Toronto St Regis Toronto Hotel and Residences | 281.93m | 58s | JFC Capital | Zeidler

[ksun]

It's funny that someone would consider Trump a fascist like Hilter and make the comparison and want his name off of a building. That's crazy talk and an over-reaction. He's a real estate tycoon. His brand represent luxury and exceptional service. I don't agree with everything he says, but as a private citizen he's entitled to his opinion. His brand and standards haven't all of a sudden changed.

I agree. All these Trump comment will be gone and forgotten after the US election, or even long before that. It is silly to remove the brand of a hotel just because this candidate said something offensive. I don't think Donald Trump owns this hotel, nor does he personally have much to do with it. It is a brand, that's all. Keeping it doesn't make Toronto any worse, and removing it on the other hand sounds a bit desperate to be politically correct. So far Trump didn't do anything criminal, or caused any real harm to the Muslims/Mexicans. All he did was talking, which was his right. I am sure the US has laws against hate speech, and if he did violate that, there would already been consequences.

If we really want to stand by our principle as someone pretends, maybe Canada should have broken the tie with the US after the illegal Iraq invasion? That causes a millions times more real harm than some words from Trump's mouth. Yet we seem to be fine with it.

If we do decide the change to name of a hotel because of this, I will be embarrassed by the city.

 

[UrbanFervour]

This is just some two-bit local politician trying to find relevance by advertising his moral position vis-a-vis political events in a foreign country. The "Trump" brand will suffer if people disagree with his stupid ideas. (I never understood why anyone ever bought into it in the first place... He's a tacky nouveau-riche orang-utan.) The racist crap he spews forth is simply another reason (of many) not to like him.

We live in a free country with free speech. If people have a problem with the idiot Donald Trump and his dumb comments, they won't stay at the sh*tty hotel with his name on it. If enough people don't stay there, the owners will have to look for a different brand to attract customers. We don't need Canada's P.C. police on this one.

 

[junior43]

^ Exactly. Let market forces dictate removal of the name, not some silly politician looking for headlines (a la Trump in the first place).

I would love the irony though of Trump's gambit into politics being the downfall of his empire (again). Sadly, from reading comments on some sites regarding Trump, there's an astonishing amount of people that support his views. Then again, we experienced the Ford Nation phenomenon, so nothing should be surprising these days.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

This is just some two-bit local politician trying to find relevance by advertising his moral position vis-a-vis political events in a foreign country. The "Trump" brand will suffer if people disagree with his stupid ideas. (I never understood why anyone ever bought into it in the first place... He's a tacky nouveau-riche orang-utan.) The racist crap he spews forth is simply another reason (of many) not to like him.

We live in a free country with free speech. If people have a problem with the idiot Donald Trump and his dumb comments, they won't stay at the sh*tty hotel with his name on it. If enough people don't stay there, the owners will have to look for a different brand to attract customers. We don't need Canada's P.C. police on this one.

My take is slightly different - his views are repugnant, and the free speech argument is a little specious considering what he is proposing and his fiery rhetoric is hardly harmless. That said, I am not sure if a) what Matlow proposes does anything; b) whether the state has the authority to do what he proposed and c) whether the state have any business in doing what he proposed, even if it does have that power.

Quite frankly, it would speak far more if the government bar him from entering the country. That would be a meaningful statement, not scratching his name off a third-bit tower that couldn't get it right.

AoD

 

[yyzholocaust]

I don't understand why any brand that wants to, y'know, not fail catastrophically, would associate with that bag of garbage.

 

[AndreaPalladio]

I don't see what the big rush is now. He's held these same racist, homophobic, misogynistic views for decades. Let the people who bought apartments in the bigot building and want to spend their money in the bigot hotel and the restaurant and bar their make it clear where they are spending and what they were cheerleading for up until the last day or two.

 

[yyzholocaust]

"Bigot Building." I like that. Possible thread rename?

 

[AndreaPalladio]

Better yet, lets get those rooftopper people to take a banner with that on it up and cover up the name!

 

[Skeezix]

It's funny that someone would consider Trump a fascist like Hilter and make the comparison and want his name off of a building. That's crazy talk and an over-reaction.

Given Trump's comments ranging from ID cards to mass deportations, not sure how you find discussions of his views being fascist "funny". Again, one can disagree (there is quite a debate on the issue in the U.S., with some people saying Trump's views are abhorrent but not fascist), but it's hardly "crazy talk". And, by the way, someone can refer to something as fascist and not necessarily be equating it to Hitler.

Personally, I find talk of ID cards, mass deportations and restrictions on freedom of religion to be troubling.

He's a real estate tycoon. His brand represent luxury and exceptional service.

In your opinion. There is clearly strong sentiment that the brand now stands for something else completely or is, at a minimum, significantly tarnished.

I don't agree with everything he says, but as a private citizen he's entitled to his opinion.

