'Changing Toronto: Governing Urban Neoliberalism' by Julie-Anne Boudreau, Roger Keil, and Douglas Young. University of Toronto Press 2009. 247pp.
'How Toronto Lost Its Groove' by John Lorinc in 'Walrus Magazine' November 2011. pp. 24-33.
What sprawls over 7100 square kilometres, has five and a half million people, and is sometimes loathed by the rest of Canada?
There's no prizes for you if you answered correctly, "Tarana." Toronto, the biggest and most powerful city in Canada, still rules the roost. But in the last 20 years it's taken a beating.
First up came Mike Harris, the very conservative Conservative premier of Ontario. Between 1995 and 2000, he forced Toronto to join a new bigger city, with five of its neighbours.
Then he dumped on this new megacity, a whole lot of welfare costs and other social program expenses. Then he did a whole lot of other things that made many rich people richer and many poor people poorer. But many people supported Harris.
"The Tory victories," write the authors of 'Changing Toronto', "were mostly built on that party's strong support in rural and exurban areas. " Around Toronto,, in huge suburban areas like Vaughan, Brampton and Ajax-Pickering, voters endorsed Harris's "Common Sense Revolution' as he called it.
When Tory times ended in 2003, the new Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty moved Ontario slightly to the left and treated Toronto with more respect than Mike Harris had. But Toronto's problems remain. They include two-tier government, homelessness, endless traffic jams, smog blankets and skyrocketting home prices.
The most multicultural city in Canada is also finding it hard to absorb the 40,000 people who stream into it, every year.
All of this is well-explained in 'Changing Toronto' a book with three authors that came out a few years ago. Sometimes academic prose clogs the book. But overall, the three authors have given us a portrait of a city with problems.
John Lorinc brings the Toronto story up to the fall of 2011. His essay 'How Toronto Lost Its Groove' outlines the policies of the city's new ultraconservative mayor Rob Ford. But as Lorinc points out, "Toronto's woes go well beyond the mayor's fiscal populism."
"Toronto,' says Lorinc, "persists in thinking smalll and cheap." Lorinc also gives us a history of the city with special emphasis on the post-1945 years.
We people outside Toronto, he insists, should worry about the city's fate, rather than rejoice about it. Toronto contributes a massive 20 per cent to Canada's Gross National Product. So anything that damages Toronto hurts Canada. And though small by world standards, Toronto's present problems could be the ones that many Canadian cities will face in the not too distant future.
Saturday 30 June 2012
Friday 22 June 2012
rich and poor, black and white - les intouchables
Les Intouchables - starring Francois Cluzet and Omar Sy. Directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano. Length 112 minutes. In French with English subtitles.
Driss is a big black man from Sengal who's poor. Philippe is a paralyzed French invalid who's rich. Driss, played by Omer Sy, ends up taking care of Philippe, played by Francois Cluzet.
In 'The Intouchables' they argue, smoke dope, fly in Philippe's private plane, wisecrack, and go to operas and art galleries together. This is a French version of how folks from the opposite ends of the social spectrum, can bond together. It's a Gallic feel good flick, an interacial buddy film.
"I feel nothing," Philippe says to Driss. "But I suffer anyway."
Soon Driss frees Philippe from his uptight rich ways, and the movie ends on a happy note. In the background, of course, lie millions of coloured French poor people. Like Driss, they live in overcrowded high rises, stacked on top of each other.
In 2004 and 2005, these coloured poor people rioted across France. Woody Allen sort of missed this in his ode to France called 'Midnight in Paris'. But Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, who co-directed 'Les Intouchables' or 'The Intouchables' are optimists. In this film they look on the bright side of life.
Rich and poor, they're pointing out, black and white, can live together in peace and harmony. The odds are weighted against this outcome. But who knows? "I hope the message of 'The Intouchables' is right," I said after watching the film. In any case this is an easy film to watch.
Driss is a big black man from Sengal who's poor. Philippe is a paralyzed French invalid who's rich. Driss, played by Omer Sy, ends up taking care of Philippe, played by Francois Cluzet.
In 'The Intouchables' they argue, smoke dope, fly in Philippe's private plane, wisecrack, and go to operas and art galleries together. This is a French version of how folks from the opposite ends of the social spectrum, can bond together. It's a Gallic feel good flick, an interacial buddy film.
