With the passage of provincial legislation on April 2, 1953, the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto became a legal reality, joining together the City of Toronto with its twelve neighbouring municipalities in a regional federation. But few of the region’s 1.1 million inhabitants perceived Metro Toronto, with its combination of dense urbanization and abundant farmland, as [...]

Every Saturday at noon, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. The Queen Elizabeth Highway, looking west, ca. 1950. From the Archives of Ontario (RG 65-35-3 ,11764-X2149). Automobile ownership in Ontario exploded in the early decades of the twentieth century. From 4,320 [...]

We’ve looked at a few abandoned roads before, but this one is a little different: it’s a recently-abandoned on-ramp to the southbound Don Valley Parkway from westbound York Mills Road. The current DVP ramps at York Mills were reconfigured during construction to the overpass beginning in 2005. The northwestern loop of the cloverleaf was eliminated [...]