A long and lively thread at Leaside Community begins with a challenge to identify the correct pronunciation of the name Balliol, as in Balliol St. Back in 2013 The Bulldog posted:
What’s certain is that Balliol Street‘s tricky juxtaposition of vowels “i” and “o” has lead to the widespread mispronunciation Bal-oil.
In fact Balliol and its nearby friend Merton St. are named after ancient colleges at Oxford University. It’s an ongoing debate about which is older. Here’s a particularly seductive voice with the correct pronunciation. By the way, the same 2013 post offered insight into the naming of Laird Drive. Are you Canadian enough to know? Here’s the story on how Balliol St and Laird Dr were named