Toronto – A Multicultural City

Proudly boasting over 200 different nationalities located in the city, Toronto is every so often mentioned as the ‘most multicultural city in the world’. Located in Canada, the city has nearly half of the population belonging to other countries. Apart from being multicultural, the city has its distinct identity for being the most culturally diverse city as well. There are more than 140 languages spoken here, with people from China and UK representing the big cultural groups. Whereas, the city is also home to many smaller communities from Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal and others. Toronto has many ethnic regions, waiting to be laid hands on, including Little Italy, Greektown, Chinatown etc.

History

The city has been home to people since the last ice age. In 1793, the urban community came to live here as British colonial officials marked the Town of York. This village came to be known as City of Toronto in 1834 which with time arose as one of the most multiethnic urban cities worldwide.

Geography

Toronto has a total area of 630 square kilometer and borders Lake Ontario is the south, Steeles Avenue in the north, Etobicoke Creek and Highway 427 in the west and Scarborough-Pickering Town line and Rouge River in the east.

Having mostly flat area with gentle hills on other parts of the city, Toronto’s land gently grades upwards from the lake. The flat part is cut and crossed by ravines and many creeks in the city, filled by 3 different rivers – Humber Rive, Don River and the Rouge River at the metropolis's eastern ends.

Climate

With warm and humid summers, and extremely cold winters, Toronto experiences humid continental climate with four separate seasons of different lengths. Winter bring regular snow and temperature normally goes below 0°C, with snowstorms sometimes mixed with ice and rain drops the temperature well below -25°C, unsettling work and commuting schedules.

On the other hand, summers are marked with temperature over 20°C, going to 35°C escorted with high humidity. Toronto also experiences spring and autumn, the two provisional seasons with usually slight or cool temperature along with wet times.

Public Spaces

With varied public spaces in Toronto like Yonge-Dundas Square and Nathan Phillips Square, the city attracts attention of people. Others include Harbourfront Square and Mel Lastman Square. The city also has big downtown parks like the Moss Park, Christie Pits, Riverdale Park, Queen’s Park, Centennial Park and many others which add to the beauty of this multicultural city.

Tourism

Toronto’s tourism industry is flourishing due to different attractions in the city. Royal Ontario Museum is a famous museum in Canada, incorporating the world culture and history. The city’s zoo – Toronto Zoo hosts more than 5000 animals and 460 different species in these. Not just this, the city is also home to Ontario Science Centre, Textile Museum of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario; all adding to the industry’s boom.

The famous shopping areas in the city are Financial District, Queen West, Harbourfront and St. Lawrence Market.

Economy

The city is an international hub for business and investment. It is the financial capital of the country, with much of its concentration of brokerage firms and banks located in the Financial District. Additionally, Toronto Stock Exchange, being the seventh largest in the world in terms of capitalization of market has its home office in Toronto.

Moving on, the city is also famous for hubs of information technology, media, telecommunication and film production. Rogers Communications operates from here. And Four Seasons Hotels; the mainstream hotel company works from Toronto.

Education

Toronto is home to Canada’s largest and one of the oldest universities – University of Toronto which was made in 1827 and is located in Scarborough and the other campus in adjacent city of Mississauga. Even the York University, the third largest is located in Toronto. Among the colleges that give diploma and degrees, one is Centennial College, next Seneca College, the Humber College and George Brown College.

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) functions 588 public schools in which 451 are elementary and 116 operating as secondary.

Transportation

The city has a grand road, rail and air central transportation setup. With highways and public transit available at the heart of the city, people are facilitated with multi-purpose paths for commuting. Toronto’s chief public transportation is facilitated by Toronto Transit Commission – the Subway System carrying over 250,000 passengers every day. Moving over to Toronto’s Airport, it is country’s busiest and links the city’s western line with Mississauga. Next is the road system, which is a combination of provincial highways and expressways that are laid in the city to facilitate the congestion of cars, trucks and lorries that move in the city and outside. The Highway 401 intersects the Toronto from east to west and has the honor of being the busiest road in North America – one of the busiest worldwide.