Harriston (population 1,981) is a community in Wellington County, Ontario, Canada.

In 1999, Harriston was amalgamated with the communities of Palmerston, Clifford, and Minto Township to form the municipality of the Town of Minto.

Harriston is located at the headwaters of the Maitland River, and has several shops and restaurants.

In the summer of 1845, the first non-Aboriginal settlers arrived in the area. The Crown did not make land available for sale in the region until 1854.

Economic downturn and demographic changes caused significant hardship for the town during the 1970s. In September 1981, the Toronto Star featured a front page article entitled, "The Slow Death of a Town named Harriston." The article's author, Fran Macgregor, notes, "Harriston used to have three grocery stores. Now there are two." As of the early 2000s, there was only one grocery store. From the mid-2000s to 2014, the settlement did not have a gas station.

In 1995, the Progressive Conservative government of Ontario began to reduce the number of total municipalities in the province. On January 1, 1999, the Town of Minto was created through the amalgamation of the towns of Harriston, Palmerston, the former village of Clifford, and the surrounding rural area of the former Minto Township.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriston,_Ontario