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Vaughan ( ) (2022 population 344,412) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increasing by 80.2% during this time period and having nearly doubled in population since 1991. In 2021, the population of Vaughan was 323,103. It is the fifth-largest city in the Greater Toronto Area, and the 17th-largest city in Canada.
The first European to pass through Vaughan was the French explorer Étienne Brûlé, who traversed the Humber Trail in 1615. However, it was not until townships were created in 1792 that Vaughan began to see European settlements, as it was considered to be extremely remote and the lack of roads through the region made travel difficult.
Despite the hardships of settler life, settlers came to Vaughan in considerable numbers. The population grew from 19 men, 5 women, and 30 children in 1800 to 4,300 in 1840. The first people to arrive were mainly Pennsylvania Germans, with a smaller number of families of England descent and a group of France Royalists. This migration from the United States was by 1814 superseded by immigrants from Britain. While many of their predecessors had been agriculturalists, the newer immigrants were highly skilled tradespeople, useful for a growing community.
Among the facilities established by this group were a number of hamlets, the oldest of which was Thornhill, where a sawmill was erected in 1801, a grist mill in 1815, and had a population of 300 by 1836. Other such enclaves included Kleinburg, Coleraine, Rupertville (Maple), Richmond Hill, Teston, Claireville, Pine Grove, Carrville, Patterson, Burlington, Concord, Edgeley, Fisherville, Elder's Mills, Elgin Mills, Jefferson, Nashville, Purpleville, Richvale, Sherwood, Langstaff, Vellore, and Burwick (Woodbridge).
In 1846, the Township was primarily agricultural but had a population of 4,300. There were six grist mills and 25 saw mills. By 1935, there were 4,873 residents.
However, World War II sparked an influx of immigration, and by 1960, the population stood at 15,957. The ethnocultural composition of the area began to change with the arrival of different groups such as Italy, and .
Incorporated in 1850 as Vaughan Township, a municipal government was established, and meetings were held at the "Township Hall" (Vaughan Memorial Hall) in Vellore. Vaughan Road was a historic road constructed in 1850 that linked Vaughan Township with Toronto. It incorporated parts of present-day Dufferin Street north of Eglinton Avenue in Toronto, though all that remains of it today is the separate alignment farther south, running through the eastern half of the former City of York. Highway 7 was built from Vaughan to Thornhill between 1928 and 1932, and Highway 400 to Barrie completed in 1951. Starting in the late 1950s, major municipal roads including Bathurst, Dufferin, Jane and Keele Streets that had been gravel were starting to be paved in the municipality.
In 1971, the new regional government of York Region was established, acquiring policing and welfare services from the communities it served; simultaneously, the township merged with the Village of Woodbridge to form the Town of Vaughan. In 1991, it changed its legal status to City of Vaughan.
Two F2 tornadoes tore through the city of Vaughan during the Southern Ontario Tornado Outbreak on August 20, 2009. Premier Dalton McGuinty and Mayor Linda Jackson toured the destruction the next day and reported 200 homes in critical shape and as many as 600 additional homes likely to be demolished. The tornadoes also ripped up trees, flipped cars, and left thousands of people without electricity. Vaughan declared a state of emergency because of the widespread damage. No deaths were reported from the tornadoes, but one man who was injured in the storms suffered a heart attack the following morning.
North American telephone customers placing calls to Vaughan may not recognize the charge details on their billings. Although Vaughan has been a single municipality since 1971, the local incumbent local exchange carrier, Bell Canada, splits the city into three historical rate centres–Kleinburg, Maple and Woodbridge. Part of the Thornhill rate centre extends into Vaughan. Indeed, Vaughan does not even appear in the telephone book.
City councillors meet at Vaughan City Hall, located in Maple. The city's City Hall was opened on September 25, 2011, and is named in memory of late Mayor Lorna Jackson. The new Civic Centre is one of the first in Canada to conform to a LEED Gold Standard, the second highest environmental classification available.
Vaughan is the first municipality in Ontario to have a Youth City Councillor. The youth city councillor is appointed as a non-voting member of Council every six months to represent the youth of Vaughan. Vaughan council originally rejected the proposal of a youth councillor but, after the Vaughan Youth Cabinet amended its proposal, Council accepted the recommendation.
After serving as mayor for nine years, Lorna Jackson saw the Town of Vaughan become incorporated as the City of Vaughan. Following the death of Mayor Lorna Jackson in 2002, Michael Di Biase was appointed mayor by Vaughan council by virtue of his position as one of two regional councillors representing Vaughan, Joyce Frustaglio was the other regional councillor. Gino Rosati, a Vaughan local councillor, was subsequently appointed by Vaughan Council to fill Di Biase's position as regional councillor and a by-election was held to fill Rosati's local councillor's position which was won by Linda Jackson, the daughter of Mayor Jackson. Di Biase first became involved in the city's politics in 1985, when he was elected as a local councillor in 1985. Di Biase retained the mayorship in the 2003 municipal election, defeating challenger Robert Craig.
