The most Italian city in Canada is…

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Which city is the most Italian in Canada? Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver?

[00:00:06]Canada has nearly 1.5 million people of Italian descent. But which city feels the most Italian? Toronto has the numbers. There are nearly 470,000 Italian Canadians in the greater Toronto area.

[00:00:19]Making Toronto the fourth largest Italian city in the world outside of Italy, behind Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and New York City. College Street was once so densely Italian that it became Corso Italia. On the night Italy won the 1982 World Cup, 300,000 people shut down St. Clair Avenue for 20 blocks. Montreal has a different kind of claim. Saint Leonard in Montreal is nearly 40% Italian origin to this day. In the 1970s, when Quebec's language wars exploded, the Italian community was caught between French and English, and they chose their own side.

[00:00:56]That tension shaped the entire city.

[00:00:58]Montreal's Italian community didn't just survive. It held its ground. Then there's Vancouver, around 60,000 people of Italian descent in the metropolitan area, quietly building one of the most underrated Italian communities in North America. Less flashy than Toronto, less politically charged than Montreal, but deeply rooted and growing. So, Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver?

[00:01:19]What do you think is the most Italian city in Canada? Let me know your answers in the comments.

[00:01:24]And if you're Italian-Canadian, let me know where your family came from and where they settled in Canada.