FOOD

Caplansky Deli Truck – Thunderin’ Thelma

Famous for: Deli-style hot smoked-meat sandwiches.

El Gastrónomo Vagabundo

Famous for: Gourmet tacos and adventurous Asian street food.

Gorilla Cheese

Famous for: Grilled-cheese sammies with extras like bacon and cranberry sauce.

The Food Dudes

Famous for: Vegetarian-friendly caterering… with plasma TVs.

Fidel Gastro’s

Famous for: Sloppy and delish pulled-pork and Cuban chicken sandwiches.

GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS

Mesopotamia at the Royal Ontario Museum

Go waaay back in time and explore Mesopotamia at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). Discover the origins of writing, law and mathematics, as well as the earliest settlements from 10,000 BC.

Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture

Check out the coolest kicks at the Bata Shoe Museum at this exhibit celebrating the humble — and super-stylish — sneaker.

ATTRACTION

Ripley’s Aquarium

Toronto is home to more than 13,500 new inhabitants — mostly of the gilled variety — at Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada. Get up close and personal with diverse sea life, from corals to cuttlefish and sand tiger sharks to sea turtles. The aquarium focuses on conservation issues and provide an interactive educational experience.

The Aga Khan Museum and Ismaili Centre

Housing, preserving and displaying 1,000-plus artistic, cultural and historical artifacts from a millennium’s worth of Islamic history. This modern institution aims to expand visitors’ understanding of Muslim and non-Muslim communities through exhibitions, libraries and cultural and educational events.

WHAT TO DO IN TORONTO

Toronto is well-known for its healthy arts scene, numerous sporting events, a vibrant nightlife, and restaurants, bistros and eateries featuring cuisine from just about any nationality one could think of.

The Art Gallery of Ontario and Royal Ontario Museum are popular with both tourists and residents.

Toronto is a major performing arts centre, with more than fifty ballet & dance companies, six opera companies and two symphony orchestras, performing in many notable venues including Roy Thompson Hall, The Hummingbird Centre and The Centre for the Performing Arts.

The city is also known for its many amusement parks; the best-known of which is Canada’s Wonderland.

Toronto has 6 major sports teams in Hockey, Basketball, Baseball, Football, Soccer and Lacrosse.

The major venues for sporting events are the Air Canada Centre, Rogers Centre (see image) and BMO Field.

ENVIRONMENT AND GETTING AROUND

 Toronto is one of the very few North American cities in which people can choose not to own a car without suffering major inconveniences. This is largely due to The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) – North America’s third largest public transit system.

The TTC’s far-reaching and reliable network of buses and streetcars are interconnected by an extensive underground subway system. The buses are newly manufactured hybrid-electrics, introduced to reduce air pollution.

The transportation corridor image on the left shows a choice of transportation methods leading to and from downtown Toronto – road, bike-path, railway, and the Don River.

Toronto also has Zipcar, a membership car-sharing service that is billable by the hour. This service is most frequently used in the downtown.

Ontario operates a rail and bus system called GO Transit, connecting the TTC and the Greater Toronto Area. The surrounding regions (York, Peel and Durham) also have transit systems that connect with the TTC, making travel with the public transit system nearly seamless.

The 400 series highways all merge in Toronto’s core. The 401, which is North America’s busiest highway, is the spine of Ontario and Toronto’s infrastructure.

The rapid growth in the Golden Horseshoe’s population has in turn led to an explosion of the number of vehicles on the road which creates significant gridlock at rush hour periods on most if not all major highways.

Toronto’s air quality is not as good as Canada’s other large metropolitan cities; it has been compromised by the large number of vehicles in the city. Despite this, Toronto still achieved 21st position in the Top 50 cleanest cities reported by Forbes Magazine.

EDUCATION

The University of Toronto is one of the world’s most prestigious post-secondary institutions, ranking 24th in the Academic Ranking of World Universities. There are three different campuses, located in the Downtown area as well as the west (Mississauga) and east (Scarborough).

