Guelph

Guelph (ⁱ/ɡwɛlf/; Canada 2011 Census population 121,668) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly 28 kilometres (17 mi) east of Waterloo and 100 kilometres (62 mi) west of downtown Toronto at the intersection of Highway 6 and Highway 7. It is the seat of Wellington County, but is politically independent of it. Because of its low crime rates, clean environment and generally high standard of living, Guelph is consistently rated as one of Canada's best places to live. Guelph has been noted as having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country throughout the 2008–2012 global recession, and has ranked at the bottom of Canada's crime severity list since 2007.

History

Before colonization, the area was considered by the surrounding indigenous communities to be a "neutral" zone. On selected dates, members from these communities would meet and trade goods by the Speed River.

Guelph was selected as the headquarters of British development firm "the Canada Company" by its first superintendent John Galt, a popular Scottish novelist who designed the town to attract settlers and the surrounding countryside. Galt designed the town to resemble a European city centre, complete with squares, broad main streets and narrow side streets, resulting in a variety of block sizes and shapes which are still in place today. The street plan was laid out in a radial street and grid system that branches out from the down-town, a technique which was also employed in other planned towns of this era, such as Buffalo, New York.)

House of Welf

The House of Welf (also Guelf or Guelph) was a European dynasty that has included many German and British monarchs from the 11th to 20th century and Emperor Ivan VI of Russia in the 18th century.

Origins

The House of Welf is the older branch of the House of Este, a dynasty whose earliest known members lived in Lombardy in the late 9th/early 10th century, sometimes called Welf-Este. The first member was Welf IV; he inherited the property of the Elder House of Welf when his maternal uncle Welf III, Duke of Carinthia and Verona, the last male Welf of the Elder House, died in 1055. Welf IV was the son of Welf III's sister Kunigunde of Altdorf and her husband Albert Azzo II of Este, Margrave of Milan. In 1070, Welf IV became duke of Bavaria.

Welf V married Countess Matilda of Tuscany, who died childless and left him her possessions, including Tuscany, Ferrara, Modena, Mantua, and Reggio, which played a role in the Investiture controversy. Since the Welf dynasty sided with the Pope in this controversy, partisans of the Pope came to be known in Italy as Guelphs.

Guelph (provincial electoral district)

Guelph is a provincial electoral district in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It was created for the 2007 provincial election. The entire riding was created from Guelph—Wellington riding.

The riding includes all of the city of Guelph.

The riding also existed from 1987 until 1999 with the same borders.

Members of Provincial Parliament

Election results

2007 electoral reform referendum

References

Sources

Coordinates: 43°33′N 80°15′W / 43.550°N 80.250°W / 43.550; -80.250