Brantford

Brantford
City of Brantford
From top, left to right: Flowerbed outside RBC Building, Statue of Joseph Brant, Colborne Street in Downtown Brantford, Bell Homestead, City Hall, Grand River
Brantford
Coordinates: 43°09′25″N 80°15′27″W / 43.15694°N 80.25750°W / 43.15694; -80.25750 (Brantford)
CountryCanada
ProvinceOntario
CountyBrant (independent)
EstablishedMay 31, 1877
Government
 • MayorKevin Davis
 • Governing BodyBrantford City Council
 • MPLarry Brock (Conservative)
 • MPPWill Bouma (Progressive Conservative)
Area
 • Land98.65 km2 (38.09 sq mi)
 • Metro
1,074.00 km2 (414.67 sq mi)
Elevation
248 m (814 ft)
Population
 (2021)
 • City (single-tier)
104,688 (53rd)
 • Density1,061.2/km2 (2,748/sq mi)
 • Metro
144,162 (30th)
 • Metro density134.2/km2 (348/sq mi)
Gross Metropolitan Product
 • Brantford CMACA$6.1 billion (2020)
Time zoneUTC−05:00 (EST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−04:00 (EDT)
Forward sortation area
Area codes519, 226, and 548
Websitewww.brantford.ca

Brantford is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully independent of the county's municipal government.

Brantford is situated on the Haldimand Tract, and is named after Joseph Brant, a Mohawk leader, soldier, farmer and slave owner. Brant was an important Loyalist leader during the American Revolutionary War and later, after the Haudenosaunee moved to the Brantford area in Upper Canada. Many of his descendants and other First Nations people live on the nearby Six Nations of the Grand River reserve south of Brantford; it is the most populous reserve in Canada.

Brantford is known as the "Telephone City" because resident Alexander Graham Bell invented the first telephone at his father's homestead, Melville House, now the Bell Homestead National Historic Site, located in Tutela Heights south of the city.