Toronto is also home to two other universities, Ryerson and York University as well as several community colleges.

Ontario’s school teachers are amonst the highest paid teachers in Canada.

Unfortunately, the supply of teachers in Ontario exceeds the demand, and finding work is not easy. Indeed, it’s common for Canadian trained teachers to move overseas to gain experience.

WHERE TO LIVE IN TORONTO

Suburbs such as North York, Markham and Richmond Hill (north, east) and the Halton region (Oakville and Milton for example) are favoured by families and are among thebest places to live in Toronto.

Single men and women tend to prefer the downtown core, where the condominium market has exploded over the last decade.

Government housing is prominent in some parts of west Toronto and higher crime rates are recorded in these areas, such as Jane & Finch, Lawrence Heights, and parts of Etobicoke such as Rexdale. In downtown Toronto, Parkdale, St. James, Regent Park and Moss Park have high crime rates. To the east of the city, parts of Scarborough such as Malvern also have higher crime rates.

Overall, the city of Toronto’s crime rates are low compared with many North American cities, including Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Montreal, Edmonton, Halifax and Winnipeg. Toronto’s crime rates are similar to Calgary’s and Ottawa’s.

The crime rate in parts of the Greater Toronto Area is lower than the city’s — areas such as Markham, Richmond Hill, Vaughan, Oakville and Burlington enjoy crime rates less than half that of the city.

BUSINESS AND JOB

According to Forbes, powerful cities such as Toronto attract investment due to the size of their economy, their projected future prosperity, cost of living and quality of life. Forbes describes Toronto as lying at the economic heart of one of the world’s wealthiest countries, projected to keep humming through 2020.

The other top ten most economically powerful cities identified by Forbes were London, Hong Kong, New York, Tokyo, Chicago, Seoul, Paris, Los Angeles, and Shanghai.

Toronto is Canada’s banking/financial capital and the home of its principle stock exchange, the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Toronto has North America’s third largest concentration of private IT companies, bettered only by San Francisco and New York.

In addition to IT and high finance Ontario’s plentiful natural resources, such as hydroelectricity and raw materials, have helped Toronto and its surrounding municipalities to become major industrial centres, producing more than 50 percent of Canada’s manufactured products.

From the perspective of today’s more troubled economic times, Canada’s banks never extended themselves as unwisely as some of their American and European counterparts and have relatively strong balance sheets.

Toronto currently has a construction boom because it is hosting the 2015 Pan American Games. The boom is dominated by condo developments and construction of games facilities.

Figures published by Statistics Canada show that 49,400 net full-time jobs were created in the Toronto region in 2012. As a result of these new jobs, the unemployment rate in the Toronto region fell to 7.6% at the end of 2012.

ANIMAL LIFE

Canada has always had a great variety of wild animals. Most of the world's woodland caribou, grizzly bears, mountain sheep, wolves, and wolverines live in Canada. But many native species were severely reduced by uncontrolled hunting and the destrucionof animal habitats by human settlement. Wood bison, once on the prairies in vast numbers, now can only be found in protected parklands. Passenger pigeons, which once darkened the skies of the St. Lawrence Lowlands, became extinct early in the 20th century. Harp seals, inhabitants of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, are not endangered but have become the focus of worldwide attention. This is because of the manner in which day-old pups are clubbed to death in great numbers by hunters.

The waters of Canada's continental shelf teem with fishes. In the Pacific the cold waters of the California Current mix with the warmer Alaska Current, resulting in perfect conditions for feeding grounds for fishes and, therefore, for an active fishing industry. Particularly valuable are the salmon that spawn in the many rivers and streams of the Coast Mountains and later migrate to the open sea to feed and to mature. Herring as well are attracted to the area and account for a large portion of the fishes caught. In the Atlantic cod is by far the most important species caught in the open sea, while lobsters and shellfish are the main catch of fishermen closer to shore.

