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And the winners are…
Grand Prize (Fairmount Royal York prize package) –
Evan Fox-Decent
Second Place Prizes (complimentary copy of The Torontonians) –
Eric Huberdeau
Katrin Urschel
Jacqueline Mason
Emmanuel Resch
Tarah Brookfield
Thanks to everyone who entered in our contest and congratulations to our winners!
And the answers were…
Question 1 – In what year was the City of Toronto federated into a regional government known as Metropolitan Toronto?
Answer: 1953 and 1954 were both accepted – The postwar boom had resulted in rapid suburban development and it was believed that a coordinated land use strategy and shared services would provide greater efficiency for the region. The Metropolitan Toronto Act was passed in April of 1953 and came into effect 1 January 1954. The metropolitan government began to manage services that crossed municipal boundaries – highways, water, public transit.
Question 2 – This 56th mayor of Toronto convinced City Council to hold an international design competition for a new City Hall on the northwest corner of Queen and Bay streets. A total of 520 designs were received from 42 different countries. Who was the mayor – and who was the winning architect?
"You would have to go far a field to find anything as dull as Toronto City Hall, a fact that Mayor *** seemed to be more sharply aware of than anyone else."
Answer: Nathan Philips was mayor of Toronto from 1955 to 1962. The winner of the design competition was Finnish Architect Viljo Revell. Construction of the new city hall commenced on 7 November 1961, and the building was opened on 13 September 1965. Viljo Revell also designed the city square that forms the front (south) entrance to City Hall, named, of course, after the man who first inspired the project – Nathan Philips.
Question 3 – With the Toronto Maple Leafs winning three consecutive Stanley Cups in the 1960s, this was the decade to be a hocket fan in Toronto. What were the winning seasons for the Leafs?
Answer: 1962-63, 1963-64, 1966-65, and again in 1966-67 – the winning goal scored by George Armstrong – the end of the Toronto Maple Leafs as a powerful force in the NHL for many years to come.
Question 4 – In 1960 Canada’s busiest airport was rebranded the Toronto International Airport from what original name?
Answer: First opened in 1939 as Malton Airport, the Toronto International Airport was again renamed in 1984 in honour of Canada’s 14th Prime Minister. In 2005 The Lester B. Pearson International Airport was ranked 29th among the world’ busiest airports, handling 29.9 million passengers.
Question 5 – Street car travel was the main service provided by the Toronto Transportation Commission during the first half of the 29th century. What year marked the opening of Toronto’s First subway line?
Answer: In 1954, the TTC adopted its present name — the Toronto Transit Commission, opened its first subway line — the U-shaped Yonge-University-Spadina Line, and greatly expanded its service to cover the newly formed municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. The east-west running Bloor-Danforth Line started in 1966.
Question 6 – What popular vice-president of the University of Toronto became the first President of York University, founded in 1959?
Answer: Murray Ross was still vice-president of the Universtiy of Toronto when approached to become York University’s new president. Initially envisioned as a feeder campus of U of T, York University’s first class was held in September 1960 on the University of Toronto campus, moving to the Glendon campus in the fall of 1961. It was Ross’s powerful vis9ion that led York to become a completely separate institution.
Question 7 – Opened on June 11, 1929, the Royal York was designed by Ross and Macdonald and built by the Canadian Pacific Railway across the street from Union Station. With 28 floors, the art deco-style building was the tallest in Toronto at the time, and remains to this day a distinct feature of the Toronto skyline. The hotel was enlarged in what year (making it the largest hotel in the Commonwealth for many years to follow)?
Answer: in 1959 the Royal York was enlarged with the addition of the east wing, to a total of 1,600 rooms.
Question 8 – Originally published in 1887 as Toronto Saturday Night — a weekly public affairs update, Saturday Night (suspended in 2005) had atumultuous 118-year history. The magazine flourished under the editor B.K. Sandwell in the 1930s but declined after he left in the 1950s. What editor, appointed in the late 1960s, was largely responsible for bringing Saturday Night back to a place of prominence?
Answer: Robert Fulford, who began his journalism career when he left high school in 1950 to work for the Globe and Mail as a sports reporter, took the helm of Saturday Night in 1968 and remained there until 1987.
Question 9 – Founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, the T. Eaton Co. Limited grew to become a retail and social institution in Canada, with stores across the country, buying offices around the globe, and a catalogue that found itself in the homes of most Canadians. What 1953 merger forced Eaton’s to re-evaluate its practices?
Answer: Eaton’s was forced to re-evaluate its practices after Simpson’s, its largest competitor, merged with Sears of the United States. Eaton’s began to abandon manufacturing in the mid-1960s, and by the arly 1970s, the Eaton’s catalogue was losing $17-million a year.
Question 10 – Concerned with the growing influence of American radio broadcasting as U.S.-based networks began to expand into Canada, in 1929 the Aird Commission on public broadcasting recommended the creation of a national radio broadcast network. In 1932 the CBC’s predecessor, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission was established and in 1936 the CRBC became a Crown corporation and gained its present name — for the next few decades, the CBC was responsible for all broadcasting innovation in Canada. Television broadcasts from the CBC began on what date, and on what date was CBC’s television signal expanded from coast to coast?
Answer: Television broadcasts from the CBC began on 6 September 1952, with the opening of a station in Montreal (CBFT), and a station in Toronto (CBLT) opening two days later. On 1 July 1958 CBC’s telvision signal was extended from coast to coast.
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