What the city of Toronto is to the country on Canada is comparable to what New York City is to the United States. When New York City popularized “Big Apple” in the 1970s, Toronto sometimes used the nickname “Little Apple.”
   
“What people are now calling Hollywood North, or, better, The Little Apple” was printed in the Sunday Star (Toronto, ON) on December 2, 1979. “A decade or more ago, when Toronto started emerging into Big City status, people there took to calling it the Little Apple. It was meant as a compliment. Manhattan was the Big Apple. Toronto was the Little Apple—with a lot of New York’s attributes and none of its worst problems. As a nickname, it was embarrassingly derivative but it did sound better than Toronto the Good” was printed in the Calgary (Alberta) Herald on January 19, 1980. “We have the ‘Little Apple’—Toronto” was printed in the Regina (Saskatchewan) Sun on July 5, 1992. “I’ve also heard Toronto referred to as The Little Apple, in comparison to New York City, which is called The Big Apple” was posted on X/Twitter by Mike Kohut on March 24, 2024.
 
“Little Apple” is also used as a nickname for Manhattan (Kansas), Ithaca (New York) and Yonkers (New York). Roosevelt Island (New York City) used the “Little Apple” nickname in the 1970s.
 
Other Toronto nicknames include “Big Smoke,” “Broadway North,” “Centre of the Universe,” “Hogtown,” “Hollywood North,” “Muddy York,” “New York of the North,” “New York Run by the Swiss,” “Queen City,” “T-Dot,” “T.O.,” “The Six”  and “Toronto the Good.”
   
 
Wikipedia: Toronto
Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the fourth-most populous city in North America.
         
Newspapers.com
2 December 1979, Sunday Star (Toronto, ON), “Does Toronto really want to be Everycity?” by Martin O’Malley, The City sec., pg. 6, col. 1:
We’ve come a long way since Goin’ Down the Road, that engaging movie about two sad-sack Maritimers who fall into Toronto in an old jalopy and go about doing their daily losing in what people are now calling Hollywood North, or, better, The Little Apple.
     
Newspapers.com
19 January 1980, Calgary (Alberta) Herald, “Little Apple still offers a tempting bite” by Suzanne Zwarun, pg. B1, col. 2:
Little apple
A decade or more ago, when Toronto started emerging into Big City status, people there took to calling it the Little Apple. It was meant as a compliment.
 
Manhattan was the Big Apple. Toronto was the Little Apple—with a lot of New York’s attributes and none of its worst problems. As a nickname, it was embarrassingly derivative but it did sound better than Toronto the Good.
 
Newspapers.com
20 January 1981, The Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA), “Toronto borrows a line from the ‘Big Apple,’” pg. ?:   
Toronto likes to think of itself as the “Little Apple,” second cousin to New York city, the “Big Apple.”
 
Tourism officials hope this image will be as successful in attracting tourists to Toronto as to New York. Certainly, Toronto has as many slights.
 
Newspapers.com
4 March 1989, Vancouver (BC) Sun, “Gatekeeper to the New Money” by Andrea Wigod, pg. D16, col. 1:
During a recent interview at her downtown office at Colliers Macauley Nicolls, (Andrea—ed.) Eng complained that Toronto is afflicted by “the Little Apple syndrome,” a reference to New York city’s nickname as the Big Apple. Toronto thinks it’s “the centre of Canada” and she is “some little girl from out west.”
 
Newspapers.com
5 July 1992, Regina (Saskatchewan) Sun, “Proud to be Canadian because…,” pg. 31, col. 2:
We have the “Little Apple”—Toronto. 
 
Newspapers.com
6 July 1994, Kingston (ON) Whig-Standard, “It’s act of killing, not the instrument, that’s wrong,” pg. 7 ,col.1:
I guess it’s the Americanization of Canada beginning in Toronto, the Little Big Apple.
(...)
Norman J. WIlliamson
Bath
 
Newspapers.com
14 August 1994, The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ), “Terrific Toronto” by Margaret Sharp, pg. T1, col. 5:
It wasn’t by chance that the glitterati with a yen to living in New York City in the 1970s dubbed Toronto “The Little Apple” and fortunes were made emulating New York bars.
   
Newspapers.com
13 August 1995, The Morning Star (Vernon, BC), “Toronto: Canada’s little apple” by Chris Potter, pg. 37, col. 1:
If New York is the Big Apple, Toronto is the Little Apple.
 
Google Groups: tor.general
For all you who complain
Defender of Enormous Manhood
Dec 5, 2003, 2:34:09 AM
(...)
Toronto, you gotta love it. The Little Apple, Hollywood North., Little Wall Street, Hogtown, what ever image you identify with, we have it all!
 