In the municipal election on November 13, 2006, Di Biase was narrowly defeated by Linda Jackson, who was sworn in as mayor on December 4, 2006. On June 18, 2008, an audit of Jackson's 2006 campaign finances found that the politician exceeded her legal spending limit of $120,419 by at least $12,356, or 10 per cent. The auditors, LECG Canada Ltd., say that amount could almost double if what they believed to be unreported contributions in kind at various election events but couldn't prove are later verified. Vaughan mayor to face election-financing charges CBC News 25 June 2008
They also found other apparent contraventions of the Canada Elections Act, including at least five instances where associated companies made donations that exceeded the normal $750 donation limit per company.
On June 24, 2008, Vaughan Council voted unanimously to hire a special prosecutor to consider laying charges against Mayor Linda Jackson under the Municipal Elections Act in reaction to the auditors' report. Council hired Timothy Wilkin, "an expert in municipal law" to decide what if any charges are to be laid. Vaughan mayor faces charges over election Phinjo Gombu, Toronto Star 25 June 2008. If Jackson is charged and found guilty, she would face punishments ranging from fines to removal from office.
Subsequently, an audit was conducted on former Mayor Di Biase's 2006 election campaign funds. This exposed 27 contraventions under the Elections Act, along with a $155,000 anonymous cash payment made to his lawyer to cover his legal fees. Di Biase has refused to disclose who made this payment. Former Vaughan mayor Di Biase faces 27 election-related charges Caroline Grech, Yorkregion.com 17 Sept 2009
On 25 October 2010, longtime MP Maurizio Bevilacqua was elected mayor and he assumed office in December 2010.
On 24 October 2022, former Ontario Liberal Party leader Steven Del Duca was elected mayor; he assumed office on November 15, 2022. Del Duca is the architect of the Protecting Vulnerable Social Infrastructure By-law, which prohibits nuisance demonstrations within 100 metres of the property line of child-care centres, congregate care facilities, hospitals, schools and places of worship. The bylaw was unanimously approved by Vaughan Council on June 25, 2024, making it the first municipality in Canada to adopt such legislation.
When the Township of Vaughan officially became a town in 1971, it was made up four historic communities (Maple, Kleinburg, Thornhill and Woodbridge) large enough to have their own village or town centres. Vaughan committed to building a new business and commercial core distinct from all of them. This commitment became policy in 1998 when Official Plan Amendment 500 called for the Vaughan Corporate Centre, as it was then branded, to become a focal point for business activity and major commercial development.
It is served by the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre subway station, which is the northwestern terminus of Line 1 Yonge–University of the Toronto subway system. It is also a major transit hub for York Region Transit (YRT), as well as Viva and Züm bus rapid transit services.
Median age as of 2021 was 41.6, on par with the Ontario median age of 41.6.
| Italian | 85,030 | 26.5 |
| Chinese Canadian | 27,235 | 8.5 |
| Jewish Canadians | 25,325 | 7.9 |
| Russian | 18,245 | 5.7 |
| Canadian | 17,780 | 5.5 |
| Indo-Canadians | 17,330 | 5.4 |
| Polish Canadians | 9,885 | 3.1 |
| Filipino | 9,140 | 2.9 |
| Portuguese | 8,300 | 2.6 |
| English | 8,265 | 2.6 |
| Vietnamese | 7,305 | 2.3 |
| Ukrainian | 7,080 | 2.2 |
| Iranian | 6,935 | 2.2 |
| Irish Canadians | 6,715 | 2.1 |
| Scottish | 5,895 | 1.8 |
| + Panethnicity groups in the City of Vaughan (2001−2021) ! rowspan="2" | Panethnicity group ! colspan="2" | 2021 ! colspan="2" | 2016 ! colspan="2" | 2011 ! colspan="2" | 2006 ! colspan="2" | 2001 | ||||||||
| European | 187,985 | 195,830 | 195,770 | 174,485 | 146,965 | |||||||||
| South Asian | 35,890 | 30,610 | 27,725 | 20,370 | 10,665 | |||||||||
| East Asian | 33,855 | 26,420 | 18,035 | 13,070 | 8,550 | |||||||||
| Middle Eastern | 17,625 | 12,975 | 9,000 | 5,825 | 2,250 | |||||||||
| 16,920 | 15,525 | 16,320 | 9,655 | 4,725 | ||||||||||
| African-Canadian | 10,510 | 8,325 | 7,765 | 6,110 | 3,580 | |||||||||
| Latin American | 8,320 | 7,360 | 6,055 | 4,810 | 2,165 | |||||||||
| Indigenous | 675 | 630 | 555 | 320 | 180 | |||||||||
| Other/Multiracial | 9,540 | 6,465 | 5,080 | 3,355 | 2,515 | |||||||||
On July 18, 2019, the York Regional Police announced the largest organized crime bust in Ontario, part of an 18-month long operation called Project Sindicato that was also coordinated with the Italian State Police. York Regional Police had arrested 15 people in Canada and seized $35 million worth of homes, sports cars and cash in a major trans-Atlantic probe targeting the most prominent wing of the 'Ndrangheta in Canada (the Siderno Group), allegedly headed by Angelo Figliomeni of Vaughan. On July 14 and 15, approximately 500 officers raided 48 homes and businesses across the GTA, seizing 27 homes worth $24 million, 23 cars, including five , and $2 million in cash and jewelry. The charges laid included tax evasion, money laundering, defrauding the government and participating in a criminal organization. The investigation was motivated by a series of violent incidents in Vaughan in 2017 according to CBC News, "including an attempted murder, drive-by shootings and arsons". The charges laid included tax evasion, money laundering, defrauding the government and participating in a criminal organization.
