Toronto Crossword Puzzle for Kids

Toronto is the capital city of the province of Ontario. It is found on the northwest side of Lake Ontario behind New York City and Chicago. With a 2021 population of 2,794,356 people, Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth-most populous city in North America. Even more people live in the regions around it. All together, the Greater Toronto Area is home to over 6.2 million people. This makes it the biggest metropolitan area in Canada.

By car, Toronto is about 450 km from Ottawa, 540 km from Montreal, 2115 km from Winnipeg, 1796 km from Halifax, and a long-haul 4375 km from Vancouver. From the United States, Toronto is 100 mi from Buffalo; 353 mi from New York City; 562 mi from Boston; 240 mi from Detroit; and 464 mi from Chicago.

History

Toronto was created in 1793 by John Graves Simcoe as the capital of what was then called "Upper Canada". At the time, it was called the "Town of York" after the Duke of York. When York was incorporated as a city in 1834, the name was changed to "Toronto". With the Canadian Confederation in 1867, it became the capital of the newly created province of Ontario. Toronto was one of two cities (along with Montreal, Quebec) that wanted to be the capital of Canada. Queen Victoria decided that Ottawa should be the national capital because it was located between the two.

As the 19th century moved on, the city began to grow. This was mainly because of immigration, where people from all over the world left their home and moved to Canada. Many of the immigrants were Irish people. They brought their Catholic faith with them when they left Ireland because of the Irish Potato Famine.

During World War I and World War II, Toronto was used to train members of the Canadian Army. After the wars, even more immigrants came to the city. The population was becoming so big that the Government of Ontario decided to create Metropolitan Toronto in 1954, combining a number of local municipalities. These were Old Toronto, York, East York, North York, Etobicoke, and Scarborough.

By 1981, Toronto had more people than Montreal even though it was created after Montreal. Because of that, the Ontario government decided to make Toronto a "megacity" in 1998 with an area of 631 sqkm. The first mayor of Toronto was Mel Lastman. As Toronto moved into the 21st century, it became host to a number of worldwide events. These included World Youth Day in 2002, WorldPride in 2014, and the 2015 Pan American Games.

On April 23, 2018, a white van collided with numerous pedestrians, killing nine and injuring sixteen others at Yonge Street.

Climate

Toronto has a hot-summer humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: Dfa).

Things to see and do

Toronto has a humid continental climate (Dfa in the Köppen climate classification). This is because although the city is next to Lake Ontario, the lake is not big enough to keep its temperature mild.

As the biggest city in Canada and one of the biggest in all of North America, Toronto is a popular destination for tourists. It is where you can find the CN Tower, which is the tallest free-standing (not supported) structure in the Americas and one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. There are some other buildings, including the City Hall and the Rogers Centre, that are well known for their design style. There are many skyscrapers, because many large banks of Canada and other companies have their main offices in Toronto, and the Toronto Stock Exchange which is the biggest stock market in Canada.

Because Toronto is the capital of Ontario, it is where the provincial government meets. Visitors can see how the province is run by visiting the legislature in Queen's Park. There are museums, including the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Ontario Science Centre, the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the headquarters of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In the suburbs of the city is the Toronto Zoo and Canada's Wonderland. Many visitors also like to go to Niagara Falls, just an hour's drive away from Toronto.

Toronto is full of places to visit, eat, shop, and enjoy. In the downtown area are shopping centres, including the Eaton Centre, St. Lawrence Market, and the Distillery District. There are several theatres, many which are run by the Mirvish family. The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, opened in June 2006, is home to the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada. Across the harbor are the Toronto Islands, the best known of which is Centre Island.

Toronto has many sports teams. Some of them belong to the most commonly-followed leagues in North America. They include the Toronto Maple Leafs in ice hockey (NHL) and the Toronto Raptors in basketball (NBA), both of which play in the Air Canada Centre. The nearby Rogers Centre is where the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team plays. BMO Field in Exhibition Place is home to the Toronto Argonauts in Canadian football and Toronto F.C., a soccer club.

Transport

Like many cities around the world, Toronto has two airports, Toronto Pearson International Airport and Billy Bishop Airport. There are flights to many places in Canada and the rest of the world. The airport is just northwest of the city centre. Since 2015, there has been a train service, the Union Pearson Express. It goes from Downtown to the airport in less than half an hour.

Toronto has many forms of rail transport such as, streetcars, light rail, subways, heavy rail, freight rail, and inter-city rail (trains that go between cites). The main transportation network in Toronto in the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). Each year about 800 million people ride the TTC. The TTC has 3 heavy rail lines, line 1, line 2, and line 4, also there are two light rail lines, line 5 and line 6 running east to west. In addition, the TTC also operates a large downtown streetcar network.

Union station is Toronto's main railway station, used for regional, inter-city rail, streetcar, subway, and freight operations. GO Transit is a regional rail network that connects Toronto to the surrounding area. Each year, GO Transit carries over 79 million passenger each year, most passengers that take the GO travel to or from Union station. Via Rail is inter-city rail system owned by the national government that carries passengers from Toronto to other cites across Canada.

The Toronto Transit Commission runs a large bus system, with over 8,000 stops. The system mainly works in areas without streetcar or subway routes. Each year more than 389 million trips are made on the bus.

The Port of Toronto, in the Toronto harbour gets more than 2 million tons each year in 2024.

Housing and population

Housing in Toronto was ranked as 10th-least affordable in the world. The study compared Toronto with ninety other metropolitan areas in different countries. Hong Kong came in as the least affordable place to live in.

In 2021, 51% of residents in Toronto were born outside Canada. About 200 different languages are spoken in Toronto, with 45% of the residents speak a first language other than French or English.

Text adapted from the Simple English Wikipedia article “Toronto” (revision 10881077, 2026-06-07), authors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.