With a population of 2.96 million, Toronto is Canada's largest
city and the capital of the province of Ontario. It is located in the
Golden Horseshoe, a region of over 8.1 million people that
stretches in a semicircle around the western end of Lake Ontario
to Niagara Falls. Around a third of the population increase in
the entire country has lived in this metropolitan area in recent
years. The population of the metropolitan area (Census
Metropolitan Area) increased from 4.1 million in 1992 to 5.6
million in 2011. The Greater Toronto Area had a population of
6.2 million in 2010.
The city is located on the
northwestern shore of Lake Ontario, the smallest of the five
Great Lakes at 18,960 km². Toronto underwent multiple expansions
in the late 1990s with the incorporation of a number of suburbs
that had already merged with Toronto (Etobicoke, Scarborough,
York, East York and North York). The center with the shopping
and banking district is located near the lake. The main shopping
street is Yonge Street. Toronto has been Canada's economic
center and one of the world's leading financial centers since
the approximately 1970s, after Montreal has played this role for
decades.
Toronto's architectural tradition began in the mid-19th century. Many
of the leading architects have designed buildings in Toronto, such as
Toronto native Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, Norman Foster, Will Alsop,
Ieoh Ming Pei, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Santiago Calatrava. Some
architectural styles were developed in Toronto, such as the so-called
Bay and Gable style. These are very narrow, partly only six meters wide,
semi-detached terraced houses made of red brick. The term bay-and-gable
describes two characteristics: the houses have a bay window and a
pointed gable. The Victorian-style houses sometimes also contain
neo-Gothic elements. Most Bay and Gable homes can be found in The Annex,
Cabbagetown, and Little Italy neighborhoods.
The road system is
largely laid out in a chessboard pattern. One of the most important
streets is Yonge Street. It was intended as a military supply line;
nowadays economic and cultural life mainly takes place along this
street. It begins more than 1800 kilometers inland and ends at Lake
Ontario, making it one of the longest roads in North America. The city
center (Central Business District) extends north to Bloor Street, south
to the Harbourfront neighborhood, west to Spadina Avenue and east to
Parliament Street. The multi-lane Gardiner Expressway runs between Union
Station and Harbourfront. In the downtown area, the city highway usually
runs on a bridge construction for reasons of space. Outside the city
center, small houses characterize the cityscape.
The city center
consists mainly of tall buildings. In the Greater Toronto Area
metropolitan area, there are nearly 2,000 buildings that exceed 100
feet; Toronto has the second highest number of skyscrapers on the North
American continent after New York City. Downtown Toronto alone has over
100 skyscrapers that are over 100 meters tall. At 298 meters, the
tallest skyscraper in Toronto is First Canadian Place on the corner of
King Street and Bay Street. At the beginning of 2009, the number of
skyscrapers increased significantly, and several hundred high-rise
buildings were in the planning or construction phase.
South of
downtown are the Toronto Islands, four artificially expanded islands in
Lake Ontario that shield the harbor from the lake. On the westernmost
island is a small airport (Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport), which can
be reached via a ferry connection from downtown. The other islands are
designed as a park with smaller lakes, watercourses, a pier, a beach and
amusement facilities. The islands are closed to motorized private
transport and can be reached by passenger ferry in about ten minutes
from Queen's Quay Terminal.
The Canadian National Tower, CN Tower for short, was completed in 1976 and is the tallest free-standing structure on the American continents, a dominant feature of urban development and a landmark. From its completion to the topping-out ceremony for the Canton Tower in May 2009, it was the tallest television tower in the world at 553 meters. With around two million visitors a year, the tower is one of the most visited buildings in Canada, although it was originally only planned for radio transmission. Until September 12, 2007, the CN Tower was also the tallest free-standing structure on earth. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai now occupies this rank with 828 meters. In addition to a revolving restaurant and a viewing platform at 342 and 346 meters, the tower has a second viewing platform (sky pod) below the antenna mast at a height of 447 meters, until 2008 the highest viewing platform in the world.
Adjacent to the CN Tower is the former SkyDome, opened in 1989 and
renamed Rogers Center on February 2, 2005. The 54,000-seat arena is home
to the BlueJays (baseball) and the Argonauts (Canadian football) and
when it opened it was the world's first sports arena to feature a fully
retractable roof and the world's largest video screen. The building
houses the Renaissance Toronto Hotel Downtown (formerly: SkyDome Hotel),
which offers 70 two-story suites with a view of the field and a
restaurant (until 2009 Hard Rock Cafe), also with a view of the field.
East of the Rogers Center is the Air Canada Center on the south side
of the railway lines, which serves as the home arena for the Toronto
Raptors basketball team, the Toronto Maple Leafs ice hockey team, the
Toronto Rock lacrosse team and the Toronto Phantoms football team in
addition to concerts and theater performances. Depending on the event,
the hall can accommodate up to 19,800 spectators.
West of
downtown is Canada's largest football-only stadium, BMO Field, which was
completed in April 2007 and can accommodate around 20,000 spectators.
The luxury hotel Fairmont Royal York is located opposite Union
Station on Front Street. The building, completed in 1929, is 124 meters
high, has 28 floors and building sections of different heights. It was
the tallest building in the city until 1931.
Below the district
is the more than 28-kilometer-long PATH tunnel network, which connects
office complexes and over 1,200 shops and offices underground. The
north-south axis of this network stretches from the Royal York Hotel and
Union Station well beyond Queen Street West. On the east-west axis, the
St. Andrew and King Yellow Line underground stations form the extremes
of this world's largest underground city.
Also connected to the
PATH is Brookfield Place (formerly BCE Place), an office and commercial
complex consisting of the two skyscrapers Bay Wellington Tower (207
meters) and TD Canada Trust Tower (261 meters). This complex was planned
by the Toronto architecture firm Bregman + Hamann Architects with the
participation of Santiago Calatrava, who designed the six-story Allen
Lambert Galleria. This gallery, including a large, light-filled atrium
capped by an arched strut construction, connects both skyscrapers.
East of Brookfield Place is the 1892 Gooderham Building, a striking
iron building.
The Toronto Dominion Center is a building complex
of six high-rise buildings built by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe between
1967 and 1969. The most striking structures are two black skyscrapers,
the tallest of which is the Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower at 222 meters.
The Toronto Stock Exchange is located near the IBM Tower.
Opened
in the 1970s, the Eaton Center is a six-storey shopping center with over
300 shops, 17 cinemas, nightclubs and a luxury hotel frequented by up to
a million people a week. It was named after Irish immigrant Timothy
Eaton, who opened a general store on the site in 1869. This resulted in
a mail order company known throughout Canada. The south entrance is on
the corner of Queen Street West and Yonge Street; the mall extends north
to Dundas Square and also connects to the PATH below the surface. The
Eaton Center was designed with the participation of German architect
Erhard Zeidler together with Bregman + Hamann Architects.
East of
the south entrance to the Eaton Centre, on the corner of Queen Street
West and Bay Street, is the avant-garde New City Hall complex designed
by Finnish architect Viljo Revell in the early 1960s. The two buildings
are 20- and 27-story high-rise buildings with a curved floor plan. The
two high-rise buildings are connected via a lower shell-shaped plenary
hall. The building has served as the town hall since 1965 and is located
opposite the old town hall. West of City Hall is Osgoode Hall. The
former courthouse was constructed between 1835 and 1855 and is named
after the first Chief Justice of Upper Canada, William Osgoode.
