Dally Journal - Record Centennial Edition, Friday, Sept. 1, 1MT fifalton; Upper Canada's Quiet County Saltfleet, Beverly, Dumfries, E s McNaughtan, R obert Miller, W. quesing, F lam boro East and F . Rom aine, G eorge Gent and The battles fought here were West, Nassagaweya, Nelson and Jam es Young. children on the edge o f their Young, reeve of Esquesing, was quiet and continuous, waged by Trafalgar, contained only 6-684 ·eats- For blood and gore, for elected provisional warden; each individual fam ily against inhabitants. battles and civil conflict, they the soil, the weather, disease and And in the entire district, which Frances Ham burg was the clerk contained Dundas and Hamilton, and Henry Harris the treasurer. must look beyond the county, loneliness. there were only four places of UP AND DOWN and, for the really hair - raising Halton was Southern Ontario's warship, 18 grist mills, 41 saw ·tuff, beyond the province and The num ber o f municipalities last frontier. With no harbor of mill* and three doctors. even the nation. represented w as eventually rais its own until William Chisholm Settlement continued at a stea Halton's story, c e n m ore than began developing the mouth of d y pace until m ost of the county ed to nine with the addition of Oakville in 1857, that of Canada as a whole, is The Sixteen in 1827, the county was under cultivation, but the Milton and one of quiet constitutional devel had to wait for settlement until area remained largely agricul Georgetown in 1865, and Burling opment. Since the dark, u . ecord- roads were pushed through from tural, and by 1951 the population ton and Aoton in 1874. The num ber has since dropped ed days o f Indian tribal wars Toronto and Hamilton, with a c of the entire county had reached to seven with the amalgamation there has never been a battle cess routes to the north. only 41,727. 3lTP'5f80 jo `m i dtq« fought within the county. STILL FARMLAND 1# TOWNSHIPS of Burlington and Nelson Tow n The northern townships are In 1817 the District of Gore, and Trafalgar in 1962. NO VIOLENCE The council is m ade up of the Halton coirtributed many of its com prised o f the then larger Hal Still largely agricultural, with tough settlers to the War of 1812, ton and Wentworth Counties, con a com bined population of about reeve and deputy - reeve of *nd was well represented on both taining the townships of Ancaster, 10,000, but an industrial boom in each o f the county's seven muni' Binbrook, Brantford, the south during the fifties rais cipalities. These 14 represent®' iides in William Lyon MacKen- Barton, a e 's Rebellion o f 1837, but re Gian ford, Unondago, Tuscarora, ed the population of the county tives serve on both their home as a whole to 134,700 by 1964. town council and county council. It is expected to hit 314,000 by CHOOSE WARDEN 1980. At the first meeting of the The county form o f government year the m em bers, in accordance got its start in Upper Canada with the Municipal Aot, elect with the Baldwin A ct of 1849, warden from am ong themselves which provided for the formation to serve as chairman for the o f municipal corporations and po year, and choose member?: o f the lice regulations in the province's 12 boards and com mittees which counties, townships, towns, cities administer the various county and villages. functions such as Child Welfare, The role o f each county was Roads, Planning, Board of Health m ainly the providing of courts and Museum Board. and a jail, with added responsi All county functions, inoluding bilities in the areas o f county courts and jails, are based in roads, education and public Milton. Here are also found the health. This role has changed various officials linking the coun little to the present day. ty with the province, such as the DISTRICT DIVIDES provincial agricultural represen Halton's history begins In 1853, tative. when Halton and Wentworth, pre In adition to its seven incor viously reduced to their present porated municipalities, Halton size, were separated, and the Dis has two other communities des trict o f Gore disappeared. ignated as police villages. These The first county council meet are Campbellville and Eden ing was held at Thompson's Inn, Mills, both located in NassagaMilton, on July 12, 1853, under wega Township. the provisions o f the A ct separ THREE TRUSTEES ating the two counties. The first The affairs o f a police village, m em bers, representing the town a municipal designation found on ships of Trafalgar, Nelson, Es ly in Ontario, are administered C O U N T Y B U IL D IN G IN M IL T O N quesing and Nassagaweya, were by three trustees, but for all gen Centre of Halton administration Messrs- Brown, Crawford, John eral and legal purposes the pol ice village remains a part of the township