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The name "Toronto" comes from a Huron word that prbably means "meeting place". The Toronto Passage, as it was known, was used as early as 1615 as an overland shortcut between Lakes Ontario and Huron. Well known to French for traders, the location became the site os a French garrison, Fort Rouille, in the mid-18th century. The fort was burned by the British in 1759, and the area was subsequently settled by Loyalists whi came north after defeat in the American Revolution. This community, part of a British strategic settlement scheme for Upper Canada (now Ontario), was established in 1793. It was given the name York, after Frederick Augustus, Duke of York. York became the capital of the British dependency and, through the activities of a Tory elite, emerged as a transportation hub and commercial center. In 1813, during the War of 1812, the community was occupied and partly destroyed by Unite States troops. The settlement benefit from the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 and from the arrival of the railroad in the mid-19th cantury. Major manufacturing industries were established here in the late 19th century, and the city's economy was boosted after 1900 by mineral discoveries in its nothwestern hinterland.By 1951 Toronto had become a substantial commercial and manufacturing center, with a population of 1.2 milion. Three years later, on January 1, 1954, Toronto and 12 of its neighboring cammunities merged into the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. In the next two decades the population dubled, partly because of immigration from Europe, and Toronto became known for its dynamism and its ethnic diversity. This growth and diversity have been augmented by large numbers of immigrants from Asia and the West Indies in more recent years. In the late 1970s, upper-income suburbanites began moving to the city to renovate older downtown areas, including the waterfront district.

Population:

Toronto Proper: (1986) 612,289  -  (1991) 635,395

Toronto Census Metropolitan Area: (1986) 3,431,981   -   (1991) 3,893,046