The suburbs of Toronto are one of the world’s most neglected talent areas. Cities such as Mississauga or Brampton are now quite familiar to me, because so many Emergent Ventures winners grew up there.
Virtually all of these young applicants from Ontario are either immigrants or children of immigrants. My (unconfirmed) hypothesis is that the most ambitious immigrant families decide to live in Ontario rather than other parts of the country. After all, so much of the opportunity is there because Toronto is the largest and most important city in the country. But they cannot afford Toronto proper, and so they end up in the suburbs. These teenagers have a stable and productive environment, but because of their backgrounds, typically from poorer countries, they do not take success or prosperity for granted. That is an ideal combination of factors for success.
There is great food in that region as well.
