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"Stay Classy, Toronto"
Steve Paikin hosting the program The Agenda
Video can be viewed here
TVO's Steve Paikin has another one of his stellar programs. The June 7 program was on the urban/inner suburbs differences. The term inner suburbs is used for low-income neighborhoods within urban areas, which are usually located in the peripheries of the urban areas, and closer to urban areas than suburban ones. The urban and inner suburb areas rarely meet, mingle or use the same services. The inner suburbs are usually populated by government-dependent, poor, often unemployed or under-employed groups. The majority of the inner suburb population is of immigrant origin. Urban communities are wealthier than the inner urban groups. They are mostly white.
This new "class" division that is occurring in Toronto, and apparently in other Canadian cities from the information in the video above, has been acerbated by the high level of immigrants that Toronto has been accepting over the last thirty years. It is clearly a class issue, but it is primarily an immigration issue, which is turning into a racial issue.
The discussion below barely touches on immigration, and if the panelists do bring it up, it is a word buried amidst a forest of others, or it is alluded to. For example, the inner urban areas such as Scarborough and North York which have the highest population of poor, social assistance-dependent groups are the areas with dense immigrant groups, from Third World countries.
Paikin tries to bring this out in the open, and asks for solutions to the problem. But each time, the panelists blame the problem on evil politicians who don't dish out enough money to improve these conditions by providing the necessary social infrastructures, or social assistance funds.
In the end, all Paikin could do was to thank the panelists. I think his problem is that partly he is a nice guy, and partly he has to toe the line to keep his job at the leftist TVO. But, at least he brought the panel together, and gave us plenty of information to think about. I would think that he would be called a "white wine-sipping elite" by these two women, and by others. He lives a few blocks away from the TVO station, in an elite neighborhood called Forest Hill. How long before he takes insult?
This will be the phenomenon of the upcoming decades. People with values, abilities, religions and cultural and social structures very different from the original Canada (which is still being maintained by the "white wine-sipping elites" as they are now being disparagingly labeled) are populating the country. The net effect will be a society more inferior than the one that existed before they arrived (how can we expect more, since the societies they left were of inferior standards, which they will be replicating here thanks to the leniency of multiculturalism?). There will be other dangerous elements to contend with, one of which is the Muslim aggression which will precipitate Jihadist/terrorist behavior, and make the country less safe for all its inhabitants.
Below is a transcript of the video from between the 25 - 36 minutes point, where the immigration issue, in conjunction with poverty (clearly referring to the poor immigrants that are populating these inner subarbs) is subtly explored.
Karen StintzStintz says: "But in terms of a city that works, as to a city that works, absolutely I think that we work."
Chair, Toronto Transit Commission:
25:38 - 26:24
There's no question Toronto is growing and that's presenting challenges. But I think it's also important to recognize the reason we're growing and the rate that we are is because we are the largest city in Canada, because we have a diverse population, because Toronto is home to many people. And people who come to Toronto and chose it, I don;t think they're choosing North York, Scarborough or Etobicoke. They're choosing the city of Toronto. And when we think about the fastest growing city, I think about the fastest growing city I think we're now fourth in North America, we're hosting the Pan Am Games. We've got so many attributes that big cities can brag about, we've an arts community, the medical community, the universities that are now connected by mass transit. There's so many things we have going for us by virtue of the fact that we're such a big city, but we just have to consider ourselves that big city.
Steve Paikin
Host of The Agenda:
26:35 - 26:40
They used to call Toronto (thirty years ago] the city that works. And I don't hear people saying that as much anymore. Does the city still work given how big and clunky it is?
Stintz:
26:41 - 27:13
Yeah! Every day 1.7 million people use the TTC [Toronto Transit]. There's pressures on our system no question. But with the budget that we have, we provide a lot of services, from water to roads to sewers to snow clearing to snow plowing to leaf collection to parks and rec[reations], camps, the zoo. You know, there's the question that are we doing too much. I think that's a legitimate question. Are we doing the core things that we should be doing as well as we could be doing, I think those are legitimate question that the public has of us. But in terms of a city that works, as to a city that works, absolutely I think that we work.
Paikin:
28:10 - 28:30
But again I keep hearing this, that the values of the people who live in the Old City of Toronto the legacy city of Toronto, and the values of city of Toronto, Old Toronto, and the values of the people who live in the inner suburbs, Etobicoke, Scarborough, North York, East York, York, as they then were called, are different. And it's too hard to shoe-horn everybody into one shoe nowadays. That's what you hear.
Paikin:
30:40 - 30:45
The needs and desires of those living in Scarborough and Etobicoke are really different from those living downtown [Toronto]
Paikin:
31:30 - 31:46
What you would hear was...The people in the inner city, they get the subway because they are the white wine-sipping elites, and you folks living in Scarborough, you know, a street car is good enough for you. You're not entitled to a subway. I mean that kind of class warfare was played out on a daily basis when the city debated that, right?
Stintz:
32:50 - 33:00
There's lots of messages that resonate with people who again are not well-served by transit, who are feeling that they're paying more because they tend to be in the outer areas of the city because they're economically disadvantaged...
Paikin:
33:08 - 33:15
To the extent that those cleavages existed, do you think they are much worse now that Mayor Ford has been mayor for the last, almost, three years?
Stintz:
36:31 - 36:35
I don't think we're divided as the current administration would like us to believe.
This is not wishful thinking, or a myopic view of the situation. I think she really believes this. What could be better than to have a city full of vibrancy? Toronto, and its "white wine-sipping elites," and all those other whites, can only gain from a city full of "ethnics" with charming accents, exotic restaurants, colorful holidays, and wise and wonderful ways.
Yet, when we go to the areas most densely populated by these "ethnics" all we see are deteriorating restaurants and dull, colorless houses. So much for vibrancy. Even those areas where reasonably well-to-do (these days they are "Asians" - i.e. Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos, and the South Asians - i.e. Indians and Pakistani) immigrants reside, we find generally inferior homes, with no landscaping or maintenance of the surroundings. Dull and lusterless places.
Stinz of course, being the "white wine sipping elite," lives in the affluent Forest Hill, where she has her ward, where she also resides. There are no photos of her home, but she has posted some scenery of beautiful houses surrounded by lush greenery.
Steve Paikin was kind and generous towards her. He should have simply demolished her illogical ramblings with devastating logic. He could have set a precedent for other journalists.
Left: A home in a woody cul-de-sac in Stinz's affluent Forest Hill ward
Middle: A housing complex in Scarborough's West Hill
Right: A detached pre-fabricated house with a bare lawn in West Hill Scarborough
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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