Global Alliance Worldwide Chauffeured Services operates in the Greater Toronto Area of Southern Ontario, Canada. Although Global Alliance provides services around the world through our network of affiliates, the core of our services are performed in Toronto and its surrounding region. In this continuing feature, we will detail notable locations and communities in the Greater Toronto Area (or GTA) where we often provide limousine service. Today, we stop in to the eminently livable city of Guelph.
Located approximately one hour northwest of Toronto’s downtown, Guelph is a small city of 120,000 inhabitants. Founded in 1827 and named after the ancestral German family of Great Britain’s Hanoverian monarchs at the time, Guelph’s city centre was designed to resemble a European city, giving it a mix of public squares, broad avenues, and small side-streets that it retains today. It was incorporated as a city in 1879, a few years after the founding of a small agricultural college in 1873 that would later grow to become the city’s major post-secondary educational institution and second-largest employer, the University of Guelph.
Guelph’s economy also features a strong manufacturing sector. Automobile parts manufacturer Linamar is the city’s largest employer, well ahead of the University. Guelph is also home to Sleeman Breweries, a major microbrewery whose beers are distributed nationwide by Molson. The brewery has also lent its name to the downtown arena, the Sleeman Centre, home to the city’s Ontario Hockey League junior team, the Guelph Storm, and also host to a variety of competitions, performances, and events year-round. In addition to this venue, the performing arts have a permanent home in Guelph at the River Run Centre.
The city’s downtown is likewise marked by century-old Victorian historic buildings. Guelph is also home to three National Historic Sites: Old City Hall (dating back to the 1850s), the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate (a Roman Catholic church in the gothic revival architectural style that towers on a hill above the city), and McCrae House (the former home of John McCrae, the author of the iconic war remembrance poem “In Flanders Field”). Guelph can boast of much park space as well, notably the green areas around Guelph Lake, whose island hosts the popular annual folk music celebration known as the Hillside Festival.
Please feel free to contact Global Alliance Worldwide Chauffeured Services for all of your transportation needs in Guelph, Ontario.