Toronto is not only Canada’s economic capital, but it also has one of the most diverse populations and has been classified as one of the world’s most livable cities.

But Toronto’s past and present are full of weird facts and tidbits from the truly trivial to the seriously strange:

The name ”Toronto” first appeared on a French map as ”Lac de Taranteau,” derived from the Iroquois word tkaronto.

Today, Yorkville is a trendy downtown shopping area but it was once a cemetery for those who could not afford a church burial; the cemetery was removed in the 1870s, but human remains keep turning up at every modern-day Yorkville construction project.

The land on which Toronto was built was purchased from the Mississauga First Nation band for a few hundred British pounds, 2000 gun flints, two dozen each of kettles and hats, all the hand mirrors they could carry and 100 gallons of excellent navy rum.

Olympic sculler Ned Hanlan got in lots of midnight practice rowing crates of whisky for his bootlegger dad.

William Davies, whose pork-processing company earned Toronto the nickname ”Hogtown,” died after being butted by a goat.

The abandoned Queen Street underground streetcar station is a location for the latest remake of the slasher movie Nightmare on Elm Street.

And many more fascinating facts.

Jackson believes that, in the twine of life, there are two special genes unique to humankind—hope and humour—and he thinks we should all turn to the funny side of life in the face of adversity. He must have quite the sense of humour, then, since he’s been struck by lightning five times! Alan is a prolific writer of nonfiction and a creator of worlds in the fiction realm. Alan lives in Toronto with a wife named M and a squirrel called Mommy. He is the author of various Blue Bike titles, including Weird Canadian Weather, Weird Ontario Weather and Weird Ontario Laws.

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