I had this exact same feeling staying in Vancouver this summer! And I interviewed someone earlier in the year who thought Montreal was a utopian city! (I’m now planning a trip!)
Maybe Canadian cities are just utopian because they are so multicultural, and because they seem designed to be a good place to live (so much culture, so much greenery, so many bike paths and places to stroll!)
I definitely agree that Utopianism relies on two things: systems designed to be of the best benefit to the most people, but also the freedom for those people to live the way they want to within their local communities. So far, democratic socialism seems to provide some kind of happy medium there, but it will certainly never be perfect!
Utopia is an evolution not a destination! And many of our societies are much more utopian than More could have imagined!
The problem though is that it’s only Utopian in summer and a few weeks of fall. Then during the long long winter it’s a frozen, chilling wind, -20 bitter cold nightmare.
Lol please don’t expose the greatness of Toronto. If you do, too many people will come! It’s a hidden gem!
Toronto is the whole world in one place getting along happily,
Also, I feel like we went to the same tea flavored ice cream place on Yonge and it was SO good. Did they only have peach and matcha as the choices? Incredible matcha ice cream here. The Toronto food scene is the best food scene in the world if you judge purely on taste and not service.
And if it wasn’t for winter, Toronto would be the best big city to live on earth imo.
> Of the world’s large cities, it is one of the most diverse, and possibly the one with the largest proportion of foreign-born immigrants.
Dubai's population is a whopping 85% foreign-born, and it's definitely part of "the world's large cities".
I also like to think of Canada and Australia as being unusually high-percentage foreign-born, but the UAE in general, and Dubai in particular, is the actual blatant outlier there.
Oh yeah I didn’t think of the gulf states as I was writing this. I feel like those are very different (and not very utopian) though considering that almost all of those foreigners are temporary workers who aren’t allowed to stay permanently, while the locals are a tiny minority of quasi-aristocratic Emirati citizens
I had the exact same impression of Toronto as you; it's not somewhere I love or want to live in, but I'm very happy it exists; I really do think it demonstrates something special, that the most multicultural city in the world can just be... A bit dull!
What makes Canada more generally and Toronto specifically so special is that they are so neutral when it comes to culture. Both Australia and the United States are similar to Canada in many ways, but both states place their dominant culture on a pedestal.
It is also for this reason why Toronto is the most interesting food city in the entire world.
I just called Toronto dull in a separate comment, but I fully endorse the food point. Even London (UK) where I live now is less vibrant for food (although it's pretty darn good!)
I'm sure Toronto is a beautiful city. But utopia or even close I disagree. A place and there are many were people are living in streets and public places is no utopia.
At first I was going to write that the housing problems, making the city inaccessible, were themselves a reason to qualify it as a utopia—since a lot of those mythical perfect islands are also inaccessible in a way!
Your second point is what I was, perhaps to subtly, getting at—though Toronto is utopian, I think there are very good reasons to not want to live there, and some chance of the experiment failing in an unexpected way because it is culturally strange. The lack of clear identity is in my opinion an actually big deal! At least, I think. I don’t know; time will tell.
Ok, pushing back. People clearly can afford to live here as I’ve been walking around Toronto all summer seeing a gazillion condos, houses, and very very few homeless people. There is no US city with less unhoused people than Toronto.
I had this exact same feeling staying in Vancouver this summer! And I interviewed someone earlier in the year who thought Montreal was a utopian city! (I’m now planning a trip!)
Maybe Canadian cities are just utopian because they are so multicultural, and because they seem designed to be a good place to live (so much culture, so much greenery, so many bike paths and places to stroll!)
I definitely agree that Utopianism relies on two things: systems designed to be of the best benefit to the most people, but also the freedom for those people to live the way they want to within their local communities. So far, democratic socialism seems to provide some kind of happy medium there, but it will certainly never be perfect!
Utopia is an evolution not a destination! And many of our societies are much more utopian than More could have imagined!
The problem though is that it’s only Utopian in summer and a few weeks of fall. Then during the long long winter it’s a frozen, chilling wind, -20 bitter cold nightmare.
As a Montrealer, Toronto winter is actually somewhat mild to me! At least in theory, I think I’ve only ever been in summer
Though to add: utopia is about social systems, it’s not a synonym of “paradise” or anything like that; they can exist in any climate!
It is more mild, but both are brutal compared to most cities.
Haha, for sure. Winter really kills the vibe.
as a torontonian I endorse this post
Lol please don’t expose the greatness of Toronto. If you do, too many people will come! It’s a hidden gem!
Toronto is the whole world in one place getting along happily,
Also, I feel like we went to the same tea flavored ice cream place on Yonge and it was SO good. Did they only have peach and matcha as the choices? Incredible matcha ice cream here. The Toronto food scene is the best food scene in the world if you judge purely on taste and not service.
And if it wasn’t for winter, Toronto would be the best big city to live on earth imo.
SF should study Toronto.
The flavour was actually jasmine tea, at Kekou on Yonge near Finch :)
Ahh that’s further north than the one I went to. So yummy!
> Of the world’s large cities, it is one of the most diverse, and possibly the one with the largest proportion of foreign-born immigrants.
Dubai's population is a whopping 85% foreign-born, and it's definitely part of "the world's large cities".
I also like to think of Canada and Australia as being unusually high-percentage foreign-born, but the UAE in general, and Dubai in particular, is the actual blatant outlier there.
Oh yeah I didn’t think of the gulf states as I was writing this. I feel like those are very different (and not very utopian) though considering that almost all of those foreigners are temporary workers who aren’t allowed to stay permanently, while the locals are a tiny minority of quasi-aristocratic Emirati citizens
I had the exact same impression of Toronto as you; it's not somewhere I love or want to live in, but I'm very happy it exists; I really do think it demonstrates something special, that the most multicultural city in the world can just be... A bit dull!
This is a fantastic and important post Etienne.
What makes Canada more generally and Toronto specifically so special is that they are so neutral when it comes to culture. Both Australia and the United States are similar to Canada in many ways, but both states place their dominant culture on a pedestal.
It is also for this reason why Toronto is the most interesting food city in the entire world.
I just called Toronto dull in a separate comment, but I fully endorse the food point. Even London (UK) where I live now is less vibrant for food (although it's pretty darn good!)
I'm sure Toronto is a beautiful city. But utopia or even close I disagree. A place and there are many were people are living in streets and public places is no utopia.
At first I was going to write that the housing problems, making the city inaccessible, were themselves a reason to qualify it as a utopia—since a lot of those mythical perfect islands are also inaccessible in a way!
Your second point is what I was, perhaps to subtly, getting at—though Toronto is utopian, I think there are very good reasons to not want to live there, and some chance of the experiment failing in an unexpected way because it is culturally strange. The lack of clear identity is in my opinion an actually big deal! At least, I think. I don’t know; time will tell.
Ok, pushing back. People clearly can afford to live here as I’ve been walking around Toronto all summer seeing a gazillion condos, houses, and very very few homeless people. There is no US city with less unhoused people than Toronto.