Scarborough, Ontario: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Scarborough is a part of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It occupies the eastern portion of the city and its boundary with the rest of Toronto is Victoria Park Avenue. Its population is approximately 600,000.

History

It was incorporated as a township in 1850 and included as part of Metropolitan Toronto when it was formed in 1953. It was incorporated as a borough within Metropolitan Toronto in 1963. It was then incorporated as a city within Metropolitan Toronto in 1983. It was amalgamated into the "megacity" in 1998 losing its separate legal identity.

It was named after Scarborough, England by Elizabeth Simcoe, the wife of John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. The bluffs along Scarborough's Lake Ontario shores reminded her of the bluffs in Scarborough, England. In her diary, she wrote, "The [eastern] shore is extremely bold, and has the appearance of chalk cliffs, but I believe they are only white sand. They appeared so well that we talked of building a summer residence there and calling it Scarborough."

Much of the area of Scarborough was settled by suburban housing developments in the last third of the 20th century; Often considered a poor cousin to the more urbane Toronto, Scarborough residents have developed their own unique culture and sense of humour as evidenced by such native "Scarberians" as Mike Myers (Wayne's World, Austin Powers), Jim Carrey (Ace Ventura, The Mask), Eric McCormack (Will and Grace), John Candy (Second City, SCTV) and the musical group Barenaked Ladies and pop teen princess Fefe Dobson .

Scarborough is the home of Ontario's only elevated rapid transit line, the Scarborough RT. It is also home to the University of Toronto at Scarborough (UTSC) and Centennial College.

In recent years, Scarborough has garnered a somewhat inaccurate reputation as one of the more criminal areas of the Greater Toronto Area.

Further Reading:

• A History of Scarborough, Robert Bonis, 1968