A good friend of mine from North of the border once took great pleasure in reading out loud the wording on a tourist T-shirt being flogged at one of Times Square’s many rip off merchant stores. It read: “Canada. America’s cap” with a fitting image of a baseball cap placed over the outline of the US mainland. The irony was not lost on him, despite being Canadian himself – albeit from Scottish decent. I find this subtle use of Geographic humor slightly amusing due to the fact that – for the most part – Canadians are very comfortable being the friendly relatives upstairs. Toronto feels like Canada’s capital – in the same way, New York or Sydney feel like capital cities of their respective countries – however, I have not been to Ottawa (or Canberra for that matter), so probably shouldn’t be making such sweeping statements without contextual reference. In any case, if you ask any American (at time of writing) what Toronto is famous for, the majority of them will say Rob Ford. If you’re not familiar with the outspoken major of the city, look him up. He’s legendary for a number of reasons, mostly for running amok then apologizing for it afterwards. Rob Ford was making news headlines on a daily basis throughout this past winter, even in America.
Beyond the scatty mayor, there is a lot going on in Toronto. With a population of over 2.5 Million, Toronto is a vast city, with a strong presence is many sports. They have the only non-US baseball team, the Blue Jays, that compete (depending on your description of competing) in Major League Baseball each season. Toronto also boasts the only non-US franchise Basketball team , the Raptors, who are actually doing quite well in the NBA this season and have made the play offs (Let’s see who removes them from the Eastern Conference this year). They have Toronto FC, who take part in the MLS (Major league soccer) each season and the Maple Leafs turn up every year to play hockey, whilst the rest of the NHL tries to win the Stanley Cup. Just kidding guys, you’ll get there again one day.
If New York is the Big Apple, London is the Big Smoke, then Toronto is the Big…
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