At almost 93 meters, St. James Cathedral is the tallest church building
in Toronto and the second tallest in Canada after St. Joseph's Oratory
in Montreal. Completed in 1844, the Anglican Church is part of the
city's oldest congregation and is just off downtown on Church Street,
where many of Toronto's other churches are located.
South of St.
James Park is the St. Lawrence Market with a south and a north building.
The southern building served as the town hall between 1845 and 1904;
Today, changing exhibitions provide information about the city's
history. The first floor used to be a police station. Today, more than
120 traders offer their products, especially in the northern market
hall.
North of the city center is Casa Loma, a 'European' style castle
built by Sir Henry Pellatt in the early 1900's. It is now a museum with
98 rooms, secret passages, an old swimming pool and a botanical winter
garden.
Toronto's Chinatown is one of the largest in North
America. Like the others, it is characterized by bilingual street signs
and numerous Chinese shops and restaurants. It is located in the area of
Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue just west of Yonge Street. The
neighborhood dates back to 1878.[93] Back then, hundreds of immigrant
Chinese helped build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Toronto experienced
its greatest influx of Chinese immigrants between 1947 and 1960. When
construction of the new City Hall on Nathan Phillips Square began in
1961, the Chinatown shifted westward from the intersection of Queens
Street and Bay Street.
East of the Don Valley Parkway is
Greektown, Toronto, a neighborhood on Danforth Avenue that's primarily
home to Greek immigrants. In the 1970s and 1980s, the neighborhood was
considered the largest Greek neighborhood in North America. The area
along Danforth Avenue and Pape has bilingual street signs in English and
Greek. With around 125,000 Greeks, Greektown is now the second largest
Greek community outside of Greece. Lined with Greek and Canadian flags,
Danforth Avenue is lined with restaurants and cafes serving Greek food
and music.
On three artificial islands in Lake Ontario is the
approximately 566,000 square meter amusement park Ontario Place, opened
on May 22, 1971. It is about four kilometers west of downtown. In
addition to various wild water rides and water slides, a large IMAX
cinema is one of the attractions.
The city area has well over 200 parks and gardens with over 90
kilometers of walking paths.
The largest park at 161 hectares is
High Park to the west north of Humber Bay. It extends south of Bloor
Street West and west of Parkside Drive, east of Ellis Park Road. It is a
mixture of local recreation area and nature park with a zoo.
Allan Gardens is a botanical garden donated by former Mayor George
William Allan. For example, six greenhouses display rare tropical plants
and palm trees. The university moved its greenhouse to Allan Gardens in
1931.
The approximately 15 hectare Trinity Bellwoods Park between
the area north of Queen Street West and Dundas Street contains playing
fields for various sports such as tennis, football and volleyball.
HTO Park, on Harbourfront south of Rogers Center, is a city beach
that opened in 2007 on the shores of Lake Ontario.
In the
northeast of the city is the 287 hectare zoological garden, the Toronto
Zoo. The new building was started in 1970 as a result of a citizens'
initiative and opened on August 15, 1974. In terms of area, it is the
third largest zoo in the world with over ten kilometers of footpaths and
is home to around 5000 animals and 460 species. Its predecessor, the
Riverdale Zoo, opened in 1888. The zoo welcomes around 1.2 million
visitors every year.
In the immediate vicinity of the zoo is
Rouge National Urban Park, a national park.
Accessible by ferry,
the offshore Toronto Islands offer 230 hectares of extensive walking
paths, beaches and sports facilities. Over 1.2 million visitors take
advantage of the opportunities offered by Toronto Island Park each year.
The city has a concert hall called Roy Thomson Hall for the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra, Massey Hall (predecessor to Roy Thomson Hall), other
concert halls, and a number of buildings for opera, ballet, operetta,
and drama. After London and New York, Toronto has the third largest
theater scene in the English-speaking world. The Royal Alexandra
Theatre, opened in 1907, gained particular notoriety. Based on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame, Canada's Walk of Fame was opened in 1998 in 13
streets around the Royal Alexandra Theater. There, 131 famous Canadian
athletes, singers and stars from the media world are currently being
honored with a memorial stone in the sidewalk.
On June 14, 2006,
the Four Seasons Center opened, a 2,000-seat opera house south of the
new City Hall. The $181 million structure replaced the grand opera house
built in 1874. It is home to the Canadian National Ballet and the
Canadian Opera Company. Toronto is the home of the renowned baroque
orchestra Tafelmusik.
In addition to a wide-ranging music
industry, the English-language literary scene is concentrated here. Many
literary figures studied at the University of Toronto, such as Stephen
Leacock, Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient).
The city has several important museums. The Art Gallery of Ontario
(AGO) is one of the largest art museums in North America, with a focus
on collections of Canadian paintings, European paintings and sculptures
by Henry Moore.
The Royal Ontario Museum, usually just called
ROM, is the largest museum in Canada. It has collections on natural
science, archaeology, art and cultural history, and First Nations. It
became world famous for its art collection from the Far East. Since June
2007, the ROM has ten expanded galleries. The new building and the old
building were nested in one another. The new exterior, The Crystal, has
a deconstructivist, jagged, crystal-like shape composed of 25% glass and
75% aluminum. The facade facing Bloor Street West is the main entrance
to the museum. The new building, designed by architects Bregman + Hamann
and Daniel Libeskind, cost $270 million.
The Museum of
Contemporary Canadian Art presents contemporary art.
The Ryerson
Image Center (RIC), which opened in 2012, shows exhibitions on
photography, new media, installation art and film.
The
International Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF) is an institution that honors
the best hockey players in a hockey museum.
On Bloor Street West
is the Bata Shoe Museum, a shoe museum owned by the Bata Group. The
museum, founded in 1979, shows over 12,000 shoes, the oldest exhibits
date from around 2500 BC.
A total of ten different houses,
schools, industrial buildings and other buildings have been declared
historic sites. One of the most important is the Fort York National
Historic Site. It is located on the site where Toronto was founded in
1793 and where the climax of the British-American War took place on
April 27, 1813 as the Battle of York.
About seven miles northeast
of downtown is the Ontario Science Center, a science museum that opened
in 1969. It shows scientific connections based on experiments that
visitors can carry out themselves. It records around 1.5 million
visitors a year.
With the exception of the National Football League (NFL), Toronto has
one team in each of the major North American professional sports
leagues.
In the National Hockey League (NHL), the Toronto Maple
Leafs are one of the most successful ice hockey teams in North America
with 13 overall wins and 21 final appearances in the Stanley Cup. The
Toronto Marlies act as the farm team for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the
American Hockey League (AHL). The Toronto Raptors are the only
basketball team to play outside of the United States in the National
Basketball Association (NBA) basketball league. Like the Toronto Maple
Leafs, the Toronto Raptors play their games at the Scotiabank Arena. The
Toronto Blue Jays, also the only Major League Baseball (MLB) baseball
team outside the United States, and the Toronto Argonauts, who play
Canadian football, play at the highly visible downtown Rogers Center.
The Canadian Football League (CFL) championship, the Gray Cup, has
already been held 48 times in Toronto. Due to this special position in
the most important professional sports leagues in the United States,
Toronto is regarded as the most Americanized city in Canada from a
sporting point of view.
