A Bad Deal

A Bad Deal

I was lucky enough to purchase a home last week. It didn’t come easy. Nothing does in Canada’s biggest city. I’ve been working full-time for fifteen years, sometimes with multiple jobs at once. I started a business to try and get ahead. My girlfriend went through law school, hustled, and has been working at a top law firm in the city for five years.

Combined, our incomes must be near the top of our cohort, and buying this thing took everything we had. We did it, and we’re extremely proud of it. But we were barely able to do it and make no mistake; we are the lucky ones. So much had to go right for us to accomplish this.

So what does that mean for everyone else trying to carve out their little place? The ones whose dice rolls didn’t afford them the opportunities we had?

There’s this “deal” that is always referenced in the discourse: You work hard, stay in your lane, keep your head down, and trust the institutions that exist to protect your interests. It’s not a deal I ever remember making. Yet perhaps it has been reasonable to assume that this deal was in place. Did we ever do the math though? Or did we just assume that the system and people running it were equipped with the skills and incentives to make it work for us.

That “deal” was in fact an assumption, and you know what they say happens when you assume: You make an ass out of u and me. Gen Z’s, and millennials, but also Gen X and boomers, we’ve all been making assumptions for years.

We assume that our institutions will do their jobs. We assume that they are being held to account by our leaders. We assume that they work tirelessly to make improvements, to continue to get better. There have been times in my life when I thought Toronto was the best city in the world and that Canada was the best country. On a backpacking trip at 20 I would be proud to say where I was from.

I just can’t say that anymore. It started slowly, the train just wouldn’t come and you’d be late for work. An occasional tent in the park or two. A favourite restaurant deciding it was time to close up shop. But like a bad smell in your bedroom, Torontonians have gotten used to it. We barely notice and we’ve become the frogs in the boiling water. We’ve been trained to accept mediocrity and second rate services. Now the subway is delayed with regularity - so much so that you can count on it. Entire parks are occupied by unhoused people. City blocks are sapped of their businesses and local culture due to endless construction.

We assume that leadership is doing the best that it can. Yet we have a transit system where it is completely benign to have a person defecating on the train while you’re just trying to get to work. The other day at Eglinton Station - one of the nicer parts of town - I saw a man passed out and pale, possibly dead, while there was an apoplectic transit officer in an orange vest just standing there. The people there were simply resigned to the fact that that was OK and that this was a normal occurrence. A person dead on a subway platform in the middle of the day. How did it come to this?

Most of us have spent our entire life grinding away. For our younger residents, we see our prospects eroding. Many have given up on kids. Many have given up on ever owning a home. I have a friend who has stated that she won’t save for retirement and will just get MAID when her money runs out. Again, how did it come to this?

In my opinion, it is because like the good humble Canadians we are, we’ve been patient and trusted in the powers that be.

But here’s the hard truth; the powers that be have not figured it out, and are never going to figure it out.

There’s a common parlance which says that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. It’s no wonder the status quo doesn’t change. We continue to have the same people at the top of the pyramid. It should be abundantly clear that they don’t really concern themselves with the needs of the young and the hard-working.

The proof is in the pudding: they’re either evil, corrupt, or incompetent. It’s likely the third, but frankly it doesn't really matter which.

The point is that if we continue to allow the same people to call the shots, nothing will change.

So there are two options available to Torontonians.

Option A: continue with the status quo and continue to allow ourselves to decline. Give up on our ambitions to be a global destination and give up on being the best in the world. Option A is the one where we accept mediocrity.

Option B: we can get in the fight, and affect change. We can start a miniature modern revolution. Take control of our own destiny, and demand better from our institutions and politicians.

Look, if you elect for option A and nihilism is your choice, then I wish you well.

But if you’re like me and want to choose option B: You can make a difference starting today. There is a mayoral election coming up next year and our city is at a major crossroads. The mayor has been involved in local politics my entire life. And for the last decade, things have been getting worse and worse.

Oliva Chow is everything wrong with Toronto politics today. She pats the children on the head with a “there there” while maintaining the status quo. Her and her supporters at city hall can be taken down. If it doesn’t happen, we will continue to decline. Make no mistake, supporting the current city regime is endorsing all of our problems. Not vying for change means you’re ok with a high cost of living, a city that doesn’t work. It means you are giving your tacit approval to an administration that chooses not to take care of its destitute, that closes more shops, businesses and opportunities than it opens. Olivia Chow & John Tory for that matter were running for mayor in 2014. For over a decade, the two of them have had the keys to the city since then. Can any of us point to a single service that has gotten better?

Toronto, we have a choice:

Decline like ancient Rome, stewarding away our glory days and accepting our fate. Resigned to mediocrity and eventually obscurity. Or, we could ignite a renaissance, turn our institutions over to people that care about making the city a place of pride again.

It’s just under a year until the next election - and now is the time to start acting, to get organized, and to turn this once wonderful city around.

It’s time for change. It’s time to stop assuming that we’re getting a fair shake. It’s time we got ourselves out of a very bad deal.

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