Italian Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area

"Soldiers of fortune" and "men of letters" from Italy immigrated to Toronto prior to the 1850s. Toronto absorbed pedlars and craftspeople from northern Italy until the 1880s. By 1860, 17 Italians lived in Toronto. Additional tradespeople arrived by 1870. After the 1880s many came from northern Italy, with most being from Genoa. The occupations tended to be craftspeople, service tradespeople, and pedlars.[3] Italians arrived in Toronto in large numbers during the early 20th century. Italians first settled in an area then known as The Ward, centred on University Avenue and College Street.[3] Approximately 40,000 Italians came to Canada during the interwar period of 1914 to 1918, predominantly from southern Italy where an economic depression and overpopulation had left many families in poverty.[4] By the 1920s, most Italians had moved west of Bathurst Street and the College-Clinton area had emerged as the city's major Little Italy.[3][5] They mainly immigrated to Toronto—increasing from 4,900 Italians in 1911, to 9,000 in 1921, constituting almost two per cent of Toronto's population.[5]

Italian immigration continued into the post-World War II era, where approximately 20,000 to 30,000 Italians immigrated to Canada each year between the early 1950s and the mid 1960s.[4] By the 1960s, more than 15,000 Italian men worked in Toronto's construction industry, representing one third of all construction workers in the city at that time.[4] 90 per cent of the Italians who immigrated to Canada after World War II remained in Canada, and decades after that period, the community still had fluency in the Italian language.[6] In the late 1960s, the Italian economy experienced a period of growth and recovery, removing one of the primary incentives for emigration.[4]

As early as 1961, the presence of new immigrants had already started changing Little Italy.[7] That year, 15,000 Italians, 12,000 being immigrants, lived in Little Italy (35 per cent of the population), declining to 8,000 in 1971, and further to 3,600 in 1991 (13 per cent of the population).[7] Since the 1970s, Italian immigrants from Little Italy moved northward to Corso Italia on St. Clair Avenue West.[7] In 1981, about 35,000 Italians lived in this area, however, by 1991, had dropped to 20,000.[7] Much of the Italian population subsequently moved to the northwestern part of the city, such as Pelmo Park-Humberlea and Maple Leaf, as well as to the suburbs northwest of Toronto, in particular, York and Peel, and their respective communities, in particular, Woodbridge in Vaughan, Nobleton in King, and Bolton in Caledon.[8][9] Although the character of Toronto's two Italian enclaves (which later also included Palmerston-Little Italy and Corso Italia-Davenport) still has several Italian restaurants and bakeries, the demographics of these neighbourhoods have changed drastically with a smaller Italian population than it had originally.

By 2001, 79,835 Italian Canadians lived in Vaughan, accounting for 44.0 per cent of the population.[10] As the presence of new immigrants significantly bolstered the population, the concentration of Italian Canadians has steadily decreased, with 94,725 Italian Canadians accounting for 31.1 per cent of the population in 2016.[11] That year, the community of Woodbridge within Vaughan is home to 55,960 of these Italian Canadians, accounting for 53.5 per cent of the population—the largest in Canada.[12] The concentration of Italian Canadians has started increasing further north and westward, with concentrations of Italian Canadians in King and Caledon as compared to 2001 and 2016 were 22.6 per cent vs 34.5 per cent, and 22.3 per cent vs 27.3 per cent, respectively.[10][11]

Italian newspapers, television, and radio have existed throughout Toronto's history.[6] Son to Italian immigrants, Johnny Lombardi was born in The Ward in 1915, and went on to found one of the first multilingual radio stations in Canada, CHIN in 1966, in Palmerston–Little Italy.[37][38]

• Jimi Bertucci
• Alessia Cara[39][40]
• Michael Cera[41]
• Philip de Grassi (imperial officer of the United Kingdom army)[3]
• James Forneri (professor of Modern Languages from the University of Toronto) - Originated from the Piedmont[3]
• Johnny Lombardi
• Franceso Rossi (Toronto's first confectioner)[3]
• Daniela Sanzone

The Italian Walk of Fame acknowledges ethnic Italians. It is located in Little Italy.

• Demographics of Toronto
• Italians in Montreal

• Harney, Nicholas DeMaria. "Ethnicity, Social Organization, and Urban Space: A Comparison of Italians in Toronto and Montreal" (Chapter 6). In: Sloan, Joanne (editor). Urban Enigmas: Montreal, Toronto, and the Problem of Comparing Cities (Volume 2 of Culture of Cities). McGill-Queen's Press (MQUP), January 1, 2007. ISBN 0773577076, 9780773577077. Start p. 178.
• Stanger-Ross, Jordan. Staying Italian: Urban Change and Ethnic Life in Postwar Toronto and Philadelphia (Historical Studies of Urban America). University of Chicago Press, January 15, 2010. ISBN 0226770761, 9780226770765.
• Zucchi, John E. Italians in Toronto: Development of a National Identity, 1875-1935 (Volume 3 of McGill-Queen's studies in ethnic history, ISSN 0846-8869). McGill-Queen's Press, 1990. ISBN 0773507825, 9780773507821.

• Harney, Nicholas DeMaria. Eh, Paesan!: Being Italian in Toronto (Volume 12 of Anthropological horizons). University of Toronto Press, 1998. ISBN 0802080995, 9780802080998. See preview at Google Books.
• Lynde, Beverly Doris. A Study of Food Habits of Italians in Toronto. University of Toronto, 1977. See profile at Google Books.