Torontoculture & etiquette

January runs to −20 °C before wind chill, and the real hazard is black ice on sidewalks rather than the cold itself. Buy proper insulated boots with grip before your first freeze, layer rather than relying on one heavy coat, and if you drive, winter tires are genuinely necessary — many insurers discount for them.

13% HST is added at the register, not shown on the shelf, and tipping 15–20% is a firm social expectation in restaurants, bars, taxis and salons. Budget roughly a third on top of a menu price to know what a meal actually costs.

Rental listings say 'hydro not included' and mean the power bill. It's the single most misread word for newcomers, and in a poorly insulated apartment a winter hydro bill is not a rounding error.

Downtown is linked by roughly 30 km of underground walkway connecting subway stations, office towers and malls. Locals cross large stretches of the core in February without going outside — it's disorienting at first and indispensable by month two.

Roughly half of Toronto's residents were born outside Canada, and the best eating is correspondingly dispersed: Sri Lankan in Scarborough, Chinese in Markham, Italian on St. Clair, Portuguese around Dundas West. Downtown restaurants are not the ceiling.

Queuing is orderly, people thank the bus driver on the way out, and directness reads as aggression more easily than in the US or Europe. Softening a request costs nothing and lands much better.