Google Groups: rec.arts.tv.soaps.cbs
TORONTO on Y&R; how to post?
Neil Bishop
Sep 1, 2005, 10:38:02 PM
Two Big Questions:
1.Toronto’s presence and relative importance over the past several months has intrigued me. Characters didn’t just talk about it, two of them (Victor’s father, and now Lauren’s son) actually lived there; I suppose one could say Sheila has been living there for a while now; and some other characters visited the “Little Apple”, as we Canadians sometimes call our beloved “Big TO”.
 
X/Twitter
Jaime H Rodriguez
@jaimehorwitz
If u were asked 2 come up with a nickname 4 Toronto, what would it be “the little apple” “third city”? http://tinyurl.com/cvzuvu Tell me
2:19 PM · Jan 25, 2009
   
X/Twitter
Gayle Robin
@GRobin
@billlublin Hmmm, I am in Toronto actually, the little apple.
2:42 PM · Feb 19, 2010
   
X/Twitter
Darryl Dawson
@connexionspr
Canadian City, Toronto, has the nickname of “The Little Apple” http://on.msnbc.com/f0ezIy
4:30 AM · Dec 20, 2010
   
X/Twitter
GiddyPigs
@GiddyPigs
Z’s new laaaaydee coming today by car from the Little Apple (Toronto).
9:55 AM · Nov 30, 2013
   
X/Twitter
Patti Pokorchak
@SmallBizSalesCo
@LuisaOtero825 I consider Toronto to be the Little Apple! Please don’t bite us! :D
11:06 AM · Apr 7, 2016
   
X/Twitter
Naomi
@sultrybarista
if it’s wrong to call toronto ‘the little apple’ i don’t want to be right
3:11 PM · May 17, 2016
   
X/Twitter
Osvaldo Uribe 🏳️‍🌈
@osvaldouribe
Little apple #toronto #cntower https://instagram.com/p/BGzd-5rhX4J/
1:27 PM · Jun 18, 2016
   
X/Twitter
Darrell Dwarf Millar
@DarrellDWaRf
From the Big Apple @newyorkcity to the little Apple #Toronto
5:19 PM · Aug 13, 2016
   
X/Twitter
🏒 Michael Kelly
@VIMichaelKelly
Toronto or as they like to call it “The Little Apple”
5:16 PM · Aug 25, 2016
   
X/Twitter
Peter Williams
@actualApophis
They don’t call #Toronto “The Little Apple” fer nuthin’ - well, they used to anyway.
https://twitter.com/Darth_Pingu/status/929107182120923136
Quote
🍁Canadian Fletchy☘️ 🌻🇺🇦
@Darth_Pingu
Nov 10, 2017
#NewAndImprovedCityMottos Toronto: Oh yeah you guys all laughed at us when our crack smoking mayor was an international laughingstock on late night television but who’s laughing NOW???
6:32 PM · Nov 10, 2017
   
X/Twitter
Al
@B_Real_The6ix
You are getting in the Big Apple what have had in the Little Apple “Toronto” for the past 72 hours. Just wait until the freezing rain starts… Please be safe!
4:32 PM · Apr 16, 2018
   
X/Twitter
mielipuoli marlo
@marlodjur
Toronto has like 4 people in it, Bebe! they call us the little apple but we walk like we live somewhere unpopulated! we live a lie
11:39 AM · Aug 12, 2018
   
X/Twitter
Al
@B_Real_The6ix
From what is referenced to as The Little Apple : The 6 Toronto 🇨🇦 welcome back!
Quote
Michael Santangelo
@MichaelSantang5
Feb 15, 2019
#YR
🎶Start spreading the news…
    Doug’s coming back…
    He truly is a part of it….
    YR…YR…🎶
#WelcomeHomeDoug
Show more
11:05 PM · Feb 15, 2019
   
X/Twitter
Al
@B_Real_The6ix
Toronto is quite popular for filming. It’s also known asThe Little Apple also The Handsmaids is filmed here as well. https://x.com/WeverMerritt/s/WeverMerritt/status/1184084517516038145
8:38 AM · Oct 15, 2019
 
X/Twitter
Al
@B_Real_The6ix
This is my beautiful city. Toronto aka: The 6ix aka: The little Apple 🇨🇦
4:05 PM · Apr 28, 2020
     
X/Twitter
Blue Eyed Hexe 🇺🇲
@EyedHexe
Ok, I’ve been to Calgary, Edmonton, the Little Apple, and Vancouver. Pretty sure Vancouver would be at the top, then Toronto. All of them better than living under fascism tho. Do you recommend we come in a caravan? Or just planes.
10:05 PM · Aug 28, 2020
 
X/Twitter
Hello
@hazopouli
Been a fan of a single team for over 20 years and have never changed.  The arrogance of Toronto, i.e. Little Apple.  What a joke.  You are all the laughing stock of the rest of Canada.  The Maple Least.  I laugh and laugh and laugh….
10:44 AM · May 2, 2023
 
X/Twitter
Mike Kohut
@kohut_mike
I’ve also heard Toronto referred to as The Little Apple, in comparison to New York City, which is called The Big Apple.
12:23 AM · Mar 24, 2024