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Toronto is Canada's New York, home to the venerable Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), both of the country's national newspapers, and a majority of its private television and radio networks, book publishers, and mainstream magazines. Ranked by the United Nations as the world's most multicultural metropolis (half the population was born outside Canada, and over 40 percent speak a foreign language at home), Toronto is a rich stew of cultures, cuisines, fashions, musical styles, and artistic traditions. This combination of forces exerts a gravitational pull on the creative class that no other Canadian city can match.

There's also something going on that's harder to quantify: a sense that the city has finally stopped comparing itself to other places and fallen in love with itself. "Toronto has a sense of self-confidence now that wasn't really here before," says Shawn Micallef, a contributing editor at Spacing, a new Toronto publication passionately dedicated to covering the city's urban landscape.

Started in late 2003 and published three times a year, Spacing has a circulation of 3,000 and includes articles on topics such as exploring the city by walking its alleys, the politics of postering on lampposts, and the history of pedestrianism. In a recent issue, there was a photo essay on manhole covers. The magazine's pages are longer side-to-side than top-to-bottom because, says Matt Blackett, the magazine's artistic director, "When we walk through the city, we don't experience the world vertically. We experience it horizontally."

David Berlin, a longtime figure in Toronto journalism, felt Canada needed a print forum for long-form investigative reporting and thoughtful essays on subjects like health care, gay marriage, and climate change.He teamed up with Ken Alexander, the former producer of a debate show on CBC TV, and in 2003 they introduced The Walrus, Canada's answer to Harper's. "Our mandate is to inspire conversation and stimulate debate," Alexander says.

In just two years, thanks to a $5 million (Canadian) investment from Alexander and copious advice from Harper's editor Lewis Lapham, the magazine's circulation has grown to 50,000 (huge by Canadian standards), and plans are under way to start marketing the magazine in the United States, where there seems to be a newfound fascination with all things north of the border. Alexander set up a charitable nonprofit trust to publish the magazine, and he hopes to win government support later this year.

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