The Toronto We Know

A few months ago I started reading about a song contest being hosted by the City of Toronto. In honour of the city's 175th anniversary, a call went out for new songs that honour this place we call home.

Now that's a difficult challenge, I thought.

The word "Toronto" is hard to rhyme with, for one thing. And every song starts with a story... What kind of story could I tell about Toronto, in a song?

On a walk home from a friend's house in Cabbagetown, I started thinking about how other people in Canada sometimes say disparaging things about Toronto...how from time to time I've heard Toronto portrayed as a less-than-friendly, closed sort of place, and one that's somewhat large and frightening.

But that's not the Toronto I know.

I know a friendly city of diverse people who are open and generous and kind. ("It's not such a big and scary place, with so many different smiling faces.")

I know a city made up of smaller neighbourhoods ("growing strong, doing good") where people help each other out, every day, in large and small ways.

In such warm and caring neighbourhoods, difficult times can be overcome. ("Some see storms ahead, but we see the rainbow.")

The Toronto I know is also a place where people work together, and so it's fitting that in order to complete and produce this song, I needed to call on David Leask , a gifted songwriter and singer who hails originally from Edinburgh, Scotland.

By working together, we made a stronger song...one that has landed in the Top 10 of the City of Toronto's 175th Anniversary Song Contest. (Starting June 18th you can vote for it here .)

We hope you enjoy "The Toronto We Know" !