Brantford (2004 population 90,195) is a city located on the Grand River in southwestern Ontario, Canada.
The city was first settled in 1784 when Captain Joseph Brant and the Six Nations Indians escaped New York to settle in Canada. As a reward for their loyalty to the Crown, they were given a large land grant on the Grand River. Brantford was incorporated in 1877.
Due to the fame of its prominent citizen, telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell, the City is known as The Telephone City. The first long distance telephone call was made on August 10, 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell from the family homestead in Brantford, to his assistant located in Paris, Ontario.
Famous Brantford natives include actor Phil Hartman, Group of Seven founder Lawren Harris, aboriginal poet Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake), and hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky.
Many diverse manufacturers are based in Brantford. The city is also home to satellite campuses of Wilfrid Laurier University and Mohawk College; the Laurier campus offers a joint program in education with Nipissing University.
The city council was elected to a three-year term in November, 2003, and is headed by Mayor Mike Hancock. Two councillors were elected to represent each of five wards. The current councillors are: Larry Kings and Mike Quattrociocchi (Ward 1), Stephen Lancaster and John Sless (Ward 2), Greg Martin and Dan McCreary (Ward 3), Richard Carpenter and Dave Wrobel (Ward 4), and Marguerite Ceschi-Smith and John Starkey (Ward 5).
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