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[[File:toronto.jpg|
{{quote|''"Toronto has two seasons: winter and construction."''
|Torontonian joke<ref>Also told elsewhere in Ontario and the Great Lakes region.</ref>}}
'''Toronto''' is the largest city in [[Canada]] by population (2.8 million people lived in the city itself and 6.2 million people — roughly 15% of the population of Canada — lived in the metropolitan area as of the 2021 census) and the capital of the province of Ontario. It is not, however, the ''federal'' capital
In addition to its many charms, the Greater Toronto Area (nobody who lives there thinks of games first when they hear "GTA") is also one of the great [[California Doubling|stand-in cities]] of movie and television fame as filming in Canada is quite a bit cheaper than in the US.<ref>
One can easily detect outsiders in Toronto by hearing them pronounce it "Tow-Rawn-Tow". City natives, or those from closely neighbouring regions who talk with city natives constantly, typically drop the last T, and sometimes the first O, so it's "Toronno", "T'ronno", or even "Ch'ronno" (with the first consonant being the "ch" in "chair")
Toronto is actually a "[[Mega City|mega-city]]"; in 1998 the downtown core of Old Toronto and its neighbouring municipalities, all of which were their own cities at the time, were amalgamated into one single City of Toronto (as were many other Ontario metropolises at the same time). This has generally been regarded as a serious dick move by the offending Tory provincial government, and
Not all of Toronto's suburbs are part of the mega-city; cities like Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Mississauga and Brampton are sizable cities in their own right. The whole giant monster is known as the Greater Toronto Area (GTA for short). In general the core is known as the 416 area and the surrounding GTA as the 905 (these being the dominant phone area codes in the two segments). The term "Golden Horseshoe" is also used for a larger area surrounding Toronto, containing the GTA and nearby towns and cities wrapped around the north-western shore of Lake Ontario. Particularly expansive definitions of the Golden Horseshoe include most of Southern Ontario as well as [[Perpetual Poverty|Buffalo]], New York. The question about which cities or suburbs are part of Toronto or not has led to some confusion and general mockery among Canadians. The consensus has become the farther away one is from Toronto, the larger the city becomes. For example, while in southern Ontario, a citizen of Mississauga is ''not'' from Toronto and will be insulted if you declare them as such. However that same Mississaugan will claim to be from Toronto while traveling overseas (or more than two provinces away) just to keep things simpler. And, as mentioned, if you happen to live ''in'' the amalgamated megacity, some of your neighbours may well be [[Serious Business|willing to fight you to the death]] over whether you're both residents of Toronto or not.
In [[The Seventies]], just as the rest of the Great Lakes region was beginning its long, slow decline, the city received a huge boost from the provincial government - of Quebec, whose newly
Toronto is an exceptionally multicultural city: 47% of its population consists of "visible minorities"; soon, "white" will be a "visible minority" by census, and already is within North York, the largest, second most populous, and most multicultural zone in the megacity. Furthermore, Toronto's multiculturalism is exceptionally non-nominal, as the city has the highest proportion of recent immigrants of any of the world's major cities; Toronto is thus thought of as quite immigrant friendly and harbours many distinct cultural communities from diverse regions of the globe.<ref>and to any Americans or Europeans who may wonder why "multicultural" comes up so much in discussions of Toronto, remember that in Canada this is ''always'' considered a selling point</ref>
The popular saying is that Toronto has only two seasons: winter and construction. It's not always completely true,<ref>[[Comically Missing the Point|Sometimes there's construction during the winter.]]</ref> but spring and fall do seem to be pretty short, and sometimes snowstorms are separated from sweltering, smog-filled furnaces by as little as a month. (And yes, there are very hot days during the summer; [[Canada, Eh?|it's not all
The snow thing is a bit of a sore point. Back in 1999, a particularly huge (by Toronto's standards) snowfall had Mayor Mel Lastman so worried, he called in the [[Canucks With Chinooks|army]] to help to clear it away. [[Never Live It Down|This became a goldmine of mirth]] for other places in Canada like Montreal and Ottawa, which
{{examples|Major Landmarks
* CN Tower (Canada's National Tower, previously Canadian National Tower) <ref>Named after the CN railway company which paid for it</ref> - Tallest free standing tower in the
* City Hall - Two curved towers that would look right at home in any futuristic show like ''[[Star Trek]]''
