Toronto is one of those Canadian cities everybody has heard of, along with Vancouver and Montreal. Ottawa too, obviously—just kidding, nobody remembers Ottawa, even though it is the national capital. I swear.
And because “Tron-OH” is often in the Canadian spotlight, everybody has an opinion on Torontonians.
Canadians love to point out they’re rude and arrogant because they live at the centre of the universe, i.e. the Greater Toronto Area, not the actual centre of Canada—that would be somewhere around Winnipeg, and there’s nothing wrong with friendly Manitoba except the weather.
Foreign tourists expect the whole brochure—skyscrapers, streetcars, expensive condos, suits in the Financial District, and Canadians-slash-something in Little Tibet, Little Tokyo, Little Poland, the Portuguese Village, Greektown, Chinatown, Little India and more. They generally find Torontonians much nicer than Parisians or New Yorkers, and they marvel at Canada’s diversity in Toronto, the so-called most multicultural city in the world, where everyone seems to coexist peacefully—at least on the surface.
If you’re going to Toronto, maybe you’re hoping to bump into your people, by accident or on purpose.
Or maybe you’re hoping to learn something from somewhere else in the world, and chances are, Toronto has a version of it.
As for me, I usually come for a concert, a game, a festival, or whatever excuse brought us there this time—plus the great Chinese food and the people-watching.
I’ve been observing Torontonians for twenty-five years, after countless trips to Toronto.
I still don’t really know who Torontonians are.
But I do know what I keep seeing.
What I see is a patchwork of recognizable communities, with each member wearing their core identity and quirkiness as a badge. Torontonians first belong somewhere—by ethnicity, occupation, social status, or simply because they decided to join.
And within that community, they express themselves.
They join a neighbourhood, a scene, a cause, a sport, a culture, a group of people standing around a guy playing music, or a street festival. They follow mysterious trends I’m pretty sure aren’t a thing outside the GTA, but maybe ten years from now, the rest of us will be enlightened.
They own the sidewalk, the park, the bike lane and the crosswalk, somehow managing not to give a damn about anyone else while clearly hoping all eyes are on them—because after all, they and they alone epitomize Toronto.
I’m quite fond of the people of Toronto.
They are fun to observe.
This is not an official sociological study, just my take on the people of Toronto in spring 2026. Watch out for naked people at the end!
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