PLANTS

Plant life varies with land type and climate. By far the most abundant form is boreal, or northern, forest, which accounts for four fifths of the nation's forested area. Indeed, this band of tree growth, which covers the southern portion of the Canadian Shield and which stretches uninterrupted from the border with Alaska to the Atlantic coast, is second in size only to the boreal forests of Russia. Since deciduous trees, or those that shed their leaves, cannot survive in a climate where the average January temperature is below -0.4o F (-18o C), the boreal forest is made up almost entirely of coniferous, or evergreen, trees. These forests are the mainstay of Canada's pulp and paper and forest products industries.

South of the boreal forest in northwestern Ontario, and again from central Ontario to the Maritime, or Atlantic, Provinces, lies a belt of mixed coniferous and deciduous forest. In southern Ontario are small wooded areas that are the remains of what was the only completely deciduous forest in Canada

Northward from the boreal forests lies a transitional zone of scattered stunted coniferous forest and muskeg swamp. This subarctic region, called taiga, yields to the tundra, where it is too cold for trees of any kind to survive. This is the land of lichens and mosses, plants that, like those in warm deserts, must follow a cycle of a short period of growth, followed by a long period of dormancy. This is Canada's most fragile environment and one that has engaged the attention and energies of a number of groups concerned that commercial exploitation of the Arctic resources may cause serious and irreparable damage.

CLIMATE

In a land as vast as Canada, it is natural to find a great variety of climate. Although overall the country is cool, there are some remarkable differences from region to region. The Atlantic provinces and the lowland region of Ontario and Quebec have a cool continental climate characterized by hot summers and bitter cold winters. But the closeness of the ocean noticeably moderates the climate in the provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland so that summers are cooler and winters not so severe.

Throughout the whole region precipitation is even and moderate all year. In the region roughly corresponding to the Canadian Shield, there is a cold continental climate, with long, severely cold winters and short, hot summers. The southern parts of the three Prairie Provinces have significantly less rain and snow than their northern sections, and this controls what can be done with the land. In the Rockies there are a number of climates, depending on elevation and position on the slopes.

The Pacific coastal areas get great amounts of rain and snow, particularly in the winter when the winds blow mostly directly onshore and are forced upward by the mountain wall. Yet the provincial capital of British Columbia, Victoria, is attractive to many people because of its dry climate and mild winters. Summers on the Pacific coast are mild.

Finally, the frigid Arctic archipelago and the shores of the Arctic Ocean make up the Arctic climatic zone. Since this region lies entirely within the Arctic Circle, periods of daylight and darkness last six months, the ground is permanently frozen, and summers are brief and cool.

LAND REGIONS

Canada may be divided into several natural regions based upon geologic history. The easternmost is the Appalachian Region, which includes the Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec. This region is a northern extension of the Appalachian Mountains of the United States and, like them, is an area of lakes, rivers, and tree-clad hills. Deposits of coal, gypsum, and other nonmetallic minerals as well as metallic ores may be found in the region. Offshore in the Atlantic Ocean the frigid waters of the Labrador Current, rich in the tiny organisms upon which larger ocean life feeds, meet the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream. The resulting conditions and the presence of the continental shelf have led to the formation of one of the world's most bountiful fishing areas, the Grand Banks.

In the Arctic archipelago, the frozen islands of the Canadian north, mountains similar to the Appalachians are found. Named the Innuitian Mountains after the northern indigenous people, they are largely unexplored because of the hostile climate. Thus little is known of their economic potential.

Westward from the Atlantic, sandwiched between the Canadian Shield and the Appalachians, lies the region known as the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands. Here the Mesozoic limestones, sandstones, and shales are overlain by glacial drift, the sediments left when glacial lakes drained away 11,000 years ago. This region's Point Pelee on the Ontario shore of Lake Erie, the most southerly part of Canada, is farther south than the northern boundary of California. The richness of its soils and the presence of abundant building materials have helped make this region the most populated in Canada and the center of the country's economic activity.