** And, in fact, did appear as a "futuristic" building on ''[[Star Trek:
*** And, before that, appeared as a "futuristic" building on ''[[Star Trek:
** Also appeared as the Umbrella Corporation's headquarters in the second ''[[Resident Evil]]'' movie.
*** As a Torontonian, one of the joys of watching that movie is
* Royal York Hotel - Swankiest hotel in the city; one of [[Wikipedia:Canada's grand railway hotels|Canada's grand railway hotels]].
* Air Canada Centre - The hockey arena for the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team so lucrative they haven't won the [[Stanley Cup]] since 1967 and they still <s>almost always earn the most of any team in Canada</s> always earn the most ''by far'' of any team in the NHL. The franchise is worth nearly double the next most valuable...every game is a sell-out and the waiting list for season tickets is tens of thousands long.
* Rogers Centre (originally called the Skydome; most locals still refer to it as such) - first stadium to be built with a retractable dome. Also has a hotel built right into it -- [[Naked First Impression|remember to close your blinds if you stay there.]]
** If you want a room facing the stadium, you have to sign a form stating that you won't do anything lewd in front of the cameras. Because someone once did.
* Exhibition Place, aka The Ex.
* Casa Loma, a late-medieval style castle built by an eccentric millionaire more or less in the middle of the city. While it was originally an actual place of residence, the castle is now (by order of the owner's will) a public museum, complete with tours of the ''many'' rooms. And yes, it has secret passages.
** Casa Loma [[wikipedia:Casa Loma#In popular culture|sometimes appears in films]], including standing in for the [[X-Men (film)|X-Mansion]].
* The Ontario Science Centre.
* The Royal Ontario Museum, which recently{{when}} was given an overhaul with the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, an [[Bizarrchitecture|architectural monstrosity]] which sticks out over the sidewalk and is decried by a large population of
** It was designed by Daniel Libeskind, [[Signature Style|which should say something]].
** The Crystal doubled for the Massive Dynamics HQ on ''[[Fringe]]''.
* The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), which has just{{when}} completed an overhaul of its own with a new design by Frank Gehry, and is one of the largest art museums in North America.
* Ontario Place, a large festival and exhibition area on the lakeshore, built on a series of artificial islands as part of a failed plan (one of many) to expand the city into Lake Ontario.
* Eaton Centre, a big, pretty, tourist-filled mall. Named after the department store chain that built it and was its original anchor tenant; Eaton's is no longer in business and hasn't been for decades.
* Harbourfront Centre, another big, pretty, tourist-filled mall.
* Ontario Legislative Building, the seat of government for the province of Ontario. It's a beautiful century-old structure, surrounded by the University of Toronto.
* The University of Toronto - tends to get used as a stand-in for [[Oxbridge]] or Ivy League colleges in movies (especially the St-George campus, which combines modern architecture with old, ivy-covered buildings).
* Yonge
**
* [[wikipedia:Honest Ed's|Honest Ed's]]: The most famous discount store in the city, founded by the late Ed Mirvish, marked by a massive, garish flashing light sign display.
* The ironically (though not inaccurately) named Church Street, one of the most famous [[
** The street name actually comes from three major church buildings all located on or just off the thoroughfare, all dating back to the 19th century and all beautiful examples of neo-Gothic style; in order going northwards, these are St. James' Anglican Cathedral, the Metropolitan United Church, and St. Michael's Catholic Cathedral. The section of Church Street most historically known as the "gayborhood" is actually several blocks further north, centered around the intersection of Church and Wellesley Street East.
* The Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Home to Fan Expo Canada, basically "San Diego Comic-Con North"
* Massey Hall, Toronto's oldest still-open concert hall. This venue has the same reputation in Canada that Carnegie Hall has in the United States.
* Union Station, the downtown intercity railway station. The interior of Union Station has doubled for various New York train stations in various films.
{{examples|Some Famous Torontonians}}
Wikipedia has a larger [[w:List of people from Toronto|list of people from Toronto]].
