Kenora (2001 population 15,838) is a city situated on the Lake of the Woods in northwestern Ontario, Canada close to the Manitoba border, about 200km east of Winnipeg.

Kenora originally started off as a tradding and missionary town called Rat Portage, with the first building belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company. There was a gold rush in the area but it was not how Kenora came to be. Kenora then went on to thrive in many areas including the production of caviar, mining, flour milling, forestry, and the railway which has made the city into what it is today.

In 1836 a fur-trading post was established by the Hudson's Bay Company at present-day Kenora, and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s allowed the town to prosper. In 2000 Kenora became a city, after it was merged with the neighbouring town of Jaffray Melick .

Forestry, tourism and mining are the three largest sectors of the Kenora economy. The population balloons in the spring and summer when summer residents move in. The Lake of the Woods situated all around Kenora is the major source for cottagers who summer here - many are from the neighbouring province of Manitoba.

Kenora-Rainy River's Member of Provincial Parliament, Howard Hampton, is leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party. Federally, the area is represented by Liberal Member of Parliament Roger Valley. He was elected in 2004 in the newly created Kenora riding.

The name Kenora comes from the merger of the three towns that make up Kenora: Keewatin, Norman, and Rat Portage. Kenora is also the smallest town to ever win the Stanley Cup (the Kenora Thistles, in January 1907).

The mayor of Kenora is Dave Canfield .

The major news source in Kenora is the Kenora Daily Miner and News, one of Canada's smallest daily papers. On the weekends, the Lake of the Woods Enterprise makes headlines on the door steps of locals packed full of news for the area.

External link

• City of Kenora website