Oshawa

Oshawa, city in Durham Regional Municipality, southeastern Ontario, Canada. It is located on Lake Ontario, near Toronto. Oshawa is a port and a major manufacturing center. Oshawa grew through the manufacture of goods such as textiles, plastics, primary and fabricated metal, furniture, and electrical equipment. The city is served by Oshawa Municipal Airport, which is the site of the Ontario Regiment RCAC Regimental Museum and the Robert Stuart Aeronautical Museum.

The main campus of Durham College is also located in Oshawa. Points of interest include the Canadian Automotive Museum; the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, a museum of Canadian art; and Windfields Farm, a racehorse breeding farm. The city is also home to Parkwood Estate and Gardens, a national historic site of the former home of the founding family of General Motors Canada (GM); Second Marsh, a wetland; and McLaughlin Bay Wildlife Reserve. Among Oshawa’s annual events is Fiesta Week, a multicultural celebration that takes place in June.

The community, settled in the 1790s, was originally called Skae's Corners; in 1842 it received its present name, which is believed to be derived from an aboriginal term for a portage or stream crossing. Oshawa incorporated as a city in 1924. It became the Canadian headquarters for GM in 1918. In 1937 more than 4,000 workers at the GM plant went on strike for better wages, better working conditions, and an eight-hour workday. The strike was ultimately successful and established auto unions as a force in Canadian labor (see Labor Unions in Canada).

Oshawa covers a land area of 143.4 sq km (55.4 sq mi). Population 129,344 (1991); 139,051 (2001).