'''Actors'''
* [[Will Arnett]]
* [[Neve Campbell]] (''[[Party of Five]]'', ''[[Scream (1981 film)|Scream]]'' series)
* [[Hayden Christensen]]
* [[John Colicos]]
* [[Cynthia Dale]]
* [[Megan Follows]] (''[[Anne of Green Gables (1985 film)|Anne of Green Gables]]'')
* [[Corey Haim]]
* [[Walter Huston]]
* [[Michael Ironside]]
* [[Rachel McAdams]]
* [[Heather Menzies]] (''[[The Sound of Music]]'')
* [[Mike Myers]]
* [[Mary Pickford]]
* [[Christopher Plummer]]
* [[Sarah Polley]]
* [[Jason Priestley]] (''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]'')
* [[Keanu Reeves]]
* [[Martin Short]]
* [[Sonja Smits]]
'''Artists'''
* [[Robert Bateman]] – painter
* [[Alex Colville]] – painter
* [[Group of Seven (artists)|Group of Seven]] – art collective
** [[A.Y. Jackson]] – [[Group of Seven (artists)|Group of Seven]] artist
** [[Tom Thomson]] – [[Group of Seven (artists)|Group of Seven]] artist
'''Authors'''
* [[Margaret Atwood]]
* [[Pierre Berton]]
* [[Douglas Coupland]]
* [[Robertson Davies]]
* [[Cory Doctorow]]
* [[Barbara Gowdy]]
* [[Naomi Klein]] (''[[No Logo]]'', ''[[The Shock Doctrine]]'')
* [[Stephen Leacock]]
* [[Marshall McLuhan]] (''[[Understanding Media]]'')
* [[Farley Mowat]]
* [[Robert Munsch]]
* [[Michael Ondaatje]] (''[[The English Patient]]'')
* [[Joe Shuster]] – co-creator of [[Superman]]
* [[Ty Templeton]] – cartoonist and writer
* [[Ben Wicks]] – cartoonist, illustrator, journalist and author
'''Comedians'''
* [[Samantha Bee]]
* [[John Candy]]
* [[Jim Carrey]]
* [[Joe Flaherty]]
* [[The Kids in the Hall]] – television comedy troupe
* [[Norm Macdonald]] (''[[Saturday Night Live]]'')
* [[Howie Mandel]]
* [[Colin Mochrie]] (''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?/Characters#Colin Mochrie|Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'')
* [[Rick Moranis]]
* [[Catherine O'Hara]] (''[[Second City Television|SCTV]]'', ''[[Beetlejuice]]'', ''[[Best in Show (film)|Best in Show]]'')
* [[Russell Peters]]
* The [[Royal Canadian Air Farce]]
* [[Wayne and Shuster]] (both Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster)
'''Directors and Producers'''
* [[David Cronenberg]]
* [[Atom Egoyan]]
* [[Paul Gross]]
* [[Norman Jewison]] (''[[Moonstruck]]'' et al)
* [[Lorne Michaels]]
* [[Ivan Reitman]]
'''Musicians'''
* [[Ayria]]
* [[deadmau5]]
* [[Drake]]
* [[Dream Warriors]] – hip hop group
* [[Percy Faith]] – composer
* [[Leslie Feist]] – singer/songwriter
* [[Glenn Gould]] – pianist
* [[Lawrence Gowan]] – musician, lead vocalist of the band [[Styx]] (1999–present)
* [[Jeff Healey]]
* [[Dan Hill]] – singer/songwriter
* [[K'naan]] – hip hop musician
* [[K-os]] – hip hop musician
* [[Geddy Lee]] – musician, lead singer of [[Rush (band)|Rush]]
* [[Joni Mitchell]]
* [[Kim Mitchell]] – musician
* [[Anne Murray]] – singer, born and raised in Nova Scotia but worked in Toronto
* [[Alannah Myles]] – singer
* [[Mary Margaret O'Hara]] – singer/songwriter
* [[Steven Page]] - of the [[Barenaked Ladies]]
* [[Carole Pope]] – rock singer
* [[Robbie Robertson]] – musician
* [[Howard Shore]]
* [[Jane Siberry]] – musician
* [[Richard Underhill]] – jazz musician
* [[The Weeknd]] – R&B singer
* [[Hawksley Workman]] – singer/songwriter
* [[Neil Young]]
'''Voice Actors'''
* [[Maurice LaMarche]]
* [[Tara Strong]]
'''Others'''
* [[Peter Gzowski]] – radio broadcaster ([[CBC|CBC Radio's]] ''[[Morningside (radio program)|Morningside]]'') and writer
* [[Foster Hewitt]] – sports broadcaster (''[[Hockey Night in Canada]]'') <!-- taking Foster Hewitt off this list would be like taking Howard Cosell off the list for Winston-Salem, North Carolina -->
* [[Peter Jennings]] – ABC News anchor
* [[James Randi]] – magician
* [[Morley Safer]] – journalist (''[[60 Minutes]]'')
* [[Trish Stratus]]
* [[George Stroumboulopoulos]] – TV/radio personality and VJ
* [[Alex Trebek]] – game show host (''[[Jeopardy!]]'')
