Known to be one of the cleanest and safest cities in the world, Toronto has, in recent years, shaken off its rather boring image, and been hailed as an exciting, friendly and unique city. This may be due, in part, to the fact that Toronto is the most ethnically diverse city in the world, with over half of its 5 million population having been born outside of Canada.

This diversity has created many culturally rich–and authentic–pockets within the city, such as ‘Little Italy’, ‘The Danforth’ (aka. ‘Greek Town’), a large Chinatown, and many more vibrant and unique areas.

You may have also heard that Toronto has been nick-named ‘Hollywood North’. At any given time, there are always sixty or more movies / productions being filmed in Toronto, making it a prime city for celebrity-spotting.

According to a recent ‘Toronto Life magazine’ survey, 82% of people who live in Toronto say that Toronto is the best, or one of the best, cities in the world and 89% say that they love living in Toronto.

Toronto: The City

The economic and cultural focus of English-speaking Canada, Toronto is the country’s largest metropolis. It sprawls along the northern shore of Lake Ontario, its vibrant, appealing center encased by a jangle of satellite townships and industrial zones that cover – as “Greater Toronto” – no less than 100 square kilometers. For decades, Toronto was saddled with unflattering sobriquets – “Toronto the Good”, “Hogtown” – that reflected a perhaps deserved reputation for complacent mediocrity and greed. Spurred into years of image-building, the city’s postwar administrations have lavished millions of dollars on glitzy architecture, slick museums, an excellent public-transport system, and the reclamation and development of the lakefront. As a result, Toronto has become one of North America’s most likeable cities, an eminently liveable place whose citizens keep a wary eye on both their politicians and the developers.

Huge new shopping malls and skyrise office blocks reflect the economic successes of the last two or three decades, a boom that has attracted immigrants from all over the world, transforming an overwhelmingly anglophone city into a cosmopolitan one of some sixty significant minorities. Furthermore, the city’s multiculturalism goes far deeper than an extravagant diversity of restaurants and sporadic pockets of multilingual street signs. Toronto’s schools, for example, have extensive “Heritage Language Programmes”, which encourage the maintenance of the immigrants’ first cultures.

Getting the feel of Toronto’s diversity is one of the city’s great pleasures, but there are attention-grabbing sights here as well. Most are conveniently clustered in the city center, and the most celebrated of them all is the CN Tower, the world’s tallest free-standing structure. Next door lies the modern hump of the SkyDome sports stadium. The city’s other prestige attractions are led by the Art Gallery of Ontario, which possesses a first-rate selection of Canadian painting, and the Royal Ontario Museum, where pride of place goes to the Chinese collection. But it’s the pick of Toronto’s smaller, less-visited galleries and period homes that really add to the city’s charm. There are superb Canadian paintings at the Thomson Gallery and a fascinating range of footwear at the Bata Shoe Museum. The Toronto Dominion Bank boasts the eclectic Gallery of Inuit Art, and the mock-Gothic extravagances of Casa Loma, the Victorian gentility of Spadina House and the replica of Fort York, the colonial settlement where Toronto began, all vie for the visitor’s attention.

Toronto’s sights illustrate different facets of the city, but in no way do they crystallize its identity. The city remains opaque, too big and diverse to allow for a defining personality. This, however, adds an air of excitement and unpredictability to the place. Toronto caters to everything, and the city surges with Canada’s most vibrant restaurant, performing-arts and nightlife scenes.

Toronto: Orientation

Toronto’s downtown core is sandwiched between Front Street to the south, Bloor to the north, Spadina to the west and Jarvis to the east. Yonge Street is the main north-south artery: principal street numbers start and names change from “West” to “East” from here. Note, therefore, that 1000 Queen Street West is a long way from 1000 Queen Street East. To appreciate the transition between the different downtown neighborhoods, it’s best to walk around the center – Front to Bloor is about 2km, Spadina to Jarvis 1km. In an attempt to protect shoppers from Ontario’s climate, there’s also an enormous sequence of pedestrianized shopping arcades called the PATH Walkway , which begins beneath Union Station, twisting up to the Eaton Center shopping mall and beyond. Both visitor centers issue free PATH maps.

Toronto: One-Day Walking Tour

One of the best things to do when you are in Toronto, is to take a day and just walk around the city. Start at Union Station (Front & Yonge) and walk east along Front Street to Jarvis. Here you will find the St. Lawrence Market (it is open Tues-Sat until 5pm) and all sorts of beautiful buildings and shops. From here you can either walk back the way you came, or you can walk north one block to King St and walk back west to Yonge St from there.

