Bill Murdoch may be a joke, but the fact that he actually thinks Toronto is holding back the rest of Ontario is symptomatic of a larger problem that no longer is a joke. Why is it that the biggest Toronto-hating tax-cutters come from the places that are the biggest leeches on tax revenues generated in Toronto? And Murdoch is not alone. There are a few letters to the Star today from 905ers who also think Toronto is being subsidized by the rest of Ontario and not the other way around.

Torontonians are too polite about this sort of crap. This city is no longer full of wealthy WASPy bankers and burghers who can afford to laugh off this vile hate. It remains politically convenient for provincial and federal governments to ignore Toronto whenever they are not actively bashing it. The results are a decaying transit system, comparatively underfunded schools, and a municipality that can no longer afford to provide social services that the province dumped on us a decade ago.

Someone should call Murdoch's bluff.

And just for fun: Let's All Hate Toronto (2007): http://uk.video.yahoo.com/watch/1384749/4767551

Re: Students reimagine 52 Division plaza

I'd love to see what the students came up with. One feature I feel sorely missing in Toronto is small, intimate neighbourhood public squares. I always dream about a small public square in Annex neighbourhood, say, Bloor and Bathurst. Yet the few small squares we do have tend to be desolate concrete pad where nobody cares to spend time. I really like to know what are wrong with them and how to make it right.

Or, I should say: what John@10:19 says...

Here is the description on the HC.ca site of Mr. Broadbent's book.

"Canada’s cities are crippled by a lack of financial and governing clout. Their infrastructures are crumbling and their citizens are disaffected by the inability of municipal government—or any government, for that matter—to act on the issues that influence their constituents’ lives. Cities generate a disproportionate amount of Canada’s wealth and are home to the majority of the population, yet they have no means to control their own destinies."

"Alan Broadbent suggests that the problem is a slavish devotion to a constitutional structure and a federal government that is ignorant of how crucial large cities are to our national prosperity and heritage. Canada’s landscape has been changed by the forces of urbanization and immigration. If the country is to prosper, Broadbent argues, cities must be given the same amount of power as their federal and provincial counterparts. Thoughtful and provocative, Urban Nation ignites controversy among politicians and passion among citizens and action groups eager for practical urban reform solutions."

If Toronto were to leave, wouldn't the rest of Ontario have to fund building a new legislature? I don't think Murdoch's carefully thought this out!

If there was a place in Canada I thought should be split out in such manner, I would have said Ottawa-Gatineau, as a National Capital Territory.

To split Ontario into a northern and southern half (the northern half containing both Sudbury and North Bay for critical mass) would help both halves of the province to play to their strengths, but surely Owen Sound isn't rural in the way Sioux Lookout is.

I was half-joking, Ted But still thanks a lot for the explanation.

If you separate Toronto proper from the GTA the financial consequences look a lot different. Without the higher per capita income, lower social costs and huge differences in provincial transfers of the 905 region, Toronto on its own would hardly be better off.