By David Nickle
When Toronto was first incorporated as a city in 1834, $250,000 would have gone a long way. In 2009, as the city is getting ready to celebrate its 175th anniversary on March 6, that amount of money – the total budget for the celebration – is going almost as far. Starting on March 6, Torontonians can head down to Toronto City Hall for a multi-media celebration of the rich history of the city.
“This city has evolved into what it is today – this is a transformational event – and we’re still growing,” said Joe Pantalone, Toronto’s deputy mayor and chair of the 175th anniversary steering committee.
“This was quite a different city in 1834. There were less than 10,000 people living in the town – now there’s 2.7 million people living in the city, up to six (million) are living in the urban area.”
The celebration will feature a festival of short films, including a retrospective of Toronto in silent cinema, presented by author Mike Findlay; Toronto’s Visual Legacy, a new book of Toronto archival photographs put out by the City of Toronto Archives; a reenactment of Toronto’s first council meeting chaired by William Lyon Mackenzie, Toronto’s first mayor; and a look at vintage fire-engines and police vehicles.
