Toronto - geography.

« The Hockey Hall of Fame is in downtown Toronto. VI ECONOMY Toronto’s economy has changed over the past several decades, with financial and business services becoming the largest sector.

Included in this sector are banks, stockmarkets, insurance, advertising, marketing, accounting firms, and law firms.

Toronto ranks third on the continent, behind New York City and Chicago, Illinois, in the numberof major corporations that have their head offices there. Toronto is the leading printing and publishing center of English-speaking Canada and also has more software production companies than other parts of Canada.

One of thecommunity colleges, Sheridan College in Oakville, has a well-known training program for animators.

In distribution services, Toronto is the chief Canadian center fortelecommunications, broadcasting, and air transport.

Government and other public services, notably health and education, are major employers. Manufacturing, once a mainstay of the diverse economy, receded somewhat in the 1990s.

Automobile parts and assembly at the same time became a stronger componentof the manufacturing sector, and the Toronto region’s importance in this field is second only to that of Detroit.

Cars and trucks are Canada’s most valuable export, and theauto manufacturer General Motors is the largest industrial employer.

Another large employer is Northern Telecom, a major world producer of telecommunicationsequipment.

De Havilland Aircraft produces commuter aircraft, and the area also has a number of aircraft parts producers.

Construction, once a strong element in the Torontoeconomy, declined in the 1990s. Manufacturing and other fields have been helped by relatively cheap electrical energy provided by Ontario Power Generation.

Power for Toronto was originally generated insteam plants and later at Niagara Falls.

Natural gas and oil pipelines connect the region to the sources of these resources in western Canada. Within the city, the Toronto Transit Commission operates subways, buses, and streetcars.

The streetcars are preserved on certain downtown routes as a link to the city’spast and are a distinctive feature of Toronto.

Municipalities outside Toronto operate their own bus services that link to the Toronto system.

The Government of Ontario (GO)system also deploys commuter trains and buses within the metropolitan area outside Toronto. By air, Toronto is served by Lester B.

Pearson International Airport, located to the west in Mississauga.

It is the largest airport in Canada.

Some short-takeoff-and-landingcommercial commuter aircraft operate from the island airport downtown. Although passenger rail traffic is far less than in the early years of the 20th century, VIA Rail transports passengers to Montréal and Ottawa several times a day.

Daily trainsrun to New York City and Chicago and, on the Transcontinental line, to Vancouver, British Columbia.

The Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways serve Toronto withfreight facilities, including intermodal yards where truck trailers are loaded on rail cars for transport.

The railways also haul automobiles from several plants in the area (atOshawa, Oakville, Brampton, and Alliston) to Canadian and American markets.

Toronto’s harbor receives modest traffic through the St.

Lawrence Seaway. VII GOVERNMENT The provincial government has power over the six municipalities.

At crucial times it has exercised power to reshape local administration.

Provincial legislation created theMunicipality of Metropolitan Toronto, or Metro, on January 1, 1954.

It included the municipality of Toronto and five surrounding suburban municipalities: the cities of NorthYork, Scarborough, Etobicoke, York, and East York.

The second metropolitan regional government on the continent (New York City was the first in 1898), it became a modelfor other urban consolidations. Metro had much greater powers than a county: It was responsible for police, sewage and waste disposal, public housing, major social services, a central library, and thefinancing of education.

It also sold water to local municipalities, which then sold it to homes and businesses.

Inside Metro, the Toronto Transit Commission operated theextensive public transit system, including subways.

Local road maintenance, trash collection, maintenance of local parks and recreational areas, tax collection, and fireprotection were the responsibilities of the local municipalities. On January 1, 1998, the Ontario government legislated that all six municipalities within Metro would amalgamate into one City of Toronto.

The new city is governed by acity council of more than 50 members, including the mayor.

The former municipalities each have a community council composed of councilors within their boundaries, butthese councils have very limited powers. In the 1980s the provincial government defined another level of governmental coordination, called the Greater Toronto Area or GTA, which includes Toronto.

At about 7,200sq km (about 2,800 sq mi) and a population of more than 4.6 million, the GTA includes most of the Toronto CMA, the neighboring Oshawa CMA, and part of Hamilton CMA.Outside Metro, there were four regional governments containing 24 municipalities.

A task force chartered by the province issued a report in 1996 called the Golden Reportthat recommended creating a strong GTA-wide governing body to deal with regional issues.

The Toronto Area Services Board has responsibility for GO Transit, thecommuter rail and bus service serving a wide area. VIII QUALITY-OF-LIFE ISSUES In Toronto, neighborhood residents have long banded together in residents associations.

In the postwar era they have resisted the pressure—created by rapid growth—toredevelop the central city and build expressways.

The residents elected politicians who were committed to preserving the old housing stock in the city.

These politicians alsostarted housing projects that mixed middle-class and low-income people.

Streetcars remained on many streets. Although high-rise office buildings shot up in the downtown, as did many apartment blocks in older residential areas, restrictions on marginal development have maintainedhigh population densities in the inner city.

Toronto’s strong public transit system has also helped inner-city residents of all income levels to continue living where theyprefer.

The quality of life in the inner city is thus higher than in most American cities. IX HISTORY The Toronto Passage, as it was known, was described in 1615 by explorer Étienne Brûlé and was used as an overland shortcut between Lakes Ontario and Huron.

The wordToronto is thought to be derived from the Huron term for place of meeting.

Well known to French fur traders, the location became the site of a French garrison, Fort Rouillé, in the mid-18th century.

The fort was burned in 1759 during the British conquest of Canada.

The British government bought the land by Toronto Bay from the indigenousMississauga people in 1787 and founded the town of York there in 1793 as the capital of the new province of Upper Canada (now Ontario).

The first settlers were Britishofficials and merchants. Through the activities of these early settlers, the town emerged as a transportation hub and commercial center.

In 1813, during the War of 1812, it was occupied briefly byU.S.

troops.

The settlement benefited from the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 and from the arrival of railroads in the mid-19th century.

In 1834 York was incorporated asa city and renamed Toronto. Toronto’s first mayor, Scotsman William Lyon Mackenzie, rallied the group of settlers against the group of aristocrats, known as the Family Compact, which ruled theprovince in the early 19th century.

When he failed to break its power by parliamentary methods, he tried to seize Toronto by force in the Rebellions of 1837.

He attractedonly a few hundred rebels to his side, and Canada’s only armed revolt led by English-speaking Canadians soon failed.. »