In what ways can McGill University surpass the reputation of the University of Toronto?

Both universities are probably among the most popular Canadian Universities. McGill and UToronto both have exceptional reputation in the US so it doesn't matter much to people about the differences in their rankings.

Your choice is between two well-known and highly in-demand universities. At most, you should consider your choice of the department and see how your university stands for that particular subject.

World Rankings are instantaneous; they change annually and are a little vague. McGill is a top Canadian university in global QS rankings, depending on which survey you use, there are many ways McGill tops the ranks among similar universities. Having one of the world's best medical programs, it also has an excellent life sciences program.

Montreal also scores Toronto impressively for affordability and rating employer operation. The above is based on a survey of domestic and foreign graduate employers who look at the cities from which they prefer to hire. Both cities are in the top ten for their desirability, but Toronto is still ahead of the 10th ranking of this metric, which ranks first. Toronto is English while McGill is based in Montréal in the French province of Quebec. Toronto is English-speaking. However, most courses at the university are held in English, and documentation of English competence is a prerequisite for the application. 

There is a considerably larger population of students at the University of Toronto with 93,081 students registered in the academic year 2018-19. Of these, 20,296 (22%) students were graduate students and 23,019 (25%), foreign students. This is a lot of students, Toronto has one of the largest schools of students among institutions.