Before airports there were train stations, the first stops for many of our country's newly arrived immigrants on their way to a future life in Canada. While the current Union Station may not have seen the numbers that its predecessor did, it was nonetheless a major transportation hub for countless Canadians. To mark the importance of the station and the passing of the Canada Act in 1982, the National Congress of Italian Canadians presented the city of Toronto with the Monument to Multiculturalism, the airy statue that now sits in front of Union's imposing columns. Designed by Francesco Perilli atop a base by Nino Rico, the male statue is in the act of joining two meridians, while doves carry the other six towards the centre. It was subsequently replicated in China, Bosnia, Australia and South Africa.

Union Station, Monument to Multiculturalism and the Royal York, courtesy of someMidTowner