We live and learn – some days more than others. Today we uncover some facts about our fair city of Toronto and tell you a few things we’re pretty sure you didn’t know.
- Who makes them? Poppies in Canada used to be manufactured by disabled veterans in Vetcraft shops but today are made by Toronto-based company Dominion Regalia Ltd.
- The nickname “Hogtown” comes from Toronto’s historical roots as a huge pork processor, most notably with the William Davies Company. He died after being butted by a goat.
Image courtesy of blogTO.
- Yonge Street is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest street in the world, stretching 1,896 kilometres from the lakeshore in Toronto, north to Rainy River, Ontario, near the Minnesota border.
- Toronto has more than 8,000 restaurants and 35,000 hotel rooms.
- The Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival Toronto (AKA Caribana) parade is the largest single-day parade and largest Caribbean festival in North America.
- Toronto is known to be haunted! The top five haunted buildings are:
1. Old City Hall
2. The Royal York Hotel
3. Keg Mansion
4. The Guild Inn
5. The Old Don Jail
- One of the University of Toronto’s most successful Second World War inventions came from the botany department: they substituted kapok (a sort of cotton tree found in Central and South America) in life jackets with the fibrous parts of milkweed, making them less expensive and faster to produce. Troops nicknamed life jackets “Mae West’s” for their resemblance to her voluptuous figure.
- Most people know Yorkville used to be hippie central, but did you know that it was a burial ground before that? Those who couldn’t afford a church burial would head underground here. The remains were removed in the late 1800s, but some continue to turn up in construction projects.
Leave us a comment and let us know if you have any interesting facts about our city to add to this list.
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