I suppose since I started the thread, I should share...
My brother (10 years my senior) was a "dj." Did local bars, for a bit, nothing dance music. That was probably my earliest influence, in highschool I started playing with his old mixer and making tapes and dubbing in sound effects to hip hop songs, things like that.
In late highschool (99-00ish) I rediscovered (jammed to euro as a kid) my love for electronic music with a bad boy bill cd. Got into the scene and shortly after picked up a pair of tech12s and have had aspirations to be a professional dj ever since.
In 2004 I attended a music production and engineering school here in Toronto and now pay the bills editing sound for television. Just prior to starting school I started getting into producing dance music.
Where I stand in Toronto...
on the fringe..I play at the good clubs on the good nights, but not always at the good times and I am not an official resident yet. I'm doing my best to work towards this. Toronto has 3 different major groups of clubs, all with the expected politics surrounding them. Its a flourishing scene and an exciting time with lots opportunity because of a few of the big local djs moving on to the international scene.
Toronto as a whole..
Toronto is a fantastic place to live and party. (minus the cold of course). Of course its not a European city..but we do have something good. We have a regular flow of solid headliners coming through on most nights of the week every week. The other thing that is worth mentioning is the price of the parties. I've never partied anywhere cheaper. Sasha was here recently and it was $10. Even the big big parties with multiple headliners are 25-40. We have it pretty good in that sense.
Worth mentioning...
The Guvernment
http://www.theguvernment.com/
Your typical superclub and it controls most of the Toronto scene. The owner has a couple other clubs as well.
Circa
http://www.circatoronto.com/
NYC Club legend Peter Gatien opened Circa up recently in Toronto. Its a superclub but less than typical. Very arty. An escalator, live human's dressed up as art in the wall. DJs in the bathroom. ect ect
Footwork
http://www.footworkbar.com/
A much smaller more intimate venue. Holds a couple hundred people. Great sound, great selection of local djs, but also headliners. A few recent headliners were Danny Howells, Layo and Bushwhacka, Max Graham, Honey Dijon. This year Footwork also made it into the RA top 100 clubs.
Comfort Zone
Not sure where to begin here. An after hours spot owner by bikers. Run by the same promotion company as guv. Great djs. Pitch black. 24 hour parties on Sunday. Filled with characters. And recently subject to a few police raids. But a legendary Toronto spot that just keeps going.