If you find yourself in Toronto, you’re in luck – Toronto has just about everything you’d expect to see in a North American metropolis. One of the most dynamic and diverse cities on the continent, with interesting architecture and a rich cultural life.
Geography
Toronto is the largest city in Canada and one of the largest centers of North America (the 3rd largest metropolis, second only to New York and Los Angeles). In terms of population, combined with suburbs, it is the 6th largest mega-city in the United States and Canada.
It is located on the shores of Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes, occupying an important strategic position. Within a day’s drive (800-900 km) from Toronto are the largest metropolitan areas in eastern North America such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, plus a couple dozen smaller cities like Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
In fact, Toronto is a conglomeration of separate cities connected at different levels. A number of districts, which for a long time were separate administrative units, became part of municipal Toronto in 1998.
At the moment, officially (i.e. as an administrative unit) Toronto includes the former Toronto (Old Toronto) and the five formerly independent cities of North York, Etobicoke, York, Scarborough and East York. These names are widely used till now; particularly automobile navigators demand to indicate these very names when entering address.
Toronto is surrounded by about twenty large suburbs that, together with the municipality of Toronto, form the Greater Toronto Area (GTA, more commonly called GTHA in recent years). It is in fact a single urban space where all the neighbourhoods are inextricably linked and it is virtually impossible to tell when one neighbourhood transitions to another.
Population
The Greater Toronto Area (GTHA) has about 7.5 million people, making it the sixth largest mega-city in North America.
The GTHA is surrounded by a number of satellite cities that have strong economic and cultural ties with it. This area, which is home to about 9.5 million people, is called the Golden Horseshoe. The name comes from the fact that the area stretches along the western shore of Lake Ontario, making it look like a horseshoe. The area is home to 3/4 of all Ontarians, and almost a third of all Canadians.
Economy
Toronto is a world-class business, financial, cultural and academic hub, ranking on par with cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Tokyo, Paris, etc.
The city is among the ten most important financial centers in the world and is one of the largest technological centers in North America. The city is growing rapidly and there is a lot of construction going on.
Cultural Environment
Toronto is interesting because it is one of the most diverse cities in the world-often called the most ethnically diverse city on the planet. Since Canada actively attracts immigrants from all over the world and a large part of them settles in Toronto, different communities form in the megalopolis and bring their ethnic flavor to the life of the city.
This is expressed first of all by the presence of a large number of ethnic restaurants, places of worship and cultural centers, as well as regular national festivals and celebrations, which make Toronto the most unique city on the planet in many ways.
According to statistics, more than half of the city’s residents were born outside Canada, which means they are first-generation immigrants.
Thanks to this Toronto citizens are very tolerant and liberal, so different alternative subcultures thrive here which also gives a special color to the city and makes its cultural life more diverse.
History of Toronto
Toronto originally came into being in 1750 as a small fort that French traveling salesmen used as a stronghold for their Indian trading operations. It survived as such only a short time, until 1759, when it was abandoned.
The American War of Independence helped establish Toronto as a city. As a result of the withdrawal of the American territories from the British protectorate, the settlers loyal to the British crown moved to the shores of Lake Ontario.
They bought the area of present-day Toronto from the Mississauga Indians and built Fort York to defend themselves against American attacks. In 1793, the governor of Upper Canada (as the province of Ontario was then called) John Simcoe signed a decree granting Fort York the status of a city.
The city got its current name Toronto on March 6, 1834 when some surrounding settlements were annexed to York Fort. Throughout the years that followed, Toronto grew at a rapid pace, attracting most of the immigrants arriving in Canada. The first major ethnic group to emerge as a community and to dominate city life for a long time was the Irish.
A large wave of immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when many Germans, French, Italians, and Jews came to Toronto, added to the mix. They were followed by a large influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe, especially from Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. At the same time there was a large influx of Chinese.
After World War II the city accepted new immigrants from Eastern and Western Europe, and as a result its population exceeded one million people in mid-50s.
During this time Toronto remained an industrial city and was overshadowed by Montreal, the financial and cultural capital of Canada. However, with the rapid development of Toronto and its population growth, the city’s status began to change.
By the early 80s Toronto overtook Montreal in numbers of inhabitants and gradually became the main financial center of the country. This, besides the growth of Toronto’s population, was caused in mid-1970’s by the sharp increase of separatist moods in the Province of Quebec, whose French-speaking people started to express their wish to separate from Canada. As a result, many companies and organizations began to move their headquarters from troubled Montreal to stable Toronto.
From that moment on, a new page began in the history of the city, which began to rapidly develop and soon took its place in the list of the most influential cities in the world. In 1998, the city’s development was also helped by the fact that five big city formations (North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke, York and East York) were annexed to it.
It is currently the fastest growing metropolis in the Western Hemisphere, with its bright charisma and attractive future prospects.