Toronto · Canada

Overview

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Toronto is like New York, as run by the Swiss actor Peter Ustinov is rumored to have said. Indeed, this is a big, beautiful, and efficient city, one that has emerged from relative obscurity over the past half century to become the center of culture, commerce, and communications in Canada. With its colorful ethnic mix, rich history, and breathtaking architecture, Toronto is nonstop adventure for the willing tourist from the top of the CN Tower to as far as the eye can see.

The city officially became Toronto on March 6, 1834, but its roots are much more ancient than that. In the early 1600s, a Frenchman named Etienne Brûlé was sent into the not-yet-Canadian wilderness by the famous explorer Samuel de Champlain to see what he could discover. He discovered plenty: the river and portage routes from the St. Lawrence to Lake Huron, possibly Lakes Superior and Michigan, and eventually Lake Ontario. Of course, the native Huron peoples had known this area between the Humber and Don rivers for centuries -- and had long called it "Toronto," believed to mean "meeting place." Later, a bustling village called Teiaiagon grew up here, and then it was the site of a French trading post.

After the British won the Seven Years'' War, the trading post was renamed "York" in 1793. More than 40 years later, the city again took the name Toronto. Following an unsuccessful American invasion in 1812, several devastating fires, and a rebellion in 1837, there was a slow but steady increase in the population of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants leading into the 20th century. Since WWII, though, Toronto has attracted residents from all over the world. And unlike the American "melting pot" phenomenon that melds everyone together, Toronto is more of a "tossed salad" of diverse ethnic groups.

Nearly two-thirds of the 4.5 million residents who now live in the Greater Toronto area were born and raised somewhere else. And that somewhere else was often very far away. Nearly 500,000 Italians give Toronto one of the largest Italian communities outside Italy. It is also the home of the largest Chinese community in Canada and the largest Portuguese community in North America. The city hosts close to 150,000 Jewish people, nearly as many Muslims, and tens of thousands of Germans, joined by Greeks, Hungarians, East Indians, West Indians, Vietnamese, Maltese, South Americans, and Ukrainians -- more than 80 ethnic groups in all, speaking more than 80 different languages. Toronto is also the home of Canada''s largest gay and lesbian community.

What this immigration has meant to Toronto is the rather rapid creation of a vibrant mix of cultures that has echoes of turn-of-the-20th-century New York City -- but without the slums, crowding, and tensions. Torontonians embrace, and take pride in, their multicultural character, their tradition of keeping a relatively clean and safe city, and their shared belief in the value of everyone getting along and enjoying the basic rights of good health care, education, and a high standard of living.

Although the assimilation of these various cultures into the overall fabric of the city is ongoing, several ethnic neighborhoods have become attractions on their own for locals and visitors. These include Kensington Market (west of Spadina Avenue between College and Dundas), Chinatown (around the Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street intersection), Greektown (Danforth Avenue between Chester and Jones), Little Italy (College Street between Euclid and Shaw), Corso Italia (St. Clair Avenue West between Lansdowne and Westmount), Little Poland (Roncesvalles Avenue between King and Dundas), Portugal Village (Dundas Street West, west of Bathurst), Indian Bazaar (Gerrard Street between Coxwell and Greenwood), and Koreatown (Bloor Street West between Bathurst and Christie).

Toronto is also a city filled with boutiques, restaurants, and cafés, and of course there are plenty of shops -- above ground and on the PATH, Toronto''s underground city -- an 11-km-long (7-mi-long) subterranean walkway lined with eateries, shops, banks, and medical offices.

And then there are the oft-overlooked gems of Toronto: the beach-fringed Toronto Islands. These eight tree-lined islands -- and more than a dozen smaller islets that sit in Lake Ontario just off the city''s downtown -- offer a welcome touch of greenery. They''ve been attracting visitors since 1833, especially during summer, when the more than 550 acres of parkland on the islands are most irresistible. From any of the islands you have spectacular views of Toronto''s skyline, especially as the setting sun turns the city''s skyscrapers to gold, silver, and bronze.

Toronto, in a in a nutshell, is clean, safe, and orderly. Yet somehow dynamic and exciting, because it''s also a city of great activity. After New York, it''s the second largest destination for live theater on the continent. Every September the city hosts an international film festival. In mid-2003 the ground was broken for the city''s first home to both the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada. Benefactors include native son Isadore Sharp, founder of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

When the 2,000-seat, C$100 million opera house opens in 2006, it will be called the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Toronto also has numerous sports teams, including the Blue Jays, the Raptors, and the Maple Leafs. And there are year-round festivals to keep you warmly entertained in the colder months. And that''s just for starters.