The city of Hamilton, Ont, is the centre of the Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth. It is situated at the west end of Lake ONTARIO, on Burlington Bay, 68 km southwest of Toronto and 66 km west of NIAGARA FALLS and the American border. It is Canada's largest steel producer and ranks high in industrial production.

The Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth (pop 451 665, 1991c) also includes the towns of Ancaster, Dundas and Flamborough, among others. Economy Two of Canada's 3 largest steel firms (STELCO and DOFASCO) are located in Hamilton. The 1968 move of Stelco's head office to Toronto and construction of a new mill outside the city at NANTICOKE shook civic optimism. Two other steel firms National Steel Car and Slater Steel are also major employers. Westinghouse Canada, J.I. Case, Camco and Procter and Gamble also have large plants here. Most Hamilton industries suffered from increased energy costs and economic recessions of the 1970s and 1980s.

In order to lessen its reliance on steel, the city has tried to attract new industries and one area of success has been in environmental technologies, particularly pollution cleanup. Other industries have been nurtured so by the early 1990s, more people were employed in health and health sciences than in the steel industry.

Hamilton is thought of as a workingman's city, highly unionized. The NINE-HOUR MOVEMENT began in Hamilton in 1872 and the KNIGHTS OF LABOR and AFL actively recruited in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The CIO campaigned in the 1930s and 1940s for unions that would represent all men in a plant and after serious strikes at 3 major plants in 1946 concluded agreements ensuring higher pay and increased benefits. Another major strike occurred at Stelco in 1981.

MCMASTER UNIVERSITY, with an enrolment of some 13 000 full-time and 4000 part-time degree students, has been an important city institution since 1930.