Formerly known as Berlin, Kitchener was founded in 1833 and incorporated as a city in 1912. It was renamed, to its current name, in 1916. Over the years Kitchener has been a largely blue-collar town with the city calling itself home to some major manufacturers including Schneider’s Foods, Budd Canada, Kaufman and Kuntz Electroplating. Many of these companies have ceased local operations and the city is being revitalized with the transformation of their buildings into trendy upscale lofts.
Kitchener is also home to some popular cultural festivals including the blues festival, the K-W Multicultural Festival and Oktoberfest the second largest Bavarian festival in the world. Moving into the future Kitchener is making plans for light rail transit and has recently expanded Fairway road across the Grand River, this is the first new bridge to span the Grand in the area since 1963.
The smallest of the tri-cities in terms of population, the city of Waterloo is a home to many high-tech international companies including RIM, the maker of the Blackberry. Oracle, Intel, McAfee and Google all have
offices in Waterloo and several financial services companies also call the city home, Sunlife and Manulife are two of its largest employers.
Local companies frequently turn to the talent developing at the city’s two universities; Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo for recruiting their next generation. Near campus you’ll also find three well known think tanks; the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Institute for Quantum Computing and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).