The Zhong Hua Men Archway at the bottom of Gerrard Street East, Toronto

Dear Readers, we started our walk along Gerrard Street at the Zhong Hua Men Archway, celebrating the history of the Chinese people in Canada, and particularly the 17,000 workers who built the Transnational Railway (some of whom died in the process). It was fundraised for for years, and was finally built in 2009. There are two white marble lions on the other side (which like a twit I didn’t photograph), and these were donated by the People’s Republic of China. I really loved the plaque on the right, which shows a couple of well-fed pandas.

The Gerrard Street Chinatown is small (the main Chinatown in Toronto is probably now out in the suburbs in Markham) but there are still plenty of Chinese shops and restaurants, and the occasional cross-pollination – we saw an Italian hairdressers with the signs in English and Chinese, for example, and plenty of older Chinese people still live here.  The houses on the side streets are small but the whole area is gentrifying, so whether younger Chinese people will be able to stay remains to be seen.

Just a short walk away from Chinatown, we found one of the most interesting social housing projects I’ve ever come across. The Bain Co-op was built between 1913 and 1920, and was heavily influenced by the English Garden Suburb movement – the aim was to have a mixture of residential areas and green spaces. There are 260 apartments in total, and the main avenue is flanked by London Plane trees, something of a rarity in these parts.

I loved what has been done here. Everyone has a small garden, and there are larger green areas where children can play. The Bain was designed by British architect Eden Smith, and it has a lot of things that more recent affordable housing developments do not: access to the street from all the apartments, cross-ventilation, indoor toilets,gas stoves and running water – all this over one hundred years ago. The noticeboards show a host of activities going on, and there is a real sense of community here. Plus, the rents really are affordable, there are loans available for people in short-term financial difficulty, and most of the people here get some form of benefits. It feels to me like a place where you can live with dignity even if you aren’t earning a lot, and surely that should be the aim of any civilised society.

Anyhow, eventually we tore ourselves away and marched along the road in the direction of Little India. On the way we passed this sign, which feels particularly Canadian to me for some reason. Where else could you find out about the temporary re-location of the temporary dog park, in both French and English?

Anyhow, soon the names of the shops lost their Chinese characters, and became South Asian instead. The Lahore Tikka House reminded me of the world-famous Lahore Kebab restaurant in London’s East End, though it’s bigger and fancier.

There are sari shops and shops selling Indian sweets, shops selling Indian cooking utensils and everywhere a delicious smell of spice.

But perhaps no where shows the mixing of cultures so much as some of the restaurants – the one below sells Chinese chow mein, Nepalese momos, and Vietnamese hot and sour soup, all on a road where most of the restaurants are selling South Asian food. Oh, and it had a halal sign on the door.

So, as we got the streetcar back to College station, I mused on the nature of Toronto’s multiculturalism. In the course of a single street you can encounter two distinct cultures, plus the very varied occupants of the Bain Coop, plus the gay community and the gentrifiers. And while it isn’t paradise, it generally seems to work. No wonder Canada has no intention of becoming the 51st state. Elbows up!