Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southernmost city in Canada and marks the southwestern end of the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor.

At the time when the first Europeans arrived in the 17th century, the Detroit River region was inhabited by the Huron, Odawa, Potawatomi and Iroquois First Nations.

Windsor's French-Canadian heritage is reflected in French street names such as Ouellette, Drouillard, Pelissier, François, Pierre, Langlois, Marentette, and Lauzon.

The current street system (a grid with elongated blocks) reflects the Canadien method of agricultural land division, where the farms were long and narrow, fronting along the river.

The Sandwich neighbourhood on Windsor's west side is home to some of the city's oldest buildings, including Mackenzie Hall, originally built as the Essex County Courthouse in 1855.

[10] The city's access to the Canada–US border made it an essential stop for refugee enslaved people gaining freedom in the northern United States along the Underground Railroad.

Some locations in coastal and lower mainland British Columbia have a slightly higher mean annual temperature due to milder winter conditions there.

[19] Occasional bitter cold outbreaks do occur, often accompanied by wind chills exacerbating the feel to exposed skin, these tend to be short-lived.

On April 25, 2009, an F0 tornado briefly touched down in the eastern part of the city, causing minor damage to nearby buildings, most notably a CUPE union hall.

Further, the 1,150 km (710 mi) Quebec City – Windsor Corridor contains 18 million people, with 51% of the Canadian population and three out of the five largest metropolitan areas, according to the 2011 Census.

Both the University of Windsor and St. Clair College are significant local employers and have enjoyed substantial growth and expansion in recent years.

[46] Source:[47] Due to a strong reliance on the manufacturing sector, Windsor has experienced high levels of poverty and unemployment -- the highest in Southwestern Ontario.

His father, Paul Martin Sr., a federal cabinet minister in several portfolios through the Liberal governments of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, was first elected to the House of Commons from a Windsor riding in the 1930s.

A World War II era Avro Lancaster was displayed on a stand in the middle of Jackson Park for over four decades but has since been removed for restoration.

The focal point of this park is the Charles Brooks Memorial Peace Fountain, which floats in the Detroit River and has a coloured light display at night.

Each summer, Windsor co-hosts the two-week-long Windsor-Detroit International Freedom Festival, which culminates in a gigantic fireworks display that celebrates Canada Day and the Fourth of July.

Following the 2008 Red Bull Air Race World Championship in Detroit, Michigan, Windsor successfully put in a bid to become the first Canadian city to host the event.

Kennedy Collegiate Institute and Vincent Massey Secondary School are renowned in Southern Ontario for their notable accomplishments nationally in mathematics and computer science.

Now entering its most ambitious capital expansion since its founding in 1963, the University of Windsor recently opened the Anthony P. Toldo Health Education & Learning Centre, which houses the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.

With the help of $40 million in Ontario government funding, the university also has recently finished construction of a 300,000-square-foot (28,000 m2), $112-million Centre for Engineering Innovation; a structure that establishes revolutionary design standards across Canada and beyond.

The university also brought its School of Social Work to the old Windsor Star buildings on Ferry and Pitt Streets, bringing an additional 1,000 students into the downtown.

Collège Boréal is Windsor's only francophone post-secondary institution, providing service for a small but notable population of Franco-Ontarians within the Windsor-Tecumseh-Belle River area.

The merger occurred due to the Government of Ontario's province-wide policy to consolidate resources into Local Health Integrated Networks, or LHINs.

[90] The expressway stretches from Windsor's far west end at Ojibway Parkway east to Banwell Road on the city's border with Tecumseh.

The Port of Windsor, which covers 21.2 km (13.2 mi) of shoreline along the Detroit River, is part of the Great Lakes/Saint Lawrence Seaway System.

Cargos include a wide range of products such as aggregates, salt, grain, fluorspar, lumber, steel, petroleum, vehicles and heavy lift equipment.

[93] Windsor has a long history with rail travel in both passenger service and freight due to the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel.

In 2003, a single mother of three, Jacqueline Bouchard, was struck and killed by a truck at the corner of Huron Church and Girardot Avenue in front of Assumption College Catholic High School, a tragedy argued to be due to a lack of practical safety precautions.

In 2005, the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC — a joint Canadian-American committee studying the options for expanding the border crossing) announced its preferred option was to extend Highway 401 directly westward to a new bridge spanning the Detroit River and interchange with Interstate 75 somewhere between the existing Ambassador Bridge span and Wyandotte.

On April 9, 2010, the City of Windsor, along with local cabinet ministers Dwight Duncan and Sandra Pupatello of the Province of Ontario, announced a final decision had been made in the plans to construct the Windsor-Essex Parkway, the new Highway 401 extension leading to a future crossing.