Toronto on the Rebound

Little Known Facts 46 Comments

The economy of Toronto appears to be recovering nicely by all accounts. This is a good thing, not just for the city, but for Canada as a whole. I would never have dreamed that Ontario would ever slip into have-not status, yet they did. With Toronto doing better, hopefully this will reflect well on the country’s largest province as well. After all, the workers in the West don’t want to keep bailing it out forever!
Now, when are Montreal & Quebec going to do the same?

46 Replies to “Toronto on the Rebound”

  1. Every nation which is large, either geographically or in population, seems to have a sector of “superstars” who are the builders and contributers toward a positive perception of the nation. These same nations have their “deadbeats” who seem determined to do the opposite.
    One must ask why Quebec and and a large and easily identifiable number the citizens of that province seem determined to fill the “deadbeat” role?

  2. socialism, why is NFLD getting exemptions so they can still qualify? scamers
    where’s all the money from the oil sands going?
    I don’t think to Alberta or Ontario.

  3. T.O. will do well under Rob Ford. But the entitlement class is fighting back, kicking and screaming every inch of the way on the road to economic reform.
    Every reform requires a public meeting of course, so the interest groups fill the meetings with their own people to crowd out any voices of support. It was recently discovered that most of the people having the temper tantrums are not even regular taxpayers/voters — they are mostly bureaucrats and so-called “public servants”, not in the service of the public or their taxpayer clients, but serving their own interests to protect some of their useless programs. Some of them have been supported by the Unions and the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty protestors were discovered not to be actual poor people but professional protestors paid by the Unions from their members Union dues (without the member’s permission) to protest City Hall. It was documented by the local press.

  4. You only have to look at which party the Quebecer’s voted for in the last election to represent their interests..
    Sadly

  5. The article states that 2/3 of GDP are generated by Canada’s cities. So how did the cities from Canada’s “have” provinces do versus the cities from the “have-not” provinces?
    4th
    7th
    11th
    15th
    19th
    5 of 25 on the list, the best of which was 4th. If all those cities on the list that are were ranked above places like Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Regina are so much better, why do people keeping leaving these other cities to move here? Why are these cities still paying equalization payments to the others on the list? Sounds like this survey and its author lacks credibility…

  8. The leftist French suck the lifeblood out of Canada similar to Africa and all the aid that goes nowhere. The west works to pay for entitlements that the French can’t manage to pay for themselves. Only through Affirmative Action can the French find plumb jobs and business contracts around the country denied English speaking whites, along with preferential treatment for education.
    If ever there was a case to be made for apartheid, it would be for fencing of Quebec to allow Canada to be all it could be.

  9. Now, when are Montreal & Quebec going to do the same?
    Thast simple. Never untill this Country is conqured by others.

  10. Comrade Miller is no longer the so-called Mayor.
    Rob Ford is encouraging and confidence building.
    It takes a conservative adult to clean up the socialist children’s mess.

  11. As I mentioned on another blog, the trouble with Canadian socialism is that eventually you run out of Alberta’s money.
    Montreal and Quebec will NEVER do the same. When your Province’s entire economic system emulates the structure of the Mafia…..well, you get the picture.

  12. How can Ontario and Toronto fail now that they are receiving almost $$$2.5 BILLION$ in equalization payments?
    Only Quebec gets more according to the National post.
    Yup, the same as McQuinty denounced in 2008.

  13. I always find it interesting how socialism whether at the city level, provincial level or national level always brings economic ruin on those who elect socialists. A number of years ago Edmonton elected a socialist mayor/council and Calgary became the leading city in Alberta. Years later Edmonton is still playing catch up.

  14. Our system of paying to alleged have not’s has been going on since confederation with Nova Scotia being the first to get greedy.
    I do have trouble singling out Quebec because I know well that the Atlantic provinces have had huge payouts for decades. My home province of Manitoba is a taker mostly because they haven’t elected good Government in a very long time.
    The other point I want to make is that the simple work ethic of individuals varies across Canada with the Prairies rating high and our big cities a dismal last.
    Perhaps we should apply transfer payments based on resources and potential or the lack thereof rather than how well a province is doing.
    While Quebec has been pandered to, I also know these other provinces have had a great time at the trough as well.