"I feel nothing," Philippe says to Driss. "But I suffer anyway."
Soon Driss frees Philippe from his uptight rich ways, and the movie ends on a happy note. In the background, of course, lie millions of coloured French poor people. Like Driss, they live in overcrowded high rises, stacked on top of each other.
In 2004 and 2005, these coloured poor people rioted across France. Woody Allen sort of missed this in his ode to France called 'Midnight in Paris'. But Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, who co-directed 'Les Intouchables' or 'The Intouchables' are optimists. In this film they look on the bright side of life.
Rich and poor, they're pointing out, black and white, can live together in peace and harmony. The odds are weighted against this outcome. But who knows? "I hope the message of 'The Intouchables' is right," I said after watching the film. In any case this is an easy film to watch.
Sunday 17 June 2012
The Rocketman
'Maurice Richard' by Charles Foran. 166pp. Penguin Canada. 2011. With an introduction by John Ralston Saul.
It was tough being Maurice 'Rocket' Richard.
Richard was the Montreal Canadians or Canadiens' most famous hockey player during the team's glory days from l956 to l960 when they won five Stanley Cups in a row. Born Joseph Henri Maurice in l921 in Montreal, Richard was the son of a carpenter Onesime Richard and his wife Alice.
Even before the economic crash of 1929 author Charles Foran points out "unemployment rates around the city of Montreal hovered at 25 per cent." Pay was low, medicare didn't exist, there was no welfare or decent old age pensions. Life was tough.
The Richard family were French-Canadians scuffling for survival, while a few English-speaking Canadians ruled the roost. Charles Foran has outlined the main parts of Richard's climb to fame, if not fortune. Foran stresses Richard's clashes with rival hockey players on the ice and rich English-Canadians off it.
For most of his playing life, the Canadians were owned by the powerful Molson family, who paid him and otrher hockey players pitiful wages by to-day's standards. Richard's suspension, by Clarence Campbell, the head of the then six team National Hockey League in l955, sparked the famous 'Richard Riot' in Montreal. This riot matched Vancouver's famous hockey riot in 2011.
For Foran, Richard symbolized French Canadians in his playing years. He stood as one part of Quebec, while the other Maurice, Maurice Duplessis, the dictatorial premier, guarded Quebec's poltical gates.
"Being pre-T.V.," writes Foran, "probably worked in Richard's favour, editing out the shocking visual evidence of his lack of restraint, and his disturbing capacity for violence."
Richard hit, smahed and beat opponents who did just the same to him. He scored 50 goals in l944 but assaulted many players on the ice. He retired in 1960, forced out by the Canadian top brass. In retirement he remained a conservative as the French Canadians morphed into the more affluent assertive Quebecois. He had a brood of seven children and always went to church on Sundays. This man was no separatiste.
If you want to learn more about this working class hero and the political background of his life, Foran's book is a good place to start.
It was tough being Maurice 'Rocket' Richard.
Richard was the Montreal Canadians or Canadiens' most famous hockey player during the team's glory days from l956 to l960 when they won five Stanley Cups in a row. Born Joseph Henri Maurice in l921 in Montreal, Richard was the son of a carpenter Onesime Richard and his wife Alice.
Even before the economic crash of 1929 author Charles Foran points out "unemployment rates around the city of Montreal hovered at 25 per cent." Pay was low, medicare didn't exist, there was no welfare or decent old age pensions. Life was tough.
The Richard family were French-Canadians scuffling for survival, while a few English-speaking Canadians ruled the roost. Charles Foran has outlined the main parts of Richard's climb to fame, if not fortune. Foran stresses Richard's clashes with rival hockey players on the ice and rich English-Canadians off it.
For most of his playing life, the Canadians were owned by the powerful Molson family, who paid him and otrher hockey players pitiful wages by to-day's standards. Richard's suspension, by Clarence Campbell, the head of the then six team National Hockey League in l955, sparked the famous 'Richard Riot' in Montreal. This riot matched Vancouver's famous hockey riot in 2011.
For Foran, Richard symbolized French Canadians in his playing years. He stood as one part of Quebec, while the other Maurice, Maurice Duplessis, the dictatorial premier, guarded Quebec's poltical gates.
