Toronto is the capital city of the province of Ontario in Canada. It is not the capital of Canada--that's Ottawa, also in Ontario. It is located on the north shore of Lake Ontario, at 43° 42' latitude and 79° 25' longitude. It is the fifth largest city in North America, the largest in Canada. It has also been declared by the United Nations to be the most multicultural city in the world.

History

Before there was Toronto, there were Mississauga Indian encampments, a French fur trading post and Fort Rouillé. The French burned Fort Rouillé in their retreat from the British in 1759. When American Loyalists began moving to Upper Canada (now Ontario) in the 1780s and 1790s, Governor John Graves Simcoe decided to establish a new town on the site (1793). The town, named York, was guarded by Fort York, which was destroyed in the War of 1812.

In 1834, York became a city and was renamed Toronto (a Huron word). In 1867 it became the capital of Ontario. In 1998, the government of Ontario forced the City of Toronto and several surrounding cities (formerly called 'boroughs') to merge into the new 'mega-city' of Toronto.¹

Nicknames

Toronto used to be known as 'Hogtown' (it was a centre of agricultural processing). Locals tend to call it 'Trawna'. And the rest of Canada sarcastically calls it 'The Centre of the Universe'; they are not entirely wrong, of course.

Statistics²

Area: 632 sq. km

Population: About 2.5 million (out of 31 million).

Immigration: Over 50% of Torontonians were born outside Canada. In 1997, 80,000 immigrants from 169 countries settled in Toronto. One quarter of Canadian immigrants live in Toronto, especially from the U.K., Italy, Hong Kong, Italy, India, Jamaica, China, Portugal, and the Philippines. Recent immigration has been largest from Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, China, India, and the Philippines. Immigration levels have contributed to Toronto's remarkable restaurant scene.

Language: The most commonly spoken language is English, but more than 100 languages are reported as spoken at home.

Tourist Attractions

The CN Tower is (in 2001) the largest freestanding structure in the world. It is also the world's largest phallic symbol. It was built by the CN rail and communications company in the early 1970s as a communications tower. There are two levels for visitors, one containing a rotating restaurant.

The Skydome is home to the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team. It features a retractable roof. It is next to the CN Tower, which has led to interesting snide comments about phallic and non-phallic symbols. The Toronto Maple Leafs do not play hockey at Maple Leaf Gardens any more, which is sad. They play at the Air Canada Centre, as does the Raptors basketball team.

Tourists also seem to like the Eaton's Centre, which is a big shopping mall on Yonge Street (incidentally, the world's longest street). I'm not sure why. It's a shopping mall.

The Royal Ontario Museum is an excellent museum of natural and human history. The Ontario Science Centre and the Art Gallery of Ontario are also worth a visit.

Toronto's Neighbourhoods

Toronto is often called a city of neighbourhoods. Residents tend to identify themselves both as Torontonians and as residents of a particular neighbourhood or former borough (though residents of Scarborough, to the east of the old City of Toronto, don't usually like to be told they live in 'Scarberia', even if it's true). Most neighbourhoods feature a mix of commercial and residential use, and often industry as well.

Some neighbourhoods bear old names, such as the upper-class neighbourhoods of Rosedale (old money) and Yorkville (which was a hippie area in the 1960s) and the gentrified neighbourhood of Cabbagetown (where Irish immigrants once grew cabbages in their yards). Others are geographic, such as Queen West and Bloor West Village. Some reflect particular ethnic communities, such as Chinatown (which is really pan-Asian), Little Italy (of which there are two), Greektown, and Little India. Some reflect other communities, such as Boystown (which isn't boys-only). Then there are those that are identified by particular features, such as Kensington Market, which has been home to waves of new immigrants for over a century, and to bohemians since the 1970s.