50 free Toronto trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Toronto takes its name from a Mohawk word for trees standing in water, was founded as York in 1793 to be safer from American attack, and was promptly burned by Americans in 1813. This quiz follows the city from Simcoe's garrison town through incorporation in 1834, the Great Fire of 1904, Hurricane Hazel, the birth of Metro Toronto and the 1998 megacity, to a place where about half the residents were born outside Canada and 160 languages are spoken. It also covers what visitors know: the CN Tower's three decades as the world's tallest freestanding structure and its hands-free EdgeWalk, PATH's underground kilometres, the Islands cut off by an 1858 storm, Casa Loma's bowling alley, the ROM and its Burgess Shale fossils, Viljo Revell's City Hall, Union Station, the Eaton Centre's 52 million visitors, Kensington Market and the Distillery District. Sport gets its share: the Leafs' 13 Cups and 57-year drought, the Raptors' Jurassic Park name and 2019 title, the Jays' back-to-back World Series and the Argonauts' 19 Grey Cups. Nicknames from Hogtown to The Six round it out. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Toronto and its landmarks, teams and events, and each question shows the sentence that supports it. Our Canada quiz covers the rest of the country.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The name Toronto comes from the Mohawk word tkaronto, meaning what?
Where there are trees standing in the water
It described fish weirs of saplings at the narrows of Lake Simcoe, recorded by Champlain in 1615, and spread via a portage trail.
Q 02What was Toronto called when the British founded it in 1793?
York
Governor Simcoe named it for the Duke of York and moved the Upper Canada capital there from Newark, judging it safer from American attack.
Q 03On what date was York incorporated as the City of Toronto?
March 6, 1834
It adopted the Indigenous name and had about 9,000 people; slavery was banned across the British Empire the same year.
Q 04US forces captured and burned York in 1813 during which war?
The War of 1812
British troops retaliated later in the war by burning Washington, DC.
Q 05Which American general died at the Battle of York when the retreating British blew up the magazine?
Zebulon Pike
Pikes Peak in Colorado is named after him; the Americans occupied the town for five days.
Q 06The Great Fire of Toronto of April 1904 destroyed more than 100 buildings and killed how many people?
One
The lone victim, John Croft, was an explosives expert clearing the ruins afterwards.
Q 07Which 1954 hurricane brought flash flooding to Toronto and killed 81 people in Canada?
Hazel
It struck the same year Metropolitan Toronto was created and the first subway opened.
Q 08Toronto's 'megacity' was created by amalgamating six municipalities in which year?
1998
Premier Mike Harris sold it as cost-cutting; former North York mayor Mel Lastman became the first mayor of the merged city.
Q 09Toronto ranks fourth in North America by population, behind which three?
Mexico City, New York and Los Angeles
The 2021 census counted 2,794,356 people in the city and 6.7 million in the Greater Toronto Area.
Q 10Roughly what share of Toronto's residents were born outside Canada?
About half
Over 200 ethnic origins are represented and more than 160 languages spoken.
Q 11Completed in 1976, the CN Tower stands how tall?
553.33 m
It was the world's tallest freestanding structure until Dubai's Burj Khalifa passed it in 2007.
Q 12The 'CN' in CN Tower stands for what?
Canadian National, the railway that built it
The railway conceived it in 1968 as a broadcast platform and a show of Canadian engineering.
Q 13What is the CN Tower's EdgeWalk, opened in 2011?
A hands-free walk around the roof of the main pod
Q 21Toronto's first subway line opened in which year?
1954
The TTC took its present name the same year; the network now has three heavy-rail lines plus two light-rail lines and streetcars.
Q 22Toronto's Union hub is North America's second-busiest for rail passengers after which terminal?
New York Penn Station
Built in 1927, it handles over 72 million passengers a year as the hub of GO Transit.
Q 23Toronto Pearson, Canada's busiest airport, straddles the border with which suburban city?
Mississauga
Its IATA code is YYZ; the UP Express train links it to Union Station.
At 356 metres up, it is the world's highest full-circle hands-free walk; the tower was named a modern Wonder by civil engineers in 1995.
Q 14Toronto's PATH network holds a Guinness record as the world's largest what?
Underground shopping complex
It has about 371,600 square metres of retail and more than 1,200 shopfronts beneath downtown.
Q 15The Toronto Islands became islands when a storm severed their peninsula from the mainland in which year?
1858
The island community is the largest urban car-free community in North America; ferries run from downtown.
Q 16Until 1999 Guinness called which Toronto thoroughfare the world's longest, at 1,896 km?
Yonge
The figure conflated Yonge with Highway 11, which ran on to the Minnesota border.
Q 17Which of these features does Casa Loma, Sir Henry Pellatt's castle, include?
A bowling alley and secret passages
It also had gardens, turrets, stables and an elevator; Pellatt was a financier and militia officer.
Q 18Which Finnish architect designed Toronto's curved 1965 City Hall?
Viljo Revell
His design was initially discarded in the competition until Eero Saarinen, a judge, rescued it; Nathan Phillips Square fronts it.
Q 19Which Toronto attraction draws over 52 million visitors a year, the most in the city?
The Eaton Centre
The downtown shopping mall outdraws every museum and monument.
Q 20The Royal Ontario Museum holds the world's largest collection of fossils from which site?
The Burgess Shale
More than 150,000 Cambrian specimens; the ROM is Canada's largest museum and Daniel Libeskind added its Crystal wing.
Q 24The nickname 'Hogtown' came from what?
A pork-processing plant
The Davies facility was one of the industries around the harbour along with the whisky distillery whose buildings survive downtown.
Q 25The Distillery District preserves the buildings of which whisky maker, once Canada's largest?
Gooderham and Worts
It is called the largest and best-preserved collection of Victorian industrial architecture in North America; production ended in 1990.
Q 26Toronto shares the nickname 'Hollywood North' with which other city?
Vancouver
It ranks third for film and TV production after Los Angeles and New York; the abandoned Lower Bay subway platform is used for filming.
Q 27TIFF, the film event founded in 1976, was launched under what name?
The Festival of Festivals
It collected the best films from other festivals; its People's Choice Award is now an Oscar bellwether.
Q 28Caribana, Toronto's Caribbean carnival, was first held in 1967 to mark what?
Canada's Centennial
It runs from mid-July to early August and is modelled on the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival.
Q 29The Toronto Maple Leafs have won how many Stanley Cups?
13
None since 1967, a 57-season drought that is the longest in NHL history.
Q 30What was the Maple Leafs franchise called when it began in the NHL's first season, 1917-18?
The Toronto Arenas
They became the St. Patricks and then, under Conn Smythe in 1927, the Maple Leafs.