May 1, 2007

Why do you hate it so much?

Most of my readers, at least the few who comment on my posts, are from Canada for reasons I can't explain. Why our neighbors to the north are entertained by my mildly literate writings escapes me, but I do enjoy reading their blogs and hearing about their life up north.

I came across a trailer for a movie called 'Let's All Hate Toronto'. Living close to the border I've traveled to Vancouver B.C., mostly to do some underage drinking, and I've never heard Canadians bitch about Toronto, but then again it's hardly a good conversation piece.

The movie itself doesn't look all that entertaining so I ask you Canadians if the sentiment is true about Toronto. Do you guys really dislike the town? Is it sort of a nice little joke like people making fun of the French? How does it compare to Vancouver? If you do hate Toronto well then why?

We in the states seem to use Detroit for the butt of all jokes; however I still rank Oakland as the most worthless cities that I've ever had the displeasure of visiting. Seriously I can't name one good reason that it exists other than to remind us of what slum sprawl looks like. Oh and if you feel like getting into a bar fight the town will be accommodating.



"I like Toronto a lot, it's a good city. The only thing that really annoys me about Toronto is that you're turning Maple Leaf Gardens into a grocery store, which is absolutely nothing short of disgusting." - Rick Wakeman

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't live in Toronto but very close to it. From speaking to people from Montreal or Vancouver, Toronto sucks because of different reasons. Montrealers tell me that Toronto is too boring while Vancouverers tell me Toronto is too hustle & bustle and busy. My perspective, certain parts of Toronto rock. I go down into the city as often. Certain parts I won't drive into. Don't wanna get carjacked. Frankly, I think people outside of TO don't like big cities that behave like big cities. This is where I lose all credibility. Montrealers in my experience are very stuck in their ways and don't like change (nor the fact that they're city isn't numero uno anymore) and Vancouverers are well, a bunch of tree-huggin' hippies and who cares about them, right.

And due to the proximity, Detroit is the butt of many a joke here too. Not as much as Buffalo (the town where they have set their homes on fire to keep warm in the winter), but still, Detroit gets its fair bit of crap from here.

By the way, quoting Rick Wakeman, nice. That earns you a drink, on me.

Claire said...

Aw, shucks. Well I'm looking forward to visiting TO...I think it's pretty awesome!

Cxx

Miss Ash said...

I live relatively close to Toronto and visit a few times a month. I love the ethnic diversity, the shopping, the various festivals, the Islands, museums.....I adore Toronto.

It is like any other big city though,Toronto has a large number of people living in poverty, homelessness is an issue. I for one would not walk around a few areas in the evening however, i'm lucky enough that I do not have to, others are not so lucky and live there.

I do love TO and would move there in a second.

rawbean said...

I don't hate Toronto, but I don't love it either. To me it felt like Winnipeg on steriods. It was still dirty in the winter and it had potholes. Montreal is beautiful as is Vancouver - I don't think Toronto has that same appeal - but I should probably go back before judging too much.

And I think it's funny that whatigotsofar called people in Vancouver tree-huggers - that comment is so late 80's, early 90's. Tree hugging is main stream now and it isn't going away yo!

Oh Toronto has an awesome Japanese paper store!