  15. Eskimo
    Until the 2009-2010 fiscal year, Ontario was the only province to have never received equalization payments;
    get serious welfareites

  17. Sorry, I don’t want Montreal and Quebec to look like Toronto.
    Economic is just 1 aspect of life.

  18. Alberta created more jobs because more people there wanted to work. Look where all the workers come from. Where I live we have only 5% not working but we have 1000’s coming from all of Can. and US. to work here. Those who want to work can. Those who don’t git SS.In Sask. there is lots of jobs if you want to work.

  19. Until the 2009-2010 fiscal year, Ontario was the only province to have never received equalization payments;
    get serious

  21. The problem, ndpquebecois, is that the reason Montreal and Quebec look the way they do, is because of all the money that has poured into that city/province from Ontario and Alberta.
    That includes Montreal’s subway system, it’s Expo, it includes their roads (gas tax); it includes the funding for Quebec’s universities with their low tuition,..and how about all those massive federal govt offices in Montreal that employ so many, many, many Quebec bureaucrats, and those subsidized NGO head offices in Montreal and Quebec that employ so many, many Quebec bureaucrats. All of that…and the socialist lifestyle which Quebec could not support on its own, comes from The Evil Rest of Canada.
    oh..and did you know that foreigners from French countries are not counted as ‘international students’ who pay extra at Quebec universities? They pay the same low fee as the subsidized Quebecois!! Heh – subsidized by the ROC!
    So, don’t be so smug and sanctimonious, ndper; try for some honesty and realism and acknowledge where the money and benefits are coming from. Oh, and you could try reading Lucien Bouchard’s excellent advice to Quebec to Wake Up and stop being so dependent on the ROC.

  24. LS from SK
    don’t really understand your audacious pretense
    coming from someone living in the state with “highest potash taxes in the world”?
    “failed leftist welfare state”
    what’s a welfare state to anyone in this country, u can pretend your a “free American” but your still just another pretentious westerner living off federal baby bonus cheques and always will be.

  25. ET: money is not the only thing that matter in life.. did you know that?

  26. ” Economic is just 1 aspect of life.” —posted by quebecndp’er
    But,by far the most important. A thriving culture is hard to swallow when the stomach is empty.
    To quote the Flaming Lizards ” Your tongue gives me thrills,but it don’t pay my bills,I want money”.
    How about we send ‘artists’ from the west instead of cash ? Would you be happier?

  27. “ET: money is not the only thing that matter in life.. did you know that?”
    Feel free to try and live without earning any, or getting any from others.

  28. Yea Rob Ford! Keep up the good work, and ignore the cranky pampered socialists!

  29. @sorry Blanks = you keep shouting them.
    “what’s a welfare state to anyone in this country, u can pretend your a “free American” but your still just another pretentious westerner living off federal baby bonus cheques and always will be”.
    Ain’t got no babies and not pretenious until the crop is harvested. Then I celebrate.

  30. @ KaybekwaNDPiste
    If “economics is just 1% of life”, how about you send back all of OUR money from transfer payments and live on your own 1%, not ours!
    Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!
    PLEEEEEASE hurry up and separate …good luck with that, and don’t be trying to get back in.

  31. Quebec is the biggest blood sucking, whiny bum in the nation. Hell they even use the Ontario health care facilities in droves using their health cards which don’t cover the full cost of services.
    As for money not being the only thing in life, an old cliche and true but try getting along without it. If it’s not your money that feeds you it’s someone else’s. Moral of the story being if you’re able bodied and of reasonably sound mind get off your arse and take care of your own responsibilities.
    Quebec with all her resources should long ago have gotten off the dole from Equalization.

  32. Quebec enjoys pretending to be a have not province, it allows them to pretend they are poor so the rest of us can pay them to be lazy with real money.
    kinda like westerners pretend to be rich and famous so they can be pretentious and audacious toward the lowly welfare begging easterners.
    Doc Holiday and Wyatt Earp like most were easterners before they became westerns.

