Barrie's growth as city has been as dynamic over the last two decades as its beginning as an municipality in 1871. During the 1980's and 1990's Barrie was reputed to be the fastest growing city in Canada on several occasions and was seldom out of the Top 10 cities in all of Canada in terms of its rate of growth. Credible estimates today has Barrie with a population of 120,000 to 130,000 residents. When it elected Robert Simpson as its first mayor in 1871, approximately 7,000 people called Barrie home. A natural deep water harbour on the western shoulder of Lake Simcoe called Kempenfelt Bay, provided access, commerce, and rationale for the prosperity and growth endured in the early days of Barrie's history. A bustling street called Dunlop, lined with merchant shops, a few hotels, newspaper offices, printing shops, and tie-ups for horse drawn carriages, functioned as the city core. Paddle wheel boats and passenger trains brought people from Toronto and larger urban areas to the south and deposited them near the city centre. These were hardy people who brought with them great energy, ambition and an insatiable desire for progress.. They built the foundations of a society that would blossom and flourish with an entrepreneurial spirit and pioneer work ethic. Its judicial, educational, banking, publishing, religious and merchant centers shepherded early growth through core area fires and floods. Its civic leaders were strong and committed to progress. In fact, their dedication and contribution to the early history of Barrie precipitated our naming the executive suites of today's Harbour View Inn after the first ten mayors of this great city.