[memph]

When I said lose Grimsby and Burlington, I meant using US Census rules where you either include the entire county or you don't. Grimsby is in Niagara Region which outside Grimsby and maybe Beamsville is pretty independent of Hamilton. Ditto for Burlington and Halton.

As for whether Burlington itself (and not Halton) is actually close to Hamilton, I guess it depends how you look at it.

Of Burlington's workforce, 39,465 work in Burlington including those working at home, 22,000 work in the Western GTA (rest of Halton and Peel), 8,475 work in Toronto and 8,000 work in Hamilton. Oakville and Mississauga are the second and third biggest destinations for commuters after Burlington respectively.

Of Burlington's jobs, after the 39,465 held by Burlington residents, 24,270 are held by Hamilton residents, 8,160 by residents of the rest of the Western GTA and 1345 by residents of Toronto. From a commuting point of view, Burlington is closer to the rest of the GTA than Hamilton, but it is closer to Hamilton than Toronto or the Western GTA looked at independently.

I agree that culturally, Burlington is more connected to Hamilton though, and the Western part of Burlington (downtown area and Aldershot) definitely feels very connected to Hamilton with the beach strip, RBG, Cootes Paradise, McMaster and Hamilton Harbour being shared assets and the two downtowns being closer to each other than their respective municipality's furthest suburban areas.

Do Hamilton's elite live mostly in Aldershot? The Eastern part of Burlington and Bronte seem to be the area where the Toronto/Sauga and Hamilton spheres overlap.