fare if they are travelling across the Steeles border and most Markham residents choose to travel by car instead of public transportation.

GO Transit provides train service on the old trackbed of the Toronto and Nipissing Railway, which connects Markham with downtown Toronto on the Stouffville commuter rail service. The line has stops at several stations in Markham, namely Unionville GO Station, Centennial GO Station, Markham GO Station, and Mount Joy GO Station. The Richmond Hill commuter rail line provides service to the Langstaff GO Station, which straddles Markham and Richmond Hill but is used primarily by residents of west-central Markham and southern Richmond Hill.

Air
Toronto/Buttonville Municipal Airport is one of Canada's top ten airports, which caters to general aviation and business commuter traffic to Ottawa and Montreal. Operators at Buttonville include:

NexJet Aviation Inc
Executive Edge Air Charter
Aviation Limited
Canadian Flyers International
AHM Air, to and from Toronto Pearson International Airport
LCE Aviation, providing private air charters around Southern Ontario and across the continent[6]
Flightexec, an executive air charter and air ambulance for Ontario Air Ambulance
Million Air, an executive air charter
Toronto Airways Limited, a flight training school[7]
Buttonville Flying Club[8]
Leggat Aviation Ltd., an authorized Cessna Dealership that specializes in new aircraft sales, full service and parts supply[9]

Notable people from Markham
Athletes
Saeed Baghbani, karate fighter, Pan American Games gold medalist
Bill Crothers, track and field athlete, Olympic medalist, chair of the York Region District School Board
Cody Hodgson, NHL #6 ranked prospect for the 2008 NHL Entry Draft - taken 10th Overall by the Vancouver Canucks
Brad May, NHL hockey player
Sean Morley, WWE wrestler, known by the ring name "Val Venis"
Ken Pereira, field hockey player, Pan American Games medalist
Steven Stamkos, NHL hockey player
Tammy Sutton-Brown, WNBA basketball player
Steve Thomas, retired NHL hockey player
Raffi Torres, NHL hockey player
Stephen Weiss, NHL hockey player
Ron Wilson, retired NHL hockey player
Media
Steve Byers, actor
Emmanuelle Chriqui, actress
Hayden Christensen, actor
Talan Torriero, actor
Musicians
Ash Buchholz, vocalist, guitarist, and ehru player of the band Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker
Ben Heppner, Canadian Dramatic Tenor
Justin Peroff, drummer for the band Broken Social Scene
Anna Russell, singer and opera parodist
 

Sister cities
 Cary, North Carolina, USA
 Nördlingen, Germany
 Pearland, Texas, USA
 Wuhan, People's Republic of China[10]