PukeGreen
Active Member
What an oddly distorted (though well-intentioned) view of Toronto and Canada. It reminds me of the travel journals I kept while wandering Europe; writing about your impressions of a place after only a few days can lead to some strange assumptions, and I know I've been guilty of it too.
I think I did sense a bit of defensiveness around the subject of diversity and tolerance, though. Was she trying to infer that Canadians are intolerant because a comedy show made fun of Newfies? Funny. And while the treatment of Natives by the Canadian government is very shameful, I find it hard to see how the US history is any better. And I've personally never heard anyone use the term "aboriginal" in the way the Australians do; "native" is more common. I believe "First Nations" is the official correct terminology, but I'm not sure.
It's also interesting to hear our transportation system praised so highly even as we bemoan it so intensely. Actually, considering the relative crappiness of our transit infrastructure compared to those in Europe, it's a sad indication of how far we need to go, and how ridiculously far the US needs to go to in that respect.
Then again, any attempt to extrapolate an impression of Canada based on the Queen West and Kensington neighbourhoods is pretty much doomed to failure. I can think of few neighbourhoods in the country that would be less representative of typical Canadian life. For example, claiming that all chain stores are in one spot on Yonge St. ignores the thousands of square miles of bland big box suburbia that surround our cities, which would probably be much more familiar to the author.
But I know her intentions were good, and the view of an outsider is always refreshing! Interesting.
A few anal nitpicks: "Niagara" is misspelled in several places in the article. And, please, if anyone can find an 1,100 square foot shiny new loft in downtown Toronto for a mere $200,000, please, email me immediately! I'll take three, please.
I think I did sense a bit of defensiveness around the subject of diversity and tolerance, though. Was she trying to infer that Canadians are intolerant because a comedy show made fun of Newfies? Funny. And while the treatment of Natives by the Canadian government is very shameful, I find it hard to see how the US history is any better. And I've personally never heard anyone use the term "aboriginal" in the way the Australians do; "native" is more common. I believe "First Nations" is the official correct terminology, but I'm not sure.
It's also interesting to hear our transportation system praised so highly even as we bemoan it so intensely. Actually, considering the relative crappiness of our transit infrastructure compared to those in Europe, it's a sad indication of how far we need to go, and how ridiculously far the US needs to go to in that respect.
Then again, any attempt to extrapolate an impression of Canada based on the Queen West and Kensington neighbourhoods is pretty much doomed to failure. I can think of few neighbourhoods in the country that would be less representative of typical Canadian life. For example, claiming that all chain stores are in one spot on Yonge St. ignores the thousands of square miles of bland big box suburbia that surround our cities, which would probably be much more familiar to the author.
But I know her intentions were good, and the view of an outsider is always refreshing! Interesting.
A few anal nitpicks: "Niagara" is misspelled in several places in the article. And, please, if anyone can find an 1,100 square foot shiny new loft in downtown Toronto for a mere $200,000, please, email me immediately! I'll take three, please.