The projection of the Canadian Shield known as the Frontenac Axis slices the St. Lawrence Lowlands in two to form the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River and the Adirondack Mountains in the United States. Here the ancient granites of Precambrian rock rise above the surrounding sedimentary materials and mark the beginning of the vast expanse of barren rock, forest, muskeg swamps (grassy bogs), and beautiful lakes that are characteristic of the shield. Covering nearly 2 million square miles (5 million square kilometers), this region accounts for almost half of Canada's land area. Here are found most of the major mining activities and the evergreen forests that provide for Canada's huge forest products industry. The flow of water in numerous rivers is the source of hydroelectric power for the cities of the lowlands and for export to the United States.

In a wide belt between the Canadian Shield and the western mountains, stretching from the border with the United States to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, is the region known as the Interior Plains and Lowlands. Thick, almost horizontal layers of sedimentary rock form a low, rolling landscape that rises gradually to the west. Cereal-growing areas of the eastern and central part of the region give way, as the land rises, to the cattle ranches of the west and the forests of the north. The sedimentary rock layers in Alberta yield petroleum, natural gas, and coal; in Saskatchewan they yield potash.

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

A massive dome of Precambrian rock dominates the Canadian landscape. Called the Canadian Shield, it lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Shaped somewhat like a giant inverted saucer, it sweeps from the Amundsen Gulf southward and eastward across the top of the Prairie Provinces, around Hudson Bay to the Atlantic Ocean, encompassing most of Ontario and Quebec and all of Labrador. The sedimentary rocks that make up the remainder of the country's surface and near surface rest on this ancient base, though it may be necessary to penetrate deeply into the Earth to find it.

In the Paleozoic era (570 million to 225 million years ago) and later in the Mesozoic era (225 million to 65 million years ago), ancient seas invaded the depressed areas of the Canadian Shield and gradually formed layer upon layer of sediment. In the course of millions of years, these layers were solidified, then uplifted and broken by tremendous geologic forces. Tiny marine life trapped in the sediment formed oil and natural gas deposits that gathered in the folds of the rock. Giant dinosaurs also were covered, and they too became part of the rock layers.

Some rock was melted and re-formed, and some molten rock invaded the massive cracks in the Earth's crust, where slowly it cooled and formed massive deposits of minerals. Wind and water and glacial ice wore away the rock, laying down the particles in valleys and depressions, where over the centuries living organisms have turned it into soil.

HISTORY OF CANADA

The first inhabitants of Canada were native Indian peoples, primarily the Inuit (Eskimo). The Norse explorer Leif Eriksson probably reached the shores of Canada (Labrador or Nova Scotia) in 1000, but the history of the white man in the country actually began in 1497, when John Cabot, an Italian in the service of Henry VII of England, reached Newfoundland or Nova Scotia. Canada was taken for France in 1534 by Jacques Cartier. The actual settlement of New France, as it was then called, began in 1604 at Port Royal in what is now Nova Scotia; in 1608, Quebec was founded. France's colonization efforts were not very successful, but French explorers by the end of the 17th century had penetrated beyond the Great Lakes to the western prairies and south along the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, the English Hudson's Bay Company had been established in 1670. Because of the valuable fisheries and fur trade, a conflict developed between the French and English; in 1713, Newfoundland, Hudson Bay, and Nova Scotia (Acadia) were lost to England. During the Seven  Years´War  (1756–1763), England extended its conquest, and the British general James Wolfe won his famous victory over Gen. Louis Montcalm outside Quebec on Sept. 13, 1759. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 gave England control.

