Markham being named “Municipality of the Year” by Festivals & Events Ontario isn’t just a shiny plaque — it’s a roadmap. In an era when cities scramble to manage housing costs, transit delays, and strained services, Markham has quietly built a reputation for something harder to measure but essential to urban life: community culture.
This recognition reflects more than summer street parties and weekend parades. It shows long-term planning to make cultural programming a core part of how the city engages residents, supports local business, and invites newcomers to connect. In fact, many of Markham’s most successful events — from Night It Up! to the Markham Jazz Festival — were developed in tandem with its economic and urban growth strategies.
While some cities treat festivals as seasonal PR, Markham treats them as essential public infrastructure: a place for inclusion, a platform for artists, and a driver of economic activity. It’s a rare alignment of city staff, council, and community groups that gets this right.
And it’s working. As Toronto grapples with rising costs and transit woes, and Mississauga focuses on building up, Markham is showing how city identity can be a competitive advantage.
Other GTA municipalities should take note. Cultural planning is not fluff — it’s glue. And Markham, for all its low-key approach, may be Canada’s most cohesive example of how to build civic spirit from the ground up.
📍 This editorial is part of Civic Pulse: Your Weekly Municipal Breakdown, published every Wednesday in GTA Weekly. Follow us @GTAWeeklyNews for in-depth municipal coverage and local civic insights. #GTAWeekly #GTAToday #CivicPulse
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