Toronto

===20th century===
[[File:Toronto Fire Ruins, Front Street April 19th, 1904 (HS85-10-14899).jpg|thumb|Ruins on Front Street after the [[Great Fire of Toronto (1904)|Great Toronto Fire of 1904]]]]
The [[Great Fire of Toronto (1904)|Great Toronto Fire of 1904]] destroyed a large section of [[downtown Toronto]]. The fire destroyed more than 100 buildings.<ref name="Morris1992">{{cite book|author=Oeter Morris|title=Embattled Shadows: A History of Canadian Cinema, 1895–1939|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c08BBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA38|date=August 6, 1992|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-6072-7|pages=38–}}</ref> The fire claimed one victim, John Croft, who was an explosive expert clearing the ruins from the fire.<ref name="Filey1999">{{cite book|author=Mike Filey|title=Mount Pleasant Cemetery: An Illustrated Guide: Second Edition, Revised and Expanded|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ziOUu1Md-6gC&pg=PA74|date=June 1, 1999|publisher=Dundurn|isbn=978-1-4597-1310-9|pages=74–}}</ref> It caused {{CAD|10,387,000}} in damage (roughly {{CAD|277,600,000}} in 2020 terms).<ref name="Evening Citizen 1948">{{cite news
 | author = <!-- Staff writer, no byline -->
 | title = Oil Fire Menaces Toronto
 | url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CP4uAAAAIBAJ&pg=3774%2C2168808
 | newspaper = [[Ottawa Citizen|The Evening Citizen]]
 | location = [[Ottawa]]
 | date = February 12, 1948
| page = 1
 | access-date = December 5, 2014
| archive-date = October 16, 2020
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201016121321/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CP4uAAAAIBAJ&pg=3774%2C2168808
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref>

The city received new European immigrant groups from the late 19th century into the early 20th century, particularly Germans, French, Italians, and Jews. They were soon followed by Russians, Poles, and other Eastern European nations, in addition to the Chinese entering from the West. Like the Irish before them, many of these migrants lived in overcrowded shanty-type slums, such as "[[The Ward, Toronto|the Ward]]", which was centred on [[Bay Street]], now the heart of the country's [[Financial District, Toronto|Financial District]].

As new migrants began to prosper, they moved to better housing in other areas, in what is now understood to be succession waves of settlement. Despite its fast-paced growth, by the 1920s, Toronto's population and economic importance in Canada remained second to the much longer established [[Montreal]], Quebec. However, by 1934, the Toronto Stock Exchange had become the largest in the country.
[[File:Hurricane Hazel -- house2.jpg|thumb|left|Flooded houses near the [[Humber River (Ontario)|Humber River]] after [[Hurricane Hazel]] passed through Toronto, 1954]]
In 1954, the City of Toronto and 12 surrounding municipalities were federated into a [[regional municipality|regional government]] known as [[Metropolitan Toronto]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/repealedstatutes/english/elaws_rep_statutes_90m62_e.htm |title=Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto Act |website=e-laws.gov.on.ca |publisher=[[Government of Ontario]] |year=2000 |access-date=December 29, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110105121125/http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/repealedstatutes/english/elaws_rep_statutes_90m62_e.htm |archive-date=January 5, 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref> The postwar boom had resulted in rapid suburban development. It was believed a coordinated land-use strategy and shared services would provide greater efficiency for the region. The metropolitan government began to manage services that crossed municipal boundaries, including highways, police services, water and [[Public transport|public transit]]. In that year, a half-century after the Great Fire of 1904, disaster struck the city again when [[Hurricane Hazel]] brought intense winds and flash flooding. In the Toronto area, 81 people were killed, nearly 1,900 families were left homeless, and the hurricane caused more than {{CAD|25&nbsp;million}} in damage.<ref name=hurricane>{{cite web |url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/sos/002028-3200-e.html |title=SOS! Canadian Disasters |publisher=Library and Archives Canada |year=2006 |access-date=December 19, 2008 |website=collectionscanada.gc.ca |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614215507/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/sos/002028-3200-e.html |archive-date=June 14, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1967, the seven smallest municipalities of Metropolitan Toronto were merged with larger neighbours, resulting in a six-municipality configuration that included the [[Old Toronto|former city of Toronto]] and the surrounding municipalities of [[East York]], [[Etobicoke]], [[North York]], [[Scarborough, Ontario|Scarborough]], and [[York, Toronto|York]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mathwizurd.com/history/2015/5/8/why-is-toronto-called-the-6 |title=Why is Toronto Called the Six |first=David |last=Witten |year=2016 |access-date=June 2, 2017 |website=mathwizurd.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170506170417/http://www.mathwizurd.com/history/2015/5/8/why-is-toronto-called-the-6 |archive-date=May 6, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the decades after World War II, refugees from war-torn Europe and Chinese job-seekers arrived, as well as construction labourers, particularly from Italy and Portugal. Toronto's population grew to more than one million in 1951 when large-scale suburbanization began and doubled to two million by 1971. Following the elimination of racially based immigration policies by the late 1960s, Toronto became a destination for immigrants from all over the world. By the 1980s, Toronto had surpassed Montreal as Canada's most populous city and chief economic hub. During this time, in part owing to the political uncertainty raised by the resurgence of the [[Quebec sovereignty movement]], many national and multinational corporations moved their head offices from Montreal to Toronto and [[Western Canada|Western Canadian]] cities.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3683/is_200201/ai_n9069631/pg_1 |title=Westward ho? The shifting geography of corporate power in Canada |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080330145114/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3683/is_200201/ai_n9069631/pg_1 |archive-date=March 30, 2008 |journal=Journal of Canadian Studies |year=2002 |access-date=January 14, 2007}}</ref>
[[File:-First Canadian Place under construction-3.jpg|thumb|Construction of [[First Canadian Place]], the operational headquarters of the [[Bank of Montreal]], in 1975]]
On January 1, 1998, Toronto was greatly enlarged, not through traditional [[annexation]]s, but as an [[Merger (politics)|amalgamation]] of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto and its six lower-tier constituent municipalities: East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, York, and the original city itself. They were dissolved by an act of the [[Government of Ontario]] and formed into a single-tier City of Toronto (colloquially dubbed the "[[merger (politics)#Canada|megacity]]"), replacing all six governments.

