Italian Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area

[1] Toronto is home to the fourth largest population of people of Italian descent after Buenos Aires, São Paulo and New York City, respectively.

Italians arrived in Toronto in large numbers during the early 20th century, first settling in an area then known as The Ward, centred on University Avenue and College Street.

In the late 1960s, the Italian economy experienced a period of growth and recovery, removing one of the primary incentives for emigration.

Later in the 1970s and 80s, Italian immigrants moved to northwestern parts of the city such as Maple Leaf, Pelmo Park-Humberlea and Humber Summit.

[2] 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] Approximately 40,000 Italians came to Canada during the interwar period, predominantly from southern Italy where an economic depression and overpopulation had left many families in poverty.

[6] In the late 1960s, the Italian economy experienced a period of growth and recovery, removing one of the primary incentives for emigration.

Later migration followed the aforementioned pattern of moving further northwest to the suburbs and semi-rural areas of Greater Toronto, in particular Woodbridge in Vaughan, Nobleton in King, and Bolton in Caledon.

[5] 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.