We are lucky to be living in Toronto, where we can have the best health care at no cost.  We send our kids to Catholic schools at no cost.  We send our kids to dance, skating, swimming and other recreational programs at low cost. We can have great entertainment at no cost.  Playgrounds and parks and community centres everywhere.  Great public libraries where we can borrow a fairly recent CDs and Video Tapes and great books...at no cost.  You do not need to own a car in Toronto because of the efficient subway and transport system.  It is these free services that makes the Torontonian enjoy life regardless of what job or stature they have.

      The price we have to have to pay is high income taxes.  We have the PST (Provincial Sales Tax) 8% and GST (Goods and Services Tax) 7%.  Yes, you have to add 15% of the price to most goods that you buy & services that you use.  We have a high stardard of living, too.  Houses and rent are expensive but still affordable.  Overall, we get what we pay for in terms of free services & health care.  Toronto is a place with lots of middle class, a sign of a small gap between the rich and the poor.  In Toronto, everybody chip in to make life wholesome for everyone.  May God help us keep it that way.

       We have a number of attractions in Toronto.  The CN Tower is an observation tower where you can see the birds-eye view of the city. The tallest free-standing structure in the world stand out in the Toronto skyline.  Right beside it, is the SkyDome...home of the Blue Jays...the dome with a retractable roof.  Hard Rock Cafe offers a view of how the dome look inside.  The Harbourfront Centre is our entertainment venue by the lake where we have Milk Festival for kids, Jazz festivals, Blues festivals, Dance, Arts and Cultural events.   Most of the shows are free.  Ontario Place, an amusement park with a concert venue also lies beside the Lake Ontario.  Another amusement park  that is good for smaller kids, Centreville,  is accessible by a ferry to the Toronto Islands.  It is fun to tour the islands on bicycles.  On the East side of the city lies The Beaches where we have a boardwalk and a garden which is a venue of  a number of musical festivals, the Kews Garden.

      Toronto is a Sports Town.  It is a hockey town, the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Basketball originates from a Canadian but ironically we have a pretty young NBA Basketball organization, the Toronto Raptors.  Both Vince Carter and Mats Sundin call the new Air Canada Centre their home.  It is also the choice venue for concerts of todays hottest performers.  As mentioned above the SkyDome is the baseball paradise of the Toronto Blue Jays.  We do not have an NFL team...yet...but we have our own Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts. Doug Flutie of the Buffalo Bills was the quarterback smuggled from the Argos.

      For Art lovers, we have the Arts Gallery of Ontario (AGO), The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery and north of Toronto is where the McMichael Canadian Art Gallery is.  We are next to New York in Theaters.  We have the Pantages (Phanthom of the Opera), The Royal Alexandra Theater (Mama Mia), The Hummingbird Centre (Joseph), The Princess of Wales Theater (Miss Saigon, The Lion King) and lots of other venues for great productions.  Check out the OnStage Toronto for the latest listings.

      Other attractions are the Casa Loma, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Bata Shoe Museum.  If shopping is your game, check out our largest mall, the Eaton's Centre.  Yes we have a great Toronto Zoo for animal lovers.

     Save the best for last...the Paramount Canada's Wonderland...a combination of Disneyland, Magic Mountain, Wet & Wild and Universal Studios in one roof, all for one price, too.  It is the best in amusement park in Canada.  We do not have Mickey Mouse but we have Scoobydoo, the Flintstones, Rag Ruts and many more.

     We are 2 hours away from the world wonder, Niagara Falls...the honeymoon capital of the world.  You can do a 4-5 hour drive to Ottawa or Montreal from Toronto.  Other neighbors are Detroit, Michigan (4 hours away), Cleveland, Ohio (5 hours), New York is just across the lake Ontario but the Big Apple is 8 hours away.  The New England States are not far from us.

     Want to glance at our newspapers?  Check out the Toronto Star or the Toronto Sun website.  Do you want to view our highways and know how the traffic is...check this out  (the one that says Canadian Tire between Bayview  and Leslie, above the word Compass,  is the camera pointing to Val's backyard...behind the green fence).  If you think we have not given you enough links on Toronto, check out this sites Toronto Links, Toronto Info, Virtual Toronto.   We hope you enjoyed your cyber-tour and we are just an email away if you decided to visit Toronto.  You are most welcome to our new hometown.