Other teams worth mentioning in the city
are the Toronto Rock, who play lacrosse, which is extremely popular in
Canada, in the National Lacrosse League (NLL), and the Toronto FC, who
play in the Major League Soccer (MLS) football league alongside the
Vancouver Whitecaps, also from Canada. plays. In addition, Toronto is a
stronghold of rugby in Canada. There are over 70 traditional rugby clubs
throughout the metropolitan area. The Ontario Blues, who compete against
teams from North and South America in the domestic Canadian Rugby
Championship (CRC) and the international Americas Rugby Championship
(ARC), and the Toronto Arrows, have their own franchise team within the
Major League Rugby (MLR) rugby league, are of national importance.
place. With a total of seven traditional clubs and other academic ranks,
Toronto is also a center of Canadian rowing, which has its origins in
the so-called Hanlan Bay in Lake Ontario.
Toronto has been the
venue for numerous international sporting events. After the 1976 Summer
Olympics were awarded to Montreal, the city hosted the 1976 Summer
Paralympic Games. The city applied for the 1996 and 2008 Summer
Olympics, but lost to Atlanta and Beijing, respectively. The
Toronto-based Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) then considered applying
a third time. The city co-hosted the 1997 6th Special Olympics World
Winter Games with Collingwood.
→ Main article: Special Olympics
World Winter Games 1997
The 6th Special Olympics World Winter Games
were held February 1-8, 1997 in Toronto and Collingwood. This was the
first and only time that Canada has hosted a Special Olympics World
Games. Until then, all games except the 1993 Special Olympics World
Winter Games had been held in the United States. Almost 2,000 athletes
from 73 countries and more than 5,000 volunteers were involved in the
games. The event featured five competitive sports and one demonstration
sport: Figure Skating: Toronto, Indoor Hockey: Toronto, Alpine Skiing:
Blue Mountain Resort, Collingwood, Cross Country Skiing: Highlands
Nordic, Collingwood, Speed Skating: Toronto. Snowshoeing was a
demonstration sport. According to another source, curling was also
offered.
Since 1990, the Rogers Masters, which is one of the
tournaments in the ATP Masters Series, has taken place in Toronto,
alternating with Montreal every year. In 1993 the 4th World Indoor
Athletics Championships took place there. A year later, Toronto hosted
the Basketball World Cup alongside Hamilton. In 2000, the Du Maurier
Open 2000 was held in Toronto. Also since 2000, the Toronto Waterfront
Marathon has been held annually in the city center in the fall. Toronto
also co-hosted the 2015 Pan American Games with the Golden Horseshoe
region.
The Toronto International Film Festival in early September is one of
the largest film festivals in North America. It has been held since 1976
with the presentation of the Genie Awards (since 1980) and the Gemini
Awards (since 1986). The multi-venue international film festival IFCT
Festival took place in Toronto in 2002.
In February, the Canadian
International AutoShow has been held annually at the Metro Toronto
Convention Center and the Rogers Center since 1974. With 79,000 square
meters of exhibition space, it is Canada's largest motor show.
The four-day Canadian Music Week, held in March (from 2014: in May)
since 1981, is a music festival and music conference.
Since 1968,
the International Caravan festival has been held in Toronto at the
beginning of June. It consists of musical and folkloric events in the
form of concerts and theatrical performances in more than 30 pavilions
around the city.
Pride Week at the end of June each year is one
of the largest gay pride festivals in the world. Highlights include the
Dyke March and the Pride Parade, which draws up to over a million
people.
The four-day Beaches International Jazz Festival has been
held annually in the summer since 1989 as an outdoor event in The
Beaches neighborhood of Old Toronto, with the main act each time on a
stage in Kew Garden. At the same time, bands play along a stretch of two
kilometers along Queen Street East. Since 1987 there has also been the
Toronto Jazz Festival in June/July. The North by Northeast (NXNE) music
and culture festival has been held in June since 1995.
The Taste
of the Danforth festival has been held in Greektown every August since
1994. Once just a local street festival with Greek specialties, it now
attracts well over 1.5 million visitors.
The Canadian National
Exhibition is a mixture of fair and agricultural fair. The event has
been held on Exhibition Place, a square west of downtown, since 1879
from mid-August to Labor Day. With around 1.3 million visitors annually,
it is North America's fifth largest trade fair. In addition to the
exhibitions, there are also sports and music events and an air show.
The Toronto Santa Claus Parade is a mid-November Christmas parade
that has been held since 1905. More than half a million people watch the
parade four miles from downtown Toronto each time. It has been
nationally televised since 1952.
Located on the northwest shore of Lake Ontario, Toronto is part of
the Quebec-Windsor Corridor, Canada's most densely populated area. In
its immediate vicinity are the western towns of Mississauga and
Brampton, which are counted as part of the Regional Municipality of
Peel. A little further east is the Regional Municipality of Halton,
headquartered in Milton. To the north are Vaughan and Markham (Regional
Municipality of York). To the east is the town of Pickering, which is
part of the Regional Municipality of Durham. The metropolitan region
Greater Toronto Area (GTA) includes these four regional administrations
(Regional Municipality) in addition to the urban area.
The urban
area covers an area of 630.18 km² and stretches 21 kilometers
north-south and 43 kilometers east-west. The area is slightly smaller
than that of Hamburg (755 km²). The city limits are formed by Lake
Ontario to the south, Etobicoke Creek and Highway 427 to the west,
Steeles Avenue to the north and the Rouge River to the east. The port
area on the shore of the lake forms a coastline of 46 kilometers in
total.
North of the urban area, the approximately 1900 km² area
of the Oak Ridges moraine, an ecologically significant green belt,
stretches from the Niagara escarpment to around Peterborough.
Toronto is drained by the Humber River on the western edge, the Don
River east of downtown on the opposite side of the harbor and numerous
tributaries. The natural harbor was formed by sedimentation, which also
gave rise to the Toronto Islands. The multitude of streams and rivers
that flow through the area from the north and empty into Lake Ontario
have created numerous forested canyons. These canyons influence urban
planning in such a way that some thoroughfares such as Finch Avenue,
Leslie Street, Lawrence Avenue and St. Clair Avenue end on one side of
the canyon and continue on the other. The almost 500 meter long Prince
Edward Viaduct spans the 40 meter deep gorge formed by the Don River.
During the last ice age, the lower part of the city area was under
the glacial Lake Iroquois, an ice reservoir. Land ruptures dating back
to this period can be seen from Victoria Park Avenue, east of downtown,
at the mouth of Highland Creek. The Scarborough Bluffs are rugged rocky
cliffs up to 65 meters high for 14 kilometers along the shoreline of
Lake Ontario. Toronto has no significant elevations. The lowest point is
on the shore of Lake Ontario at 75 meters above sea level, the highest
at 270 meters near York University in the north of the city.
Toronto's water economy, like that of the York region, is based on
Lake Ontario. From 1843 to 1873, a private company ensured the water
supply, since 1873 the municipal administration has taken on this task.
Today, it pumps an average of 2.9 million cubic meters of water per day
through the supply network.[14] Since 1949, the steel pipes have been at
least 750 mm in diameter and are encased with cement and concrete. Since
the lake carries enough water, Toronto gets by with few reservoirs. Most
of the water is stored in the pipe system itself.
With the DLWC
project, Toronto has developed a new method for air conditioning office
buildings. Since the water temperature at the bottom of the very deep
Lake Ontario is constant at four degrees Celsius all year round, it can
be used to cool the inner city.
Due to its location in the extreme south of Canada, Toronto has a
very moderate climate for the country (effective climate classification:
Dfa). The four seasons are very distinct with significant temperature
differences, especially in the cold months. Due to the proximity to the
water, the temperatures fluctuate little during the day, especially in
densely built-up areas and areas near the shore. At certain times of the
year, the lake's temperate climate can turn into extreme local and
regional weather conditions, such as the so-called lake effect snow,
which delays the onset of spring and creates autumn-like conditions.
