Toronto is Canada’s largest city and a world leader in such areas as business, finance, technology, entertainment and culture. Its large population of immigrants from all over the globe has also made Toronto one of the most multicultural cities in the world.
Toronto, city, capital of the province of Ontario, southeastern Canada. It is the most populous city in Canada, a multicultural city, and the country’s financial and commercial centre. Its location on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario, which forms part of the border between Canada and the United States, and its access to Atlantic shipping via the St. Lawrence Seaway and to major U.S. industrial centres via the Great Lakes have enabled Toronto to become an important international trading centre. Moreover, the city is positioned on the edge of some of the best farmland in Canada, with a climate favourable to growing a wide range of crops, thereby making Toronto a transportation, distribution, and manufacturing centre. Most importantly, its central location, along with a host of political policies favouring international trade, places this city with the greatest economic ties to, and influence from, the United States. Since the second half of the 20th century the city has grown phenomenally, from a rather sedate provincial town—“Toronto the Good”—to a lively, thriving, cosmopolitan metropolitan area. Area 244 square miles (632 square km); metro. area, 2,280 square miles (5,905 square km). Pop. (2011) 2,615,060; metro. area, 5,583,064; (2016) 2,731,571; metro. area, 5,928,040.
The melting of ice from the past glacial age altered the Toronto region’s landscape profoundly. Approximately 11,000 years ago a body of water much larger (about 130 feet [40 metres] higher) than the present-day Lake Ontario was in existence there—a glacial lake referred to as Lake Iroquois. With the opening up of the St. Lawrence River, the lake waters receded, dropping in excess of 300 feet (90 metres) below the present level. Over time, the water levels rose to the present condition, leaving a marshy shoreline but a fine natural harbour. The site of the city is almost uniformly flat, although 3 to 4 miles (5 to 6 km) inland there is a fairly sharp rise of some 40 feet (12 metres)—the shoreline elevation of the former glacial lake.