Sure, there may be a separation from a certain administrative standpoint: but looking beyond that to the extra-administrative stuff such as census definitions--no. Point blank, no.
But the "administration standpoint" is all that matters, as a county exists for the purpose of being an administrative body....not just a geographical location. So to say that Toronto was geographically located
"in" York county, when it was in fact, not "part" of York County renders the County to nothing more than a meaningless geographical location...not to mention illogical.
In fact, prior to Metro, many proposals were suggested. One of them (which the City of Toronto and Mimico did not support), was to
enlarge York County to
include the City of Toronto, using York County as the upper tier, and the subsequent constituents as the lower tiers.
Remember, York County was not crazy about any proposals that excluded it from the party, because it stood to lose about 80-90% of it's tax assessment base at the stroke of a pen. And that's exactly what happened when Metro was chosen as the model....everything outside of the old City of Toronto that was part of Metro was separated from York County, leaving it with little more than sparsely populated farmland north of Steeles. It jumped back of course, with the population growth of the GTA outside of Metro in the 60's, and eventually becoming the Region of York.
I suppose it is a good time to give credit where it is do...to another unique in North America body. Metro was not really a creation of the provincial government, but it's arm's-length creation...the OMB. It was the OMB that came up with the Metro model, after rejecting all of the other proposals on the table. If it were not for the involvement of the OMB, things may have turned out quite differently.
As per above: no they're not. For census purposes at the very least, Virginia's Independent Cities are listed as separate from any counties--the separation is much more marked there.
The separation is the same...not at all part of the county. The USA has over 3000 counties, and only 42 separated cities (39 of these are in Virginia). There are a few examples where city and county have merged into a consolidated city-county (like Philly or Denver)
In most of the USA, counties unite both their urban and rural constituents. City people are directly represented in county decision-making, and city people pay taxes to the county. In Ontario (and similarly in Virginia), this is not the case. They both believe in the premise (borrowed from 19th century British thinking) that urban and rural areas have different needs and interests, and should be administratively separated from each other. The roles of county administrations vary from county to county and state to state of course.
Interestingly enough, Metro did have some involvement with York County after it was separated. The 1953 Metropolitan Toronto Act actually established two bodies... the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, and the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Board, which has jurisdiction over the territory of Metro and also a band of adjacent townships in neighbouring counties. This Board, which reported to Metro Council, was charged with developing an official plan for the region, providing planning assistance to municipalities, and exercising control over rural subdivision.
The purpose of this was not to further insult York County (or it's neighbouring counties around Metro) by letting Toronto stick its nose in their business....but because it was always understood that Metro's boundaries
could expand, if need be.
It never did expand, because nobody ever envisioned just how much growth would occur in the GTA, outside of metro. It became apparent that it would be too big for a single municipality, be it a single tier or a two-tier. This is why the regional municipalities were created.