In response to increasing hate crimes, on June 5, 2024, Vaughan became the first municipality in Ontario to introduce a "bubble zone" bylaw that prohibits demonstrations within 100 metres of vulnerable social infrastructure, such as religious institutions, schools, child care centres, hospitals and assisted living facilities.
The city is also home to numerous golf and country clubs. These include The National Golf Club of Canada, one of Canada's highest ranking golf clubs.
| +Vaughan Professional Sports Teams !Sport !Team !League !Years !Stadium !League Championships | |||||
| Soccer | Toronto FC II | USL | 2015-2017 | Ontario Soccer Centre | 0 |
| Vaughan Azzurri | L1O | 2014–present | North Maple Regional Park | 2 | |
| Woodbridge Strikers | L1O | 2014–present | Vaughan Grove 1 | 0 | |
| York Region Shooters | CSL | 1998–present | St. Joan of Arc Turf Field | 3 | |
| Hockey | Vaughan Flames | CWHL | 1999-2010 | Vaughan Sports Village | 0 |
Prior to 2018, Vaughan also played home to Toronto FC II, the United Soccer League affiliate team for Toronto FC. Because the stadium's expansion to include more seating fell through, the team announced it would be moving to play in BMO Field/Lamport Stadium for the 2018 season.
Lo Specchio is an Italian-language newspaper published in Vaughan since 1984.
City Life is a Vaughan-specific lifestyle magazine published bi-monthly by Dolce Publishing since 2003.
More recently, Vaughan City Hall has served as a film location, when it was used as the new Red Center (the Rachel and Leah Center) in season 2 of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale. It also served as the United Federation of Planets building and Office of the President in the season 1 finale of .
There are also a number of elementary and high schools in Vaughan, which operate under the York Region District School Board, the York Catholic District School Board, Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir (French-language Catholic schools) and Conseil scolaire Viamonde (French-language public schools). There is also a Waldorf school, the Toronto Waldorf School, which offers early childhood, elementary and accredited high school programs.
The American private Catholic Niagara University runs a branch campus in Vaughan, its first university in the city. The Ontario branch of Niagara University opened a 12,000 square foot facility at Expo City in downtown Vaughan. This campus will offer Master of Science in Education and Bachelor of Professional Studies in Education programs.
In 2018, the city was home to 12,105 businesses employing more than 222,000 people. Between 2008 and 2018, Vaughan's average annual employment growth was 3.2% and its business growth was 2.9%, exceeding provincial and national rates.
Manufacturing continues to dominate the local economy, accounting for 22% of total employment, followed by Construction (13%), Retail Trade (12%), Wholesale Trade (10%) and Transportation and Warehousing (6%). Small businesses with fewer than 20 employees account for 81% of all business establishments.
In 2018, the Accommodation and Food Services industry accounted for $295 million of Vaughan's real gross domestic product. Vaughan currently has 12 hotels and four motels with a total of 1,845 rooms. Development applications have been submitted that have the potential to add another 1,200 rooms to current supply in the coming years. Major tourism operators include Canada's Wonderland, Vaughan Mills, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the Kortright Centre for Conservation, LEGOLAND Discovery Centre, Reptilia, the mainstreet and village cores of Kleinburg, Thornhill, and Woodbridge. Construction activity, as measured by value of building permits, has exceeded the $1 billion mark in eight of the last ten years.
As of 2018, the largest employers in Vaughan are:
Vaughan is home to 184 Canadian or regional headquarters, including:
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