From top, left to right: Downtown Bowmanville, Newcastle Community Hall, Bowmanville Water Tower, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Courtice waterfront trail at Lake Ontario, Ganaraska Wind Farm in Orono, St. Mary's Cement plant
Clarington (2021 population 101,427[2]) is a lower-tier municipality in the Regional Municipality of Durham in Ontario, Canada. It was incorporated in 1973 as the town of Newcastle with the merging of the town of Bowmanville, the Village of Newcastle and the townships of Clarke and Darlington, and was established on January 1 1974.[3] In 1993, the town was renamed Clarington, a blending of the names of the two former townships. Darlington today is largely suburban, while Clarke remains largely rural. Bowmanville is the largest community in the municipality and is the home of the municipal offices.
Clarington is governed by an elected municipal council consisting of a mayor, and local councillors representing each of the municipality's four wards. In addition, two regional councillors each represent a pair of wards. The mayor and the regional councillors sit on both Clarington Council and Durham Region Council.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Clarington had a population of 101,427 living in 35,953 of its 36,852 total private dwellings, a change of 10.2% from its 2016 population of 92,013. With a land area of 610.84 km2 (235.85 sq mi), it had a population density of 166.0/km2 (430.1/sq mi) in 2021.[2]
Ethnicity
A historic home located in Bowmanville.
Panethnic groups in the Municipality of Clarington (2001−2021)
Note: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses.
Language
2011 Census data show that Clarington has one of the highest proportions of residents that have English as their mother tongue within the GTA (91.2%). French is the native language for 1.8% of the population of Clarington. No other language has more than 1% of native speakers (Dutch with 0.8% - 695 native speakers - tops the pack of immigrant languages).[10]
Communities
The municipality of Clarington consists of several urban communities, including Bowmanville, Courtice, Newcastle and Orono; as well as several rural communities such as Bond Head, Brownsville, Burketon, Clarke, Cowanville, Crooked Creek, Enfield, Enniskillen, Gaud Corners, Hampton, Haydon, Kendal, Kirby, Leskard, Lovekin, Maple Grove, Mitchell Corners, New Park, Newtonville, Port Darlington, Port Granby, Salem, Solina, Starkville, Taunton (east portion; west portion split with Oshawa along Townline Road), Tyrone, West Side Beach and Wilmot Creek.
Infrastructure
Transportation
A CN Rail freight train at Lovekin, March 1980
Clarington is home to several highways; three of which are 400 series highways. Highway 401 stretches through the entirety of Clarington, connecting Newtonville, Newcastle, Bowmanville, and Courtice along the route. Highway 407 is located in north Clarington. It was extended to and terminates at Highway 35/115. The 35/115, also in Clarington, begins at Highway 401 in Newcastle, and run concurrently until they split north of Kirby and head separate directions towards Lindsay and Peterborough. Highway 418, begins at Highway 401 and heads north to connect to Highway 407. The 418 opened on December 9, 2019, as a toll highway.[11] The tolls were removed on April 5, 2022, by the Ontario government.[12]Highway 2, once the primary east–west route across the southern portion of Ontario, runs through Clarington. Downtown Newcastle and Bowmanville are situated along Highway 2.
The Durham-York Energy Centre is located in Clarington. It is home to a 20 MW energy-from-waste (EFW) generation unit that opened in early 2016 that takes waste (140,000 tonnes per year) from Durham and York Regions to burn to generate electricity.[14]
Co-developed by Durham and York Region[15] cost $295 million Canadian to build[14] was built and operated by American-based Covanta.[14] The unit sells and transmits electricity onto Hydro One's distribution network.
Clarington was a candidate location to host ITER in 2001, but the bid was withdrawn two years later.[16]
Climate
Environment Canada operates a weather station in Bowmanville. Under the Köppen climate classification Bowmanville has a humid continental climate with warm summers and cold winters.[17] Unlike many other locations on similar latitudes on the eastern half of the North American continent the winters are relatively mild, with cold extremes being moderated by the proximity to Lake Ontario. In spite of this the average low is around −10 °C (14 °F) in January. Summers are normally moderately warm with averages of around 26 °C (79 °F) during the day but with nights cooling off rapidly to fall below 15 °C (59 °F) on many occasions.
Clarington is home to five Christmas parades. It has more Santa Claus/Christmas parades than any other town-sized municipality in Canada [dubious – discuss]. The parades are run in: Bowmanville, Newcastle, Courtice, Orono, and Enniskillen/Tyrone. The latter parade is organized by "T.H.E.E. Farmer's Parade of Lights", which is a special Christmas parade put on by the farmers from the communities of Tyrone, Haydon, Enniskillen and Enfield.
Enniskillen, which is located in the northern part of Clarington, was the birthplace of Samuel McLaughlin. Mr. McLaughlin started the McLaughlin Motor Car Co. in 1904 and was one of the first major automobile manufacturers in Canada, which evolved into General Motors of Canada. Enniskillen is home to the Enniskillen General Store which opened in 1840 and stills operates today.
Clarington was home to the Bowmanville Zoo, until its closure in 2016.[22] The Clarington Family Outdoor Adventure Park occupied the same property as the former Bowmanville Zoo lands for several years under the same ownership, until closure.[23] As of 2022, the Township is working with volunteers at Valley 2000 to convert the Zoo grounds into a town park, with trails connection the surrounding housing areas.[24]
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
NASCAR Pinty's Series taking place at the park in 2021.
A major attraction in the municipality is the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (formerly Mosport Park), a multi-track facility located north of Bowmanville that features a 2.459-mile (4.0 km), 10-turn road course; a half-mile paved oval; a 2.4 km advanced driver and race driver training facility and a 1.4 km kart track (Mosport International Karting). It was also a host of the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One before the event was moved to a circuit in Montreal in the 1970s.
^Data Management Group (2006). "Municipality of Clarington, 2006 Statistics"(PDF). Travel Survey Summaries for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. University of Toronto. Retrieved 25 September 2012. For trips from Clarington, 6% go to Pickering, 5% to Ajax, 12% to Whitby, 40% to Oshawa and 15% to Toronto, for a total of 78%.