There’s a new documentary coming out titled “Let’s All Hate Toronto” and it will premiere at Toronto’s very own Hot Docs film festival. And yes, as you might guess, it’s all about Canadians who hate Toronto. Here’s a description from the Hot Docs website:
This tongue-in-cheek road doc follows “Mister Toronto” as he embarks on a coast-to-coast Toronto Appreciation tour, encountering “recovering Torontonians” and those who would be quite happy never to step foot in our fair city. Are we really Torauma, Onterrible? Yes, according to a “professional Toronto hater.”
Toronto - What's not to love?
After being shocked that people hated Toronto (a city I visited for the Toronto film festival last September, and really loved), I went on to be shocked that Canadians we’re being so vocally mean about it. They always seem so nice and inclusive. I love Canadians, and Canada, and yes, even Toronto. But I take issue with this film. Issue!
So to combat this documentary in my own humble way, I present 5 reasons to LOVE Toronto.
- Superb restaurants. Bymark, Canoe, and the Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar are all as tasty as any food you can get in New York or San Francisco or any foodie city. Certainly better than say, Ottawa. Take that Ottawa!
- The Hockey Hall of Fame. Shame on you Canadians for not loving the city that houses your Hockey Hall of Fame. Shame.
- The Toronto Blue Jays. the only Canadian team left in major league baseball, and a pretty decent team at that.
- Lake Ontario. It borders Toronto and it’s one of the Great Lakes. See, GREAT is right there in the name.
- Diversity. The United Nations cited Toronto as one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. And I have to say I’d agree. Jealous one hit wonder Montreal? Yeah, yeah, we know you’re all French, or Quebecoise or whatever.
So please, give Toronto a chance. Let’s be lovers not fighters, after all we all love some good gravy fries and a nice hockey game.
April 13, 2007 at 11:13 PM
Um, Toronto borders Lake Ontario…
April 14, 2007 at 3:30 AM
That’s fascinating! The thought of people hating the city enough to be vocal and filmed about it! Funny stuff…great post
April 16, 2007 at 2:48 PM
Hating Toronto is like hating the man. Toronto runs Canada that’s why people hate it not because the people wear funny hats. The film looks funny as hell.
April 17, 2007 at 10:12 AM
toronto totally sucks not to mention gravy fries were introduced from montreal
April 20, 2007 at 4:32 PM
Thanks Adam. Our Great Lake error has been fixed, eh.
And Phil, how do you say “gravy fries” in French, eh?
April 21, 2007 at 9:40 PM
In addition to point 3, Toronto is also home to the only Canadian team in the NBA – the Toronto Raptors – who happen to have made the playoffs this season too! Nice one eh!
April 22, 2007 at 4:26 PM
Toronto is a fantastic city. I was born in Ottawa and adopted Toronto as my home. It is a world city and has more in common with other world cities than the rest of Canada. It is the intellectual and financial hub of a G8 nation. Frankly, other than Toronto, Chicago, New York and Boston would be the only other North Eastern/Mid-Western cities I would consider to live in.
Tower envy and uninterupted prosperity are likely the cause of TO hatred in much of Canada. It is a Canadian city that has retained its identity but is clearly on the North American map. Much of a foreigner’s perception of Canada derives from Toronto and not Timbuktoo Saskatchwan.
April 25, 2007 at 1:17 PM
Toronto is a great city. I was surprised to find out that Canadians outside of Toronto hate it.
I lived in SFO, NYU, Paris and now Toronto and I really like it .. great restaurants, cosmopolitan, cultural, diverse…, a bit more subdued than NYU, but the art and music scene equally cool. It is indeed Canda’s economic centre and sometimes too focused on Toronto sports scene, so I suppose this is why the hatred across Canada stems from. It somehow reinvented itself and became cooler and more vibrant over the course of the past decade and change in perception will take some time. It is an interesting phenomenon to see Canadians hating Toronto as in US I did not notice such a coalized effort against one particular city. But US has wider range of large metropolitan centres..
January 5, 2008 at 5:53 PM
I am a European and have travelled across the country of Canada four times now, visited every major city except in the maritimes and worked there too.
