that's just a desperate claim, like other North American cities such as Los Angeles or Chicago are not multicultural.
Not a desperate claim so much as a rather anti-climatic given. I've argued it before here, consistently, and remain convinced that while Multiculturalism served our needs in the 1970s and 1980s the best-before date on this policy has long passed. It served a purpose in changing Toronto from a parochial mono-culture to a diverse cohabitation of cultures, which was good, but it also did us a disservice lately in leaving our wonderfully diverse community without a sense of self. The challenge now is to focus back on the collectivity, or as others may frame it, the local 'authenticity' of Toronto. This has been neglected for too long, rearing its head in Toronto's latent collective existential crisis.
Case in point: Peameal bacon. Banal I know but in any other city - in a city with a firm sense of identity at least - it would be hailed as a local delicacy, a defining cultural icon (as poutine or maple syrup is in Quebec, for example), celebrated by local chefs who would feature it in their restaurants, serving it up in both classic and inventive ways. In short, it would be a signifier of local identity, and eating it would be a soulful experience that tourists/visitors would want to participate in as a means of connecting to a Toronto authenticity when here. In reality though it is largely ignored, and ignored by the same people who in the next breath would turn around and harrumph that 'Toronto has no culture or identity'.
Again, I understand that peameal bacon is a pretty stupid example, but how many other stupid examples are there that collectively start to add up to something more important? Why isn't Toronto the North American capital of craft beers? Why haven't we been staking this claim? Craft beer is hot now, everywhere, and we could have ridden the wave of this popularity *if* we had of been 'self aware' enough years ago when beer was already a defining aspect of our culture.
It's always good to look at what others think - and sometimes it can be rather unflattering:
http://landlopers.com/2013/07/22/visit-toronto
AoD
I think it's always worthwhile to get a sense of how others perceive us, warts and all. For me though, the irony is that I actually sort of cherish some of the Toronto stereotypes the writer mocks. Yeah, we're cold, I get it, but just about the most polite people on earth, almost laughably so. In fact, in many respects we do just need to learn to laugh at ourselves, collectively, and to see ourselves through a lens that is a little more accepting and a little less judgemental. Not everyone will like us but who cares. People who 'get' Toronto do.
The comments are just the worst. Self serious travellers who think their one week in Malaga somehow makes them an expert on romance. Like, look at this shit: "Would you pick up a stranger in this city, invite her / him to a cool club / romantic place and take her home the same day? Just because it happened spontaneously." Some pretentious jerk struck out when nobody wanted to go to his version of a 'romantic place' to hear his thoughts on grappa. Sheeesh.
We do have to take some of it with a grain of salt... but to be fair we do a lousy job in projecting anything meaningful to tourists/visitors. In this void who can really blame anyone for walking away thinking there really isn't much here to care about or come back for. We can be defensive and criticize that they didn't go off the beaten path or look past all of our ugly condos to find the gems but this is a little self-serving. There is vast room for improvement but it'll just take a new approach to get us there.