Winters in Toronto are cold, with short spells bringing extreme
temperatures below -10°C, made even colder by the wind. The lowest
temperature was measured on January 10, 1859 at −32.8 °C. Snow can be
expected in Toronto from November to mid-April. In addition to
snowstorms and freezing rain, mild sections with temperatures between 5
and 14 °C are possible.
The summers are characterized by long
periods of humid climate. The average daily temperature varies between
20 and 29 °C. However, it can also rise to 35 °C. The highest recorded
temperature was 40.6 °C on July 8, 1936. Autumn and spring bridge the
main seasons with mild or cool temperatures and alternating dry and wet
periods.
Precipitation is distributed throughout the year. The
focus is usually in summer, the wettest season; most of the
precipitation falls in thunderstorms. The average annual total snow
depth is 133 centimeters. The largest amount of snow was measured on
December 11, 1944 with a height of 48.3 centimeters. The average annual
sunshine duration is 2038 hours.
Due to the diversity and, in many cases, quite distinct identity of
Toronto's many neighborhoods, the city is sometimes referred to as the
City of Neighborhoods. Old Toronto (English: Old City of Toronto) or
Downtown had up to 240 parts until 1997, when it was incorporated into
Metropolitan Toronto. The Old City is the most densely populated of
these; it also houses the business and administrative center.
Since January 1, 1998, the metropolis has consisted of six boroughs
(counties) Old Toronto (divided into Downtown Core (Central), North End,
East End, West End), North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke, York and East
York in turn are subdivided into a total of 140 districts (English:
neighborhoods, here: "district" or "residential areas"). The 140
districts are grouped into a total of 44 administrative districts
(English ward), which are headed by a councilor (English councillor).
For meetings, the 44 Wards are divided into four local councils:
Etobicoke York Council, North York Community Council, Toronto and East
York Community Council and Scarborough Community Council. The Community
Councils were created in 1997 as part of the reorganization and form a
body of the City Council. The task of the municipal councils is to
submit proposals to the city council if they affect their districts.
The oldest traces of human settlement in the area of today's city of
Toronto are 11,000 years old. Pre-Indian peoples migrated from the south
to the north shore of Lake Ontario after the last Ice Age. The Wyandot
called the place Tarantua, derived from tkaronto from the language of
the Mohawk, who belong to the Iroquois. It means place where trees stand
by the water and later place of gatherings or meeting place. The name
goes back to Lake Simcoe, where the Wyandot planted trees and fished,
and a well-used portage route from Lake Simcoe to Lake Huron (Toronto
Carrying-Place Trail).
The current urban area was home to a
number of First Nations people who lived on the shores of Lake Ontario.
At the beginning of European settlement, near Toronto lived the
neutrals, so called by the French because they stayed out of the wars at
the time. They were destroyed by the Iroquois in the mid-17th century.
Therefore, in the greater Toronto area lived Seneca, Mohawk, Oneida and
Cayuga, who were among the Iroquois. Immediate neighbors were the Seneca
villages of Teiaiagon and Ganatsekwyagon.
French merchants founded Fort Rouillé on the site of today's
Exhibition Place in 1750, which was demolished in 1759. British settlers
flocked to the region during the American Revolutionary War. In 1787 the
so-called Toronto Purchase came about, an agreement between the British
monarchy and the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. The
Mississaugas of New Credit traded 101,528 hectares of land in what is
now Toronto for 140 barrels of goods and £1,700. However, this trade was
reversed in 1805.
In the 18th century, the fur hunters used the
meeting place quite successfully for their business until the British
governor Simcoe had the trading center converted into a fort and thus
founded York in 1793. The settlement developed slowly; the then seat of
government of Upper Canada was still in Niagara-on-the-Lake. York only
became the capital of Upper Canada in 1797. During the British-American
War, the Battle of York took place on April 27, 1813 between the United
Kingdom and the United States. Around 1700 Americans invaded York. The
six-hour battle ended after the British side blew up their ammunition
dump and withdrew to Kingston. After the battle, which cost both sides
losses, the Americans occupied York for six days. The fact that they
could not hold their ground permanently is seen as one reason why the
British were able to stay in Canada. As a result, there were further
armed conflicts that only ended in 1815.
On March 15, 1827, King George IV founded what is now known as the
University of Toronto, King's College, with which the city continued to
gain in importance after a bank had already opened in 1819, the Bank of
Upper Canada, which existed until 1866. In 1832 the seat of government
of Upper Canada moved from Kingston to York. On March 6, 1834, York was
renamed Toronto to distinguish it from New York. William Lyon Mackenzie
became the first mayor in the same year. He was a radical reformer in
Upper Canada. This culminated on December 5, 1837, in his leading rebels
against the provincial government. But two days later he had to
surrender with his followers.
On February 10, 1841, the province
of Canada was formed from the British colonies of Lower Canada and Upper
Canada, with Toronto as its capital from 1849 to 1852 and from 1856 to
1858. With the founding of the Canadian Confederation on July 1, 1867,
the province of Ontario was formed, with Toronto as its capital from the
start.
Industrialization developed in the city in the second half
of the 19th century. Canada's first telegraphic message was sent from
Toronto on December 19, 1846 to Hamilton, around 60 kilometers away. Ten
years later, on October 27, 1856, the Toronto–Montreal railroad opened.
In 1861 the first streetcars ran along Yonge Street, King Street and
Queen Street. Before the electrification of local public transport, more
than 200 trams, pulled by around 1,000 horses, operated to meet the
growing demand. Due to the good transport links, the national
agricultural fair Canadian National Exhibition has been held annually in
Toronto since 1879.
In the 1850s, the majority of the inhabitants
of this British colony were from the United Kingdom and at around 73% of
the inhabitants were predominantly Protestant. British dominance
continued for about another half century. Protestantism was not a
homogeneous denomination, but divided among other things into adherents
of the evangelical Baptists and the Anglican community. The religious
differences led to violent tensions, which were reflected in several
riots in the years 1867-1892. It was mainly the Catholics and the
Protestants from Ireland who were involved in the conflict.
The
1901 census showed that eight percent of Toronto's population was
non-UK. The largest group came from Germany with 6,866 immigrants,
followed by 3,015 from France; 3090 people had Jewish ancestors, 1054
came from Italy, 737 from the Netherlands, 253 from Scandinavia, 219
from Asia and 142 from Russia. The city now had a good 208,000
inhabitants. Toronto's multicultural society was already in its infancy
at the turn of the 20th century. Economically, Toronto had already
overtaken Quebec by the 1870s and was the second largest power in
Dominion Canada after Montreal. On April 19, 1904, the Great Toronto
Fire destroyed over 100 downtown buildings. The electrification of the
city began in 1906 with the generation of electricity at Niagara Falls.
Within 20 years, the population more than doubled, reaching over
522,000 in 1921. After that, the growth rate weakened somewhat. A number
of important buildings and facilities were built in the first half of
the 20th century. Thus, in June 1913, the Toronto General Hospital was
opened on College Street and two years later, on March 19, 1914, the
Royal Ontario Museum, founded in 1912.
However, the integration
of those returning from the European theater of war caused enormous
problems from 1918; around 100,000 of them alone came from the greater
Toronto area. With the excuse of Greece's late entry into the war, anger
was vented at the Greeks. These were a small group of 3000 people, but
were very present in the cityscape with businesses and restaurants. On
August 2, the anti-Greek riots in Toronto 1918 broke out. Several 10,000
Torontoers stormed the Greek Quarter on Yonge Street and destroyed 20
restaurants alone. About 50,000 people took part in the street fighting,
which only ended after three days.
