Canada's biggest city, built by the world
More than half of Toronto's residents were born outside Canada, which makes it one of the most multicultural cities on earth and explains most of what the place feels like at street level. It was founded as York in 1793, burned by American forces in 1813, and renamed Toronto in 1834 — a name taken from a Mohawk word for a fishing weir further north. The neighbourhoods carry the story: the Victorian row houses of Cabbagetown, the galleries of Queen West, the crowded stalls of Kensington Market, the towers of the Financial District. Kensington in particular has turned over from Jewish to Portuguese to Caribbean to East Asian hands, each layer still visible. The CN Tower anchors the skyline, but the real identity is downstairs.