From here (Yonge & King or Front) you have a short but interesting walk up Yonge, north to the Queen Street. The Eaton Centre is located on Yonge between Queen and Dundas St. You can do a little shopping here and take advantage of the low Canadian dollar – but why bother? You can shop another day!

The Toronto Old City Hall is located at Queen and Bay, right beside the Eaton’s Centre on the west side. And on the other side of Bay (just west of the Eaton’s Centre) is the new City Hall. Many American and Canadian movies are filmed here.

At Queen St (one block north of Richmond and south of Dundas) you can take a streetcar west to a couple of stops past University St, and walk along Queen St West to Spadina and back. This is where you will find some of the coolest, most chic Toronto designer’s stores, as well as the major labels like Replay, Diesel, Gap and Guess?. After you have satisfied yourself with seeing as much as possible of Queen St West, just take a streetcar back east (the way you came) to Yonge and continue walking north along Yonge St.

Yonge St from Queen up to Bloor St is a fun walk on a sunny day. There are plenty of street entertainers and portrait artists (mostly around the Eaton’s Centre), shops, restaurants, and touristy boutiques to keep you entertained the entire way. If you feel that you would like to shorten the hike, or that you might get tired, then you should take the subway now (where you won’t miss as much). Get on the subway at Queen or Dundas going North along the Yonge Subway Line (towards Bloor). It costs $2.25 (about $1.75 US) per person. Get off at Bloor Station (it’s a major junction station.)

When you hit Bloor St, make a left (head West) and walk along Bloor St. Here you will find all the major design houses like Chanel, Gucci, Versace, Prada, Armani, Escada, Louis Vuitton, etc. Stop in at Holt Renfrew (50 Bloor St West on the north side of Bloor before Bay) to browse through designer clothes, makeup, sunglasses, etc. all in one building.

Make a right (north) on Cumberland St – the first street after Bay – to enter Yorkville. Yorkville is a ritzy and interesting area with many chic boutiques. It is located between Bay St on the east, Bloor St on the south and Avenue Rd on the west. It includes Yorkville Ave, Bellair St, Cumberland St, Scollard St, and part of Hazelton Ave. This is the place to go to eat dinner at a fancy restaurant or lunch on a patio in the sun. There is also a modern park in the middle of Yorkville with sculptures, a modern-looking water fountain and a rock hill for sitting on.

After exploring Yorkville, continue west on Bloor St to check out the Bloor West area, a great strip between Spadina and Ossington with many great cafés and cute little shops. You may want to check out Bloor Cinema (Bloor just before Bathurst St.) where you can see current, independent and classic movies on a big screen for just $4. a person.

If you have more time left (and you don’t feel like catching a forign flick at Bloor Cinema), take a $10 cab down Bathurst to College Street (aka. ‘Little Italy’). College St West between Bathurst and Ossington (with College & Clinton being the center) is a very happening area with plenty of patios, amazing Italian restaurants and hip bars.

Toronto: Transport

Toronto’s public transport system is overseen by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC); for all TTC inquiries, call the customer information line at 416-393-4636 (8am-5pm).

Rental Cars:
If you really want to explore Toronto, and you don’t want to wait around or save change for buses and streetcars, just rent a car. This would be our preferred choice as you don’t need to try to figure out the TTC system, which can be frustrating, especially if you don’t have a lot of time.

How the TTC Works:
The core of the city’s public transport, Toronto’s subway, pivots on a simple, two-line system. The Bloor-Danforth line cuts east to west along Bloor, and the Yonge-University-Spadina line forms a loop heading north from Union Station along University Avenue and Yonge. Transferring between the two lines is possible at three stations only: Spadina, St George and Bloor-Yonge. The subway operates Mon-Sat 6am-1am, Sun 9am-1am. A single journey costs $2.25, and tickets are available at all subway stations. Metallic tokens or small paper tickets can also be used, but are impossibly small and difficult to keep track of. Each ticket or token entitles passengers to one complete journey of any length on the TTC system. If this involves more than one type of transport, it is necessary to get a paper transfer at your point of entry (there are automatic machines that provide transfers at all subway stations). A day-pass costs $7, and provides one adult with unlimited TTC travel all day on Saturdays and after 9.30am on weekdays. On Sundays, the same pass becomes a terrific deal for families: it covers up to six people – only two of which can be adults.