Up until the 1920s there were
sometimes competing companies for local public transport systems. These
were consolidated by the city in 1921 under the Toronto Transportation
Commission, later the Toronto Transit Commission. At the same time,
private transport also increased significantly. In 1910 there were
around 10,000 automobiles - by 1928 this number had increased eightfold.
In June 1929, the Royal York Hotel was opened, whose building with 28
floors and 124 meters was the tallest structure in the city at the time.
From the 1930s onwards, the skyline changed significantly with a
multitude of high-rise buildings.
During the global economic
crisis, the unemployment rate rose to 30% by 1933, capital and personal
assets were destroyed. At the same time, average monthly wages fell by
over 40%. The number of marriages and the birth rate also fell by 40%.
Even in 1939, economic power did not return to the level it had before
1929. In 1934 the city, which had 629,285 inhabitants at the time,
celebrated its 100th birthday.
Similar to the First World War,
Canada was also an enemy of the German Reich in the Second World War,
above all as a supplier of war material. Deprivations in the form of
food rationing and cut-off times for electricity and water characterized
the wartime economy, which created numerous jobs in the production of
war materials. After 1945, the economy had to be switched back to
civilian products.
On September 17, 1949, disaster struck the
Port of Toronto when the passenger liner Noronic, anchored at Pier 9
overnight during a Great Lakes cruise, burst into flames and burned out
in a short time. 122 passengers died.
Already in the 1950s Toronto's population reached the one million
mark. Immigration from Europe and Asia is mainly due to the destruction
there during World War II. With this development, living and working
space moved well outside the city limits: by 1946, 90% of York County's
industrial operations were located in the city. In 1954 it was still
77%. The ever-improving traffic and transport routes followed and
reinforced this trend. However, the city in Canada was still second only
to Montreal in terms of both population and economic power.
On
January 1, 1954, the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was created.
The entity consisted of downtown, the boroughs of New Toronto, Mimico,
Weston, Leaside, Long Branch, Swansea, and Forest Hill, and the boroughs
of Etobicoke, York, North York, East York, and Scarborough. The newly
formed Toronto Transportation Commission pushed ahead with the expansion
of the Toronto subway network and opened a number of new bus routes.
Milestones in the city's development were the completion of the last
section of Highway 401 and the opening of the Gardiner Expressway.
As early as 1965, more national agencies had their headquarters in
Toronto than in Montreal. In addition, Québec's separatism encouraged
the exodus of businesses to Toronto. The population of the metropolitan
area of Toronto surpassed that of Montreal for the first time in 1976
according to the results of the census. With Canada's entry into the
Group of Eight (then G7) in the same year, the city also moved onto the
international political scene. In 1988 Toronto was the venue for the
14th G7 conference.
On January 1, 1998, boroughs underwent major
borough reforms, with autonomous boroughs merging with the City of
Toronto. Since then, Toronto has been Canada's most populous and
economically strongest city. Sir Peter Ustinov once remarked that
Toronto was as clean and safe as Swiss-run New York. Toronto is
considered the safest city in Canada.
On August 10, 2008, a major
explosion occurred at the Sunrise Propane Industrial Gases propane
facility in the Borough of North York. Around 100 houses remained
uninhabitable as a result.
From June 26th to 27th, 2010 the
fourth G20 summit took place in Toronto. A day earlier, the 36th G8
summit was held in Huntsville, which originally was also supposed to
host the G20 meeting.
political structures
Toronto's city government is a one-tier
system of government consisting of mayors and city councillors. This
administrative structure is enshrined in the City of Toronto Act. Only
since York was renamed Toronto has the city officially had a mayor.
Prior to that, the Chairman of the General Quarter Session of Peace
presided over the site. The mayor is directly elected by the city
population and is the chairman of the city government. The Toronto City
Council is a unicameral legislature with 44 councilors representing the
boroughs. The mayor and councilors have been elected for a four-year
term since the 2006 election, up from a three-year term.
Rob Ford
was the 64th mayor from 2010 to 2014. In November 2013, Ford was
relieved of most of his duties by city councillors. Allegations of
nepotism had been raised for years, and in 2013 it became known that he
used crack cocaine and was in contact with known criminals. Ford
formally remained in office and was able to pursue representative tasks,
but no longer has any political functions. From 2014 to February 17,
2023, John Tory was the 65th mayor. He was elected to succeed Rob Ford
with 40.27% of the vote. As a result of an extramarital affair, he
resigned prematurely. On June 26, 2023, Toronto will hold a by-election
for mayor. For the time being, deputy mayor Jennifer McKelvie will be in
charge of official business until the new election, albeit with limited
powers.
Since the beginning of the legislative period in 2007,
the city government has consisted of seven commissions, each with a
chairperson, a deputy chairperson and four councillors, all of whom are
appointed by the mayor. An executive committee consists of the
commission chairs, the mayor, his deputy and four other councillors. The
councils also oversee the Toronto Transit Commission and the Toronto
Police Services Board. City government is based in the New City Hall on
Nathan Phillips Square.
There are around 40 sub-commissions,
advisory boards and round tables that also belong to the city
government. These institutions are formed by city councils and by
voluntary citizens. There are also four other municipal councils who
make recommendations to the city councillors, but do not have
independent decision-making powers. A member of the Municipal Council
reports to each City Council. Toronto had a budget of $7.6 billion in
2006. The city is funded by the Ontario provincial government through
taxes and duties. City spending breaks down as follows: 36% goes to
provincial programs, 53% goes to city functions such as the Toronto
Public Library and the Toronto Zoo, and 11% goes to debt financing and
unrestricted spending.
The City of Toronto flag was designed by then 21-year-old student
Rene De Santis. This design won a design competition in 1974. The flag
shows the stylized City Hall's twin towers on a blue background with
Canada's national symbol, the red maple leaf, at its base. After the
local government reform in 1997, the city government looked in vain for
a new design. As a result, the proposal was implemented to make minor
changes to the 1974 design, which led to the current flag in October
1999. The space above and between the towers represents the letter "T",
the initial of the city of Toronto.
The Coat of Arms of the City
of Toronto was created by Robert Watt and introduced as part of the 1998
local government reform. It shows a beaver on the left and a bear on the
right, facing each other and holding the city shield. Both animals stand
on a green hill with a blue T for Toronto on a gold background. The coat
of arms also features a crown and an eagle. Below the coat of arms,
three blue vertical wavy lines symbolize the Humber, Don and Rouge
rivers. Below is a horizontal wavy line for Lake Ontario, into which the
three rivers flow. Under the city coat of arms is a band with the motto
"Diversity Our Strength" (German: "Diversity is our strength"), framed
by two Canadian red maple leaves. The motto was introduced on the
occasion of the local government reform in 1998.
In addition to
the coat of arms and the flag, the silhouette of the town hall is also
used for the city signet.
1820 Toronto had 1,250 inhabitants, many Indian villages were
considerably larger. On the one hand, Toronto succeeded in breaking
Montreal's strong position in the banking sector, and on the other hand,
the city promoted industrialization early on. In 1833, 80 employees in
Toronto produced steam engines for the first time, from 1857 locomotives
were produced and a wide range of supplying companies emerged.
