Toronto is the largest city in Canada with a population of 2.79 million people (5.5 million in the Greater Toronto Area), and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the north shore of Lake Ontario. Toronto’s urban community only dates to 1793 when British colonial officials founded the ‘Town of York’ on what was then the Upper Canadian frontier. The backwoods village was incorporated as a city and renamed the ‘City of Toronto’ in 1834. Since then Toronto has expanded its borders several times through amalgamation with surrounding municipalities, most recently in 1998.