  33. Why would the welfare bum known as Quebec ever want to create wealth, pay its way, instead of waiting like a orphan kitty for the handouts from the housewife/Alberta mostly and now Sask. through the wonder of a capitalist premier. It works! Like Freddie/John Candy in the movie Splash tells his brother Tom Hanks/ Allen “Hey when I find something that works, I stick with it Allen” after getting caught throwing change under womens skirts. That is Quebec, NO PRIDE, why have pride, pride makes you rise up and pay your way, that is a lot to ask of a 135 year old welfare bum, the die is cast. Keep working whitey, my wife needs one of these to, seen on the bumper of a fancy diesel Ford in Regina.

  35. ndper – heh, so you stand tall and declare that ‘money isn’t the only thing in life’. Right you are. So, how about STOPPING demanding more and more and more money from the rest of Canada? OK?
    How about standing on your own economy and stop the whining, the perpetual complaints, that you want more benefits, and more contracts only to Quebec, and more milk subsidies only to Quebec, and more special university fees only in Quebec, and more immigration subsidies only to Quebec.
    How about stopping all your money demands! How about standing on your own economy and living within YOUR means and not insisting that the ROC pay for your socialist lifestyle.
    How about not insisting that all those federal offices be located in Quebec so that all your Montrealers have fat jobs? How about not insisting on federal subsidies and NGOs so that your Quebec workers can work in their own economy and not via the federal largesse!
    How about proving your sanctimonious empty statement that ‘money isn’t everything’ actually is a ‘Quebecois belief’. Because, all the evidence shows that for Quebecers, money from the ROC is ALL they are interested in..
    As for ‘money isn’t everything’ – how about integrity and innovation and independence? You’ll find all of that in the West, which prides itself on paying its own way. But in Quebec? Heh..integrity..and its massive black market economy.
    Innovation? Where?
    Independence? Heh – it refuses to grow up and stand on its own economic feet. All it does is whine, whine, whine.
    Culture? Heh – I’ll take the West and the prairie and wheat culture, or the Maritimes and the ‘lowlands’ and sea culture any day..to the endless focus on ‘pur laine’ and ‘language’ of Quebec.

  36. I’m skeptical of this listing with Calgary so far down. It’s laughable to think that Ford is the cause of this. His mayorship has been confused. He was too cowardly to identify places to cut spending so he attacked mythical ‘gravy’, which the KPMG auditor found doesn’t exist. He’s done so little and it’s all cancelled out by his ridiculous increase in police pay (Cops are 25% of the city’s expenditure, and they deserve to be on the block after the G20).

  37. What are the odds, everybody, that after the bitch-slapping delivered by ET, that NDPiste would still show up, exposing his backside for another ass-kicking?
    Is it a culural thing?, or did his mom drop him on his head?

  38. where’s all the money from the oil sands going?
    I don’t think to Alberta or Ontario.
    Into the pockets of rural conservative welfare bum teabagging farmers, where else.

  39. @Robert, the answer to your question lies at the end of the article.
    “Montreal, which slipped from the top spot in the previous rankings, continues to show strength in the manufacturing sector, Mr. Tal said.”
    So just because the island isn’t so hot this time means we’re sitting on our ass? Seems like you shot from the hip and missed from my perspective. Better luck next time.

  41. ” To quote the Flaming Lizards ” Your tongue gives me thrills,but it don’t pay my bills,I want money”.
    Sorry,my mistake here,it was the
    ‘flying’ lizards.
    In my defense,there was a lot of flaming bands back then,Bowie,both Eltons,and the New York Dolls quickly come to mind.

  42. Knight 99:
    Only through Affirmative Action can the French find plumb jobs
    Are you kidding me? Have you visited the province, or even the Olympic stadium?
    There isn’t a right angle, tight seam, or decent joint in the place. The only time they use a “plum bob” is when they’ve run out of apples.
    As Ontario engineers used to say, Quebecois engineers studied at the school of “dat’s close enough”.

