Bradford, which is technically now called Bradford-West Gwillimbury since the recent merger with the adjacent town of West Gwillimbury, is a very small community with big ties. The town itself is exceedingly small, tight-knit, and rural. Until recently the primary arena of employment for people who actually stayed in town to work was in agriculture, but recent town administrations have been working to change all that. Their economic initiatives are aimed at bringing more high-tech, manufacturing, and office jobs into the town by offering reduced land prices and taxes to help ease the burdens of paying for their commercial mortgage.
As an outlying town of Toronto, however, Bradford's primary role in this larger community is twofold: on one hand it provides some food an agricultural products from its open, arable lands to the more major urban centers. Secondly it also provides workers to these urban centers. Most of the people who live in Bradford chose it as an alternative to Ajax real estate and instead commute there for work. As such it can be classified as a bedroom community wherein there are a lot fewer people around during the day and it provides a safe, spacious, green place for workers with families to raise kids away from the problems of a major urban center.
Bradford's residents come from the great Toronto relocation and belong to all races, lifestyles and nations including Portugal, Italy, Holland, Trinidad, the Ukraine and of course the United Kingdom. The town prides itself on its cultural diversity and celebrates it with numerous community festivals and activity programs designed to open people up to the food, customs and languages of other cultures.
The town is proud to offer recreation opportunities to all its residents including a library, golf course, community center, skate park, swimming pool, skating/hockey rink, and numerous parks and outdoor sporting fields. Residents keep fit and have fun by spending time outdoors hiking, playing sports, and shopping for places to do cheap postcard printing.
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