The Toronto History Lecture was inaugurated in 2011 in memory of well-known local and family historian Paul McGrath and his love for telling people about Toronto and its past. Toronto Branch assumed responsibility for the lecture series in 2012, ensuring that it will continue as an annual event for years to come. It is free to attend and open to the public.

Speakers: Brian and Michael Doucet
Online via Zoom. August 5 at 7:00 pm

Toronto’s streetcars are an icon of the city and one of Canada’s busiest transit networks. Since the 1960s, the city has been home to North America’s largest streetcar system. Both today’s streetcar network and the wider city in which they run are heavily influenced by 150 years of transit and transportation history. The creation of the Toronto Transit Commission in 1921 was one of the first examples of a municipally owned transit system and the investments the TTC made throughout the 1920s created a state-of-the-art network that extended service into new suburbs.

Presenters Brian and Michael Doucet will weave the story of the streetcars with one of an ascendant city which transformed over the past 75 years from a modest, predominantly British and provincial city, to Canada’s leading metropolis and one of the world’s most multicultural cities. The streetcars have shaped many neighbourhoods and have ensured that they have remained connected and liveable places. Today, as a new generation of light rail transit lines is being developed, this connectivity also shapes a new geography of inequality, with streetcar lines anchoring waves of new investment and gentrification.

Head and shoulders photo of speakers Michael and Brian Doucet with iron gridwork of the Bathurst Street bridge in the backgroundDr. Brian Doucet and Dr. Michael Doucet are a father-son team of academics who have spent their careers researching cities and urban change. Michael is lifelong Torontonian and an Emeritus Professor of Geography who spent his career at Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan University). Son Brian is an Associate Professor of Planning at the University of Waterloo and one of Canada’s leading housing experts.

The Toronto History Lecture is free to attend. Please click here to register in advance.