At
the same time, the government encouraged immigration, so that the
population rose sharply. The biggest winner was Toronto, which by 1850
was already the largest city in the west with 31,000 inhabitants and
more than doubled its population in the following ten years. It could
bring its goods to Montreal, bypassing Kingston, using the route across
Lake Ontario. At the same time it was connected to New York, to which
there was already a telegraph connection in 1847. Capital to build the
railroads that connected Canada's metropolitan areas between Halifax and
Vancouver came primarily from Great Britain, from where most of the
immigrants also came. London and later Ottawa successfully opposed
Canada's political annexation to the USA. Toronto nevertheless benefited
from the sales opportunities there. At the same time, the growing
separatism of French-speaking Canadians prompted many companies to
relocate to Toronto.
When Montreal became the center of the
railway industry, the capital of Ontario began to focus on the
electrical industry and automobile construction, and later on aircraft
construction, in the decades around the turn of the century. This made
Toronto one of the beneficiaries of the wartime economy during World War
II. Mail order companies like Eaton's supplied a growing and soon
international market, and the expansion of the infrastructure required
new workers. After the war, immigration exceeded the city limits and
larger organizational units, such as the metropolitan region, emerged.
Between 1901 and 1951, the core city had quintupled its population.
Finally, the proportion of employees in the service industries rose
sharply, which soon became by far the largest employers. Since many of
these trades managed without trained personnel and foreign capital
flowed into the city, more and more immigrants came from economically
emerging countries with strong population growth. Between 1951 and 2001,
the number of residents in the metropolitan area quadrupled.
In the census of 2001, 2,481,494 inhabitants were determined, in 2006
the population was estimated at a good 2.6 million. About 5.5 million
people lived in the greater Toronto area. With 2.5 million, almost half
live in the core city, the rest are spread over 24 communities with a
total area of 7,125 square kilometers. From 1996 to 2006, the city grew
at an annual rate of 1.8%, making it one of the fastest growing
metropolitan areas in Canada. In absolute terms, this corresponds to an
influx of almost 100,000 residents annually. Due to the high density in
the city center, the municipalities in the surrounding areas are
growing. Brampton, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Markham, Ajax, Whitby all saw
a 20% increase from 2001 to 2006. The strong growth is mainly due to
international immigration. Between 2001 and 2006, 447,900 people from
abroad immigrated to the city region. The proportion of foreign-born
residents accounted for 45.7% or 2.32 million (2006); the city is thus
the most important Canadian immigration destination. The largest
immigrant groups come from India with 77,800 and China with 63,900
people. The high immigration rate makes the housing market more
expensive, which is why immigrants are increasingly settling in the
surrounding cities. The highest proportions of non-Canadian citizens are
in the neighboring cities of Markham at 56.5% and Mississauga at 51.6%.
According to a 2001 census, 43.7% of the city's population are
non-Canadian; this proportion has risen steadily in recent years – in
1991 the proportion was still 38%. The large number of population groups
is reflected in the many districts shaped by one group, e.g. Chinatown,
Little Italy, Greektown or Koreatown reflected. The inhabitants who come
from South Asia form the largest proportion with 12.0%; followed by
Chinese at 11.4% and African Americans at 8.4%.
In the 2011 census, 14.1% of the city's population said they were descended from English immigrants. 13.2% stated Canada as their family's country of origin. Other significant ancestry groups were those of Chinese (10.8%), Indian (10.3%), Scottish (9.9%), Irish (9.8%) and Italian (8.6%) origins, as well as the ethnic Germans (4.8%). According to the 2011 census, 42.9% of Toronto's population belonged to visible minority groups: 15.1% of the total population were of South Asian origin, 9.6 % Chinese descent, 7.2% Black and 4.2% Filipino.
The predominant language in the city is English. In contrast, Canada's second official language, French, is the mother tongue of only about 1.4% of the population. Other languages with a significant number of speakers in Toronto are primarily Chinese, Portuguese and Italian. Only a minority of 2.1% are bilingual in English and French.
Jews have been documented in Toronto since the 1830s, with 18
families living in the city in the 1850s. In 1856 the first synagogue
was built. Pogroms prompted Eastern European Jews to emigrate to Canada.
Depending on the country of origin, (exclusively orthodox)
congregations, Yiddish theatres, after-school classes and a newspaper
were established. The immigrants from Great Britain lived east of Yonge
Street, the Eastern Europeans in the little respected quarter of St.
John's Ward. The Spadina Avenue/Kensington Market area remained the
heartland of the fragmented Jewish community until the 1950s, with many
moving further north. Nevertheless, the Jewish community remains
anchored downtown, where the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Center was
also built. There is also a separate Downtown Jewish Community Council.
With the Great Depression in the early 1930s, the Conservative
government under Richard Bedford Bennett drastically curtailed
immigration, which had previously been encouraged. This was accompanied
by a selective principle, according to which immigrants from northern
and western Europe and citizens from the USA were given preference. In
1931, 45,305 of the 631,207 residents were Jews. The general restriction
and latent anti-Semitism in Canada meant that between 1930 and 1940 only
around 12,600 Jewish immigrants were admitted to Canada; 4000 of them
came from Germany. In Toronto, Jews were the largest ethnic group used
as a scapegoat, especially during times of crisis. They were sometimes
denied access to restaurants or events, and there was even a boycott of
Jewish shops. No university was willing to extend its courses to
internees, only Queen's University in Kingston accepted a small group
that was primarily interested in engineering courses. The rejection
continued even during the war. As late as October 1945, the status of
the refugees and internees had not been finally clarified. By this time
Canada had taken in around 3,500 refugees including 966 internees.
In accordance with the multicultural structure of the population,
there is a large number of different religious affiliations in the city.
The Christian denominations form the largest group with a good 50%. The
Roman Catholic Church is part of the Archdiocese of Toronto. The
proportion of non-denominationals is 18.7%.
According to surveys
from 2011, religious affiliation is distributed as follows:
Catholic
Church: 30.4%
All other Christian denominations: 9.1%
Islam: 7.7%
Hinduism: 5.9%
Judaism: 3.0%
Buddhism: 2.2%
Sikhism: 2.9%
Belonging to no religion: 21.1%
In Toronto in 2003 there were approximately 552,300 households below
the poverty line. More than 250,000 families had to spend more than 30%
of their income on rent, with 20% paying more than 50% of their income.
This development is due to the sharp rise in rental prices, which
increased by 31% between 1997 and 2001 alone. Around 71,000 households
were waiting for state-subsidised apartments to be built. In contrast to
the 1980s and early 1990s, the supply of rental apartments stagnated
despite the increasing population.
In 2002 alone, 31,985 people
were registered at least once in a homeless shelter. This number has
increased by 21% since the 1990s and by 40% since 1988. In 1988, 91.3%
of them were individuals, but by 1999 this number had dropped to 81.3%.
At the same time, the number of families rose from 1.7% (1988) to 9.6%
(1999).
The provincial government and the city are trying to
counteract the problems by investing in housing. Among other things, the
Let's Build housing project was launched for this purpose, into which
around 10.6 million dollars flowed by 2001. As a result, 384 affordable
homes were created for around 660 low-income tenants. After the project
was completed, the city proceeded with Let's Build for approximately
$11.8 million. In addition, there were other measures aimed at combating
poverty and providing comprehensive medical care for the homeless.
