toronto was created in 1793 by john graves simcoe as the capital of what was then called "upper canada". at the time it was called the "town of york" after the duke of york. the name was changed to toronto in 1834. with the canadian confederation in 1867, it became the capital of the newly created province of ontario. toronto was one of two cities (along with montreal in quebec) that wanted to be the capital of canada. queen victoria decided that ottawa should be the national capital because it was located between the two.