September 2015
Flying into Toronto for the last of the Canadian summer is a glorious affair: locals are chipper, the sun shines, evenings are balmy, the entire city seems dressed in blue – sports fans wearing their Bluejays baseball gear, wildly proud of their baseball team which is finally in the playoffs this season.
We are here on an impromptu holiday, having planned the trip but days before we head to the Dubai International Airport to catch our Airbus for the 13 hour journey into Ontario’s capital city. The name Toronto is derived from the Mohawk word tkaronto, which means “where there are trees standing in the water.” The word originally referred to The Narrows, near present-day Orilla, where Hurons drove stakes into the water to create fish weirs. The spelling changed to Toronto during the 18th century.
Figures from the 2011 census show that 49% of people living in the city are immigrants, 26% of whom were born in Europe, 11% in China and 8% in the Philippines. This vibrant immigrant population makes Toronto the most multicultural city in the world, according to the United Nations.