  43. @phil “Into the pockets of rural conservative welfare bum teabagging farmers, where else”.
    Seems that we are all paying big $$$ for that Chrysler bailout that benefited big labour and the Ontario government.
    Corporate welfare bums just fine with you?

  44. OK, a serious comment here:
    For good or ill, the GTA is the heart of the nation. Almost one in five Canadians live here. We generate a disproportionate share of GDP. This is not meant as a sneer or a diminishment of the contributions of BC, AB, SK, or MB; it’s simply a statement of reality. If Toronto’s sick, Canada as a whole is not well.
    Someone noted above Rob Ford made a difference. I agree. At the elemental small business level, people are now believing that city hall WANTS new businesses and will help them get going, as opposed to the David Miller regime, where every new idea had to undergo the scrutiny of a 1,000 bureaucrats, and would likely wither into dust. Where there was despair, there is now hope.
    Are there things wrong with the GTA? Yes. Too many petty fiefdoms, when one regional government should take charge. Take transit for example: do we really need Brampton, Mississauga, York Region, Durham Region, and the TTC all to have their own CEO’s at $200k+ each year? Wouldn’t it make sense to merge them all into one GTA transit authority, and eliminate many expensive and overlapping jobs? Same thing with social services, parks, licensing, etc. We could probably cut the costs of running government by a third or more if such rationalization took place.
    But, as someone who has traveled extensively, I think Toronto’s a damn fine place, if you’re not on the roads in rush hour. There aren’t many US cities where you can stroll along their equivalent of Bloor and Yonge at 11 pm without fear of dying from either gunpoint or boredom. If you’ve ever stood at the wall of the Roof Lounge at dusk, and seen the colours of the city as the sun descends, you might sense what I mean. A walk along Dundas at Spadina, or along the Danforth, or Queen West, or Queen’s Quay, or.. I could go on. Toronto, despite the best efforts of David Miller, is still a vibrant, eclectic, and energetic city. If it has unfortunate excesses (the “Pride” parade), those are merely the tip of an iceberg of activity, most of which is unseen and unknown by the general public. There are millions of people in the GTA who work every bit as hard as farmers in SK, oil workers in AB, forestry workers in BC. (In fact, I can think of no other city in the country where people will spend 1.5 hours each way on a daily commute to a minimum wage job.) They worry about paying their mortgages and keeping their car on the road, just as other Canadians across the country do. They are, as the last election showed, awakening to the realization that there is an alternative to voting Liberal.
    Don’t give up on this beautiful, wonderful, post-modern city. Yes, criticize us when we deserve it (and I’ll be the first to say we need a lot of it), but don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Toronto has been, is, and will be the engine of growth for Canada.
    One final thought: both my girls are enrolled in the special technology program at Marc Garneau Collegiate in Toronto. (Digression: we normally don’t name institutions for living people. Since Garneau was our first astronaut, they made an exception. However, he’s returned to earth and is now a Liberal hack. I can’t stump to have the school’s name changed, for fear of repercussions on my daughters, but could someone else take up the cause?) As is usual in such enriched programs, the majority of students are either Asian, white, or an Asian-white mix. When I asked my daughters about some of their classmates, they classified them as “brown”. This was NOT an epithet; it was merely taxonomy. When they have parties at home, the crowd is every colour of the proverbial rainbow, and no one cares a bit. I see in my daughters’ faces the post-racial future, one where Dr. King’s hope that a person would be judged by the content of their character, not by the colour of their skin is realized. If the Toronto experience in some way hastens this development, we will all be richer for it.

  45. libertariansaresmarterthanrocks, Ford has so far, cut the Miller surcharge on licence renewal, privatized the garbage collection west of Yonge Street, no tax increase in 2010, had KPMG do a full audit on where cuts can be made in every city department and examine what is the core business of the city, reduced councillors expense limit, begun the downsizing of the swollen city bureaucracies and eliminated useless bike lanes in Scarborough and Jarvis.
    He is everything the lefties hate, a focused doer that lives up to his promises and he has just begun his mandate.

  46. Corporate welfare bums just fine with you?
    Nope, but freeloading farmer welfare bums are just fine with you,
    being one yourself, I suspect.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation