Toronto is the leading printing and publishing center of English-speaking Canada and also has more software production companies than other parts of Canada. One of the community colleges, Sheridan College in Mississauga, trains many of North America’s animation artists. In distribution services, Toronto is the chief Canadian center for telecommunications, broadcasting, and air transport. Government and other public services, notably health and education, are major employers.

Manufacturing, once a mainstay of the diverse economy, receded somewhat in the 1990s. Automobile parts and assembly at the same time became a stronger component of the manufacturing sector, and the Toronto region’s importance in this field is second only to that of Detroit. Cars and trucks are Canada’s most valuable export, and the auto manufacturer General Motors is the largest industrial employer. Another large employer is Northern Telecom, a major world producer of telecommunications equipment. De Havilland Aircraft produces commuter aircraft, and the area also has a number of aircraft parts producers. Construction, once a strong element in the Toronto economy, weakened in the 1990s.

Manufacturing and other fields have been helped by relatively cheap electrical energy provided by Ontario Power Generation. Power for Toronto was originally generated in steam plants and later at Niagara Falls. Natural gas and oil pipelines connect the region to the sources of these resources in western Canada.

Within the city, the Toronto Transit Commission operates subways, buses, and streetcars. The streetcars are preserved on certain downtown routes as a link to the city’s past and are a distinctive feature of Toronto. Municipalities outside Toronto operate their own bus services that link to the Toronto system. The Government of Ontario (GO) system also deploys commuter trains and buses within the metropolitan area outside Toronto.

By air, Toronto is served by Lester B. Pearson International Airport, located to the west in Mississauga. It is the largest airport in Canada. Some short-takeoff-and-landing commercial commuter aircraft operate from the island airport downtown.

Although passenger rail traffic is far less than in early years of the 20th century, VIA Rail transports passengers to Montréal and Ottawa several times a day. Daily trains run to New York City and Chicago and, on the Transcontinental line, to Vancouver, British Columbia. The Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways serve Toronto with freight facilities, including intermodal yards where truck trailers are loaded on rail cars for transport. The railways also haul automobiles from several plants in the area (at Oshawa, Oakville, Brampton, and Alliston) to Canadian and American markets. Toronto’s harbor receives modest traffic through the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Although high-rise office buildings shot up in the downtown, as did many apartment blocks in older residential areas, restrictions on marginal development have maintained high population densities in the inner city. Toronto’s strong public transit system has also helped inner-city residents of all income levels to continue living where they prefer. The quality of life in the inner city is thus higher than in most American cities.

On the central waterfront is Harbourfront, a redeveloped industrial region containing the Canadian Railway Museum and the Marine Museum, several restaurants, and pedestrian walkways along the water’s edge. Across the bay are the Toronto Islands, a favorite playground. Exhibition Park on the western lakeshore hosts the annual Canadian National Exhibition, one of the largest fairs in the world. Caribana is a major Caribbean music and costume festival held there every August. Adjoining the exhibition grounds is Ontario Place, an extensive entertainment park. Also in the vicinity is old Fort York, which still looks substantially as it did when it was rebuilt after American forces burned it in 1813 during the War of 1812. About 3 km northwest of City Hall, on the brow of Davenport hill, is Casa Loma, an imposing European-style castle that is now a museum. In the far northeast side of the City is the Toronto Zoo, a modern zoo covering many acres and with well-designed animal displays.

The state-of-the-art SkyDome stadium complex built in 1989 features a retractable roof that can open in 20 minutes to expose the playing field and most of the 50,000 seats to the open air. It is the home of professional football and baseball teams—the Argonauts of the Canadian Football League and the Blue Jays of the American League. The Blue Jays, winners of the 1992 and 1993 World Series, were the first non-U.S. team to win professional baseball's championship. In 1999 the Air Canada Centre opened as the home for the Raptors of the National Basketball Association and the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League. The Hockey Hall of Fame is in downtown Toronto.

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