Toronto
is a Canadian city located on the northwestern shore of
Lake Ontario, and is the provincial capital of Ontario.
Toronto is a global city, exerting significant regional
and international influence, and is one of the world's
most multicultural and ethnically diverse cities.]
It is Canada's financial centre and economic engine, as
well as one of the country's most important cultural,
artistic, and health sciences centres. Toronto was named
the world's most livable city in 1994 by The
Economist. It was displaced in 2005 by Vancouver,
but is still ranked among the top ten.
The
city of Toronto proper has a population of 2,481,494
(2001 census) and is the most populous city in Canada.
The population of the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area
(CMA) is estimated at 5,304,100 in 2005. The Greater
Toronto Area (GTA), slightly larger than the Toronto
CMA, is defined by provincial authorities for urban
planning purposes. Toronto is at the centre of the
Golden Horseshoe, a densely populated region in Ontario
which is home to roughly eight million people, or one
quarter of the population of canada.
In
1998, the current City of Toronto was amalgamated from
its six prior municipalities and regional government.
The current mayor of Toronto is David Miller. In January
2005, it was designated by the federal government as one
of Canada's cultural capitals. Toronto is sometimes
nicknamed T.O., T dot, The Big Smoke,
or Hogtown.
History
'Toronto'
means 'place where trees stand in the water'. It is an
Iroquois name in reference to what is now Lake Simcoe
(then Lake Toronto) to the north, where Hurons installed
tree saplings to corral fish. The portage between Lake
Ontario and Lake Huron that went this route was called
the 'Toronto Portage', or 'Passage'. The first European
presence was established by French traders at Fort
Rouillé in 1750. The first large influx of Europeans
was by United Empire Loyalists fleeing the American
Revolution in the mid-to late-1780s. Toronto grew slowly
in the initial years and was used by the British
primarily as a naval base. When Lieutenant-Governor John
Graves Simcoe moved the capital of Upper Canada from
Newark to Toronto in 1793 he renamed the town York. By
1800 the town was still very small, smaller than
Kingston, and consisted of probably not more than fifty
families. York was captured, its surrender negotiated by
John Strachan, and its major buildings burned by U.S.
soldiers in 1813 (during the War of 1812). After the
war, the city grew more rapidly throughout the remainder
of the nineteenth century by becoming one of the main
destinations of immigrants to Canada. On March 6, 1834,
the Township of York reverted to its original name of
Toronto. A bustling steamboat entry port burgeoned in
the 1840s and the city's development was aided by the
addition of gaslit streetlights and sewers. The city
grew even more rapidly after it was linked by rail to
the upper Great Lakes in 1854. By the 1870s,
industrialization reached a feverish pace and helped to
ensure Toronto's place as a major centre of urban growth
in the new Canadian Confederation. In the second half of
the Twentieth Century, with an influx of post-war
immigrants, and, after 1970, immigrants from the
developing world, Toronto surpassed Montreal as Canada's
most populous city. At the same time, the city's banking
and exchange centers also surpassed those of Montreal.
This happened at a time when Canada had repatriated much
of its stock and bond trade from London, requiring the
establishment of a domestic trading center. Its stock
market, which, until the early 1960s, primarily
capitalized high-risk ventures, expanded to become one
of the world's major exchanges.
Demographics
Toronto
is one of the most multicultural cities in the world. In
2004, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
ranked Toronto second, behind Miami, in its "List
of World Cities with the Largest Percentage of
Foreign-born Population". Though ranking first,
Miami's foreign-born population is mostly Hispanic,
whereas Toronto's is significantly more diverse. Toronto
also ranked ahead of Los Angeles, Vancouver, New York
City, Singapore and Sydney. The resulting cultural
diversity is reflected in the numerous ethnic
neighbourhoods of the city.
Toronto
represents a multicultural mosaic. The 2001 Canadian
census indicates that 42.8% of Toronto's population
belong to a visible minority group. In March 2005,
Statistics Canada projected that the visible minority
proportion will comprise a majority in both Toronto and
Vancouver by 2012.
