In the 2/18 For Better or for Worse strip, Toronto is referred to by a group of Native American Canadians (that doesn’t sound right; work with me here) as “the Big Smoke.” It’s never made clear why, and a character in the strip wonders why (her thoughts go to the prevalence of “No Smoking” signs in Toronto).
I was hoping today’s strip would make this clear, but no such luck.
So, do the natives of Mtigwaki (or other Canadian settlements) refer to Tornot as the “Big Smoke,” and if so, why?
It’s “The Big Smoke” as in it is a large city with air pollution.
I don’t know how often it happens in the population, but you can hear Toronto described as “The Big Smoke” by the local radio and TV announcers, and read it occasionally in the papers.
According to this website about downtown Younge, specifically pollution due to shipping.
Umm, I am guessing that like Chicago with the windy city and New York with the Big Apple, Someone just had to give Hogtown a new name, being trendy and such like , just like the smoking ban.
Declan
I wonder if that would be from the use of firewood by residences and coal by the budding industry adjunct to the harbour, rather than the shipping itself, for steamships were just begining to be introduced to Lake Ontario at that time. http://www.hhpl.on.ca/Greatlakes/Documents/Robert2/default.asp?ID=c004
Growing up in Oakville forty years ago, we called it “The Big Smoke.”
I expect that the term was picked up from usage in England concerning its industrial centers, e.g. London being called The Big Smoke (having has serious air pollution problems for hundreds of hears, worsening severely with the coal based industry of the 19th century, and peaking with the 1952 incident). Just a WAG on my part.
“The Big Smoke” is an awfully old nickname for Toronto; it goes back at least to the nineteenth century.
I thought The Big Smoke or just The Smoke referred to any big city. You occasionally hear it here in Australia to refer to Sydney. As Muffin mentioned about the English connection, I’ve read it in British mystery novels to refer to London…“I’m going down to the Smoke.”
Growing up in Hamilton 40 years ago, we called it that, too! Except that Hamilton had worse pollution than Toronto, and still does. At least you can’t taste the air in Toronto!