Toronto is the largest city in Canada and located on the North West shore of Lake Ontario. It is a city of over 2 million people. Its growth in the last 30 years has moved it ahead of Montreal.

In the 1720s, a fort was established by the French called Fort Toronto. This later became the town of Toronto. During the early 1780s, British loyalists moved into this area after the American Revolutionary War. In 1793, Toronto was renamed York. The British used York for a Naval Station. During the War of 1812, the Americans captured York. In 1834, the Town of York re-established itself once again as Toronto. Toronto grew as it was linked to the railroad in the last half of the 19th century. Toronto continued to grow especially after World War II. Immigrants from around the world began to settle in Toronto. This city became the second in terms of numbers of immigrants in North America only behind Miami. Toronto also became one of the leading financial centers in the world.

I'm sure this isn't why you are planning a vacation to Toronto. There are a lot of things to see and do in Toronto. The first attraction to mention is the CN Tower. The tower is 1,815 feet tall and is the tallest structure in the world. It originally belonged to the Canada National Railroad but it was transferred to the Canada Lands Company. It was constructed in the 1970s and took over 3 years to complete.

If you like your sports, you can go over to the Rogers Centre and catch the Toronto Blue Jays in action. If it isn't baseball season, maybe you can catch some Canadian football with the Toronto Argonauts. The Rogers Centre has a fully retractable roof and is the last stadium that has been built for multi-sport activities. The centre hosts concerts and conventions as well.

Toronto has a different perspective on shopping if shopping is your thing. They have an underground walkway that connects you to more than 1,000 shops and services. This system encompasses a large section of downtown making it the largest shopping center in the world. From this system, you can get to other events and attractions as well. You can connect with the sporting events as well as shopping plus you can connect to some of Toronto's major hotels. Toronto began using tunnels to connect some of its businesses as early as 1900.

Toronto's city hall is a very impressive modernistic building that is a distinctive landmark. The old city hall has been 'reassigned" duties as it is now the municipal court building. There are a number of museums and other cultural events that the city of Toronto operates. Toronto is very active theatre and performing arts and has become a very well recognized cultural center. There are also fine hotels as well as fine dining to partake in.

Do you have your reservations (I mean tickets)? If you haven't been, you need to put it on your list of thing you want to do and places you want to see.

Michael Russell
http://canada-vacation-guides.com/
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Picture: Toronto Canada