Seven ways to make Toronto a world-class city again

[wild goose chase]

This might help with Toronto's world-classiness. For the first time in history, Toronto-area artists have taken 5 of the top 10 spots on the Billboard Hot 100, and for the first time 4 Toronto-area artists are in the top 10:

I don't really think of Bieber's hometown as being in the Toronto area though. To be fair, the others are.

 

[Armour]

I don't even think people are aware how things like this affect their psyche. For instance if you live in New York the Yankees constantly winning makes you think even when they have a bad team, somehow they will pull it together. This optimism spreads to other parts of a persons life and how they view the city. In Toronto though who is use to constantly losing sports teams we are down 0-1 and many of us have given up hope subconsciously. That also affects how we view the city as well. For years we always heard of our best actors and musicians moving to LA. As a result, on a subconscious level, we felt like our city isn't the best. This helps us think twice about what we have to offer. Anytime our city or its people is mentioned in a positive light, especially from an outsider, it naturally brings us pride. I don't even like Drake yet it does make me smile when I hear ESPN people debate him in a conversation with Jay-Z.

Why does the commonality of your birthplace with Drake bring you joy when Americans talk about him (especially when you don't even like him)? What importance does his shared birthplace hold? Rush is from Toronto, and are very popular outside of Canada, but I can't stand them. Their success and affiliation with Toronto is meaningless to me. Same could be said for any musical artist from Toronto. I don't look to artists or celebrities to represent me or the city I'm from. I'm much concerned about what an artist has to say and whether it moves me.

 

[Adjei]

I don't even think people are aware how things like this affect their psyche. For instance if you live in New York the Yankees constantly winning makes you think even when they have a bad team, somehow they will pull it together. This optimism spreads to other parts of a persons life and how they view the city. In Toronto though who is use to constantly losing sports teams we are down 0-1 and many of us have given up hope subconsciously. That also affects how we view the city as well. For years we always heard of our best actors and musicians moving to LA. As a result, on a subconscious level, we felt like our city isn't the best. This helps us think twice about what we have to offer. Anytime our city or its people is mentioned in a positive light, especially from an outsider, it naturally brings us pride. I don't even like Drake yet it does make me smile when I hear ESPN people debate him in a conversation with Jay-Z.

Well said. The likes of Drake and Weeknd are doing so much to market our city than any marketing agency could do for us. There was always civic pride here, it was just untapped but Drake and co. are helping the city to have a new profound sense of civic pride. The reason New York is so known around the world is because we see it in movies, hear bout it in music all the time. I'm sure government officials are happy when they hear people singing the lyrics to Jay'z's "New York" song with Alicia Keys. That's one thing I like about Americans, they like telling other about how great their country is which is one thing we lack here in Canada and which the likes of Drake re doing. We need more of it and seeing more of our artists topping the charts is good for the city. It helps to open doors for others and helps people to talk about this city more. A single tweet or instagram post from Drake can do more to market our city than spending so much money with some marketing agency. That's just the times we are living in.

 

[Tewder]

Why does the commonality of your birthplace with Drake bring you joy when Americans talk about him (especially when you don't even like him)? What importance does his shared birthplace hold? Rush is from Toronto, and are very popular outside of Canada, but I can't stand them. Their success and affiliation with Toronto is meaningless to me. Same could be said for any musical artist from Toronto. I don't look to artists or celebrities to represent me or the city I'm from. I'm much concerned about what an artist has to say and whether it moves me.

I may not personally love the entire cultural output of our community but I'm enormously appreciative and respectful of it... and yes, it is of course a reflection of 'us', our social context, our cultural values, etc. The fact that artists are increasingly feeling a need and desire to stay here and be informed by 'here' is positive for them and for the city, and outside acknowledgement only underscores that the work is resonating beyond our community. What is the problem with this??

 

[sixrings]

In drakes case it Is that he takes pride being from here and doesn't hide it even in a genre which may think of Canada as soft, which for many affected their earnings.