Canada Wins the Right to Self-Government and Welcomes English-Speaking Immigrants

At that time the population of Canada was almost entirely French, but in the next few decades, thousands of British colonists emigrated to Canada from the British Isles and from the American colonies. In 1849, the right of Canada to self-government was recognized. By the British North America Act of 1867, the dominion of Canada was created through the confederation of Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. In 1869, Canada purchased from the Hudson's Bay Company the vast middle west (Rupert's Land) from which the provinces of Manitoba (1870), Alberta (1905), and Saskatchewan (1905) were later formed. In 1871, British Columbia joined the dominion, and in 1873, Prince Edward Island followed. The country was linked from coast to coast in 1885 by the Canadian Pacific Railway.

During the formative years between 1866 and 1896, the Conservative Party, led by Sir John A. Macdonald, governed the country, except during the years 1873–1878. In 1896, the Liberal Party took over and, under Sir Wilfrid Laurier, an eminent French Canadian, ruled until 1911. By the Statute of Westminster in 1931 the British dominions, including Canada, were formally declared to be partner nations with Britain, “equal in status, in no way subordinate to each other,” and bound together only by allegiance to a common Crown.

Newfoundland became Canada's tenth province on March 31, 1949, following a plebiscite. Canada also includes three territories—the Yukon Territory, the Northwest Territories, and the newest territory, Nunavut. This new territory includes all of the Arctic north of the mainland, Norway having recognized Canadian sovereignty over the Sverdrup Islands in the Arctic in 1931.

The Liberal Party, led by William Lyon Mackenzie King, dominated Canadian politics from 1921 until 1957, when it was succeeded by the Progressive Conservatives. The Liberals, under the leadership of Lester B. Pearson, returned to power in 1963. Pearson remained prime minister until 1968, when he retired and was replaced by a former law professor, Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Trudeau maintained Canada's defensive alliance with the United States but began moving toward a more independent policy in world affairs.

GOVERNMENT

Canada is a federation of ten provinces (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan) and three territories (Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut). Formally considered a constitutional monarchy, Canada is governed by its own House of Commons. While the governor-general is officially the representative of Queen Elizabeth II, in reality the governor-general acts only on the advice of the Canadian prime minister.

GEOGRAPHY

Covering most of the northern part of the North American continent and with an area larger than that of the United States, Canada has an extremely varied topography. In the east, the mountainous maritime provinces have an irregular coastline on the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic. The St. Lawrence plain, covering most of southern Quebec and Ontario, and the interior continental plain, covering southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan and most of Alberta, are the principal cultivable areas. They are separated by a forested plateau rising from Lakes Superior and Huron.

Westward toward the Pacific, most of British Columbia, the Yukon, and part of western Alberta are covered by parallel mountain ranges, including the Rockies. The Pacific border of the coast range is ragged with fjords and channels. The highest point in Canada is Mount Logan (19,850 ft; 6,050 m), which is in the Yukon. The two principal river systems are the Mackenzie and the St. Lawrence. The St. Lawrence, with its tributaries, is navigable for over 1,900 mi (3,058 km).

MAP OF CANADA

Sovereign: Queen Elizabeth II (1952)

Governor-General: David Lloyd Johnston (since 2010)

Prime Minister: Stephen Harper (since 2006)

Land area: 3,511,003 sq mi (9,093,507 sq km); total area: 3,855,102 sq mi (9,984,670 sq km)

Population (2012 est.): 34,300,083 (growth rate: 0.78%); birth rate: 10.28/1000; infant mortality rate: 4.85/1000; life expectancy: 81.48; density per sq km: 3

Capital (2004 est.): Ottawa, Ontario, 1,170,000 (metro. area)

Largest cities (metropolitan areas) (2009 est.): Toronto, 5,377,000; Montreal, 3,750,000; Vancouver, 2,170,000; Calgary, 1,160,100; Edmonton, 1,101,600; Quebec, 710,700; Hamilton, 710,300; Winnipeg, 702,400; London, 459,700; Kitchener, 450,100

Monetary unit: Canadian dollar