Toronto: From Loyalist Community to Multi-cultural Metropolis

sanctus

The Padre
Oct 27, 2006
4,558
48
48
Ontario
www.poetrypoem.com
Toronto long remained the conservative British community that John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, founded in 1792. Protestant, puritanical, and loyal to Britain, the ruling group he helped to establish shaped the town for generations. By the time it officially became a city in 1834, it had already replaced Kingston as the commercial centre of Upper Canada. It became even more dominant during the 1850s when its businessmen built a network of railroads to other parts of the province. Like Montreal, Toronto carried a good deal of weight in federal politics and this greatly facilitated its industrialization during the second half of the 19th century. For example, a national banking act centralized financial control in these two cities while a national tariff policy further strengthened the already well-established industry of Central Canada.
In the years after World War II, Toronto overtook Montreal as the country's largest city, and Bay Street replaced St. James Street as its chief financial centre. As in all North American cities, industry gradually moved from downtown to the suburbs, or fled the country entirely. This new suburban industry is highly specialized, with the largest component now in the automotive sector. With plants in Oakville, Oshawa and Brampton, the Toronto area is, in North America, second only to Detroit in this field.
Toronto's graduation from a provincial to a national city was accompanied by dramatic changes in its ethnic make-up. During the 19th century, Torontonians were overwhelmingly of British origin, although Irish Catholics soon comprised one quarter of the population. Non-British immigration began early in this century but the major changes came after World War II, and from a great variety of sources. By the time of the 1991 Census, successive waves of immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe (chiefly Italians, Greeks and Portuguese), the Caribbean, and Asia (mainly Chinese and Vietnamese) had reduced the proportion of those of British/Irish origin to about 40%. Today Toronto is the only major Canadian city where the majority is of neither British nor French descent.
Laid out in a grid pattern along Lake Ontario, Toronto's flatness is unrelieved by any strong natural features. Until recently, it was more compact than most cities, making public transportation a more workable alternative to the automobile than elsewhere. Downtown neighbourhoods have thus remained viable, indeed desirable, places to live. Major cultural and educational facilities such as the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ontario Art Gallery, the University of Toronto, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, the CBC, and a number of national publishing firms remain concentrated in the downtown area. Large bank towers dominate much of the skyline, but the best-known architectural shapes are those of the CN Tower and the Skydome.
Recent moves of people and offices to the suburbs have raised fears that the downtown will soon become the hole in a metropolitan doughnut. However, proposals for more political consolidation of Greater Toronto's 4.5 million people now await action by the provincial government.
 

m_levesque

Electoral Member
Dec 18, 2006
524
10
18
Montreal, Quebec
kyline, but the best-known architectural shapes are those of the CN Tower and the Skydome.
Recent moves of people and offices to the suburbs have raised fears that the downtown will soon become the hole in a metropolitan doughnut. However, proposals for more political consolidation of Greater Toronto's 4.5 million people now await action by the provincial government.

I actually quite like visiting Toronto. An amazing city. Montreal's more cosmopolatan of course, but Toronto is pretty hip.
 

tamarin

House Member
Jun 12, 2006
3,197
22
38
Oshawa ON
I think Toronto is a disaster. I used to visit frequently but haven't for five years now. It is a Canadian city waiting to implode once any whiff of hard times takes hold.
 

m_levesque

Electoral Member
Dec 18, 2006
524
10
18
Montreal, Quebec
I think Toronto is a disaster. I used to visit frequently but haven't for five years now. It is a Canadian city waiting to implode once any whiff of hard times takes hold.


A disaster why? I find it pretty exciting place to be sometimes. Let's face it, if somethings not in Toronto, it ain't anywhere else in the country!