Whether living in Toronto or are just visiting, the downtown area is where to find excitement with countless interesting things to do and fun activities that can keep you occupied for as long as you have. There is something to satisfy every interest and days are easily spent exploring with family and friends, or even independantly.

The economic and cultural focus of English-speaking Canada, Toronto is the country's largest metropolis. It sprawls along the northern shore of Lake Ontario, its vibrant, appealing centre encased by a jangle of satellite townships and industrial zones that cover - as "Greater Toronto" - no less than 100 square kilometres. For decades, Toronto was saddled with unflattering sobriquets - "Toronto the Good", "Hogtown" - that reflected a perhaps deserved reputation for complacent mediocrity and greed. Spurred into years of image-building, the city's postwar administrations have lavished millions of dollars on glitzy architecture, slick museums, an excellent public-transport system, and the reclamation and development of the lakefront. As a result, Toronto has become one of North America's most likeable cities, an eminently liveable place whose citizens keep a wary eye on both their politicians and the developers.

Buyers in Toronto's high-priced real estate market will be digging even deeper today as the city's newest tax goes into effect. "Obviously the day has come. It's still a back-breaking tax," said Von Palmer, spokesperson for the Toronto Real Estate Board, which led a bitter fight last year to block the municipal land transfer tax. "We hope it does not affect the market in a negative way."