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Originally Posted by Barnard's Star
I'd also add to The Architect's points on hockey a more general note: it's becoming incredibly tiresome to hear about how immature and beholden to the U.S. the culture of Toronto is. The city's culture is internationalized, yes, but that doesn't make it counterfeit. TIFF, Pride, Caribana, all the food and ethnic fests... what's wrong with this? It's elitism? Hardly.
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In all fairness, it's a bit of both. For much of the past 50 years, Toronto has simply mimicked what's hot or trendy elsewhere. Slowly we started to look inward and rediscover what's ours, pour energies into it, and develop the potential we saw. That's certainly true of our food/wine culture, TIFF, PrideWeek, and Carribana, etc. That doesn't mean that we've stopped looking down upon domestic fare completely. Football is a prime example.
We treat our football team and national league in much the same way as we used to view Niagara wine, local food, and local fashion. We're embarrassed of it rather than recognizing it's potential. I'm not sure how Niagara wine turned the corner, but it required people who saw its value. They devoted time, money, and energy into its promotion. We no longer thumb our noses at it and the same thing needs to happen to football.
When I look at Toronto I see a society that's maturing and looking increasingly to itself rather than simply copying other places. Toronto has made great strides, but hasn't become a place that's developed a sense of place yet. The culture here is still maturing. I'm not sure how a city that's 53% foreign born and accepting 100,000 new comers every year can have a mature culture, tbh. It was always going to be a work in progress and will take a long time to start gelling.
Whether Toronto ever celebrates all facets of its history and traditions is still very much up in the air. It's just a little shocking that one institution with such massive national significance might be one that Toronto decides it won't embrace.