contact August 23rd, 2010
Canada is big and most people outside of Canada do not know the geography very well. Especially……yup….Americans. That’s ok; all hope is not lost. Just learn more about it by playing this game. If you think you know Canada well, test your confidence about that with this fun geography game.
It quizzes you and you click on your answer. It’ll then tell you how close you were to it. (or how far depending on your attitude 
)
contact August 1st, 2010
“I like Toronto; the people are really chill.” ~ Rihanna
contact July 29th, 2010
From World66:
Over 180 languages are spoken in Toronto! There are large numbers of people from China, India, Jamaica, Greek, The British Isles, The Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Somalia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Nigeria, Germany, Korea, etc.
contact July 11th, 2010
For the longest time, I couldn’t listen to The Goldberg Variations without thinking about Hannibal (The Cannibal) Lechter from Silence of the Lambs
It made me sad because I love this recording by Glenn Gould
My baggage aside, one of the best things you can do for your life, is to stop everything and JUST listen to beautiful music for a while. You don’t have to spend the entire day doing this; just spend some allotted time to step away from the chaos of life, and just…chill. And chilling with music rules. Some of you are so used to multi-tasking and always doing a million things at the same time. You know I’m talking about you. Your days are filled with a continuous string of tasks back to back to back sans cesse, if you know what I mean. Calm, serenity, quiet, peaceful – well, these words do not exist in your life’s vocabulary.
Cut it out!
Do yourself a favor and find great music, like Glenn Gould: The Complete Original Jacket Collection
So…..WHY am I writing about Glenn Gould on this Toronto blog? I thought you’d never ask. Glenn Gould was born in Toronto on September 25, 1932. Thought you’d like that bit of trivia.
About Glenn Gould: The Complete Original Jacket Collection
Each of the 60 single and 9 double CDs consists of the exact recordings as first issued on vinyl and looks like a miniaturised form of the original disc: the CDs are in cardboard slipcases in the original design, and the CD itself is designed to look like a LP.
Supplemented by two bonus CDs, the limited “Glenn Gould Complete Jacket Collection” comprises 80 CDs mounted in a high-quality display case with a booklet of more than 240 pages. This booklet contains a new, detailed essay by the German Gould specialist Michael Stegemann on Glenn Gould and the LP recording era along with texts and repertoire details to all recordings in the edition, plus a listing and depiction of the records with reissue dates for repertoire that has appeared before.
The bonus CDs include the last great interview that Glenn Gould gave the American journalist Tim Page in 1981 and an essay on Johann Sebastian Bach and the fugue that Gould recorded in 1972 for a bonus LP. They also feature a number of late recordings that never appeared on vinyl: fragments of the “Italian Album” and Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll in its orchestral version — Gould’s recording debut as conductor and his last recording of all, made on 8 September 1982 with members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Another rarity is Gould’s own film music to George Roy Hill’s Slaughterhouse Five from 1972.
contact June 27th, 2010
From CBC:
The Toronto region has experienced substantial growth in its immigrant population over the last five years, according to new census data released Tuesday.
Statistics Canada released information from the 2006 census that gives a snapshot of people who came from other countries to live here. It reveals that most people moving to Canada are flocking to large urban centres, especially Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
Demographic experts have predicted that Canada’s population growth will be almost entirely dependent on immigration by 2030 and communities that don’t attract new Canadians may see steady declines in population.
A shrinking population can have a host of economic and social consequences, including a fragile local economy starved for workers that, in turn, discourages much-needed investment. Business and school closures can result, and as the declining population ages the delivery of social services such as health care becomes strained.
Some communities find it difficult to attract immigrants because new Canadians tend to choose large cities where their families have already settled and where they can obtain the services they will need.
The latest census statistics show that immigrants make up 45.7 per cent of the Toronto area population. Five years earlier, immigrants represented 43.7 per cent of the population. In terms of recent immigration, the number of immigrants who lived in the region increased to 2,320,160 from 2,032,960 between 2001 and 2006.