A low crime rate has earned the city a reputation as one of the safest major cities in North America. In 1999, the homicide rate was 1.9 per 100,000 people. For comparison, that same year, that rate was 34.5 in Atlanta, 5.5 in Boston, 7.3 in New York, 2.8 in Vancouver, and 45.5 in Washington D.C. Toronto's 1991 record high for homicides was 3 .9 per 100,000 inhabitants. The city also ranks very low for robberies compared to other major North American cities, with 115.1 robberies per 100,000 people. In comparison, Dallas had 583.7 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants, 397.9 in Los Angeles and 193.9 in Montreal. The general crime rate was 48 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants. This benchmark is also significantly lower than in other major cities, such as Cincinnati with 326, Los Angeles with 283, New York with 195 and Vancouver with 239.
Toronto was already an important economic and trading center in the
19th century. The stepbrothers James Worts and William Gooderham founded
the distillery Gooderham and Worts on the harbor in 1830, which also
produced antifreeze as well as spirits. It grew to become Canada's
largest distillery, and in the 1860s it rose to become the world's
largest whiskey distillery. In 1862 the company produced for the first
time all year round and produced around 700,000 imp.gal. produced, which
corresponded to a quarter of the total production of spirits in Canada
at the time. In the years that followed, production grew to two million
imp.gal., making the company the best known in the country and the
largest in the British Empire. In 1987 the company was sold to a British
group, in 1990 the distillery was closed and the 52,000 square meter
area was transformed into the Distillery District pedestrian zone. The
historic industrial quarter, consisting of over 40 brick buildings and
ten streets, has been restored and serves as an entertainment center
with bars, music bars and galleries.
Toronto is Canada's most
important trade and financial center and is also one of the most
important in the world. In the city, many banks and investment firms are
concentrated in the Bay Street Financial District. The Toronto Stock
Exchange is the eighth largest stock exchange in the world by market
capitalization and the third largest in North America. The five largest
banks in the country have their headquarters here. In addition, over 40
foreign banks operate branches in the city.
The city has also
played a leading role in the media, publishing, telecommunications (e.g.
Telus Tower), information technology and film industries. A separate
agency (Toronto's Film and Television Office) has the task of promoting
and supporting film and television production.
The best-known
companies include Thomson Corporation, CTVglobemedia, Rogers
Communications, Alliance Films, Celestica, as well as the hotel chain
Four Seasons Hotels and Manulife Financial. A total of over 80,000
companies have their headquarters in the city. The trading company
Hudson's Bay Company is the oldest incorporated company in Canada and
one of the oldest companies in the world. It moved its headquarters from
York Factory to Toronto in 1957.
Toronto-based companies include:
Hudson's Bay Company, RioCan Investment Trust, Canadian Imperial Bank of
Commerce, Manulife Financial, TD Canada Trust, Royal Bank of Canada,
Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, Celestica, Four Seasons Hotels and
Resorts, Nortel, Citibank Canada, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Oxford
Properties Group and Rogers Communications.
While most industries
and manufacturing operations are located outside the city limits, most
wholesalers and distributors of these industries are based in the city.
The city's strategic importance in the Quebec-Windsor Corridor favors
the nearby manufacturing bases of motor vehicles, iron, steel, food,
machinery, chemicals and paper. In addition, since 1959 Toronto has been
accessible from the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River. With
around 8,000 factories, the city is not only a leader in the service
sector, but also in the manufacturing sector.
The five largest
private employers by number of employees (2001 figures) are:
Toronto-Dominion Bank (14,000), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
(12,000), Rogers Communications (11,600), Royal Bank of Canada (11,000)
and Bank of Montreal (8400).
Projected gross operating expenses
for the city in 2008 were $8.17 billion. Budget revenue came mostly from
property taxes, at $3.322 billion. The unemployment rate was 7.87% in
2007, higher than the Ontario average of 6.38%. In 2008, the
unemployment rate fell slightly to 7.52%. An average household had an
annual income of $68,120.
There are a number of universities in Toronto: The University of
Toronto, which has various branches throughout the city, York
University, Ryerson University, the Ontario College of Art & Design and
the University of Guelph-Humber. Founded in 1827, the University of
Toronto is Ontario's largest and ranks among the world's most renowned
in the field of biomedical research after Harvard University and Yale
University. The university is also home to the third largest library
system in North America, which includes the Robarts Library. York
University is located in North York, north of Toronto. It has the
largest law library in the Commonwealth.
In addition, Toronto has
a number of other universities, such as Seneca College, Humber College,
Centennial College and George Brown College. The Francophone Collège
Boréal also has a branch in the city. Durham College and the University
of Ontario Institute of Technology are located near Oshawa, which is
part of the greater Toronto area.
The Faculty of Music and the
Royal Conservatory downtown offer concert and opera programs. Filmmaker
Norman Jewison founded the Canadian Film Center in 1988, Canada's
largest institute for professional training in film, television and new
media. Tyndale University College and Seminary is an interdenominational
institute and Canada's largest ministerial seminary.
The Toronto
District School Board (TDSB) has a total of 558 public schools, of which
451 are elementary schools and 102 are secondary schools. This makes the
TDSB the largest school board in Canada. In 2008, the school authorities
received the Carl Bertelsmann Prize for efforts to promote equal
opportunities and integration. Schools affiliated with the Catholic
Church are administered by a separate agency, the Toronto Catholic
District School Board. Toronto also has several private schools, such as
Greenwood College School, Upper Canada College, Crescent School, Toronto
French School, University of Toronto Schools, Havergal College, Bishop
Strachan School, Branksome Hall and St. Michael's College School.
The Toronto City Library is the largest library in the country with
99 branches and over 11 million items.
Tourism plays an important role in Toronto's economy. With almost 4.5 million foreign visitors, Toronto was the 29th most visited city in the world in 2016. Tourists brought in $2.2 billion in revenue that same year. Most foreign visitors came from the USA and Asia.
Toronto is home to a variety of print media. The Toronto Star is
based at 1 Yonge Street and is Canada's largest-circulation newspaper
with around 400,000 copies. The print edition is primarily read in
Ontario. Other important newspapers in Toronto are the daily newspaper
The Globe and Mail, founded in 1844, the conservative newspaper National
Post and the Toronto Sun. In addition, there are newspapers in Chinese
and Hebrew and a variety of magazines and journals.
In addition
to the local television station CITY-TV, the nationwide broadcasting
stations such as u. CFMT-TV, CFTO-TV, CTV Television Network and CBC
Television are all based in the city. Other television stations include
the news station CP 24 - Toronto's Breaking News, the business station
Business News Network (BNN) and the music station MuchMusic. Among the
more than 30 radio stations, such as u. CHUM-FM, CKIS-FM also include
those for the Chinese population with a Cantonese language program. The
English-speaking part of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is based
in downtown Toronto. Other larger media companies are Entertainment One
and Rogers Media.
Toronto has the country's largest airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport, which handles a third of Canada's air traffic. Originally far outside of the city, it is now located on the northwestern outskirts of the city, about 20 kilometers from the center, mostly in the neighboring city of Mississauga. A small airport, Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, is located on the Toronto Islands offshore from the city. Toronto/Downsview Airport, a former air force base, has been used primarily as a Bombardier Aerospace test airport since 1994. There are nine airports and ten heliports in the Greater Toronto Area.
Toronto has the third largest public transit system in North America
after New York City and Mexico City.
The Toronto Transit
Commission (TTC) operates three subway lines (Subway), one light rail
line (Scarborough Line), eleven streetcar lines (Toronto Streetcar) and
about 140 bus lines in the city area. The tram and bus lines are mostly
arranged in a grid pattern.
The suburbs immediately adjacent to
the urban area are served by bus routes from other companies that
connect to the TTC network.
Starting at Union Station, there is a
seven-line rapid transit system operated by GO Transit, supplemented by
its own bus routes. With the double-decker trains you can reach
distances of around 60 kilometers around downtown.
