Kevin Frayer/Canadian Press
Toronto Mayoral hopeful Rob Ford is in a world of trouble for suggesting that the multicultural oasis of Canada is too, well, full. Speaking to media, the politician said Toronto has become too big, crowded, and poor to handle any more into the mosaic.
“This city is congested as is. Where are we going to fit another million people?” Mr.Ford said on Wednesday.
Good question. I remember wondering the exact same topic about this time three years ago, as I sat in traffic at 5:30pm, crawling my way along the 8-lane 401 highway, trying to reach the hazy, smoggy, outline of Toronto shimmering in the sweltering heat.
Rob Ford’s observation is by no means a unique one. It’s just a politically courageous one. To criticize Toronto’s growth of just under 100,000 new residents every year could be seen as an attack on the multicultural identity that the leftwing apparatchik in city council lives by.
After all, this is the same city that photoshopped a man of hispanic appearance out of the city’s “Fun Guide” in order to add an awkwardly-placed black guy.
“We’re not in the shape to be welcoming any more people. It’s going to be impossible,” Rob Ford added.
Although the city maintains that it will only grow by a half million people in the next 20 years, that’s a little difficult to believe. It’s also ignoring the fact that the city of Toronto isn’t just bulging internally, but also growing outwardly, bloating the population of Brampton, Mississauga, and all points north, west, and east. But that doesn’t mean the people aren’t still making the gridlock commute.
Toronto is certainly growing from inter-country migration, but the subtext of Mr.Ford’s comments are impossible to miss. It’s one thing to welcome “diversity”, and quite another to willingly ignore the massive ethnic blocs that have been created by the GTA’s absorption of the lion’s share of immigration.
When I left my hometown of Brampton in 2008, the city had become densely crowded with South Asian immigrants, primarily Sikh Indians who have developed a vast cultural enclave inside of Canada. As Gurmukh Singh wrote in the Toronto Sun last year, immigration has brought “rapid ghettoization” of mini cities in which multiple ethnic enclaves have become isolated compartmentalized quarters.
Yet this “diversity” still comes with a price that not only makes Toronto less affordable for Canadian citizen and immigrant alike, but puts more pressure on the base with each additional arrival.
What I think Rob Ford’s opponents seem to miss, is that it isn’t a criticism on immigration, diversity, or multiculturalism, though these issues have played a large part in the aforementioned ethnic communities. No, the point is that Toronto’s growing pains are finally showing outwardly, after decades of strain from accepting so many new immigrants.
It’s true that we all came from somewhere else. But it isn’t a matter of wanting to clip “the velvet rope” behind oneself as one enters. It’s a simple matter of quality of life for those already here.
The rate at which Toronto is expanding puts the strain in many places: public services, housing prices, jobs competition, vehicular gridlock, doctor shortages, hospital waiting times, etc.
I don’t think Rob Ford said anything that Toronto residents haven’t already thought behind closed doors, and beyond the scrutiny of the politically correct.
The attack on Rob Ford by the media and his opponents shows desperation.
They are trying to brand him a racist and a person with a hidden agenda with cuts that are mean.
The exact script against the Federal Conservatives.
Sadly the facts don’t back up the rhetoric and it is early but this appears to be a sign of the end of a socialist Mayor for Toronto.
Will he be able to fight the unions, special interest groups and the left wing members of city hall -unlikely.
A lot of people think I’m strictly west coast now, but I’m still keeping tabs on you ON folk
“This city is congested as is. Where are we going to fit another million people?” Mr.Ford said on Wednesday.
..or another 490!
As long ago transplant from Ontario to Alberta, all I can say Mr. Ford is: I don’t care where you will put ‘em just so long as you keep ‘em.
Immigration numbers need to drop dramatically, the three major cities don’t need the hundreds of thousands of immigrants each year, especially when rural Canada is being de-populated by people moving to the cities.
We’re not saving the world by taking in an enormous number of immigrants each year, not by a long shot, but we are changing Canada by importing people into communities here that are already disconnected from the mainstream. Tribalism won’t help real Canadians in the future.
Here’s a question no one feels comfortable in asking: does the yearly importation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who do not share our values, customs or culture, set the stage for a future civil war?
Yes… when is there going to be open debate about immigration in this country? I’m not talking about illegal immigration which is a tactic to avoid the main issue. I’m talking about legal immigration which is also excessive and costing the country billions each year and irrepairably changing the face of Canada.
We have been allowing hundreds of thousands of immigrants in to Canada for about a hundred years now, with the exception of the war years.
Yes. Let’s have this debate. I want the Harper conservatives to speak out against immigration in this country.
And… look at the mess we’ve made.
Yeah. The civil war Kursk refers to has been slowly building. Why, my father can remember when his father was conspiring with other Ukranian farmers. Something about smuggling in massive weapon arsenals to take all those “Canadians” out.
Anyway….
And yet polls show that 2/3 of Canadians want these 492 “refugees” deported. I guess you’re one of the 1/3 nonracists, eh?
What are you talking about?
First, just because a majority of people believe something, that does not mean they are not racist – or maybe you never heard of slavery in the US? I am pretty sure the majority of white people believed it was perfectly OK to enslave Africans. Doesn’t make it right.
But in any event, maybe you missed this but Kursk was actually suggesting immigration might cause civil war in this country, and I was merely pointing out that we have had massive immigration for over a hundred years, without civil war.
And for another view:
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/08/20/call-it-the-bottom-of-the-boat-test/