During the same five-year period since the 2001 census, the overall population of Toronto region increased by 9.2 per cent — compared to a provincial gain of 6.6 per cent and a national growth rate of 5.4 per cent.
The immigration figures shows that about one out of every five Canadians was born in another country. In the Toronto region the ratio is almost one out of every two, while for Ontario, it’s more than one out of every four.
The national figures are skewed by the concentration of immigrants in the metropolitan regions of Toronto, Vancouver (39.6 per cent) and Montreal (20.6).
In terms of the country of origin for foreign-born people in the Toronto area, the highest proportion came from…
contact June 25th, 2010
Lots of celebrities were born in Canada, and in particular, in our great city of Toronto. I thought you’d like to see which celebs are from Toronto, so the next time you see them in-person (yeah, like when?) you can say, “Hey you Canuck!” They’d appreciate that, eh? Ok. Maybe not. Here they are, anyway, fyi:
Dave Foley (1963) – Born: Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 1/4/1963
Mike Myers (1963) Born: Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 5/25/1963
Jim Carrey (1962) Born: Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 1/17/1962
Rick Moranis (1954) Born: Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 4/18/1954
John Candy (b. 1950 – d. 1994) Born: Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 10/31/1950
Lorne Michaels (1946) Born: Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 11/17/1946
Neil Young (1945) Born: Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 11/12/1945
Robbie Robertson (1944) Born: Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 7/5/1944
David Cronenberg (1943) Born: Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 3/15/1943
Christopher Plummer (1927) Born: Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 12/13/1927
contact June 19th, 2010
Tagline: Energizer. It would never run out on you.
Created by the advertising agency: TBWA, Toronto, Canada; Creative Director: Joe Amaral; Art Director: Pete Ross; Copywriter: Allan Topol; Photographer: Adam Rankin
Published: November 2007
contact June 3rd, 2010
Toronto is the 5th-largest city in North America after Mexico City, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
contact June 2nd, 2010
From : wwwistp.murdoch.edu.au/pu…nadian.htm
Toronto is far less dominated by cars and indeed is the best North American example of transit-oriented development (Kenworthy and Newman, 1994). From 1960 to 1990 there was a large growth of 127% in Metro Toronto’s transit use up to 350 trips per capita, which represents European levels of transit ridership.
Even Greater Toronto, which includes the lower density, more car-oriented suburbs of the region had 210 transit trips per capita in 1990, by far the biggest in North America and some 35% higher than the next best metropolitan region, New York.
The central city area (CBD) of Toronto has continued to grow in population over the past decades, adding some 20,000 new dwellings between 1975 and 1988 (Nowlan and Stewart, 1992), and Metro Toronto’s density increased by 13% between 1960 and 1990 (particularly along its transit lines).
Metro Toronto with its 2.3 million people. As a result, it has been able to revitalise the downtown area and to develop a density in Metro Toronto (41 persons per ha) that is closer to European levels than American. Even the greater Toronto area has a density of 26 persons per ha, which is almost double the average US and Australian metropolitan densities.
Metro Toronto’s 22 smaller sub-cities, together with a healthy downtown which has even managed to reduce parking supply per 1000 jobs by 11% between 1980 and 1990, provide the basis for a viable transit system.
Toronto’s new central city housing has reduced the morning peak by 100 cars for every 120 units built (Nowlan and Stewart, 1992). There are families living in the city centre in the European tradition, which of course greatly enhances the vitality and safety of the public spaces.
Recent trends in Toronto are threatening to take some of the gloss away from these gains for sustainability as large scale cuts in the transit system have been implemented causing reductions in patronage (Pucher, 1995).
A significant part of these problems are the many changes in urban governance which are being implemented in Toronto and other Canadian urban regions and which are pushing towards a model of fragmentation in urban government, the politics of local self-interest and harmful competition between municipalities. These changes are tending to favour auto-dependent land use and transportation planning (Raad and Kenworthy, 1998).
contact May 28th, 2010
From cbc:
Vancouver has been ranked the best place to live in the world for the fifth year in a row in a survey by the Economist magazine, while Toronto took fifth place out of 132 cities.