corporation. A 1965 amendment to the Mun icipal A ct blocks the establish ment of any m ore police villages in the provinces. Of the seven incorporated mun icipalities, Burlington, with 58,000 people, is the most populous. Oakville, at 66,109 acres the larg est town in Canada, is next with a population o f 53,000. GEORGETOWN THIRD Third is Georgetown, popula tion 11,500, followed by Esquesing Township with 7,000, Milton with The real significance of Halt ices and education demanded by ton and Bramalea, four from 6,500, Acton with 4,300, and Nas on County lies not in its past, the increased population will Burlington ar|d four from Oak sagaweya with 2,600. mean that individual communit ville. but in its future. In addition to its status as a ies will find it increasingly hard It is clear that the industrial The m ayor's power would be governm ental unit, the county er to go it alone. and population boom that has hit extended by the addition of a The need for cooperation am "v eto" , the power to send any also forms a ridlkg for federal the county 6ince 1951 has just ong the southern neighbors to bylaws passed by council back elections, and two ridings (Hal begun. ton East and Halton West) for The county' s 1951 population of provide the necessary services f o j reconsideration at the next provincial electionsis another reason behind Plun 41,727, which represented more meeting. Since its incorporation as a than 150 years of development, kett's belief that they are best The administration of tv mun county the riding has leaned has grown to 140,000 in a little joined in a single municipality. icipal responsibilities listed above slightly toward the Conservative more than 15 years, and by 1980 "Halton, peel, to form " tk2 would be delegated to 12 depart ticket, and has shown a remark is expected to le tp to 314,500. STAY FARMS ments, each with a director. The able preference for keeping its On the other hand, the north And, situated at the toeplate se departments would be co-ord mem bers in office through sev ern parts of each county are ftf the Golden Horseshoe with inated by a Commissioner of eral elections. still largely agricultural, and are cheap land and ample transport Administration, who would be Conservative David Henderson, ation available, Halton is ex likely to remain so for some time responsible to an "executive for example, after beating the periencing an industrial b o o m to come. council" of the m ayor and two encumbant Liberal J. Waldie in That means there will be no that show* no signs of tapering councillors. the 1891 election, held office for need for water and sewer serv off. The only separately - incorpor 26 years, surviving six more elec ices and that the need for fire RICHER NOW and police protection will cont ated boards in the new com tions. F or the 1917 election he Total assessment, for example, munity would be a board of handed the Conservative banner inue to be small. only about $36.6 million in 1951, This division of interests is police com m ission- ., a public to Dr. R. K. Anderson, who won had grown to almost $266 mil accentuated by a physical divis library board and a hydro - elec that and four m ore elections in a lion by 1964, and is still skyrock political career that spanned 18 ion. The number and condition tric commission. eting. The new rural county In the years. of roads connecting north and But this boom in population south have changed little in north would also have an over SWITCH TO GRITS and industry has confined itself The Liberals took over in the years, and traffic between the all council, but its responsibilities largely to the southern part two sections is never likely to would be considerably less be 1935 eleotion, and their candidate, o f the county, to the towns of cause of the area's few er service Hughes Cleaver, held on until be much more than casual. Oakville and Burlington. Here is 1953, winning three m ore elec requirements. BETTER DIVORCED concentrated 83 per cent of the Plunkett calculated t h a t six tions. Far better than being tied to county's total assessment. The Conservatives won the 1953 (Continued oil Back Page) And it is in the light of this the south, with its mounting ex penses for services and educat widening gulf between the urb an, industrialized south an<f the ion, the northern townships of largely - agricultural north that the two counties, with their com the future of Halton County takes mon agricultural interest and similar needs, would be much on its real significance. better joined together on their On R ig h t O a k v ille Tax? SWEEPING CHANGES own, Plunkett said. 1947 Coupled with Peel County to With the north - south bond the east, which is experiencing replaced by two east-west group a similar north-south division of ings, he