TORONTO

city, capital of the province of Ontario, southeastern Canada. It has the most populous metropolitan area in Canada and, as the most important city in Canada's most prosperous province, is the country's financial and commercial centre. Its location on the northern shore of Lake Ontario, which forms part of the border between Canada and the United States, and its access to Atlantic shipping via the St. Lawrence Seaway and to major U.S. industrial centres via the Great Lakes have enabled Toronto to become an important international trading centre. In the second half of the 20th century the city grew phenomenally, from a rather sedate provincial townToronto the Goodto a lively, thriving, cosmopolitan metropolitan area. city, capital of the province of Ontario, southeastern Canada. Toronto has the most populous metropolitan area in Canada, and, as the most important city in Canada's most prosperous province, it is the country's financial and commercial centre. Its location on the northern shore of Lake Ontario, which forms part of the border between Canada and the United States, and its access to Atlantic shipping via the St. Lawrence Seaway and to major U.S. industrial centres via the Great Lakes has enabled Toronto to become an important international trading centre. The following article treats briefly the modern city of Toronto. For full treatment, see Toronto. The site of the city is almost uniformly flat. Toronto's climate is moderated somewhat by Lake Ontario, but it is not unusual for temperatures to rise above 90 F (32 C) on occasion during the summer and to reach below 0 F (-18 C) in the winter. The city benefits significantly from Ontario's vast storehouse of raw materials (minerals, timber, agricultural products) and hydroelectric energy. The city and its environs produce more than half of Canada's manufactured goods, and Toronto's port handles the bulk of the country's manufactured exports. The Toronto Stock Exchange is one of the major exchanges in the Western Hemisphere. Construction, transportation, finance, government, recreation, and tourism are other important activities. The streets of Toronto are laid out in a grid, with some modification to accommodate roads along the Lake Ontario shoreline. The central business district is located around the intersections of Yonge Street with Bloor and Queen streets. The financial district, headquarters for many insurance companies and banks as well as the Toronto Stock Exchange, is in the vicinity of King and Bay streets, south of the old City Hall. The downtown area is dominated by the CN Tower and two office and banking complexes, the Toronto Dominion Centre and Commerce Court. The new City Hall, built in 1958, was designed by the Finnish architect Viljo Revell. North of the business district lies a fashionable shopping area. The Ontario Parliament Buildings and the University of Toronto rise south of Bloor Street in a section with tall shade trees and grassy areas known for its parklike atmosphere. One of the most attractive residential areas is Rosedale, an older neighbourhood of distinguished homes set on winding, tree-lined streets. During the population expansion of the '50s and '60s, when metropolitan Toronto more than doubled its population, the area became home to several European immigrant groups, including German, Italian, Polish, Greek, and Portuguese. By the early 1960s these groups had transformed the character of the area so much that less than half the inhabitants of the city were of British extraction. During the 1970s and early '80s large numbers of immigrants came to Toronto from Asia and the West Indies. The variety of foreign cultures and cuisines contributed restaurants, forms of entertainment, and various cultural activities that converted Toronto in a decade from one of the most staid cities on the continent to one of the liveliest. The infusion also has helped revitalize the city's original role as the leading cultural centre of Ontario and as one of the most important in Canada. Toronto has several major theatres, as well as numerous small experimental ones. Opera and ballet groups are active, particularly during the winter season, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra has an international reputation. Excellent art collections are displayed at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum. The University of Toronto, York University, and Ryerson Polytechnical Institute are major centres of higher learning. Two other examples of Toronto's cultural fare are the Ontario Science Centre and Ontario Place. The latter, a complex of recreational facilities on man-made islands in the lake, is an extension of the permanent Canadian National Exhibition. This annual affair features an international air show; agricultural, animal, and horticultural displays; and theatrical and musical events. Its fairground attracts several million people during the late summer each year. Subway lines run