The merger was proposed as a cost-saving measure by the [[Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario|Progressive Conservative]] provincial government under premier [[Mike Harris]]. The announcement touched off vociferous public objections. In March 1997, a [[referendum]] in all six municipalities produced a vote of more than 3:1 against amalgamation.<ref>Chidley, Joe; Hawelshka, Danilo. [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/torontos-struggle-against-amalgamation/ Toronto's struggle against amalgamation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216004153/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/torontos-struggle-against-amalgamation |date=December 16, 2019 }}. [[Maclean's]], March 17, 1997.</ref> However, municipal governments in Canada are creatures of the provincial governments, and referendums have little to no legal effect. The Harris government could thus legally ignore the referendum results and did so in April when it tabled the ''[[City of Toronto Act]]''. Both [[parliamentary opposition|opposition parties]] [[filibuster#Provincial|held a filibuster]] in the provincial legislature, proposing more than 12,000 amendments that allowed residents on streets of the proposed megacity to take part in public hearings on the merger and adding historical designations to the streets.<ref>{{cite magazine|url = http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/Infoparl/english/issue.asp?param=64&art=75|archive-url = https://archive.today/20130101022300/http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/Infoparl/english/issue.asp?param=64&art=75|url-status = dead|archive-date = January 1, 2013|title = Legislative Reports|magazine = Canadian Parliamentary Review}}</ref> This only delayed the bill's inevitable passage, given the Progressive Conservatives' majority.

North York mayor [[Mel Lastman]] became the first "megacity" mayor, and the 62nd mayor of Toronto, with his [[1997 Toronto municipal election|electoral victory]].<ref name="1997 results">{{cite web |url=http://www.toronto.ca/elections/results/results_1997.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021141358/http://www.toronto.ca/elections/results/results_1997.htm |archive-date=October 21, 2012 |title=1997 Toronto general election results |year=1997 |publisher=City of Toronto |access-date=July 12, 2013}}</ref> Lastman gained national attention after multiple snowstorms, including the January [[North American blizzard of 1999|Blizzard of 1999]], dumped {{convert|118|cm}} of snow and effectively immobilized the city.<ref name="Mel calls in the troops">{{cite news|last=Mansbridge|first=Peter|title=Toronto calls in troops to fight massive snowstorm|url=http://www.cbc.ca/player/Digital+Archives/Environment/Extreme+Weather/ID/1721169786|access-date=March 8, 2014|newspaper=CBC News|date=January 13, 1999|author2=Adrienne Arsenault|archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6Nufp50P5?url=http://www.cbc.ca/player/Digital%20Archives/Environment/Extreme%20Weather/ID/1721169786/|archive-date=March 8, 2014|location=Toronto|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://nationalpost.com/feature/when-youre-a-soldier-you-do-what-youre-told-an-oral-history-of-the-time-toronto-called-in-the-army-to-deal-with-the-snow|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20190317160311/https://nationalpost.com/feature/when%2Dyoure%2Da%2Dsoldier%2Dyou%2Ddo%2Dwhat%2Dyoure%2Dtold%2Dan%2Doral%2Dhistory%2Dof%2Dthe%2Dtime%2Dtoronto%2Dcalled%2Din%2Dthe%2Darmy%2Dto%2Ddeal%2Dwith%2Dthe%2Dsnow|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 17, 2019|title=An oral history of the time Toronto called in the army to deal with the snow|publisher=nationalpost.com|date=January 10, 2019|access-date=January 18, 2020}}</ref> He called in the [[Canadian Army]] to aid snow removal by use of their equipment to augment police and emergency services. The move was ridiculed by some in other parts of the country, fuelled in part by what was perceived as a frivolous use of resources.<ref>Barnes, Alan (January 16, 1999). 'World class wimps' receive little sympathy, ''The Toronto Star'', p. A22.</ref><ref name="Megacity Mel Snowstorm critique">
{{cite news|title=Mel Lastman: Selling himself to a city|url=http://www.cbc.ca/toronto/features/mel/megacity_mel.html|access-date=March 8, 2014|newspaper=CBC News|year=2008|author=CBC News Staff|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080612130710/http://www.cbc.ca/toronto/features/mel/megacity_mel.html|archive-date=June 12, 2008|location=Toronto|url-status=dead}}</ref>