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The province of Toronto?

afransen

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Letter to the Star: Canada's 11th province

While not politically realistic, divorcing Ontario by gaining provincial status could be very healthy for Toronto. It would be a fantastically wealthy province, at that.

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Canada's 11th province

Jul 19, 2007 04:30 AM

Council stalls, city stagnates

Editorial, July 18

So it's back to begging for Toronto. That's our creative plan for getting out of the financial mess we're in? Makes me wonder why I vote at all if that's the best our council and mayor can come up with.

Let's face it, Ottawa and the province will never return what they've taken away. The reason they haven't is obvious: There's just no political gain to be made by doing right by Toronto, or any other major urban centre. The big cities of this country are underrepresented on both the national and provincial stages. For a political party trying to get elected, it's far easier and cheaper to sway a few hundred voters in a rural riding than to convince several thousand in an urban one.

Urban Ontario is the favourite whipping boy of all federal and provincial political parties. The Tories recently said they'd add seats for both B.C. and Alberta to meet the needs of their growing population. Ontario – not so fast. While this province also deserves more seats, we're told we can't have them based on the lame excuse that the House of Commons isn't big enough to accommodate new Ontario members. Do we rise up in anger? Nope, there was barely a peep.

There's no way Toronto and, by extension, the urban corridor from Hamilton to Oshawa will ever get our due until we start making a real fuss. Not the bus-shelter-ad-begging-for-pennies kind of fuss. Not the diplomatic sort of fuss politicians and bureaucrats like to make. No, I'm talking about a serious fuss that both the federal and provincial governments can't ignore.

Urban Ontarians must demand provincial status. The province won't upload previously downloaded services? Who cares. As a province, we'd have the funds to pay for those services and to actually direct them to where they're needed because our provincial income and sales taxes and fees would remain here. Should we worry about Ottawa? Not a chance. We'd be one of the biggest, wealthiest and most powerful provinces in Confederation. We could demand and receive our fair share of federal transfer payments and development money, not to mention the obeisance of grovelling federal politicians looking to curry our favour.

How sweet would that be?

Chris Cook, Toronto
 
If only.. if only there were balls in this city to demand what we deserve... It seems we're so good at bending over and taking the big one.
 
Okay wait the city itself be a province or the Hamilton-Newmarket- Oshawa area a Province???


I think the whole GTA should be a province.
 
well the area would be better off easily and we could finally start running our area like other big world cities.
 
Alvin,

Unfortunately, half the idiots on that discussion who would be only qualified to write for the Sun, say they are from Toronto.

I'd be up for selective provincehood. I'd even consider spinning off Etobicoke as none of its six councillors have ever been worth their $2 office "budgets". They can go join Mississauga and live the dream of running government like a business.

I'd give right of return to individual Etobicokans, like the few that are active on this board.
 
Sean:

LOL indeed - I have a feeling areas like Rexdale, Thistledown and New Toronto might have trouble getting themselves into this arrangement. Kingsway on the other hand probably wouldn't have any trouble.

AoD
 
If any province of Toronto is to be made it should be the entire Golden Horseshoe. A province that is 99% urban and no rural bullshit to drain our tax money. Imagine the collective wealth of this province! No 11 billion to send off to pay for paved roads in the middle of nowhere. 11 billion that stay paying for urban issues in the Toronto region! We'd be so damn cracked out wealthy that it would be funny, to say the least.

The only thing I worry about is what would happen to all the provincial infrastructer in Toronto? Ministries, Parliament, etc... Would that be changed into a Toronto parliament while Ontario has to gather a few billion to build anew? Or would those stay in Toronto to operate under Ontario in a special agreement? Which would make us one weird province.
 
And what would become Ontario's new capital? London, Kingston, Sudbury?

None of this will ever happen, but it's sort of fun to imagine. Also, wouldn't it be confusing to have both a city and a province named Toronto? I don't necessarily think we'd become one big city either, so you'd have Mississauga, Toronto, Canada. But would you not also have Toronto, Toronto, Canada? Maybe the Greater Golden Horseshoe should take another name?
 
Huronia?

AoD

Something nice... It'd be nice to be truly proud of the economic powerhouse our potential holds. We are kept in such artificial poverty yet it all comes down to the fact that 90% of our own population doesn't realize how screwed we are by all levels of government. The city should have an advertising blitz to inform the general public of what we're capable of, but what we must put up with (Ontario, Ottawa). I think then, the city can rise up and take action. Otherwise, it's pure speculation and vapour.
 
Centre-of-your-universe

Filip:

It's surpremely ironic that local politics, which has the highest degree of day-to-day impact to someone's life consistenly gets the least attention. Just look at the turnout for municipal elections everywhere.

AoD
 

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