Tewder
Senior Member
Now, about that authenticity: I think Toronto is very authentic in its odd frontier town gone mad sort of way. It's this large, important city that I refer to as the world's largest airport terminal (owing to the variety of people here) yet it has this awesome frontier town feel. I'm talking the much-maligned overhead cabling, the shabby streetscapes, the grime. I've said it before, but I love that about Toronto. That just IS its character. Sure, you can call it sad, ugly, terrible, but it is what it is and some people love it for what it is and not despite what it is.
Besides, when it's the middle of a snowstorm and it's minus 30 out, it really is like some forsaken frontier outpost. Personally, I think that is what makes Toronto authentic. It was never a globally important city, it was just a forgotten backwater outpost. Well, it still retains that feel and sensibility to it while also having exploded into a world not its own.
Paris was once an outpost town too, of the Roman Empire. I don't know, I appreciate your enthusiasm for an aspect of Toronto that many of us abhor, but I do feel we need to evolve on from any lingering colonial/outpost/frontier town type mindset. It's a stage most cities have in their past at some time or other but move on from... and Toronto just isn't an outpost anymore. It's Canada's largest city and one of the largest in North America. No harm in starting to act and look like it!