The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1954, Side 43

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
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provided for annual picnics for under-
privileged children.
Toronto is still a meeting place, a
natural result of its location, and fac
ilities. It has become such a popular
convention city that arrangements lor
the holding of a sizeable gathering
must be made years in advance. The
Canadian National Ehibition is by
far the largest annual exhibition in
the world. Commenced in 1879 it now
attracts annually upwards of 3,000,000
people during its fourteen days. Visit-
ors, exhibitors and competitors come
from afar and it is not surprising there-
fore that the land and buildings of the
CNE comprising 350 acres with a
frontage of a mile and a half on Lake
Ontario, are valued over fifty million
dollars. The Royal Agricultural Win-
ter Fair held each November fosters
the exhibition of livestock, agricult-
ural and horticultural products, and
features an international riding and
jumping competition. For the past six
years in each June, Toronto has been
the gathering place of thousands of
international merchants, symbolizing
the ideal of unresticted multi-lateral
trade amid growing understanding be-
tween nations. Just as to the Indians
of yesterday, “Toronto” meant a place
of meeting, or a market place, to inter-
national traders representing 60
countries, Toronto is still the place of
meeting, the market place of the
world. At the Canadian International
Trade Fair about 40 or more countries
participated amid a framework of the
merchandise of the world, and its
representatives trade goods and ideas,
discuss products and prices and in a
gigantic show window transact busin-
ess totalling untold millions of dollars.
The Trade Fair was Canada’s answer
to a trade problem confronting the
world after World War II. Most of
this country’s overseas customers, upon
whom she relied to a large extent to
maintain a balanced economy, were
seriously short of dollars because of
the disastrous impact of the war ori
world trade. Canadian economic
experts decided to help overseas
customers earn more dollars by giving
them assistance in selling their goods
in Canada. An interesting result of the
Trade Fair is that many exhibitors
from abroad have built manufactur-
ing plants in Canada .
Toronto has over 500 conventions
of one kind or other each year, draw-
ing to the city over four million visi-
tors annually. It is little wonder that
a casual tourist finds difficulty in
securing hotel accommodation, a taxi
or a seat on a street car. The conven-
tions may consist of breeders of horses
or dogs, of psychiatrists or morticians,
of war veterans or educationalists.
Occasionally, the meetings have a
historic significance. In 1951 the 100th
Anniversary of the issue of Canada’s
first postage stamp was fittingly ob-
served by a gathering of philatelists
and an exhibition of stamp collectors
from the world. The displays included
those of the late King George VI and
of the late President Roosevelt. In
1952 the International Red Cross con
vened and the nations of the world
sent its delegates. On this occasion the
writer was privileged to represent Ice-
land, and in turn to make the personal
acquaintance of men and women of
every colour and creed, from all parts
of the globe, assembled together in
one of the greatest humanitarian
organizations known to mankind.
Toronto is a sports centre and its
citizens become very enthusiastic over
baseball in summer, football in the
autumn and Canada’s national sport,
hockey, in winter. On the Varsity