Toronto has a canon. It's just lost.

City Canon started with a thought: Toronto is old, diverse, and full of talent; so wouldn't there be a deep lore threaded throughout it's history?

I realized I knew more about Chicago and San Francisco than home. I'd gone blind to what was all around me.

Why do Annex houses look like that? We're the raccoon capital of the world? They had wars where the Fort York Loblaws is? Why is it called the Fashion District?

I walked into BMV Books looking for deep cuts on the city and I couldn't find a single shelf on Toronto, but they had a whole Americana section. For a city full of pride, we don't tell our own story enough.

This is my answer to finding the stories the city deserves to remember. And they don't have to be monumental. They're not building the CN Tower. They're the influence of someone's Sunday stroll through St. Lawrence Market or a childhood in Leslieville.

They're created every day between people, in the small moments that nobody writes down, but revealed over decades through our city's culture.

This is a one-person operation, which makes it slower than a regular store. But it's supposed to be. It's a way for me to connect deeper with the city and pass it along for someone else to experience.

"Canon" Definition

Literary/Cultural — The body of works considered essential, authoritative, or representative of a tradition. The works a culture agrees, formally or informally, are worth preserving and teaching. I.e. The Shakespeare canon. The Western canon.

Archival — A complete and authoritative collection of works attributed to a particular author, period, or subject. Everything that belongs. The full record, as opposed to a partial or disputed one.

Religious — The official list of texts recognized by a religious authority as genuinely sacred and worthy of inclusion in scripture. Determined by councils. Carries the weight of what is true, authentic, and spiritually worthy versus what is apocryphal or lost.