Most populous city in Canada
About Toronto
Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. It is located on a harbour at the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. The city is the fourth-most populous city in North America, behind Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles, with a census population of 2,794,356 as of 2021. The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is constituted of Toronto proper and four surrounding regions, Peel, York, Durham, and Halton, and has a population of 6,712,341, while the Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA), with a somewhat different definition, has a population of 7,106,379. Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, sports, and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world.
Etymology
The name Toronto has been recorded with various spellings in French and English, including Tarento, Tarontha, Taronto, Toranto, Torento, Toronto, and Toronton. The most frequent early spelling, Taronto, referred to "The Narrows", a channel of water through which Lake Simcoe discharges into Lake Couchiching where the Wendat had planted tree saplings to corral fish at what is now the Mnjikaning Fish Weirs site in Orillia. This narrows was called "tkaronto" by the Mohawk, meaning "where there are trees standing in the water", and was recorded as early as 1615 by Samuel de Champlain. The word Toronto, meaning "plenty", also appears in a 1632 French lexicon of the Wendat language, which is also an Iroquoian language. Toronto also appears on French maps referring to various locations, including Georgian Bay, Lake Simcoe, and several rivers. …
History
Archaeological sites show evidence of human occupation in the site that would later become Toronto dating back thousands of years. The Wendat, an Iroquoian speaking agricultural people, occupied and farmed the territory that would become Toronto for centuries from pre-European contact until the invasion and massacre by the Haudenosaunee, another Iroquoian speaking agricultural people, from the south side of Lake Ontario between 1648 and 1650. By the 1660s, the Haudenosaunee established two villages within what is today Toronto, Ganatsekwyagon (Bead Hill) on the banks of the Rouge River and Teiaiagon on the banks of the Humber River. …
Geography
Toronto covers an area of 631 square kilometres (244 sq mi), with a maximum north–south distance of 21 kilometres (13 mi). It has a maximum east–west distance of 43 kilometres (27 mi), and it has a 46-kilometre (29 mi) long waterfront shoreline, on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. The Toronto Islands and Port Lands extend out into the lake, allowing for a somewhat sheltered Toronto Harbour south of the downtown core. An Outer Harbour was constructed southeast of downtown during the 1950s and 1960s, and it is now used for recreation. Toronto's limits are formed by Lake Ontario to the south, the western boundary of Marie Curtis Park, Etobicoke Creek, Eglinton Avenue, and Highway 427 to the west, Steeles Avenue to the north, and the Rouge River and the Scarborough–Pickering Townline to the east. …
Content from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA. Read the full article →