Speaking strictly of city population, which the author probably was talking about, then Toronto is roughly 3x the size of Detroit.

It's pretty incredible the divergent paths Detroit and Toronto took over the course of the 20th century. And seeing what Toronto has become just due to a few different policies and laws, also being the financial capital of a prosperous nation has helped, but it has roughly the same metro population as Detroit give or take a million. But Toronto feels so much larger, or maybe that is how the central city of a region of 5-6 million should really be if the focus is on the central city.

The contrast between the two cities today couldn't be more stark. Toronto has a dense bustling core, like New York City bustling, with loads of retail. While Detroit just doesn't have any kind of cohesive core.....yet. To me Detroit has the ingredients to have an amazing central city. There just have to be substantial and critical changes on so many levels.