The City of Cambridge was incorporated in 1973, when the three municipalities of Galt, Preston and Hespeler along with parts of Waterloo and North Dumfries Townships were amalgamated into a single legal entity under a new name. (A new name that was not very new as Preston was once referred to as Cambridge Mills.) The  the settlement of Blair had previously been amalgamated into Preston in 1969.

Each of the communities possessed a long and proud history and there was considerable resistance among the local population to this “shotgun marriage” arranged by the Provincial government. A healthy sense of rivalry had always governed relations among our three communities. Even today, while our residents will tell the outside world that they call Cambridge home, they will often identify themselves to each other as citizens of Galt or Preston or Hespeler.

While the original communities have come together well in the years since amalgamation, they began life apart and as a result Cambridge is blessed with not one but three historic core commercial areas to preserve for future generations. As Cambridge has developed the open spaces between the original municipalities have been filled in a fourth commercial core. Today, Cambridge is a thriving emerging and modern city with a diverse population of more than 125,000. It is located within the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and is apart of one of Ontario’s fastest growing and economically prosperous regions. With its perfect position being located along Highway 401, only 45 minutes from the provincial capital of Toronto, Cambridge is well poised to continue to grow and flourish into a prosperous metropolis and one of the best places to live in the Province of Ontario.