"Being pre-T.V.," writes Foran, "probably worked in Richard's favour, editing out the shocking visual evidence of his lack of restraint, and his disturbing capacity for violence."
Richard hit, smahed and beat opponents who did just the same to him. He scored 50 goals in l944 but assaulted many players on the ice. He retired in 1960, forced out by the Canadian top brass. In retirement he remained a conservative as the French Canadians morphed into the more affluent assertive Quebecois. He had a brood of seven children and always went to church on Sundays. This man was no separatiste.
If you want to learn more about this working class hero and the political background of his life, Foran's book is a good place to start.
Sunday 10 June 2012
Meat, the dangerou food.
'The Food Revolution' by John Robbind. Conari Press 2001. 448 pp. Reviwed by Dave Jaffe.
If you want to feel really depressed, check out the state of the environment. Global warming, vanishing species, collapsing icebergs and toxic poisons popping up everywhere, can turn anybody into a complete pessimist.
Can the average person do anything to slow down this crisis? John Robbins, a well-known American author believes we can. His advice is very simple: Just stop eating meat, chicken, sheese and butter, and stop drinking milk. Oh yes. And stop eating eggs to.
"It's actually quite amazing," writes Robbins in 'The Food Revolution', "how often it is products of animal origin that cause food-borne illness."
But animal foood in other words meat, can cause many other illnesses. Cancer, heart attacks, and strokes happen to you sooner rather than later, if you eat meat, gobble down cheese or slather butter or creams onto your bread.
Meat products, says Robbins, cause global warming, soil erosion and famine."It is nearly impossible to overestimate the impact of cattle grazing in the westerbn United States," Robbins points out. And while cattle gobble up massive amounts of land, huge loads of soybeans and grain are also fed to cattle. That food could feed the world.
Raising meat also sucks up oceans of water, causing water shortages. Meanwhile cattle, chicken and pigs are crammed into sheds where they are tortued before being killed.
Robbins is a true rebel. His father Irv Robbins was one of the two founders of Baskin-Robbins, the giant ice cream firm. The co-founder Burt Baskin, Robbins's uncle died of a heart attack in his early fifties, from eating massive amounts of ice cream.
Robbins's dad finally listened to his son John and changed his eating habits. "I walked away from an opportunity to live a life of wealth," writes Robbins, "to live a different kind of life." I'm glad he did for 'The Food Revolution' came out of his journey away from the big business world. Stop eating meat, says Robbins, and you will save yourself and the earth.
If you want to feel really depressed, check out the state of the environment. Global warming, vanishing species, collapsing icebergs and toxic poisons popping up everywhere, can turn anybody into a complete pessimist.
Can the average person do anything to slow down this crisis? John Robbins, a well-known American author believes we can. His advice is very simple: Just stop eating meat, chicken, sheese and butter, and stop drinking milk. Oh yes. And stop eating eggs to.
"It's actually quite amazing," writes Robbins in 'The Food Revolution', "how often it is products of animal origin that cause food-borne illness."
But animal foood in other words meat, can cause many other illnesses. Cancer, heart attacks, and strokes happen to you sooner rather than later, if you eat meat, gobble down cheese or slather butter or creams onto your bread.
Meat products, says Robbins, cause global warming, soil erosion and famine."It is nearly impossible to overestimate the impact of cattle grazing in the westerbn United States," Robbins points out. And while cattle gobble up massive amounts of land, huge loads of soybeans and grain are also fed to cattle. That food could feed the world.
Raising meat also sucks up oceans of water, causing water shortages. Meanwhile cattle, chicken and pigs are crammed into sheds where they are tortued before being killed.
Robbins is a true rebel. His father Irv Robbins was one of the two founders of Baskin-Robbins, the giant ice cream firm. The co-founder Burt Baskin, Robbins's uncle died of a heart attack in his early fifties, from eating massive amounts of ice cream.
Robbins's dad finally listened to his son John and changed his eating habits. "I walked away from an opportunity to live a life of wealth," writes Robbins, "to live a different kind of life." I'm glad he did for 'The Food Revolution' came out of his journey away from the big business world. Stop eating meat, says Robbins, and you will save yourself and the earth.
Norway revisited
This is a correction to the film review of the Norwegian film 'The Headhunters' I wrote last week. I mentioned that Norway is a semi-socialistic country that's usually very peaceful. But I forgot to note the terrible events that played out in Norway a few months ago. A far-right terrorist killed 77 young social democrats last July 22.
