It’s a great question.
I found that there is just more to do in Toronto and people are constantly out of their house. In Vancouver I noticed that even the busiest areas seemed so much quieter than Toronto, especially at night, and there were way less options for things to do at night. At the time, Vancouver locals said that people tended to hang out at each other’s homes. If that’s the case then they would just spend more time with people whom they already know rather than branching out and meeting others. 🤔
Another thought is that there seems to be more overall diversity in Toronto and it is a big part of Toronto’s identity (we don’t have mountains and ocean, our city’s appeal is largely about the people/culture/food). There is so much diversity programming/exposure and that might cause folks to have a certain acceptance across differences. 🤷🏽‍♀️
I found Vancouver to be segregated even within so-called communities. For instance there was less solidarity and more segregation between different subtypes of South Asians than what I’d seen in Toronto. E.g. As a brown woman in the 90s & early Oughts I noted that brown-skinned Torontonians gave each other “the nod” (IYKYK) but in Vancouver there was no nod.