Because this is our year of visiting North America, we came to Toronto in June for a two-month visit. We lucked into a comfortable 1-plus bedroom apartment with a balcony view of Lake Ontario, just across from Queen’s Quay. (One-plus means we have a separate small office room). From the moment our VRBO hosts greeted us and helped carry our bags, we knew we were in a friendly place.
Toronto is a bustling city that sits on Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes. The greater metro area has over 6 million residents. It is the largest city in Canada, and the 4th largest city in North America. It is an international center of finance, and has a strong arts presence hosting television & film production and the annual Toronto film festival.
It is proud of its multi-cultural demographics, with large populations of people from all over the world. Since the 1970’s and 1980’s, notable large diaspora populations include immigrants from India, the Caribbean, Africa, China, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Before that, in the 50’s and 60’s immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Europe likewise settled here. Toronto is located in the province of Ontario in Canada, which is a Commonwealth country with a British heritage. After the American Revolution, it was a place where British Loyalists settled, and just before & after the American Civil War, it similarly became a settlement for many African-Americans escaping slavery. Before that, French explorers navigated the waterways, trapping animals for fur and fishing and hunting. Toronto was first populated by indigenous nations more than 4,000 years ago, including Mohawk (which lent the name “Tkronto”, meaning the place where trees stand in the water), Ojibwe, Huron, and others. The standing sticks reference fishing traps (weirs) at the narrows of Lake Simcoe, north of the city. Archeologists date some of those ancient weirs back 5,000 years. The region of what is now Toronto was a portage between Lake Ontario and Lake Huron by way of several other large lakes. Thus, it has long been a meeting place for many cultures. You can read about the weirs here.
When you speak to Toronto residents, they seem proud of this multicultural mix. I wondered how the city came to be a comfortable spot for the mixing of diverse cultures, and whether that mixing is as genuine as it appears to be. I came across a book chapter from 2022 describing the intentional policy in Canada to embrace multiculturalism by helping immigrant populations retain their distinct cultural attributes and supporting them in their communities. (See Keith Banting, Multiculturalism Policy in Canada: Conflicted and Resilient, Chapter 10 of the book Policy Success in Canada (2022). According to Banting’s analysis, federal policies encouraging immigrant communities to celebrate their own cultures leads to their having more positive feelings of being Canadian than previous attempts to assimilate into one dominant culture. The system is not perfect, with racial discrimination still evident in income and employment opportunities, but there are strong indications that Canada is doing better in creating a strong yet diverse citizenry than many other countries. Yesterday morning, I went across the street and saw such a diverse mix of people!
There are interesting neighborhoods everywhere. Below are some photos from the Kensington Market neighborhood.
We see this multicultural perspective everywhere. We noticed immediately how many different languages we hear while walking in the downtown area. Just yesterday, while walking about, we passed groups of older Chinese residents speaking in Chinese, and a family speaking what sounded like a French patois, probably Caribbean. A grocery clerk spoke with an East-Indian accent. We see many different ethnicities represented in restaurants, groceries, and people’s attire.
Here are some of the things we have loved about being in this city.
Walkability
Downtown Toronto is a walk-friendly environment. We have walked in every direction, along the waterfront, into the banking district, into the theater district, to St. Lawrence Market, to Dundas Square, and to the art museum in Chinatown. We have walked on wide sidewalks, with clearly marked crossings. We have a half-dozen groceries within a 4-5 block radius, including one across the street that features great produce and good food selections. There are coffee shops, malls, food courts, restaurants, and retail stores everywhere. There are also clearly marked bicycle paths everywhere, and public transit. There is a lot of public art. We see lots of people walking dogs, and the dogs look well-cared for. And, it is pretty flat.
Good food
We’ve had really good food. Our absolute favorite restaurant is called Khazana. We have returned several times as well as ordering from there on UberEats. Its chef, Sanjeev Kapoor, is a celebrity in India, and we’ve never tasted such smooth, complex spices and well-cooked ingredients. The service is impeccable.
We’ve had good steak, Thai food, pizza, burgers, gyros, Korean BBQ, french croissants, Mexican, and the best sushi outside of Japan at Spring Sushi in Dundas Square and also at Oyshi Sushi on Queens Quay near Yonge. We’ve sampled several cafes and coffee shops, usually featuring Italian-style espresso and a lovely drink called a London Fog, which is Earl Grey tea steamed and foamed with milk and a little lavender. We had a wonderful breakfast at Evviva on Lower Simcoe and also at Cafe Landwer on Front Street near the wonderful fountain of dogs! Our favorite ice cream was at Ice Creamology down the street on Queens Quay.
At the St. Lawrence Market, we’ve eaten good Italian eggplant sandwiches, crepes, seafood chowder, and bisque. We even bought some caviar there, but were underwhelmed by that. We bought pre-made kebabs to cook at home, and amazing steaks. Both at the market and at Farm Boy, a grocery across the street, we have acquired excellent fruit and vegetables. Rather than having a signature style of cooking, Toronto’s style seems to be its eclectic mix of different cuisines. There is poutine – a classically-authentic French-voyageur inspired concoction you see everywhere here. Poutine is basically a big plate of fries and cheese curds covered in hot brown gravy. It originated in the neighboring province of Quebec, but it is on almost every menu we’ve seen Toronto. Poutine here is usually offered with variations on the original – with meat or seafood, for example, or with the “gravy” being replaced by something different - Caribbean jerk sauce, or Indian curry, or salsa, for example. We can see where it might have been beloved by teenagers or people who worked long, hard hours in the outdoors, but we found it too heavy and rich for our taste. That being said, we’ve eaten well in Toronto.
The waterfront
Toronto sits on Lake Ontario, and it has a long waterfront. You can walk or bike for miles alongside the water. We’ve walked a fair way in both directions. About a half mile West of our apartment is the Toronto Music Garden, designed by Yo-Yo Ma and others as the first in a series of videos he produced about the Bach cello suites. Our daughter plays the cello, and she urged us to visit. It is a lovely series of garden spaces, one for each movement of the suite – Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Menuettes, & Gigue. There are many public sculptures, public benches, restaurants, and cafes along the waterfront. Boats for sight-seeing and a dinner cruise leave from there. We took a sunset dinner cruise and it was a wonderful way to see the city from the water, going around the nearby islands.