Supplementing the subway are the TTC’s buses and streetcars. The system couldn’t be simpler, as a bus and/or streetcar station adjoins every major subway stop. Prices are the same as for the subway, and each ticket or token entitles passengers to one complete journey of any length on the TTC system. Transfers to the subway from buses and streetcars are available from the driver.

The TTC has a Request Stop Program , which allows women traveling alone and late at night to get off buses whenever they want, and not necessarily at regular TTC stops.

Toronto: Restaurants

To get the best from Toronto’s kitchens, head for any one of the city’s ethnic neighborhoods, where there’s an abundance of good restaurants, or go to one of the many downtown cafés, café-bars or restaurants that have carefully nurtured a good reputation.

Some of the best of the city’s restaurants emphasize their use of Canadian ingredients – fish and wild-animal meat especially – but there’s no real distinctive local cuisine: if there is a Toronto dish, it’s hamburger, fries and salad.

Prices range from the deluxe, where a meal will set you back upwards of $60, to the cheap fast-food chains, where a decent-sized snack or sandwich works out at about $9. The majority of Toronto’s restaurants fall somewhere in between – a $25 bill per person for a two-course meal, excluding drinks, is a reasonable average. Most of the city’s popular restaurants feature bargain daily specials from about $8 upwards and serve food till about 10pm, drinks till 1am.

With its large immigrant population, Toronto prides itself on the diversity of its cuisine. The city has more than four thousand restaurants offering a spectacular range of foods from all over the world and this is one of Canada’s few cities where you can eat high-quality food of almost any ethnic origin. One cautionary note is that many restaurants are closed on Sundays and sometimes Mondays too – telephone ahead before you start a major excursion.

Toronto: Cafés

Café Bernate – 1024 Queen St W (tel 416-535-2835). The steam machine is in full swing at this neighborhood spot, and the sunny yellow walls are hung with local artists’ work. The menu offers 29 plump sandwiches for all tastes, and those drinking regular coffee get free refills. Streetcar: Queen (#501).

Bonjour Brioche – 812 Queen St E (tel 416-406-1250). This patisserie/café draws hoards from all over the city to sample its jewel-like fruit tarts, buttery croissants, puffy brioche and its delectable pissaladiere , a variation on the pizza from the Provence region of France. There’s always a line for Sunday brunch, and almost everything is eaten by 2pm. Streetcar: Carlton (#506).

Goulash Party Haus – 498 Queen St W (tel 416-703-8056). This Hungarian café/bistro serves – what else? – goulash, along with other Eastern European staples such as cabbage rolls and schnitzel. The prices are reasonable and regulars like to bring along newspapers and books for a good, long visit. Streetcar: Queen (#501).

Gypsy Co-op – 817 Queen St W (tel 416-703-5069). An eclectic mix of old-time candy store and traditional Muskoka lodge, with a hip dining space downstairs and a space for jukebox, jitterbug dance fiends upstairs. The creative, light-fare menu caters to everyone from rare-steak eaters to vegans, and the atmosphere is agelessly cool and poseur-free. Streetcar: Queen (#501).

Insomnia – 563 Bloor St W (tel 416-588-3907). Internet cafés have not sprouted throughout Toronto like they have in other cities. Nonetheless, this one is staking a strong claim. Eight terminals with Net access, a full bar and an international menu which includes pastas, and Asian finger foods keep them coming until the wee hours of the night. Subway: Bathurst.

Jet Fuel Coffee Shop – 519 Parliament St (tel 416-968-9982). One of the oldest independent coffee establishments in town, this place is the unofficial hangout of Toronto’s bicycle couriers. It only serves beverages that can be made with an espresso machine (tea included), and imports a few baked goods for dunking. An excellent choice for relaxing with a huge, inexpensive latte and a newspaper. Streetcar: Carlton (#506).

Kensington Café – 73 Kensington Ave (tel 416-971-5632). The international soup-and-sandwich menu here gives a nod to the Middle East. A small, cosy place to slip into if the hectic pace of Kensington Market gets to be too much. Streetcar: Dundas (#505).

Last Temptation – 12 Kensington Ave (tel 416-599-2551). A locals’ kind of place where gossip and pool are the main sources of entertainment. The terrace caters to people-watching, and the bistro-style menu features a good selection of appetizers, as well as basic sandwiches, stir fries and pastas; don’t miss the on-tap microbrews. Streetcar: Dundas (#505).

