Skip to main content

I'm NOT from Toronto!

Or so I felt the need to point out, especially in light of the Ford Nation Fiasco.

But let me back track for a moment. Even when I moved to North Vancouver 4 years ago, I took the same stance. I am not from Toronto, and even though it's the more commonly known city, I felt the need to educate other Canadians that there is more to Southern Ontario than the Concrete Jungle. I am from Mississauga, an entirely different city, it's own mayor, bus transit system, school and police services. We are not a suburb of Toronto (see: Etobicoke, Scarborough and North York). The only significant thing we share is a border between the neighboring cities. 

When on a bus tour in my recent travels to Boston, I learned that Cambridge, Massachusetts is in the same position with regards to being mistaken for being a part of Boston. They, like Mississauga, are a city all their own. Not that Boston is a city I wouldn't want to associate with, but they are separate. Coming from Mississauga, I understand that mindset. Living near but not actually in Toronto is a significant distinction I feel the need to point out. Especially while abroad when recently visiting Boston in the height of Ford mania. So much so, that I didn't even want to mention I lived near Toronto, let alone next to it. 

It was interesting to watch the USA's coverage of this car-accident of Toronto's Mayor, of which we are all the rubberneckers. Comedians will have material for weeks, and the Mayor has been the punch line of many late night talk shows. And forget about keeping up with the social media blitz of #ohmyford jokes and comments. When Rob Ford talked about putting Toronto on the international map, I severely hope this is not what he had in mind.  

Where any other politician would try to salvage his pride, and step down from his Mayoral post of Chief Magistrate of the City, Rob Ford doesn't appear to understand the concept. The situation he has caused is unprecedented, and his stubborn denial that everything can continue on as usual is a hoax. Instead of Councillors and the Mayor focusing on running the city, their attention is grabbed by the circus act at city hall. Stripping the Mayor of his powers and budget takes time, time that is not being dedicated to the people of Toronto. 

Man, I'm glad we have our steadfast Mayor, "Hurricane" Hazel McCallion. We are so screwed when she kicks the bucket. Hopefully, when the time comes, Mississauga can learn from Toronto's error and elect someone with a little dignity. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Back to School: Round 3, Week 8

Well this is it! The last week of learning before the next weeks exams. At this point, the focus on learning the last few things, and getting that last bit of practice before we get tested. Just when collectively we seem to be mingling more as a group, it's so soon going to come to an end. The Dean of the school came into one of our classes to gather feedback about the school environment and the curriculum. The electrical curriculum hasn't officially been updated since 2003. The technology has changed so much since then. The teachers have been great with staying up to date. However, with fairly strict guidelines as to what they have to teach, there isn't much time to deviate for new material. There was also an interesting discussion that came up about the school environment, specifically as a trades school. Generally, non-trades people won't notice or pay much mind to things like plumbing issues (toilets not working for long stretch of time), communication wires ...

Back to School: Round 3, Week 5

This week is the halfway point. After this, only 4 more weeks to go. On Monday, Graham and I swapped vehicles. After driving the truck, getting in the Civic was like watching a dog drag its butt across the floor, except I was the dog. It seemed like I should have been in Fast & the Furious, driving under tractor trailers. I digress... There were two test this week: PLC programming (I got an 87.06%) and Prints test (I got an 92.68%). I I had someone commend me this week for dealing with all the accident related stuff but still getting 80's and 90's for my grades. (Also got 100% on an Instrumentation assignment!) This has been Hump week: we are now at 4 more weeks to go before school is over. So it's really 3 more weeks of learning and a week of tests. WIth how busy I've been, I've had to drop any tutoring I wanted to do. I've had a minimum of 3 appointments a week, mostly after, sometimes during school. With missed classes I had enough of my own catch...

The "Social Impacts" of a Female Working with "Mostly Male Construction Workers"

The first time I'd heard anything about comments made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was on Newstalk 1010' s The Night Side with Barb DiGiulio .  For reference, here is a section of the comments from Mr. Trudeau at the recent G20 summit as posted in an article from the National Post : " Even big infrastructure projects, you know, might now say, well, what does a gender lens have to do with building this new highway or this new pipeline or something? Well, you know, there are gender impacts when you bring construction workers into a rural area. There are social impacts because they’re mostly male construction workers. How are you adjusting and adapting to those?"    A lot of people are focusing specifically on the "social impacts... ...of mostly male construction workers" part in a negative light. I'd agree, it certainly doesn't sound good, does it? The resulting public interpretation of what that comment meant spinned the narrative to that of t...