The Great Canadian Skyline Thread! II

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Toronto doesn't look American. You could say it looks North American, but not U.S.-American. In fact, and it's a bit bizarre that this isn't more well-known or accepted among Canadians, or at least people in Ontario, there is a distinctive southern Ontario vernacular of shop fronts and residential side streets full of detached and semi-detached houses done up in brick that Toronto is very much a part of.

Most southern Ontarians have had the revelatory experience of seeing Buffalo for the first time and realizing that, wow, the place is really different in every way imaginable. Which brings to mind the pet theory that Canadians are more "vertically" aligned than "horizontally," whereby it is held that people in Vancouver have more in common with people in Seattle, etc.

Is that really true? No. Well, okay, it may be partly true for the west and maybe a bit for the Maritimes. I recall visiting a former girlfriend's relatives in southern Manitoba once; her cousins casually mentioned playing baseball and golfing and grabbing a six-pack "over the line." Grand Forks could easily be in Manitoba. I've heard people in Vancouver feel a kinship with their counterparts in Seattle (but not really the other way around--Seattle looks to Portland first, and, of course, the U.S. in general). But Toronto like Buffalo or Detroit? Montreal like, what, Plattsburgh? No. Not even close.

There is a peculiar truism on and off these boards that Toronto's doppelganger is Chicago, but the truth is, Toronto doesn't have one. And now these two Great Lakes cities are looking less and less alike from the sky because of the decade-long frenzy of building in one of them. Witness the photos in this thread.

Toronto isn't ugly. It's not pretty, sure, but it's not ugly. It's a jumbled, utilitarian mess produced by Presbyterians who frowned on continental extravagance, resulting in a very specific charm that subsequent waves of un-Presbyterian newcomers have built upon, resulting in a jumbled, not always utilitarian mess with pockets of sublime extravagance. Works for me.

Great post. I always found Toronto to be funky looking, very distinctive. It doesn't look like any other big city anywhere.