Bob Fisher invites us to spend a long weekend in his home city, Toronto…

How does a travel journalist describe the city in which he has spent most of his life?

A Latin professor of mine at university many years ago insisted that we speak certain rather arcane sentences. I remember especially:

Strepitum odi urbium; rus est semper mihi gratissium (I hate the din of cities; the country is most pleasing to me.)

There is the perennial love-hate relationship with cities and their cultures of “the rush”. As poor angst-ridden Woody Allen once said in a documentary, “I like everywhere I go; I just don’t like where I am at the moment.”

In Toronto, you are smack dab in the middle of urbanity and gutsiness, and in many ways everywhere at once.

In this multicultural megacity, life happens as it does in other similar urban centres in North America — lickety split. It is a metropolitan and cosmopolitan environment in which your senses are fully engaged and your mind is always in overdrive.

And if from time to time your idea of a fun getaway is to immerse yourself in someone else’s urban culture, then Toronto is your kind of town.

The Toronto skyline at sunset

Toronto is a Huron name that suggests meeting place, or trees in the water. Less flattering names for the city have been Hogtown and Muddy York. Whichever way you look at it, though, Toronto is a world-class North American city. And although comparisons can be misleading, let me nonetheless be so bold as to make the following one.

When you think Toronto, think Chicago. In many ways they are sister cities — different but similar: architecture, world-class cuisine, cities of neighbourhoods, art, theatre, music, sport, museums, multicultural, worldly.

And both are major inland seaports on the largest inland waterway in the world. By the way, the film Chicago was shot … wait for it … in Toronto! And I have been told that this occurred somewhat to the chagrin of the Windy City. And Toronto, like Chicago (and Montréal) is a major jazz capital, as its annual International Jazz Festival attests. At any time of the year, the joint is jumpin’.

Indeed, Toronto is a favourite film shoot location. After LA and New York it is actually the largest film and television production centre in North America. The exchange rate, government tax credits, and highly trained film and television production crews account for this. Toronto has also doubled for other cities, such as New York, Boston, Vienna, and even Tokyo, Shanghai, Teheran… and Siberia!

Remember: Cinderella Man, X-Men, The Hurricane, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Good Will Hunting, Finding Forester, Bollywood Hollywood, Serendipity, The In-Law?

With his colleagues in other major cities across Canada, David Miller — Toronto’s dynamic, and mildly charismatic (in a low-key Canadian way mind you) mayor — vigorously and continuously negotiates a new economic deal for cities with the Canadian federal government.

As the economic engines of Canadian society, our major cities are demanding an increasing share of federal tax revenues in order to continue to flourish. And as the de facto commercial capital of Canada, Toronto continues to be re-energised. As we say in French, “Ça boum!“

When I think of great cities I have visited, I can actually hear specific sounds. And as I write this, I am aware that I can also hear Toronto. I hear the steel-on-steel sound of Toronto streetcars and the insistent clanging of their bells advising motorists or pedestrians that it might be a good idea if they moved a touch to the right or left.

A Toronto streetcar after all has a kind of divine right of way. I hear the descending three-toned sound in the subway cars of Toronto announcing that the doors are about to close. I hear the slightly muffled sound of thousands of heels on the marble floors of downtown Toronto’s labyrinthine underground shopping city. I hear the scalpers outside Toronto’s Dome flogging their last-chance wares in provocative tones and ingenious phrasing; perfect ambiant clamour for a movie’s soundtrack. Like all major cities, Toronto’s urban cacophony can at times seem overwhelming, especially to those who didn’t grow up here, or those who just visit… or those who move to its suburban hinterland… but if you listen carefully you can hear the distinct patterns of Toronto city life.

But most of all, I hear the voices of many nations. Toronto is perhaps the most representative city in multicultural Canada — a mosaic as opposed to a melting pot. And in this city of neighbourhoods, many of them ethnically designated but by no means ghettoised, I love to amble slowly and or just stand still and hear the sounds of many tongues: English, French, Cantonese, Urdu, Spanish, Farsi, Greek, Hindi, German … and the list goes on and on.

When the megacity of Toronto was created in 1998 (previously it was five cities cheek by jowl), it became the fifth largest city in North America.

At 2.4 million, it was bigger than all 12 provinces and territories in Canada, except Ontario, Québec, British Columbia, and Alberta. And today its amoeba-like pods reach far out into what we call the GTA (Greater Toronto Area).

At over 4.6 million, this former colonial outpost on the shoreline of prehistoric Lake Iroquois has now become the financial and international focal point for Canada. We Canadians tend to be a quiet lot (or seem so from the point of view of outsiders) but we do have our family squabbles. And Toronto comes in for its fair share of criticism. Or is that envy? Speaking disparagingly of the financial and cultural dominance of Toronto has been de rigueur among many Canadians for a long time, but it’s the most visited city in Canada.

For the first-time visitor to Toronto, the best way of getting an overview of this city, is from the top of Toronto’s most famous landmark, the CN Tower. I have also found that if life is getting you down, a trip to the Tower is a quick and easy way to look out over it all and get things back into perspective. It can be a great place to lighten up.

