Toronto has a growing global influence, which we likely can’t maintain: Hume
Toronto is the tenth most influential city in the world, but we’re too stressed to enjoy that distinction, writes Christopher Hume.

thestar.com
Aug. 25, 2014
By Chris Hume

When word came down recently that Toronto is the tenth “most influential” city in the world, the reaction here was muted to say the least.

The police didn’t have to arrest delirious demonstrators chanting, “We’re number 10. We’re number 10.”

Before that, Forbes magazine declared this city the fourth most livable on the planet. And before that . . .

Through this meteor shower of praise, this deluge of admiration, Torontonians barely looked up from their bickering to bask in the afterglow.

Ryerson University management professor, Murtaza Haider, was prompted to chide us for failing to appreciate what is obvious to the rest of the universe: Toronto is one of the world’s great cities.

“In our haste to berate the city,” he wrote in this paper, “let us not forget to celebrate its accomplishments and excellence. Others see Toronto as a success. So should we.”

Indeed, we should. But perhaps Torontonians know a few things about the city that Forbes doesn’t. A city, after all, is more than the sum of its parts, however compiled. Its complexity isn’t revealed in a snapshot, even one put together by Forbes.

According to author and academic Saskia Sassen (The Global City and Globalization and its Discontents), “There’s no doubt that Toronto is a global city because of its enormous networking capabilities. There are about 40 global cities. Toronto’s not in the top 10, but it’s definitely in the second tier, not the third.”

Another recent report, this one from the Institute of Municipal Finance and Governance, described the city’s situation brilliantly:

“Toronto’s fiscal condition,” wrote co-authors, Enid Slack and Andre Cote, “can be likened to the health of an aging Maple Leafs defenceman: he may be a solid performer on the ice and well cared for by training staff, be he is increasingly expensive and in need of major knee surgery. In other words, the city’s fiscal health is sound by most measures, but it faces pressures and its aging infrastructure and investment needs present a huge financial challenge.”

Forbes might have been looking at more than just fiscal health, but a city can’t be influential without first being healthy. Faced with stagnant wages and a rising cost of living, most Torontonians - middle class Torontonians - are too stressed out to enjoy their new-found influence.

Putting aside questions about the validity of such lists, the truth is that Toronto’s role on the international stage is based, above all, on its diversity. That might be lost on an 18-year-old black kid living at Jane and Finch, but Toronto hasn’t been torn apart by the kind of racial strife experienced by many of Forbes’ preferred cities.

The most telling choice was London, its number one city. As the magazine itself noted, “The United Kingdom may now be a second-rate power, but the city’s unparalleled legacy as a global financial capital still underpins its pre-eminence.”

Countries, it seems, matter less than cities. As Sassen has also noted, “Urban regions are the engines of growth. Urban-based economies are enormously important.”

Given the position of Canada’s cities at the bottom of the political heap, it’s debatable whether the GTA can maintain its apparently growing global influence. The answer lies with the federal and provincial governments, Ottawa and Queen’s Park, which typically view their “junior” partners as whiners always in need of a handout.

It will cost money for Toronto to become the city the world thinks we are. The experts are agreed, that means higher taxes. That won’t likely impress the editors of Forbes. It would make us less livable, less influential.

But remember that defenceman, and the long season ahead.