Megacity politics in shambles 10 years later (Toronto Star)

Though the forced joining of Toronto and its boroughs left city council and the civic bureaucracy a mess, daily life continues much as it did before former premier Mike Harris unleashed his onslaught.

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Then, as now, most of us remained ensconced within our own neighbourhood. Etobicokers still think of themselves as Etobicokers, North Yorkers as North Yorkers, Scarboroughites as Scarboroughites. Until we travel far enough that the finer points of residency are lost, we're reluctant to admit to being Torontonians. Go far enough, however, and even Mississaugans become Torontonians, something they'd be loath to acknowledge in these parts.

The rest of Toronto still jokes about Scarborough, or as we prefer to call it, Scarberia. We still shake our heads at the condo mayhem of "downtown" North York and can't make sense of Etobicoke politics.

Everyone else still despises Toronto – the "old" city of Toronto – for its arrogance and self-absorption. Some things never change.

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With a few exceptions, no one on council has started to think about Toronto as a whole. The system discourages that at the best of times, never more so than now. The result has been a sharp drop in civic self-confidence; a growing sense Toronto has entered a downward spiral. The blame extends well beyond city hall, but the low level of debate, divisiveness, bitterness and triviality of council meetings has led to feeling that we're no longer able to deal with the problems we face.

The psychology of amalgamation hasn't created more solidarity between neighbourhoods, but a masochistic, let's-hate-Toronto attitude. But Toronto is us, and we are Toronto. In the decade since amalgamation, we have become our own worst enemy.

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It will take at least a generation to get over our prejudices, for East Yorkers to be able to say, happily, I am a Torontonian. Even then, we will tend to identify with a neighbourhood, rather than the city. In Toronto, people come from the Annex, Cabbagetown, Riverdale, Moore Park, and so on. Only after that, are they Torontonians. We are, don't forget, a city of neighbourhoods. We have gone to great lengths to empower the local at the cost of the civic.

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