Height: 1,815 feet … and five inches. The publicity people tell me it is the world’s tallest building. It is essentially a major telecommunications tower but also a vertical theme park.

Two million people a year get high at the CN Tower. It took 40 months to build, opened in 1976, serves 16 Canadian television and FM radio stations, and employs 550 people. It is one of Toronto’s premier entertainment destinations and its award-winning 360 restaurant is frequently the venue for major events.

The views across the city and out over Lake Ontario are spectacular. Dinner or lunch at the top of the Tower (a “dissolving” restaurant as one friend prone to malapropisms called it) is an experience in itself.

While enjoying a cuisine of regional ingredients you get to watch the world (um … I mean Toronto) go by every 72 minutes. However don’t leave your purse or camera on the window sill; it doesn’t rotate with you. The restaurant revolves internally, kind of like Toronto. And if you go to the bathroom, pick an internal visual locator to find your way back because your friends will have moved on while you were freshening up.

To a large degree, the city’s essential layout is due to the building of the streetcar system — initially horse-drawn — in the 19th century. And Toronto’s safe, secure, and increasingly aesthetically pleasing subway system along with a myriad of other rapid transit methods including two LRT (Light Rapid Transit) rail lines, will get you wherever you need to go at one low price.

Toronto’s “Green Facts” are also quite impressive especially the reference to Rouge Park, the largest natural and cultural heritage park in an urban area in North America. And the sandy islands that are a 20-minute ferry ride from downtown take you back to a quiet carless world of clapboard houses and views to die for.

I am not a shopper, but I have it on good authority that Toronto is one of the best shop-till-you-drop destinations on the continent. When I was growing up, Canadians who wanted to do some big time shopping went to the nearest US border city. If you were a Torontonian, you went to Buffalo. But the flow has reversed.

We have our own home-grown and international merchandising success stories. The days of beaver pelts are long gone. Examples include Roots, The Bay (the descendant of the original Hudson’s Bay Company), and then there’s Tilley’s Endurables (http://tilley.com)… Alex Tilley’s story is a fun and fascinating one. And I can personally vouch for his hats. If you are somewhere in the world and you see someone wearing the distinctive Tilley hat, they are probably Canadian or a wannabe.

Toronto is also a prime marketplace for art, antiques, and many speciality items. If shopping is on your agenda, Toronto.com’s shopping page will direct to where you want to go. And don’t forget that in downtown Toronto, there is a subterranean shopping centre of six interconnected passageways and 1,100 stores. Or visit the new trendy Distillery district, with its craft shops and cafés.

Toronto is a city of diverse architectural styles (at least 22). If you like architecture, be sure to see: The Gooderham Building (also known as the Flat Iron building); Union Station (my favourite); The Royal York Hotel (one of the classic railway hotels in Canada); Old and New City Hall (I got married in the former); all the big bank buildings in the downtown core; Eaton’s Centre (an indoor multilevel retail mall that is at the heart of the city).

And if you haven’t seen Toronto’s new Fours Seasons Opera House or the newly renovated Royal Ontario Museum (the very avant-garde new section, known as The Crystal), you are in for a treat. Likewise at the Art Gallery of Ontario, with its stunning new extension by Frank Gehry, Toronto’s most famous architectural son.

The ethnic diversity of the city makes for good eating in Toronto. When you arrive, pick up copies of Toronto’s annual Dining Guide, WHERE magazine, or Toronto Life magazine, and check out the dining page on Toronto.com.

Each year there are more than 40 major city events in Toronto, such as: The International Boat Show, Toronto WinterCity Festival, The International Automobile Show, the very popular One of a Kind Craft Show and Sale, The Toronto International Dragon Boat Race, The Queen’s Plate (Thoroughbred Racing), The Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, Gay & Lesbian Pride Week, The Toronto Street Festival, The Molson Indy (car race), The Beaches International Jazz Festival, Caribana, The Toronto International Film Festival, The Canadian International Marathon, The International Festival of Authors, The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.

Toronto is a very gay-friendly city especially since June 28, 2005 when same-sex marriage was approved by Canada’s House of Commons in a vote of 158-133. For more information on gay Toronto, visit the Gay Guide Toronto. As they say at the CN Tower, “Things in Toronto are looking up.”

www.torontotourism.com

www.cntower.ca

www.frommers.com/destinations/toronto – great general guide

www.martiniboys.com – to find our where’s “in” at the moment

The Green Tourism Association of Toronto (http://greentourism.ca)

Toronto CityPass (www.citypass.com)

Toronto’s Lester B Pearson International Airport is Canada’s main international gateway and is 30 minutes from downtown, depending on traffic. Toronto City Airport, in the harbour, is very accessible and offers a network of internal flights by Porter Airlines. www.gtaa.com; www.torontoport.com

The Editor, Stan Abbott

Canada Magazine is a consumer magazine that brings together the best writing and photography about Canada in the 21^st century.

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Publisher, Canada Magazine