Café Nervosa – 75 Yorkville Ave (tel 416-961-4642). A delightful Yorkville address perfect for sipping coffee and watching the world pass by. The remodelled decor is broadly Mediterranean, as is the food, whose major emphasis is meal-sized salads, pastas and small pizzas baked in a wood-burning oven. The terrace is the place to be and be seen in summer. Bay subway.

Zelda’s – 76 Wellesley St E (tel 416-922-2526). An unpretentious neighbourhood joint with a menu that runs the gamut from burgers to Asian-fusion salads. The interior is purposely kitschy and heavily Elvis-inspired. Subway: Wellesley.

Toronto: History

Situated on the slab of land separating Lake Ontario and Georgian Bay, Toronto was on one of the three early portage routes to the northwest, its name taken from the Huron for “place of meeting”. The first European to visit the district was the French explorer Étienne Brûlé in 1615, but it wasn’t until the middle of the eighteenth century that the French made a serious effort to control the area with the development of a simple settlement and stockade, Fort Rouillé . The British pushed the French from the northern shore of Lake Ontario in 1759, but then chose to ignore the site for almost forty years until the arrival of hundreds of Loyalist settlers in the aftermath of the American Revolution.

In 1791 the British divided their remaining American territories into two, Upper and Lower Canada, each with its own legislative councils. The first capital of Upper Canada was Niagara-on-the-Lake, but this was too near the American border for comfort and the province’s new lieutenant-governor, John Graves Simcoe , moved his administration to the relative safety of Toronto in 1793, calling the new settlement York . Simcoe had grand classical visions of colonial settlement, but even he was exasperated by the conditions of frontier life – “the city’s site was better calculated for a frog pond than for the residence of human beings”. Soon nicknamed “Muddy York”, the capital was little more than a village when, in 1812, the Americans attacked and burnt the main buildings.

In the early nineteenth century, effective economic and political power lay in the hands of an anglophilic oligarchy christened the Family Compact by the radical polemicists of the day. Their most vociferous opponent was a radical Scot, William Lyon Mackenzie , who promulgated his views both in his newspaper, the Colonial Advocate , and as a member of the Legislative Assembly. Mackenzie became the first mayor of Toronto, as the town was renamed in 1834, but the radicals were defeated in the elections two years later and a frustrated Mackenzie drifted towards the idea of armed revolt. In 1837, he staged the Upper Canadian insurrection , a badly organized uprising of a few hundred farmers, who marched down Yonge Street, fought a couple of half-hearted skirmishes and then melted away. Mackenzie fled across the border and two of the other ringleaders were executed, but the British parliament, mindful of their earlier experiences in New England, moved to liberalize Upper Canada’s administration instead of taking reprisals. In 1841, they granted Canada responsible government, reuniting the two provinces in a loose confederation, pre-figuring the final union of 1867 when Upper Canada was redesignated Ontario. Even Mackenzie was pardoned and allowed to return, arguably giving the lie to his portrayal of the oligarchs as hard-faced reactionaries; indeed, this same privileged group had even pushed progressive antislavery bills through the legislature as early as the 1830s.

By the end of the nineteenth century Toronto had become a major manufacturing centre dominated by a conservative mercantile elite who were exceedingly loyal to British interests and maintained a strong Protestant tradition. This elite was sustained by the working-class Orange Lodges, whose reactionary influence was a key feature of municipal politics – no wonder Charles Dickens had been offended by the city’s “rabid Toryism”. That said, these same Protestants were enthusiastic about public education, just like the Methodist-leaning middle classes, who also spearheaded social reform movements, principally Suffrage and Temperance. The trappings, however, remained far from alluring – well into the twentieth century Sunday was preserved as a “day of rest” and Eaton’s store even drew its curtains to prevent Sabbath window-shopping. Indeed, for all its capital status, the city was strikingly provincial by comparison with Montreal until the 1950s, when the opening of the St Lawrence Seaway in 1959 gave the place a jolt and the first wave of non-white immigrants began to transform its complexion. More recently, Toronto was an indirect beneficiary of the assertion of francophone identity in Québec, as many of Montreal’s anglophone-dominated financial institutions and big businesses transferred their operations here. The boom that ensued launched downtown property values into the stratosphere – but then came the crash of 1988, which spread near panic amongst developers. Since then, the economy has been more sedate, though many blame Governor Harris and his conservative cronies for the increase (and increasingly obvious) degree of poverty afflicting the city: since 1980, the number of Toronto families living below the poverty line has quadrupled.

Photo copyright 2004 Mira Jelic