The Toronto region: Metro or GTA-which better describes it?

[Long Island Mike]

Everyone: I was watching some CTV newscasts the other day on the net and something came to my mind: I remember that the Toronto area used to be called METRO-for the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto but nowadays the term GTA is used-I liked the METRO term to describe the region much better. I will add that as a teenager in the 70s I kind of discovered this accidentally-I thought that the TTC called their rail system the Metro and wrote off for information-the letter was sent to the Metro government which sent me back some interesting info-including a early 70s street map and guide which I still have today. I now know that with the Unified City of Toronto the Metro government was absorbed into the new city but does anyone still use the term? Metro definitely sounded better than GTA to me! LI MIKE

 

[Bogtrotter]

The GTA refers to a much wider urban area including Peel region and others and is a different population measure altogether. Metro was used to decribe just the old city of Toronto and the neighbouring districts of East York, North York, Etobicoke and Scarborough. I don't hear the term Metro used much anymore. I kind of liked it as well though.

 

[interchange42]

Essentially the term Metro has been replaced by City, more so than GTA. (People tend to throw terms like that around loosely, as if they are geopgraphic terms instead of political ones).

As all sorts of institutions with the word 'Metro' in their name had that word dropped after the amalgamation, the word has pretty much fallen out of use. For example, the MTRCA, or Metro Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, is now just the TRCA. The only institution that I can think of quickly that has kept the word Metro is the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

42

 

[Urban Shocker]

I dropped off a whole load of vinyl albums at Parliament Goodwill the other day - including a copy of Metro Music by Martha and the Muffs.

 

[Hydrogen]

The Really Big Smoke.