I find the whole country deeply deeply provincial. Toronto included. There is also a severe bully-runt syndrome/inferiority complex held by most Canadians and deservedly so. Stop trying so hard.
As for the cuisine, anything more than burgers, steak and fries, pizza and salads (caesar caesar caesar) costs a lot more than it should and comes with the sort of starchy service and prententious attitude that makes you feel you are being bad for paying for asking for fresh vegetables. Wine is rarely less than $9 a glass, the bottles exporbitant.
ugh
January 10, 2008 at 12:03 PM
I find is fascinating how perspectives can vary from traveler to traveler. What you see as provincial I see as Canada’s accomplishments in avoiding over urbanization and excellent preservation of their natural environment. I think its pretty hard to argue a sophisticated city like Montreal is provincial. What you see as inferiority complex I see as a pleasant humbleness that many Canadians have, its one of my favorite things about their national identity. They’re generally really, really nice (I say this based on six trips to six major cities in Canada).
And I think you are just eating at the wrong places.
April 11, 2008 at 8:33 AM
My girlfriend loves Toronto and wants us to live there however I’d rather live ANYWHERE else. There are a lot of reasons why the rest of us hate Toronto. For one thing it isn’t natural to squeeze 5 million people into a giant concrete wasteland. Secondly think about who we all hate. Lawyers, Bankers, Insurance companies and politicians. Toronto is full of them. Then there is the screwing you take on everything there. For example $25.00 to park your car for a couple of hours or rent so high that even with a good job you can only afford some cramped little dive over a corner store. On top of all of that there is the 12 lane parking lot they call the 401 where you get to waste hours of your life if you have to drive through Toronto to get anywhere. I know they have that great park. I understand it is the largest urban park at least in Canada. Oh wait. It is full of bums living in shanties. An earlier post mentioned the lake. I mean if the pollution in the harbor doesn’t bother you that’s at least one thing nice you can say about Toronto. It is on the lake. I knew that if I put enough thought into it I would come up with one thing that I don’t hate about Toronto.
September 20, 2009 at 3:56 PM
toronto is wonderful, but like a lot of large cities, its grimy and dreary.
i dont like it. there are many other places in north america where you can get good cuisine, good theater, and whatever else TO boasts, but without exhorbitant prices, bad air quality, and snooty service.
the TTC’s subway is underrated. its clean, runs often, and there is room to move about freely. (i cant speak for rush hour volumes of commuters).
March 16, 2010 at 10:10 PM
I live in Toronto and I really think Toronto sucks. People are rude as hell. They can’t mind their own business, you get weird looks from people and neighbors simply don’t respect you. When I first moved to Toronto I couldn’t even speak friggin English yet I got beat up.
This city is pure crap and it gotten much more. Geesh and I thought London, Ontario is bad, compared to Toronto it is heaven.
Ottawa is the only city I really loved to death. Nice friendly people and the city is actually clean.
July 6, 2010 at 12:11 PM
I lost money to every roommate I attempted to live with [$$$]
I was kicked out of 3 different hostels [twice for demanding respect from the spoiled kiddies and old creepy guys ] [once for demanding hygiene improvements]
During the entire 6 years that I lived in Toronto I was unable to secure a single job in my chosen field [ we are not referring to starbucks
]
Each time I attempted to create a friendship with a female, the individual seemed to think that I was gay and ultimately fled [I am not gay, who cares if I were to be so].. what a bizarre population
Ah yes, I distinctly remember the british guy who upon seeing my cast [broken wrist] proceeded to recite at great length a story about his injured thumb [long ago, far away, just a bruise ]. Incredible monotony.
The many older men [TTC drivers, passengers] who insisted on telling me about their dissatisfying marriages [and spouses]. I feel for the women.
Just one more: while enjoying the Marriage of Figaro one evening, I was brutally elbowed by the older gentleman on my left because i dared to place my elbow on the arm rest…
In conclusion : It seems that people in large cities suffer from the same narcissism, passive/aggressive traits, petty theft tendencies. It matters not whether we speak of toronto, new york, paris or london.
My advice : be careful
May 5, 2011 at 12:17 AM
In Toronto now from florida third time here Toronto sucks as a large city. City has no soul.