One Day In Toronto Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lester B. Pearson International Airport

The main airport is actually located in Mississauga, 28 km northwest of downtown Toronto. It is named after one of Toronto's favourite sons and Canada's most respected Prime Ministers, Lester (Mike) Bowles Pearson (born 1897, York, ON) who was Prime Minister from 1963-68 and presided over a huge reform agenda including unification of the armed forces, ensuring Canada stayed out of the Vietnam War, introduction of universal health care, loans for students, the Canada Pension Plan, the Order of Canada, and the now ubiquitous Maple Leaf flag. Pierre Trudeau was also a popular, though controversial Prime Minister. Leonard Cohen, while a highly respected Canadian poet and musician, was associated with Montreal. Neve Campbell and Rachel McAdams are world renowned actresses that hail from Toronto.

Answer: Union

The express train takes passengers 23 km from Canada' busiest airport to Canada's busiest railroad station in 25 minutes. It stops twice at key transit locations but all major rail journeys in Ontario start and finish at Union: Regional, commuter and metro services. while such a connection makes perfect sense the link was only opened in June 2015 due to the massive infrastructure involved.

Union Station is an architectural masterpiece. Opened in 1927 with classic lines of the period, the Great Hall (pictured) is 250 feet (76 m) long and 88 feet (27 m) high at its highest point.

Answer: Baseball

The Skydome with its fully retractable roof opened in 1989. It is the home of the MLB Toronto Blue Jays. Until 2015 the CFL Toronto Argonauts used to play here as well until they moved to BMO field in 2015 (3km south west - The MLS Toronto FC pay there as well). It was renamed the Rogers Centre in 2005. Just a kilometre away down Bremner Boulevard is the Air Canada Centre which is the the home for the NBA Toronto Raptors and the NHL Toronto Maple Leafs. The Toronto Rock (National Lacrosse league) also play here.

No wonder there is a lot of human traffic in this part of downtown.

Answer: The 360 Restaurant makes a complete rotation every 72 seconds

At 553.3 m-high (1,815.3 ft) tall, the CN tower held the record of world's tallest free-standing structure until it was passed by Burj Khalifa and world's tallest tower until it was surpassed by the Canton Tower, both in 2010.

The structure has special grounding rods to deflect the frequent lightning strikes. However if the restaurant rotated once every 1.2 minutes, there might be a few people who get dizzy. The restaurant revolves once in 72 minutes.

The Glass Floor and Outdoor Observation Terrace are both located at 342 metres (1,122 ft), the Indoor Lookout Level (formerly "Indoor Observation Level") is located at 346 metres (1,135 ft). The SkyPod is as high at 446.5 metres (1,465 ft) but it's much smaller. That's where I am headed.

Answer: Land has been reclaimed from the lake

When it was built in 1793, Fort York was built at the mouth of a harbour that needed protecting against the newly independent Americans on the south end of Lake Erie. In the war of 1812, the fort was burnt down but rebuilt. However Toronto has been reclaiming land from the lake for some time. Lake Shore Boulevard, indeed most land south of the Gardiner Expressway, is built on reclaimed land.

The best marker may be the Harbour Commission Building. When it was built in 1917, it was on the shoreline. Today it is over 500 m from the shoreline. Front Street was just that.

It too is now several hundred meters from the shoreline.

Answer: It is Toronto's regional airport

By 1939 the Toronto Harbour Commission had built two airports with the support of the Canadian government: One on an island but very close to downtown, the other sited outside the city, as a backup for the main downtown airport. A site near the town of Malton, northwest of Toronto, was chosen which required buying back farming land. The island site suited the flying boats of the era but it became clear the Malton site was a more financial proposition and it became the main airport in the 50s. The island location was the city airport's main drawback: flying boats were not competitive and runway length was limited, and you had to cross water to get to the island.
In the early 2000s the airport had a rejuvenation of sorts. Porter Airlines were established to take passengers to nearby cities including Boston and Pittsburgh making this an international airport. However, planes were limited to turboprops because of short runway length. Estimates to lengthen the runway were north of 500 million dollars. A conditional order for jet planes by Porter had to be cancelled due to the Canadian government not supporting extending the runway. Nevertheless in 2016, the airport was still Canada's ninth largest airport in terms of passenger numbers. A ferry and underground tunnel facilitate passenger transfer to the island
In 2009 it was named Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, after a Canadian World War I flying ace and Victoria Cross recipient.

Answer: True

The main subway line is U shaped with the bottom of the U being Union Station and the two arms of the line running north-south with one arm travelling more or less under the very long Yonge St. There is another subway line running east-west centred around Bloor St. This line has spurs either end. Downtown streetcars then run in five east-west lines south of Bloor St with another two that runs east-west below Union then turn north to intersect the east-west streetcar routes and the Bloor-Danforth subway line.

The subway is efficient, but the streetcars get bottlenecked in Toronto's frequent traffic snarls. Whilst Downtown is fairly compact, Toronto is a sprawling city where most people use cars to move around.

One of the sad things about not really getting out of the Downtown area on this lightning fast trip is there is no time to see Toronto's distinctive neighbourhoods like The Annex and Little Portugal, two of the many migrant-populated areas that makes Toronto the multi-culture mecca that it is, often referred to as "the most multicultural city in the world."

Also coming from one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world, I need to find some thing different in Toronto. My friends and I settle for a late lunch at a Hakka Food restaurant. Hakka Food is a style of Chinese food that started in India by Chinese migrants. Toronto is the only city in the world to have such a variety of Hakka Restaurants. (two months after I went home to Brisbane, its first Hakka Restaurant opened not 3km from my home!)

Answer: The Crystal

The museum is located just north of Downtown at Queen's Park near the University of Toronto. It has its own subway station. First opened in 1914, it contains over six million items in forty plus galleries.
The new entrance to the ROM, the Michael Lee-Chin (so called because he was a major benefactor) Crystal, first opened in 2007. A de-constructivist crystalline form is clad in glass and aluminium, over a steel frame. To preserve the heritage-listed main building, the extension does not actually touch the older building.

All other options are nicknames of London buildings.

Answer: One half of City Hall

The New City Hall was designed by Finnish architect Viljo Revell and inaugurated in 1965 (The "old" City Hall is nearby and is still functional). The new building is actually two semi-circular buildings that face each other (Only the Eastern building is shown here). The buildings are of unequal height. The inner curvature circumscribe a white disc shaped council chamber located at the base of the two buildings.
The two hospitals mentioned are nearby and adjacent to each other and not far from City Hall.
Casa Loma (Hill House) is a Gothic Revival house a bit further north in Midtown. It is now a museum and and somewhat of a landmark.

Answer: YYZ

Nearly all airports in Canada start with a "Y". Knowing that fact makes YVR for Vancouver Airport almost intuitive. But Pearson International is YYZ which seems to be counter-intuitive. However Torontonians are very proud to refer to their city as YYZ as the T-Shirt here (pictured) depicts.

Another moniker Toronto uses is The 416. This is because in 1998 five cities: Toronto, Scarborough, North York, Etobicoke, and York and the Borough of East York merged to form the City of Toronto. "416" is the telephone code that covered the broader city although "647" and "437" have now been added. The "905" refers to the Greater Toronto area though this code includes the Niagara Area and Hamilton.