northsouth and eastwest, and a network of limited access highways connects Toronto with eastern Canada, northern Ontario, and the U.S. states of New York and Michigan. Toronto International Airport, Canada's busiest, lies 17 mi (27 km) west of the city. Area city, 38 sq mi (97 sq km); metropolitan area, 246 sq mi (630 sq km). Pop. (1991) city, 635,395; metropolitan area, 3,893,046. Additional reading The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto publishes documents and statistical reports about constituent departments, and the City of Toronto Planning Board produces studies on developments as, for example, The Central Waterfront Information Base Study, Uses (1977). Other references are: Eric R. Arthur, Toronto: No Mean City, 2nd ed. (1974), and From Front Street to Queen's Park: The Story of Ontario's Parliament Buildings (1979); Richard P. Baine and A. Lynn McMurray, Toronto: An Urban Study, rev. ed. (1977); Larry S. Bourne et al. (eds.), Urban Futures for Central Canada: Perspectives in Forecasting Urban Growth and Form (1974); William Dendy, Lost Toronto (1978); Leonard O. Gertler and Ronald W. Crowley, Changing Canadian Cities: The Next 25 Years (1977); Peter G. Goheen, Victorian Toronto, 1850 to 1900: Pattern and Process of Growth (1970); Thomas Howarth et al., Two Cultures, Two Cities: Milano, Toronto: Symposium Proceedings (1977); Harold Kaplan, Urban Political Systems: A Functional Analysis of Metro Toronto (1967); Donald B. Kirkup, Metropolitan Toronto: Past and Present (1974), containing aerial photographs; Robert A. Murdie, Factorial Ecology of Metropolitan Toronto, 19511961: An Essay on the Social Geography of the City (1969); George A. Nader, Cities of Canada, 2 vol. (197576); Albert Rose, Governing Metropolitan Toronto: A Social and Political Analysis, 19531971 (1972); Jacob Spelt, Toronto (1973); Mike Filey, A Toronto Album: Glimpses of the City That Was (1970), and Toronto: The Way We Were: Photos & Stories About North America's Greatest City (1974); Edith G. Firth, The Town of York: A Collection of Documents of Early Toronto, 2 vol. (196266); Edwin C. Guillet, Toronto from Trading Post to Great City (1934); William E. Mann, The Underside of Toronto (1970); Donald C. Masters, The Rise of Toronto, 18501890 (1947, reprinted 1972); Jesse E. Middleton, The Municipality of Toronto: A History, 3 vol. (1923); and G. Pelham Mulvany, Toronto: Past and Present (1884, reprinted 1970). Timothy J. Colton, Big Daddy (1980), is a life of the founder of metropolitan Toronto. Thomas Howarth History Early settlement The first known settlement in the Toronto area, Teiaiagon, inhabited first by the Seneca and later by the Mississauga Indians, was on the east bank of the Humber River. In the 17th century it became a trading post, strategically situated at the crossing of ancient Indian trails going west to the Mississippi and north to Lake Simcoe and beyond into vast wilderness areas. These land and water routes were followed by explorers, fur traders, missionaries, and others intent upon opening up and exploiting the resources of the Great Lakes region. By the mid-18th century the name Toronto had come to be commonly used for one of three tiny forts built (172050) in the area by the French to defend their trade with the Indians against English and other European competitors. The French were defeated in 1759 and the forts were subsequently destroyed, but the settlement survived as a trading post. At the end of the Seven Years' War with France (1763), Canada came under British sovereignty; during and after the U.S. War of Independence it was a haven for those American colonists who preferred British rule to that of the new Republic. Some 40,000 United Empire loyalists are said to have settled in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence areas at this time, and during the 19th century large numbers of immigrants came from Great Britain. In 1787 Lord Dorchester, governor in chief of Canada, opened negotiations with three Indian chiefs for the purchase of a site for the future capital of Ontario; about 250,000 acres (100,000 hectares) fronting the lake were acquired in exchange for 1,700, bales of cloth, axes, and other trading goods. Ontario's first parliament met in 1792 at Niagara, but in 1793 Col. John Simcoe, lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, selected the present site of Toronto for his capital because of its fine harbour, strategic location for defense and trade, and the rich potential of its wilderness hinterland. He changed its name from Toronto to York; two years later (1795) Ontario's capital consisted of only 12 cottages and a small military establishment on the edge of the wilderness. While the British were engaged with France in Europe, the United States declared war on Britain; and York, with a population of 700, was practically defenseless. It was taken in April 1813 and was pillaged and occupied by U.S. forces for 11 days before being