What makes a University of Toronto undergraduate education unique?

U of T has long been known for its very rigorous curriculum. And it's arguably been watered down from the past. Until the 1960s, they even had separate Honours and General degrees, complete with separate courses. It was dropped for being too elitist and limiting the intelligent generalist who didn't want to commit to high specialization to the inferior degree (probably correctly).

While only a small number really have enough schools to make any sort of informed comparison, there definitely seems to be an impression that U of T courses are more rigorous than other institutions, more than both "less selective" schools like York and the more "social experience" schools like Queen's and Western. I'm even told that the A student with a U of T BA is at about the same level as BA+MA holder in the subject from most other Canadian schools (I'll add the qualifier of "take this with a huge grain of salt"); as one academic acquaintance says serious education in the liberal arts and sciences starts at the master's level at most Canadian universities.

So it seems to me U of T is unique in the sense that it provides perhaps the most accessible first-rate undergraduate education at a world-class research university in North America, both in terms of affordability and accessibility. Part of the reason for the alleged U of T "grade deflation" (if it exists) is because so many of the students are able to accessing this high level of education, they're being graded by performance. So think of the level of UC Berkeley (or maybe the University of Michigan?) but with a lower floor for admissions.