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Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks to media as he attends the Toronto International Film Festival Tribute Awards gala fundraiser in Toronto, on Sunday.Arlyn McAdorey/Reuters
Toronto is enjoying a brief moment in the sun. Money men and money women from all over the world have descended on the city for the Canada Investment Summit, which the federal government is billing as a “first-of-its-kind gathering” aimed at “accelerating new investment into Canada” – luring billionaires, in other words. Producers, directors and actors from all over the world are in town for the Toronto International Film Festival, the annual movie-industry extravaganza.
The pair of big events – Mammon and the muses side by side – is a golden opportunity to show off the virtues of Canada and its leading city. We are making the best of it.
At a kick-off reception for the investment summit Sunday night at the Royal Ontario Museum, Prime Minister Mark Carney told the assembled suits that “we have what the world wants. The energy, the resources, the talent, the technology.”
The same evening, he appeared with his wife, Diana, at a TIFF gala, drawing big cheers from the crowd outside the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. This time, he boasted about the country’s vibrant arts.
“A confident country welcomes in culture from all around the world,” he said, speaking about the throng of industry folk who are in Toronto to make pitches, talk deals and parade on the red carpet. In Canada, he said, “we love our culture and we’ll always protect and promote our culture.”
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It was a strong message, presented by a charming salesman against a brilliant backdrop. Toronto is putting on its best face for the events and the vibe is great.
Crowds of moviegoers strolled along Festival Street, the TIFF fan zone on a closed-to-traffic King Street West, grazing from food trucks, taking selfies and craning their necks for glimpses of movie stars. Lines of limousines queued outside the ROM and, the next night, the Art Gallery of Ontario to drop off and pick up a host of sleek summiteers. Big black cars and little black dresses were everywhere.
Toronto’s downtown has come roaring back from its pandemic ghost years. The streets are full again and the PATH underground network is crowded with office workers at lunchtime.
Lots of other good things are happening. The once-neglected waterfront is reviving. The once-underbuilt transit system is filling out, with two new light-rail lines recently opened and a big subway project under construction.
The district around the TIFF headquarters on King has been utterly transformed in the past decade or two. Where once there were acres of parking lots, rail yards and warehouses, a new district of bristling skyscrapers has grown up.
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But if the week of Mammon and the Muses puts the virtues of Toronto (and Canada) in the shop window, it also holds up a mirror to our shortcomings. Those who filtered out of the ROM reception where the Prime Minister spoke probably didn’t see the guy sitting on a bench with his knees pulled up to his chin and a hoodie pulled up over his head, sleeping it off. Nor did they see the intoxicated man swaying and singing to himself on the platform of the Bloor-Yonge subway station a few blocks away. Toronto, like many Canadian cities, has a big and increasingly visible population of people who suffer from homelessness, mental illness and drug addiction – often all three.
Its transit system, despite all the new investment, is looking down at heel. Some of the billions of dollars going to the new lines should have been spent on maintaining what already exists. Its parks are often scruffy. Just look at popular Trinity Bellwoods in the city’s west end, where some of this week’s visitors will go to hang out.
Its greatest cultural institutions, the ROM and the AGO, are undergoing the latest in a series of poorly thought-out renovations. Its highway system is in a miserable state of repair. The route that those black cars will follow from the airport to downtown looks like a goat track in places.
Invest in Canada, Mr. Carney says. What he doesn’t say is that, for all its strengths, this country also suffers from chronically low productivity, a cumbersome tax system, rising government debt, timorous corporate leadership, hidebound, needlessly bureaucratic banks, an aging population, a slowing birth rate and a host of interprovincial and international trade barriers that hinder its growth.
Canada is a wonderful country. Toronto is a wonderful city. Displaying their strengths to the world makes sense at a time when our best friend is running us down. But salesmanship won’t win the war. The main task before us is to make our cities and our country better places to live, work and build. Then the investors will come running.