So Norway like many other counties is not always peaceful.
So Norway like many other counties is not always peaceful.
Sunday 3 June 2012
Matisse and Other Masters
"Collecting Matisse and Modern Mastets' Showing at the Vancouver Art Gallery until September 20th.
Claribel and Ettta Cone were two never-married Baltimore-born women who met the famous French painter Henri Matisse about 110 years ago. They bought close to 500 of his works as well as pieces by Picasso, Van Gogh and other famous artists. They gave most of this work to the Baltimore Museum of Art.
"Matisse radiated a serenity that I found very moving," Pablo Picasso's partner Francoise Gilot said about Matisse when she knew him in the l940's and 1950's.
Some of this serenity shows up in Matisse's work that's now on display at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Nearly all the works here are borrowed from the Cone Collection at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Matisse's paintings like 'Striped Robe, Fruit and Anemones' and 'Reclining Nude' are powerful lovely works.
Yet this show only has about 50 paintings including 1 or 2 by Van Gogh and Picasso. This is a tiny part of the entire Cone Collection back in Baltimore.
And the show stopper for me wasn't anything by Matisse. Courbet, the great 19th century realist only has one small landscape in the show. Yet his 'The Shaded Stream at Le Puit Noirs' has a mystery and magic to it that no other painting in this show, including those by Matisse, could match.
Claribel and Ettta Cone were two never-married Baltimore-born women who met the famous French painter Henri Matisse about 110 years ago. They bought close to 500 of his works as well as pieces by Picasso, Van Gogh and other famous artists. They gave most of this work to the Baltimore Museum of Art.
"Matisse radiated a serenity that I found very moving," Pablo Picasso's partner Francoise Gilot said about Matisse when she knew him in the l940's and 1950's.
Some of this serenity shows up in Matisse's work that's now on display at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Nearly all the works here are borrowed from the Cone Collection at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Matisse's paintings like 'Striped Robe, Fruit and Anemones' and 'Reclining Nude' are powerful lovely works.
Yet this show only has about 50 paintings including 1 or 2 by Van Gogh and Picasso. This is a tiny part of the entire Cone Collection back in Baltimore.
And the show stopper for me wasn't anything by Matisse. Courbet, the great 19th century realist only has one small landscape in the show. Yet his 'The Shaded Stream at Le Puit Noirs' has a mystery and magic to it that no other painting in this show, including those by Matisse, could match.
'Headhunters' a film review
'Headhunters'. A film starring Aksel Hennie, Nicolaj Coster-Waldau and Synnove Macode Lund. In Norwegian with English subtitles.
"My name is Roger Brown," says Aksel Hennie at the start of 'Headhunters'. "I'm 1.68 meters tall." He says at the film's end.
In between those times, director Morton Tyldem drags us into a violent, bloody but sometimes comic drama. Norway is supposed to be a peaceful socialistic-type country where little drama occurs. Well, if that's your idea of Norwar, think again.
Brown{Aksel Hennie} is a corporate recruiter. He's also an art thief married to a lovely tall blonde wife{Synnove Macody Lund} who he's scared of losing. Enter the real villain, Clas Greve {Nicolaj Coster- Waldou}. Then all hell breaks loose.
Brown is at times stabbed, shot, shit-coated and nearly killed. A villain himself, he survives many trials as he journeys through a Nordic hell. 'Headhunters' has changed my image of Norway forever.
"My name is Roger Brown," says Aksel Hennie at the start of 'Headhunters'. "I'm 1.68 meters tall." He says at the film's end.
In between those times, director Morton Tyldem drags us into a violent, bloody but sometimes comic drama. Norway is supposed to be a peaceful socialistic-type country where little drama occurs. Well, if that's your idea of Norwar, think again.
Brown{Aksel Hennie} is a corporate recruiter. He's also an art thief married to a lovely tall blonde wife{Synnove Macody Lund} who he's scared of losing. Enter the real villain, Clas Greve {Nicolaj Coster- Waldou}. Then all hell breaks loose.
Brown is at times stabbed, shot, shit-coated and nearly killed. A villain himself, he survives many trials as he journeys through a Nordic hell. 'Headhunters' has changed my image of Norway forever.
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