Toronto, the capital city of ONTARIO, is situated on the southern margin of the province, fronting LAKE ONTARIO.

The city, Canada's largest municipality, comprises the former cities of Toronto, North York, Scarborough, York and Etobicoke, and the former borough of East York. Its economic hinterland lies basically in Ontario, but in financial terms it extends across Canada. The city is well placed to control the populous industrial and agricultural region of southern Ontario and, being located on the neck of the Ontario peninsula which juts into the GREAT LAKES system, has ready access both to the Upper Lakes basin and to American territory south of the Lower Lakes. The city has been able to spread its influence through the Canadian Great Lakes area and far beyond.
Toronto's physical features include a natural harbour sheltered by sandy islands (originally one long peninsula), backed by gently rolling, well-watered, fertile country. The area has a fairly mild and humid average climate, by Canadian standards, though with some changeable extremes.

Economy and Labour Force
Toronto grew through the stages of commercial lake port, railway and industrial focus, financial nexus and high-level service and information centre. At present, its port and commercial functions remain important, though relatively less so, apart from heavy retail activity; its railway role persists, modified by air and automotive transport; its industry has lost ground to foreign competition and Canadian decentralization, but remains high in value; and its financial power continues to increase and its office-service sector stays pre-eminent in Canada. Advanced technology, particularly biotechnology, will likely reinforce its service and industrial sectors, while Toronto's money market keeps a national role and the city becomes more reliant on its regional Ontario domain. Banking head offices in Toronto include the CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE, BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA and the TORONTO DOMINION BANK. Principal Canadian insurance and investment companies are centered in the city. The Toronto Stock Exchange is one of the leaders in North America outside New York.
There is a close concentration of Canadian head offices of industrial, resource and retail corporations and of American or multinational giants - from ABITIBI-PRICE INC through Eaton's to Xerox. Despite its diversity, however, Toronto was hit hard by the combined effects of the Free Trade Agreement with the US and by the recession of the early 1990s, resulting in high unemployment.
The city's labour force by now is chiefly massed in professional, clerical, manufacturing, retail and service work, in that order. It is widely unionized in public sectors, large private enterprises and skilled trades. From the York printer's union of 1832, Toronto has been a centre of labour organization, though this did not become broadly based until the growth of industrialism from the 1870s. By the close of World War I the union movement was firmly emplaced, and though its fortunes have varied, as in the grim 1930s, from World War II organized labour has been an influential economic and political factor in the city. To the present, Toronto labour has been largely stable and fairly conservative in character compared with other cities.

Cultural Life
Toronto is the main urban cultural focus in English Canada. It is the home of the big UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO (1827), RYERSON POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY (1948), and the more recent YORK UNIVERSITY (1959); the ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO and ONTARIO COLLEGE OF ART, the world-renowned ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM and the innovative ONTARIO SCIENCE CENTRE; the TORONTO SYMPHONY and the NATIONAL BALLET OF CANADA. Other nationally eminent artistic, musical and library institutions are found here along with top Canadian centres of medical and scientific research, and the world-class Metro Zoo. Toronto is English Canada's leading theatre town; and now its rich multicultural variety is reflected in the performing arts, as well as in ethnic journals and restaurants.