The History of Ward 7

I've been knocking on a lot of doors in Ward 7 lately, and one question keeps coming up, especially from newer residents: what actually is Ward 7? It's a fair question. So I want to take a step back and share some of what I've learned about this community I'm hoping to represent.

Cambridge itself is actually a fairly young city. On January 1, 1973, Galt, Preston, Hespeler, and parts of North Dumfries and Waterloo Townships were merged by the Province into one municipality. It wasn't exactly a popular decision at the time — people have called it a "shotgun marriage," and there was a real rivalry between the three original towns. Honestly, some of that spirit hasn't fully gone away. I still hear people describe themselves as being "from Galt" or "from Preston" before they say Cambridge.

One detail I love: the settlement that eventually became Galt was centred where Mill Creek meets the Grand River, at a spot known back then as Shade's Mills. That name is still with us — Shade's Mills Conservation Area sits right in the northern part of Ward 7 today. So even our green spaces carry pieces of the city's founding story.

In 1989, while crews were preparing to build townhouses near Myers Road — right in the heart of today's Ward 7 — archaeologists found the remains of a longhouse village dating back to between 1280 and 1360 CE. That's more than 700 years of people calling this stretch of land home, long before anyone called it Cambridge, let alone Ward 7. You can read more about that discovery here.

Ward 7 in its current form was created in 2010, when Cambridge expanded from six wards to eight. Frank Monteiro was elected as its first councillor — a 35-year veteran of the Waterloo Regional Police Service — and he went on to serve three terms. Frank passed away in October 2019 after a battle with cancer. Scott Hamilton was elected to succeed him in a 2020 byelection, and was re-elected in 2022.

Since then, this corner of Cambridge has changed a lot. Here's some of what's shaped Ward 7 over the past decade or so:

• Transportation: The McQueen Shaver extension — the first stage of a planned bypass route for Cambridge — is underway, along with the long-running reconstruction of Franklin Boulevard, which has added a series of roundabouts to improve traffic flow and safety.

• Recreation & education: The new Cambridge Recreation Complex is going up near Dundas Street South and Branchton Road — a $93-million joint-use hub with a 10-lane pool, gymnasiums, a running track, and a new branch of the Idea Exchange library, right next to a new joint public and Catholic school with daycare. 

• New housing: South Point, a 29-hectare subdivision, is rising right alongside the new Rec Complex, and it's already added hundreds of new homes to the ward. Council approved another 182 townhouse units nearby in late 2024, and phase 2 has now broken ground.

• Industrial & commercial growth: Ward 7 has also become home to real industry — Snackruptors, a bakery and cracker manufacturer, operates right on Franklin Blvd.

Geographically, Ward 7 runs the length of Franklin Blvd, from Shade's Mills in the north down to Branchton Road in the south, bordered by North Dumfries and Puslinch Townships. It includes the Little's Corners neighbourhood, and it's one of the parts of Cambridge feeling growth pressure most directly — new families, new subdivisions, and new demands on infrastructure, all pushing right up against township land that's still largely rural.

That's not just a historical footnote — it's happening right now, block by block. It's part of why managing growth responsibly and protecting our infrastructure are two of the priorities I keep coming back to.

If there's a piece of Ward 7's history or a question about its boundaries you'd like me to dig into, send it my way. I'd genuinely like to include it.

Not sure if your home is within the boundary of Ward 7?  Click below to use the "Which ward am I in?" tool on the City of Cambridge website to find out.