Is that a problem?
The affordability crisis in the first half of the 20th century saw people leave their unaffordable homes for affordable places like Toronto. Their home regions unquestionably suffered for it, but Toronto was able to flourish because of it.
Maybe it’s okay to see new places get their turn? After all, Toronto would just be a poduck town if such movement never happens. Did nothing good come of Toronto’s massive growth?
You make a good point. With immigration, Canada’s population will grow. Toronto cannot be the only city to which people move to.
But that’s where most immigrants live!
It did allow Toronto to become the business capital of all of Canada. It was previously Montreal.
People didn’t move to Toronto from Montreal because it’s more affordable. They moved because of the language laws that make English speakers second class at best in Quebec.
It was more about the Quebec independence referendum. Before that, Montreal was the economic capital of Canada.
the language laws that make English speakers second class at best in Quebec
Weren’t those passed in the 1990s? I thought businesses moved their headquarters out of Montreal in the 60s and 70s with the threat of separation (and FLQ bombings).
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“Like New York without all the stuff.”
This line is said exclusively by people who walk down Bay Street and think that’s the whole city.
Toronto has tonnes of its own character, and calling it “empty” makes me think you’ve never spent any time in it.
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Killer music scene with the Horsehoe Tavern, Cameron House, Velvet Underground, Lees Palace, and tonnes of others. Amazing restaurants of all kinds in the city, largely thanks to the MASSIVE immigrant population here. Amazing architecture, including some of the best examples of Brutalism you’ll find anywhere in the world. The Toronto Islands are unlike anything I’ve seen in any other city. The largest streetcar network in North America that creates a very different streetscape vibe to anything else. Festivals like Taste of the Danforth and other street festivals highlight some amazing culture in the city, on top of TIFF being one of the largest film festivals in the world. And Kensington Market deserves a special shoutout for being unlike any neighbourhood I’ve been to yet.
You can criticize Toronto for not doing enough to support local culture, which I would agree that the Tory and Ford years really did a number on it, but it’s outright wrong to say there is nothing special or distinctive about Toronto.
If New York is the City that never sleeps, Toronto is the city that has a 11pm bedtime.
I didn’t mean to claim that Toronto was more affordable than Montreal, simply that Toronto previous affordability allowed it to become what it is today.
“Fleeing” or forced out?
Apparently the “free market” can solve its own problems.
Make living in one place too expensive and people will leave, meaning those landlords (and others who are overcharging and excessivley profiteering) will suffer or be forced to lower prices.
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Or maybe, an unregulated free market isn’t the most effective way to run a society…
an unregulated free market isn’t the most effective way to run a society…
Perhaps that is true, but there is no market not regulated in Canada. And housing in particular is one of the most regulated markets around.
What is your intent for this hypothetical tangent that does not logically follow anything else found here?
Article without paywall: http://archive.today/mdUQf
I love my city of Toronto but as a young person I, too, moved out.
I’m hoping Olivia Chow will breathe life back into the city and make it livable for everyone.
