Scroll Down For A Reality Check...

Goodbye 2009 ... good riddance

The year of the massive, enormous, child-swallowing debt is over.

Let's not make it a running gag.

After the country and its provinces put themselves largely back on solid footing over the past 15 years, the economic downturn of 2009 crushed the budgets of the federal government, and provinces including formerly flush Alberta and once reasonably off Ontario.

Income plummeted, spending rose, and our kids will pay.

Toronto, of course, is part of trend. While it runs balanced operating budgets every year, the city is borrowing more money than ever before to pay for long-overdue capital projects, from replacing more than 30-year-old subway cars to spending $180 million on fixing up our roads this year.

But this year Mayor David Miller and friends have decided to pay back the borrowed money over 30 years, not 10 as per usual. That will add an extra $1.6 billion to the borrowing costs (although if inflation continues at the current pace, the hit will be more like $470 million extra).

Gee, thanks.

So goodbye 2009. We've had enough of you, your spending ways, your H1N1 (who would have thought we'd know what that meant 12 months ago?).

OPPORTUNITY TO SHINE

We welcome 2010 with open arms, eager at the opportunity to shine in the world's eyes, starting almost immediately with the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver next month.

As sponsors and the elite carry the torch toward the lower mainland, we hold our breath and hope Vancouver will be able to meet is promises of one of the great sports spectacles of our generation.

We look forward to welcoming the world to the G20 Summit Toronto this summer, and the G8 just before that in cottage country. A wonderful chance to say we're not just about snow in Canada, we have a boatload of mosquitoes, too. Enjoy!

But as this is the start of a New Year, we won't let the cynicism overrun our minds (as the champagne may have done last night).

Canada is still the best country in the world to call home. Along with its many challenges are wonderful opportunities to work, play, and learn.

Here's hoping your year has more play and less work.