People City: Toronto’s Lost Anthem

In 1972, Moses Znaimer commissioned singer-songwriter Tommy Ambrose and ad-guru Gary Gray to create a love song about Toronto which would be used as the theme music for a new local UHF Television station called Citytv.

The result was “People City”, an ode to Toronto’s burgeoning multicultural fabric and character, championed by then Mayor David Crombie as a possible official song for the city itself.

The Toronto which “People City” forecast came to exist, but sadly the song ebbed into history. 45 years later, Moses Znaimer, Tommy Ambrose, Gary Gray and David Crombie reflect on the era, the song, and its bittersweet legacy.