Canada » Toronto

Toronto is a Canadian city located on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario, and is the provincial capital of Ontario. Toronto is a global city, exerting significant regional, national, and international influence, and is one of the world's most multicultural and ethnically diverse cities. It is Canada's financial centre and economic engine, as well as one of the country's most important cultural, art, and health sciences centres.

With a population of 2,481,494, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fifth most populous in North America (after New York City, Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Chicago). The city is the centre of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), a regional conurbation, and the much larger Golden Horseshoe, a densely populated region in Ontario which is home to over eight million people, roughly one quarter of the Canadian population. The population of the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) is estimated at 5,304,100 in 2005. 

In 1998, the current City of Toronto was amalgamated from its six prior municipalities and regional government. The current mayor of Toronto is David Miller. In January 2005, it was designated by the federal government as one of Canada's cultural capitals. Toronto is sometimes nicknamed T.O., T-Dot or Hogtown.