Since June 6,
2015, the Union Pearson Express (UP Express) has connected Toronto's
Lester B. Pearson International Airport to downtown. The diesel multiple
units on this line run every 15 minutes with a journey time of 25
minutes from Terminal 1 via Bloor and Weston train stations to the
city's main train station, Union Station.
In addition to the shuttle ferry to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, there are ferry services to the Toronto Islands. Ferries depart from Queen's Quay on Bay Street to Hanlan's Point, Center Island and Ward's Island. On June 24, 2004, the Toronto–Rochester (USA) line was inaugurated. The Spirit of Ontario I boat completed the 152 km route at a speed of 83 km/h. However, this ferry connection was discontinued again in January 2006 due to a lack of occupancy.
Toronto is the starting point of the long-distance transcontinental train The Canadian. VIA Rail Canada long-distance rail services depart from Union Station bound for Montreal-Quebec, Ottawa, Windsor, Sarnia, Niagara Falls-New York (operated jointly with Amtrak) and Greater Sudbury-Winnipeg-Edmonton-Vancouver. The Ontario Northland Railway uses long-distance trains to Cochrane–Moosonee, and Amtrak uses a train to New York.
There are several freeways in the east-west and north-south
directions for private transport. The main thoroughfare is Highway 401,
just north of downtown, which in certain sections has the highest
traffic density in North America. On the shores of Lake Ontario, the
Gardiner Expressway connects the western suburbs with downtown. At the
east end, the Don Valley Parkway connects the Gardiner Expressway to
Highway 401. The toll Highway 407 ETR runs parallel to Highway 401. The
108 km highway connects the cities of Burlington with Pickering; the
toll is collected using automatic number plate recognition and radio
transmitters. 401 and 407 are intersected by northbound highways 400 and
404. Also running north-south is Highway 427, which is 13 miles long. It
heads north from the Gardiner Expressway past Toronto Pearson
International Airport to Vaughan. Another branch of 427 at its southern
end joins the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW), which leads to Niagara Falls on
the east shore of Lake Ontario.
Along Yonge Street, the streets
running in an east-west direction carry the suffix East or West for
better orientation in the city center.
Since 1999, around half of the more than 20 hospitals have belonged
to the network of the university hospital. Founded in 1812, the Toronto
General Hospital is the main hospital of the university hospitals.
Toronto's fire department, the Toronto Fire Services, was
established in 1874. Before that time, volunteers carried out
firefighting. With the local government reform in 1998, the fire
brigades of the districts form an organizational unit. With around 3,100
firefighters, 81 stations and well over 100 vehicles, the Toronto Fire
Department is the largest in Canada and the fourth largest in North
America after New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Toronto's
police force has existed since 1834. The Toronto Police Service is
divided into 17 units with 5,710 police officers.
The Ontario
Legislative Assembly has its seat in the Parliament House in Queen's
Park. The 107 members are determined by majority voting in each of
Ontario's constituencies.
The city has three courts that have
jurisdiction over violations of Ontario provincial law.
Because of its important position in the field of media and film,
Toronto is also known as the “Hollywood of the North”. The city is often
the location of international films. In 2007, film production companies
spent a total of $791 million on filming in Toronto. The Toronto Film
and Television Office, the city's film and television agency, reports
about 200 productions in 2005, including 39 feature films, 44 television
films and 84 television series.
In particular, the futuristic
Town Hall (Toronto City Hall) from the 1960s has served as a backdrop
for many films. In the American thriller The Sentinel - Who Can You
Trust? the town hall is the scene of a G8 summit, the film also plays u.
a. at Nathan Phillips Square, where the finals will take place. In the
horror film Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), Toronto City Hall serves
as the city hall of the fictional city of Raccoon City, the Exhibition
Place is referred to in the film as the National Trade Center. In the
episode All Our Yesterdays (1969) from the science fiction television
series Starship Enterprise, City Hall is an alien portal. And in the
action comedy The Tuxedo, it serves as the headquarters of an
intelligence agency.
The drama films M. Butterfly (1993),
directed by David Cronenberg, and The Sweet Hereafter (1997), directed
by Atom Egoyan, were partly set in Toronto, as was Sarah Polley's Take
This Waltz (2011). M. Butterfly had its world premiere at the Toronto
Film Festival. The comedy series Police Academy was partly shot in
Toronto, the third part almost entirely. The film is apparently supposed
to be set in a major US city, but Toronto's striking skyline can be seen
several times. The film's title The Pack Freaks Out at the Highpoint
refers to the CN Tower's spire where the showdown takes place. To depict
the antagonist's fall, stuntman Dar Robinson parachuted from the tower.
The Toronto-born cowboy junkies have had a significant influence on
the style of alternative country. On November 27, 1987 they recorded the
album The Trinity Session at Toronto's Church of the Holy Trinity. The
successful alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies was formed in
Scarborough in 1988 and also recorded their albums in Toronto. The
rapper Snow describes his origins in Toronto in his most famous song
Informer in the early 1990s. The movie Red is set in Toronto.
Toronto is the birthplace of many prominent figures, including the
politician Robert Baldwin (1804-1858), who played a key role in founding
Canada. As the Canadian capital for film, music and media, many
personalities from this field are represented. The following filmmakers
were born in Toronto: Raymond Massey, Michael Ironside, Mike Myers,
Harland Williams, Will Arnett, the actress Jessica Steen and the
director David Cronenberg, who is best known for his horror films.
Toronto-born rock musician Neil Young is known worldwide. Comedian and
actor Jim Carrey didn't grow up in Toronto. By the time he was 15, he
was performing on various stages in Toronto clubs. Portuguese-Canadian
singer Nelly Furtado grew up partly in Toronto. Rock band Rush and their
singer and bassist Geddy Lee hail from Toronto. The eminent pianist and
music writer Glenn Gould was born in Toronto and died there at the age
of 50 following a stroke.
Frank Gehry, who works worldwide as an
architect and designer, was also born in Toronto in 1929. The Pritzker
Prize winner received an honorary doctorate from the University of
Toronto in 1998. The university even named its own chair for annually
changing visiting professors after him. Gehry's only work in Toronto is
the 2008 redesign of the Art Gallery of Ontario. Former Prime Minister
Lester Pearson was born in 1897 in what is now Toronto's Newtonbrook
Borough and grew up in Toronto. He studied at Victoria College and at
the University of Toronto. In 1957 he received the Nobel Peace Prize as
the initiator of ending the Suez Crisis. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper, who served from 2006 to 2015, was born in Toronto and grew up in
the city. Newcomer Shawn Mendes also hails from Toronto. He lives with
his parents and sister in a suburb of Toronto.
A number of famous
scientists also worked in Toronto. Doctor Frederick Banting studied and
worked there. In 1923, together with John James Richard Macleod, who
also researched in Toronto, he received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for
the discovery of insulin. Arthur L. Schawlow, who graduated in
mathematics and physics from the University of Toronto in 1941, received
the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contribution to the development
of the laser. Bertram Brockhouse, who graduated from the University of
Toronto, also received the Nobel Prize in Physics. John C. Polanyi is a
professor in Toronto and received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Physicist Walter Kohn received his Masters in Applied Mathematics from
the University of Toronto in 1946 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry in 1998. The writer and Nobel Prize winner for literature
Ernest Hemingway lived in Toronto in the early 1920s and began his
career as a journalist with the Toronto Star. Montreal-born journalist
and icon of globalization criticism Naomi Klein lives with her family in
Toronto.