Peter Ustinov called Toronto “New York run by the Swiss” in 1987. He meant that Toronto is a big city (like New York City), but that it’s cleaner and more efficient (as if run by the Swiss). The nickname is still sometimes used today.
   
Other Toronto nicknames include “Big Smoke,” “Broadway North,” “Centre of the Universe,” “Hogtown,” “Hollywood North,” “Little Apple.” “Muddy York,” “New York of the North,” “Queen City,” “T-Dot,” “T.O.,” “The Six” and “Toronto the Good.”
 
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_city_nicknames
New York Run by the Swiss - Toronto, Ontario
   
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto’s_name
New York run by the Swiss – a take on Peter Ustinov’s oft-quoted reference of the city to reporter John Bentley Mays in The Globe and Mail on 1 August 1987: “Toronto is a kind of New York operated by the Swiss.” When reminded of this later at a reception in June 1992, he responded (again cited in The Globe), “I’ve learned it’s really run by the Canadians.”
   
 
24 January 1988, Washington Post, pg. E1:
But indoors or out, Toronto, after many metamorphoses, has been transformed into a vibrant, multiethnic city. Recently, actor Peter Ustinov paid the city its most cherish compliment. “Toronto,” Ustinov pronounced with some exaggeration, “is New York run by the Swiss.”
 
 
19 June 1988, New York Times, “Toronto Preens for the Summit Today,” pg. 3:
The boosterism also reflects a pride in the safety and magnanimity of a city that Peter Ustinov, the British actor and writer ,described as “New York run by the Swiss.”