retaken by the British. The Speaker's Mace was carried off but was returned in 1934; the Royal Standard is still in the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland. Economic depression in Great Britain following the Napoleonic Wars drove many overseas, and York's population increased from 720 (1816) to about 9,000 in 1834, when the city was incorporated and the old name of Toronto restored. In 1849 there was a disastrous fire that destroyed some 15 acres of the downtown area, including St. James' Cathedral, St. Lawrence Market, and many offices, stores, and warehouses, but the city soon recovered. Evolution of the modern city Rapid development followed the coming of the Grand Trunk and Great Western railways in the 1850s, and for a decade prosperity was enhanced by a treaty with the United States (1854) that gave certain of Canada's products free entry to markets south of the border. The timber resources of the province were exploited, and large areas of land were converted to farming. Thus, Toronto grew rapidly as an industrial, trading, and distributing centre; its population was 45,000 in 1861, 208,000 in 1901, and 522,000 in 1921. Prosperity and security were reflected in civic improvement, great building activity, and cultural progress. Between the city's incorporation (1834) and Canada's national confederation under the British North America Act of 1867, many of Toronto's buildings of historical and architectural importance were constructed, including the new St. James' Cathedral, St. Lawrence Hall, and University College (now part of the University of Toronto), all of which are still extant. The Grand Opera House (since demolished) was opened in 1874, a stolid successor to the numerous small theatres of midcentury that were mostly converted barns. King's College (founded 1827), later to become the University of Toronto, was constructed in 1843 on the site of the present Ontario Parliament Buildings (1886). During the 50 years from 1834 to 1883, the city maintained its boundaries virtually unchanged. Some reclamation near the lake improved lakeshore properties and docking facilities. Largely by the annexation of adjacent villages and towns, the area of the city was doubled by 1900 and doubled again by 1920. In 1930 the metropolitan area included the central city, four towns (Leaside, Mimico, New Toronto, and Weston), three villages (Forest Hill, Long Branch, and Swansea), and five townships (Etobicoke, East York, North York, Scarborough, and York). The Great Depression of the 1930s caused severe financial problems for suburban Toronto. Capital debt payments could not be met, and expenditure on public servicessewage and piped water supply in places remote from the lake, for examplehad to be postponed. A rapid increase in population after World War II added to the municipal burden, and many solutions were investigated. In 1953 the Ontario Municipal Board recommended for the 13 municipalities the establishment of a federated form of government unique in North America. The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto Act was passed, and a 25-member Council of Metropolitan Toronto met for the first time on January 1, 1954. One of the first tasks of the council was to find ways and means of dealing with common major problems by united action, while also permitting local matters to be handled independently. Since the joint credit of the combined municipalities was much greater than the sum of their credits as individual authorities, financing was greatly simplified. A common level of assessment and tax rate on propertythe main source of revenuewas agreed upon by each municipality. A most significant feature of the system was that members of the Metropolitan Council were appointed by virtue of their election to office either as mayors, aldermen, or controllers of a particular municipality, thus ensuring a high degree of coordination and good communication between the central body and the local municipalities. The Metropolitan Council worked well: it resolved many of the difficult sewage and water problems; it greatly improved transportation by constructing expressways and roads, a new airport terminal building (1962), and an excellent subway; it authorized the construction of new schools and the renovation of old ones; and it introduced a regional parks system in an attempt to control future development. In 1967 the Corporation of Metropolitan Toronto was reorganized. The 13 municipalities were reduced to six, and the council was increased to 33 members. Later legislation gave the boroughs the option to rename themselves cities. The council considerably extended its responsibilities in education and the social services, adding, for example, urban renewal, waste disposal, and ambulance and library services. In 1975 and 1980 the council was again increased in size, and it added to its jurisdiction such problems as the control of urban development and housing for the elderly.