This Will Really Piss Off Torontonians

Especially those that subscribe to the view that the reason that there are so many verbal attacks on certain individuals is that those individuals are very successful, powerful, etc. and people are envious.

Charles Adler: Canadians don't care enough about Toronto to hate Toronto

I was thrilled to see Canada's Duke of Documentaries, Alberta Nerenberg in the pages of the National Post shilling for his new baby Let's All Hate Toronto. The filmmaker first came to our attention several years ago for his masterpiece, Stupidity. He has frequently guested on my radio show, "Adler On Line." Without even having seen his new doc, I know the thing is funnier than a hockey barn filled with optimistic Maple Leafs fans.

But while I love Albert's way of getting to the great Canadian funny bone, fairness forces me to say that the premise of this piece is a bit of a real time reach. And if you are thinking about this with a Western Canadian brain, you're thinking this doc ought to be aired on History TV. The truth is that we stopped hating Toronto a long time ago.

Toronto hasn't been the centre of very much thinking here in Western Canada for several years. There is a one word reason for this: Calgary. Someone needs to tell the very funny Alberta Nerenberg that it's difficult to hate a rival city unless it's seen as a rival. In the west, there is one city that has very much replaced Toronto in our collective consciousness. It's sometimes known as Toronto on the Bow. It used to be thought of as Cowtown. The city with the biggest udders is the one that gets the most attention. It is the one that is envied and possibly hated by those who feel they are being dwarfed. Envy has always been the mother's milk of hatred.

It's awfully tough to envy Toronto where are too many reasons not to. Too many taxes with too many politicians thinking up too many more. Too many particles of pollution coming from too many cars in too many traffic jams. Too many guns in the hands of people who can't shoot straight and too many media people who won't.

Here's some breaking news from the West. We don't hate Toronto. We stopped caring about what Toronto thinks a long time ago. Here's hoping a DVD of Let's All Hate Toronto is shown in every Grade 5 classroom from coast to coast. I want those kids to learn how the country felt about Toronto back in the days when my friend Albert Nerenberg was just like them, a ten-year-old.

adleronline@gmail.com

Charles Adler hosts Adler On Line weekday afternoons between 2 and 6 pm EST on the Corus Radio Network.