Basically, outside of Asia, every major city has transit issues, and everyone likes to think that their transit provider is the worst.
Having lived in Indonesia ... trust me, some Asian cities have transit problems. I've spent time in Bangkok as well ... there are huge transit issues there; the subway is clean and efficient ... but very short. The Skytrain is overcrowded; and much of the city only has buses ... buses that sit in traffic not moving. And people in Toronto complain about A/C on buses and streetcars ... you should see Bangkok!
And the cities I've been in, in India, had horrific transit as well.
Frankly, the only cities I've seen we've half-decent transit were in South Korea ... but even then, I've stood longer than I expected for buses in Busan ... had a nightmare of a time finding the right bus in Suwon ... and spent a long-time sitting on subways in Seoul - they are extensive ... but really they need an RER network, rather than just the airport express train, and the express service on the KTX line. And despite the decent subway system, the traffic in Seoul seems very bad. Yes, Seoul has a more extensive subway than Toronto. The city also dwarfs Toronto with a city population of over 10 million, compared to our 2.5 million; and a metro population of about 25 million compared to about 5 million in Toronto. The densities there are stunning, while we are about 4,000 per square kilometre, they are over 17,000 per square kilometre.
I think some of the reason that people think transit elsewhere is much better, is that tourists tend to be in the centre of the city. If you're in Toronto, with all the subway stations downtown, the GO Trains running in and out of Union, streetcars passing every couple of minutes, and you avoid rush hour (as tourists often tend to do), you'd probably think Toronto transit if fantastic! I've waited in suburban London for the once-an-hour commuter train that's late ... the horribly long Underground rides, the unbelievable heat on the tube ... buses that don't come, or just don't get you where you want to go.
What we have is better than average; and it is improving. Buses are more frequent, we have new infrastructure coming in. We have a huge amount of new vehicles. The buses are already all pretty recent, except for a few that should be replaced in the next 18 months. All the streetcars are being replaced, and all the 20th century subway trains are to be replaced by the end of 2013. And there's a huge GO expansion taking place.
We should be greatful for what we have, and be looking to how to improve it.