points out, the northern F ro m L e f t to R ig h t: interests, Halton was the object communities could com bine to o f a recent study by Montreal solve their problems of secondary H U B E R T (S h o t) H E A T H municipal planner Thomas Plun education, and the southern com P E T E R D E V E N IS H kett. munities could stop competing His report, published and pre for industrial assessment. E D D E V E N IS H sented to the Ontario government Plunkett is careful to note that J O E D E V E N IS H last fall, recom mends sweeping although he calls these two new A LLA N REDSHAW changes in the municipal make groupings "counties" , they are up of the entire lakeshore area. quite different in both form and Plunkett proposed the creat substance from what is normally O u r F le e t to d a y consists o f ion of a new urban county, com understood as a county in the posed of the southern portions 2 0 la ta m o d a l F o rd cars. province of Ontario. of the present Halton and Peel WHOLE LOAD counties, and a rural county Where an ordinary county's m ade up of their northern halves. principal concern is the adminis ALTER SPLIT tration of justice and mainten In other words, the entire Hal- ance o f a jail, the new counties tcn - Peel study area would be would take on all the services split into a northern and a south and responsibilities of an urban ern county, which would replace municipality, while surrendering the present east-west division. their court and jail duties to the Plunkett bases his recommend province. ation on evidence that the inter Among the concerns of the est' o f the northern and southern southern, urban county would be ecticns are drifting ever farth po.ice, fire, roads, public trans er apart, while common interests portation, water, public health, are binding the industrialized ambulance service, sewage, wel lakeshore area of the counties fare, planning, zoning; ever closer together. Building inspection, public lib- | He offers several reasons for raries, street lighting, garbage, the change. Most important, per urban renewal, parks, licensing, haps, is the fact that east-west assessment and finance. communications in the south, In other words, there would with Highway 2, the Queen Eliz be no need for independent civic abeth Way, Highway 401 and the administrations in any of the travel between the lakeshore ar county's separate communities, eas of Halton and Peel so easy since all responsibilities would that the strip is becoming a unit. be delegated to the county. S1AY HERE COUNCILS DIE The result has bee.i that an The separate municipal coun Increasing number of people cils, then, would disappear, in whc live along the lakeshore also favor of a council for the whole have jobs within the area, so area. that by 1985 about three-quart This council would have 19 ers of the people employed in mem bers -- a mayor elected the strip comprised of Burling at large and 18 councillors, of ton, Oakville and south centred which seven would be from Tor Peel will also live there. onto Township, Port Credit and Further, the high cost of serv Streetsville, three from Bram p The history o f Halton County was not designed to keep school mained untouched by the violence in both conflicts. election with Sybil Bennett, and won again in 1957 and 1958 with Sandy Best. But it was back to the Liberals from 1962 until the present, with Dr. H arry Harley increasing his 1962 plurality of 98 to 9,533 in the 1963 election. In 1965 he defeated Allan Masson by 8,762 votes. est margin o f victory was the the next provincial election which He failed to live up to expecta nine votes that won it for Lib should, by custom, com e before tions, and was defeated in the eral John Waldie in the election the end of this year, and by law 1962 election by the narrow m ar of 1887. must- be called before the end of gin o f 98 votes after two days of 1968. The county's current represen anxious waiting for the oversea* tative in the provincial legisla BEST WORST servicem en's vote. ture is G eorge Kerr, who was el P robably the biggest disap ected by the county as a whole pointment am ong the county's Best succeeded Conservative in 1963 before the riding was federel MPs was Sandy Best, Sybil Bennett, the only woman Largest plurality ev e r award split in two by redistribution of son o f the co-discoverer o f insu ever to serve the county in Ot ed by county voters was 11,078 electoral seats. lin, Dr. Charles Best and, at 24, tawa. She was honored by the for Sandy B est in 1958, the year He has declared he will con the youngest man ever elected to Oakville IODE, who named their o f the Diefenbaker sweep. Small test the riding of Halton West in the House o f Commons. chapter after her. 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