This is, however, a sleek financial and cultural capital. Think of it as Canada's Manhattan, but with some of the parklike, monumental aspects of Washington, D.C., and a wonderful waterfront thrown in for good measure. Toronto, metro population about 4.5 million, is actually more international than New York, with nearly half of its population born outside Canada. Multiethnicity makes for supreme urban gustatory adventuring, wandering and dipping into the delights of Vietnam, Jamaica, Portugal, Ethiopia, and where-all. Toronto's enclaves seem more like minihomelands than mere ethnic neighbourhoods.
Multiculturalism is more vivid here, and coexistence wondrously peaceful, by American standards.
As a visitor, my favourite Toronto game is sort of Ouija, in which you move around the city's neighbourhoods all day according to mysterious inner impulses. Transportation of choice for this game is Toronto's big red streetcars, which give high, wide views of major neighbourhoods and thoroughfares. What they don't give me is motion sickness, the way buses do. La Jolla meld that's highly favored by sportif baby boomers. Caribana, a Caribbean festival, spices up Toronto for two weeks in midsummer.