Here is a pic of downtown Kitchener taken by me last July:
For a city of 220 000 this view makes it seem on par with other similar sized cities. For those of you who are under the impression that this is a huge city, CMA of 450 000 to 500 000, those are the right numbers, but it's 3 different cities, Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge (which is itself 3 different cites joined together), so it isn't all one city with a big, tall downtown core. The highrises are very spread out. That being said, it is also true that Waterloo Region is lacking in the height department, and needs more, taller, highrises to bring it into the next tier of big cities.