Kawartha Lakes

The City of Kawartha Lakes (2021 population 79,247) is a unitary municipality in Central Ontario, Canada. It is a municipality legally structured as a single-tier city; however, Kawartha Lakes is the size of a typical Ontario county and is mostly rural. It is the second largest single-tier municipality in Ontario by land area (after Greater Sudbury). The main population centres are the communities of Lindsay (population: 22,367), Bobcaygeon (population: 3,576), Fenelon Falls (population: 2,490), Omemee (population: 1,060) and Woodville (population: 718). History The Kawartha Lakes area is situated on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg, Huron-Wendat and more recently, the Haudenosaunee peoples. The city's name is from the Kawartha Lakes. Kawartha is an anglicization of Ka-wa-tha (from Ka-wa-tae-gum-maug or Gaa-waategamaag), which was coined in 1895 by Martha Whetung of the Curve Lake First Nations. It meant "land of reflections" in the Anishinaabe language, according to Whetung. The word was later changed by tourism promoters to Kawartha, meaning "bright waters and happy lands." Prior to its restructuring as a city, the area was known as Victoria County. The city was created in 2001, during the ruling provincial Progressive Conservative party's "Common Sense Revolution". Through provincial legislation, the former Victoria County and its constituent municipalities were amalgamated into one entity named the City of Kawartha Lakes.