{{examples|Media Set in Toronto}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Blown up in episode 19 of ''[[Robotech]]''.<ref>The corresponding episode of ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' doesn't specify which city in the "Ontario Autonomous Region" was destroyed, but since everybody in Canada who lives outside of the GTA hates Toronto, the perception's there.</ref>
== Comic Books ==
* ''[[Scott Pilgrim]]''.
== Fan Works ==
* The early part of the ''Symphony of the Sword'' cycle of ''[[Undocumented Features]]'' includes multiple visits to a 25th-century version of Toronto, most notably in the story ''[http://www.eyrie-productions.com/UF/FI/SOS/hogtown.txt Hogtown Rhapsody]''.
== Film ==
* ''[[Bon Cop, Bad Cop]]''
* The 1986 version of ''[[The
* ''[[Canadian Bacon]]''
* ''[[Chloe]]''
* ''[[Last Night]]''
* ''[[Repo Men]]''
* ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]''
* ''[[Turning Red]]''
== Literature ==
* ''[[In the Skin of a Lion]]'' by Michael Ondaatje, in which a man named Patrick Lewis arrives in Toronto in the 1920s and makes a living in search of a missing millionaire and the tunnel under Lake Ontario. Is also a [[Prequel]] of sorts to Ondaatje's much more well-known novel, ''[[The English Patient]]''.
* ''[[What We All Long For]]'' by Dionne Brand, which explores the lives of a group of friends living in downtown Toronto.
* ''[[Girls Fall Down]]'' by Maggie Helwig. In the wake of what might (or might not) be a chemical attack on the Toronto subway, paranoia runs rampant among through the city -- and love may blossom for diabetic news photographer at risk of losing his sight.
* In ''[[The Fionavar Tapestry]]'' by [[Guy Gavriel Kay]], five students from the University of Toronto are transported to a magical land to fight against the forces of evil.
* ''[[Cat’s Eye]]'' by [[Margaret Atwood]] tells the story of Elaine Risley, a controversial painter who returns to Toronto, the city of her youth, for a retrospective of her art -- and finds herself having to untangle the complex knots of her life while facing down disturbing memories.
* The "Year Zero" parts of ''[[Station Eleven]]''. (The miniseries moved these scenes to [[The Windy City|Chicago]].)
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Being Erica]]''
* ''[[Blood Ties]]''
* All incarnations of the ''[[Degrassi]]'' franchise
* ''[[Flashpoint (TV series)|Flashpoint]]''
* ''[[Forever Knight]]''
* ''[[Murdoch Mysteries]]'', set in 1890 Toronto.
* ''[[The Border]]''
* ''[[The Listener]]''
* ''[[Regenesis]]''
* ''[[Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent]]'' (2024- )
== Puppet Shows ==
* The Canadian version of ''[[Fraggle Rock]]''. (Other countries had their own localized versions of the show's "outer space".)
== Radio ==
* ''[[Red Panda Adventures]]''
== Video Games ==
* ''[[Scott Pilgrim (video game)|Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game]]''
* Averted with the ''[[Grand Theft Auto (series)|Grand Theft Auto]]'' franchise - since Toronto is not in the USA, we will never see ''GTA: GTA''.
{{reflist}}
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