Top 10 cities Livability index (%)*
1. Vancouver 1.3
2. Melbourne 1.8
3. Vienna 2.3
4. Perth 2.5
5. Toronto 3.0
6. Adelaide 3.0
7. Sydney 3.2
8. Copenhagen 3.7
9. Geneva 3.9
10. Zurich 3.9
(*0% indicates exceptional quality of living and 100% indicates an intolerable one)
The two Canadian cities rank among the top five because they have low crime rates, little threat from instability or terrorism, and a highly developed transport and communications infrastructure, says the survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
Vancouver scored a livability index of 1.3 per cent, with zero indicating exceptional quality of living and 100 indicating life there is intolerable or severely restricted.
A good transportation system helped Vancouver top the Economist’s list of the world’s most livable cities, again.A good transportation system helped Vancouver top the Economist’s list of the world’s most livable cities, again.
(Charlie Cho/CBC)
Toronto’s livability index was 3.0.
Australia also fared well in the survey, securing four spots among the top 10 cities.
Algiers came in at the bottom of the ranking. Nine cities, including Algiers, present the worst-case scenario in which most aspects of living quality are severely restricted, according to the survey.
The EIU’s livability ranking is part of the magazine’s Worldwide Cost of Living Survey.
The survey considered 40 individual factors in categories such as stability, health care, culture, environment, education and infrastructure.
contact May 25th, 2010
Toronto – the name derived from the Huron word for “fishing weir” – is on the northwest shore of Lake Ontario at Latitude 43 39 N, Longitude 79 23 W.
Located on a broad sloping plateau cut by numerous river valleys, Toronto covers 641 sq.km. and stretches 43 km from east to west and 21 km from north to south at its longest points. The perimeter is approximately 180 km. More stats:
* waterfront is 76.5 meters above sea level; shoreline stretches 43 km (as the crow flies) or 138 km if you factor in the bays and islands
* highest point is 209 m (at intersection of Steeles Ave West and Keele St)
* 307 km of rivers and creeks run through the city; all flow into Lake Ontario and are part of the Atlantic Ocean Drainage Basin
* most northerly point is the intersection of Steeles Ave E. and Pickering Town Line
* most southerly point is Lake Ontario’s shoreline at the border between Toronto and Mississauga
* most easterly point is the meeting of the Rouge River and shoreline of Lake Ontario
* most westerly point is the intersection of Steeles Ave W. and Albion Road
* Toronto is in plant hardiness zone 6, and on the eastern edge of the Carolinian Forest zone
* there are 1500 parks and 8,000 hectares of parklands – (ravines, valleys, woodlots, waterfront natural areas, parks and farmland), or 18.1 per cent of city’s area. There are also 187 km of bike paths, 7.8 km of pedestrian paths, and 3 million publicly owned trees.
* in geological terms Toronto sits atop sedimentary rock – part of the St Lawrence Platform geological zone (as is all of southern Ontario)
Statistic source: Land Information Toronto, Parks & Recreation, Natural Resources Canada
contact May 24th, 2010
Toronto is Canada’s largest city and home to over 5 million people. Thought you’d enjoy that bit of trivia.
contact May 19th, 2010
Did you know that the beautiful Toronto Islands protect Toronto’s natural harbour? Did you even KNOW that Toronto HAD any islands? The islands are comprised of park areas, nature reserves and protected wetlands, maintained by the Toronto’s Parks Department.
Private vehicles are not permitted on the Toronto islands.
[photo courtesy of wikipedia]
contact May 13th, 2010
Uh huh. I know you might be thinking that this website is Toronto-centric, sooooooooo Toronto, right? Duh, the obvious? Do you take me for a fool, you may be thinking. Your final answer is Toronto, you say?
WRONG.
The Capital of Canada is…. drum roll here …. OTTAWA!
I felt like being a brat today.
That is all.
