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

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...

Back to School: Round 2, Week 5

Now we're getting into the good stuff. And the tests just keep on coming. I had one in Electronics yesterday, a midterm actually. (This week has a couple of those). I studied on the weekend until my brain melted. Quite literally. I had to change the toilet paper in the bathroom, and instead of putting the holder through the new toilet roll, I tried putting the now spent roll through. No wonder it didn't fit! I managed an 81% on that test. Not bad you might think, but as I told my teacher, I've never had to fight so hard for an 80. I had to laugh at myself on Tuesday as well. My first class starts at 11. I had such a hard time getting up for it. What am I going to do when I have to be at work for 6 or 7am?  We had a midterm test in Monitoring & Communications. Another in Instrumentation and a Friday Quiz in Theory. Yay! At least my grades are still rolling in the 80's and 90's (and even a couple 100's).  I'm officially halfway through school now, 5 week...

Back to School: Round 2, Day 1

Well, after 16 months of working post-electrical basic schooling, I'm back at it for intermediate. Apart from a former teacher I ran into, and one other classmate I worked with for 4 months, I hadn't  said more than 10 words to anyone else by lunchtime. There seem to be clusters of people that know each other, either they work together or old friends from the last block of school. I thought I was lucky to know even one person. There are 2 other women in the class: the aforementioned former coworker, and another woman who also doesn't appear to know anyone. I made eye contact with her,  but she glanced over me sitting on my own at lunch to take a table to herself. So much for solidarity. The group of 60 in this block are split between 3 different schedules. Some of our schedules overlap, shop time has to be separated for space. I'm curious to see which faces will end up in my group. I have started a list of textbooks I have to buy. By the looks of it, when I...