You were to take a trip back in time between the 1950's - 1960's or before you would see that Toronto is an entirely different place. At this time, most of the land now called Toronto, was a collection of small towns. Many of these towns or 'villages' existed such as Long Branch, Weston, Islington, Swansea, Mimico, Forest Hill and Leaside to name a few. Also new housing operations created their own little villages and neighbourhoods such as Rexdale and Lambton.
As the population of Toronto grew, it became inefficient to have so many small towns operating in such close proximity, especially since some of the larger towns had their own mayors and emergency services. Over time these small towns clumped together ultimately creating six boroughs by 1967
- York
- East York
- Etobicoke
- Scarborough
- North York
- Toronto (the pre-established downtown area)
As the populations grew again and boroughs grew into cities (excluding East York) and the same problem occurred, running rapidly growing independent cities was not the way of the future. In March 1997 the citizens of these boroughs took part in a referendum to amalgamate the six regions to create a 'mega city'. In 1998 the 'City of Toronto Act' was victorious by about 3:1 and the City of Toronto we know today was formed.
The City of Toronto works similar to the City of New York, in the way that there is only one city but it is made up of important regions (Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island.)
The early villages also are important they make up some of the over 100 distinct neighbourhoods in Toronto, giving people in that area, a sense of pride and history.
Don't fret, ill be reviewing some of these areas at a later date, I hope you enjoyed my first true post