In
1900, the overwhelming proportion of Toronto's
population originated in Great Britain and Ireland.
During the 20th century, large scale immigration has
changed the demographics of Toronto and there are now
people from many different ethnic and national origins
living in the city. Areas like Koreatown, Malta Village,
Chinatown, Little Jamaica, Little India, Greektown,
Portugal Village, Corso Italia, Bloor West Village,
Roncesvalles Village and Little Italy are examples of
these large changes in the population's origins.
Religion:
Roman Catholicism (33.4%), Anglican Church (5.9%)
Protestant Christian (Pentecostal, Baptist, Church of
God etc.) (11.3%). Islam (5.5%) Hinduism (4.1%), Judaism
(3.5%) Buddhism (4.0%) Sikhism (4.0%) No religion or
beliefs (16.6)%
While
English is the predominant language spoken by
Torontonians, Statistics Canada reports that other
language groups are significant, including Chinese,
Portuguese, Tamil, Persian, Spanish, Punjabi and
Italian. Italian is spoken second to English in
languages used at work.
Geography
and climate
The
City of Toronto covers an area of 641 square kilometres
(247 sq mi)
and is bounded 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. In addition to
Etobicoke Creek and the Rouge River, the city is
intersected by two major rivers and their tributaries,
the Humber River in the west end and the Don River just
east of the central core. The concentration and
protection of ravines allows for large tracts of densely
forested valleys with recreational trails within the
city. However, the ravines also interfere with the
city's street grid, and many of the major thoroughfares
such as Finch Avenue, Leslie Street, Lawrence Avenue,
St. Clair Avenue and Keele Street are terminated as a
result, but continue on the other side of the ravines.
Many others, such as Bloor Street/Danforth Avenue
viaduct require large bridges to cross high above the
ravines.
Toronto's
climate is moderated by its southerly location within
Canada and its proximity to Lake Ontario; its climate is
among the mildest of any place in Canada east of the
Rocky Mountain range. However, the daily weather is
highly variable, particularly during the winter months.
Mild periods often occur throughout the winter
(temperatures in the 5-10 °C range (40s°F) or even
higher are not uncommon) triggering regular melting of
snow on the ground, so that there are snow free periods
even in mid-winter. There are usually two or three
bitter cold snaps each year, where maximum temperatures
only reach into the -10°C (14°F) to -20°C (-4°F)
range, and minimums can drop to near -30°C (-22°F) ,
often accompanied by strong winds making it feel even
colder. The coldest ever temperature recorded at Toronto
Pearson International Airport was -31.3°C (-24.3°F) on
January 4, 1981, and the coldest ever wind chill reading
was -44.7°C (-48.5°F) also on January 4, 1981. The
average January maximum temperature is -2.1 °C (28.2°F),
and the average minimum is -10.5°C (13.1°F).
In
the summer, daytime temperatures can climb as high as 35°C
(95°F), but high humidity often causes the equivalent
humidex value to be 40°C (104 °F) or even higher. The
highest ever temperature recorded at Toronto Pearson was
38.3°C (100.9°F) on August 25, 1948, and the highest
ever humidex reading was 50.3°C (122.5°F) on July 14,
1995. The average July maximum temperature is 26.8°C
(80°F), and the average minimum is 14.8°C (58.6°F).
Autumn
offers pleasant daytime temperatures followed by
refreshingly cool nights. Spring is typically the
shortest season of the year, generally with warm days
and cool nights. The average yearly precipitation is 793
millimetres (31.7 inches), with an average annual
snowfall of about 115 centimetres (46 inches).
Precipitation is fairly evenly distributed throughout
the year, but summer is usually the wettest (and also
sunniest) season. Severe weather phenomena include
periods of intense cold in winter and extreme heat in
summer (such temperature extremes are usually
short-lived, however), freezing rainstorms,
thunderstorms, and hail. Toronto is rarely affected by
the remnants of Atlantic hurricanes, although Hurricane
Hazel in 1954 produced widespread flooding and damage
throughout the area.
LINKS:
About
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An American's Guide
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