I've been a sysadmin for 16 years. My experience, is that Toronto is extremely liberal and militantly tolerant. A bigoted insult upon someone on public transit or in the streets will not go without being criticized by the public. Even if you cast it in french.
We are proud of welcoming and integrating people.
https://nulogy.com/who-we-are/careers/ - Here are my company's core values. I think they're uniquely Canadian, in a way. Empathy is pretty much #1. Our HQ is downtown. I've never been happier and further from burnout as the ops manager at this gig.
Check out our local music scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IWZWo6IByM#t=53m44s techno https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPZvNqNFaU8#t=50s hip hop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uev2J_cBHjQ rock
Lots of people want to live here, evident by rising rents :(.
The OP highlights an up and coming tech sector.
Kitchener-Waterloo (KW)... Yeah... The University of Waterloo has a great funnel system for cooperative intern students in Ontario. They put a lot of effort towards a kind of Mittelstand model. I'm nonplussed. Better self taught hackers are drawn to the urban core after failing out of post secondary.
RIM was a thing, once. Now it's a joke. I heard someone throw shade about RIM's big brother nature the other day.
I've coded puppet & chef for over 200+ startups. Startups are huge here and the culture is very social and enjoyable! Meetups are big! I regularly run into other new hackers in unrelated social settings. It's fun that way.
Uber is big. Dispensaries are big. Nightclubs are great. You can get food of any origin.
Cycling is huge here. Incorporating cycling into your transportation means living downtown is affordable, if you plan.
OH! Speaking of incorporating, in a business sense, it's trivial. You can do it in 30 minutes at city hall.
Toronto, in my experience, has been the most exciting, happy and loving city to call home. I'm truly in love with this city. It's safe, fun and full of opportunity. I love walking down the street and hearing eighteen different languages in one hour. I love seeing any world famous artists who would drop by Canada.
Anybody who's seriously interested in the Toronto scene should drop by http://techmasters.chat/ and talk to us. The tech scene is on fire here! It's so exciting! ...and very welcoming!