Newmarket is a town and regional seat of the Regional Municipality of York in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is part of Greater Toronto in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario. Many Newmarket residents commute to Toronto, located about 45 minutes transit time south of the town.The town originally formed as one of many farming communities in the area, but also developed an industrial centre on the Northern Railway of Canada's mainline, which ran through what became the downtown area starting in the 1850s. It also became a thriving market town with the arrival of the Metropolitan Street Railway in 1899. Over time, the town developed into a primarily residential area, and the expansion of Ontario Highway 400 to the west and the construction of Ontario Highway 404 to the east increasingly turned it into a bedroom town since the 1980s. The Official Plan, however, includes growth in the business services and knowledge industries, as well as in the administrative, manufacturing and retail sectors.Some of Newmarket's most noticeable landmarks are the Upper Canada Mall, Southlake Regional Health Centre, the Main Street Heritage Conservation District, the Fairy Lake Conservation Area, as well as many other parks and recreation areas. In 2013, MoneySense magazine ranked Newmarket 10th out of 200 cities in Canada, and 4th out of the "Top 10 Small Cities" in Canada in its "Canada's Best Places to Live in 2013". The same magazine rated Newmarket in the top 25 of 219 communities in 2016 and as the 14th among best small cities. In 2017, Amazon Canada ranked Newmarket as number 20 of the top 100 most romantic cities in Canada.