Sure. But free speech is a two-way street. People are entitled to call his views abhorrent, fascist, extreme, etc.

What concerns me is why you think someone condemning proposals for mass deportations and religious restrictions in a free and democratic society is "funny".

His brand and standards haven't all of a sudden changed.

I think you might be deluding yourself on that one.

Politicians are just self-serving - so the anti-Trump/'remove his name' crowd isn't going to better society.

Symbols and words are extremely important.

But ensuring that these new, small scale, assault rifle terrorist attacks by any group are stopped should actually benefit society. So how is removing a sign going to help again? People need to focus on actually destroying the hateful fascist group called ISIS rather that focusing on an idiot with a hotel with his name on it.

How is any of that mutually exclusive from taking issue with what Trump advocates?

That's what I find funny and uniquely Canadian that we don't see what's the right thing to do but focus on fluff that makes people feel good but does nothing to solve the actual problem.

On a general basis, not of that is even remotely uniquely Canadian. And it's shocking that you don't think taking a strong stand against some pretty awful policies "does nothing".

 

[yyzholocaust]

From my observations, NGBtect and ksun are the resident shortsighted, emotionally/culturally tone-deaf conservatives around here.

Fortunately, they seem to be in the vast minority when it comes to common sense and logic.

 

[Skeezix]

This is just some two-bit local politician trying to find relevance by advertising his moral position vis-a-vis political events in a foreign country. The "Trump" brand will suffer if people disagree with his stupid ideas. (I never understood why anyone ever bought into it in the first place... He's a tacky nouveau-riche orang-utan.) The racist crap he spews forth is simply another reason (of many) not to like him.

We live in a free country with free speech. If people have a problem with the idiot Donald Trump and his dumb comments, they won't stay at the sh*tty hotel with his name on it. If enough people don't stay there, the owners will have to look for a different brand to attract customers. We don't need Canada's P.C. police on this one.

This is what troubles me. Free speech is a two-way street. Yes, Trump is allowed to utter nonsense. But conversely, someone like Matlow is allowed to say that he thinks the owners of the building should remove the Trump name from the building because of its associations with someone advocating some pretty nasty stuff. Let's be absolutely clear - Matlow is not advocating that the government require that the building be renamed. Correct me if I am wrong, but I have not heard him make any such suggestion. If he did, then maybe the "PC Police" label would make sense. But he hasn't.

So, how it is it when Trump expresses an opinion it's a "free country with free speech", but when Matlow expresses an opinion it's "the PC police"?

 

[Lenser]

I agree that Trump and his views are troubling, but such talk belongs in another thread altogether.

 

[Skeezix]

I don't see what the big rush is now. He's held these same racist, homophobic, misogynistic views for decades. Let the people who bought apartments in the bigot building and want to spend their money in the bigot hotel and the restaurant and bar their make it clear where they are spending and what they were cheerleading for up until the last day or two.

Yes, he's always spouted garbage. The difference is that current comments are of a completely different scope.

 

[Skeezix]

I agree that Trump and his views are troubling, but such talk belongs in another thread altogether.

Well except that the issue is the building's name, and the calls by a Councillor to change the building's name, not just Trump and his views in isolation. Seems pretty relevant to the building thread.

 

[Skeezix]

I agree. All these Trump comment will be gone and forgotten after the US election, or even long before that. It is silly to remove the brand of a hotel just because this candidate said something offensive. I don't think Donald Trump owns this hotel, nor does he personally have much to do with it. It is a brand, that's all. Keeping it doesn't make Toronto any worse, and removing it on the other hand sounds a bit desperate to be politically correct. So far Trump didn't do anything criminal, or caused any real harm to the Muslims/Mexicans. All he did was talking, which was his right. I am sure the US has laws against hate speech, and if he did violate that, there would already been consequences.

If we really want to stand by our principle as someone pretends, maybe Canada should have broken the tie with the US after the illegal Iraq invasion? That causes a millions times more real harm than some words from Trump's mouth. Yet we seem to be fine with it.

If we do decide the change to name of a hotel because of this, I will be embarrassed by the city.

How nice that you are privileged enough to think this will all blow over and that the issue is "silly". I'm pretty sure that people that Trump has targeted and helped incite hatred towards, including and not limited Muslims and Mexicans in the U.S., feel that this is neither something that will be easily forgotten nor that it's silly. The fact that you don't think he has "cause any real harm" to such groups is flabbergasting.

A tower branded with the name of a man who is now mainly notorious for some pretty odious and abhorrent policies does make Toronto worse. It's certainly not a good thing. And given some of the stuff you've said on these forums, I don't see you being embarrassed as being a problem.

In any event, I'm done debating this. NGBtect and ksun are free to keep talking about how funny and silly they think this is, but I will henceforth stick to discussing the God-awful architecture of this building.