Photo from Patrick's Photoblog
Oakville, Ontario is celebrating its official 150th anniversary as a town/village in 2007. It is a unique suburban environment which I both live and teach in. A city with a small town flavour and small town promotion but one of the most affluent cities in Canada and in North America. As an educator living and working in Oakville, this affords me the opportunity to see what North America views as economic success and to also experience first hand the huge differences still found in one of Canada's wealthiest cities. Poverty and an underclass still exist here however the community has avoided or purposefully marginalized them from the eyes of these citizen elite who believe their community is immune from social stratification.
Since the early settlement days of the 18th century, Modern day Oakville was first located and known by being establishing at the mouth of Sixteen Mile Creek. This would have been a sixteen mile traverse by land along the lakeshore from the "Toronto Carrying Place". at the mouth of the Humber River. The "Town of Oakville", which is still its official name designation, has an estimated population of 174,000 persons in 2007.
GPS Locator:
43°26'44.74"N 79°40'05.36"W
Oakville, overall, has a gratuitous annual income per household. In 2006, this household income was just over $90,000 per year per household income compared to the provincial average of about $62,000. This extremely large household income level places Oakville as the most affluent city or town in Canada. It will periodically place a close second to other locations where new money wealth is growing. Oakville and in particular many of the people living in south Oakville (you can most certainly leave me out of this group) are barometers of the thriving essence and decadence of old and new money in Upper Canada!
