Families and Individuals

As a city such as Toronto grows, the quality of life for the general population of those who dwell inside the city limits needs to be the most important ideal to keep concrete. In Toronto’s case, I have a sense that with a pro-active and civically engaged community, we can all work actively together to effect change that will make Toronto a world class city for visitors and residents. It is in this attitude, the attitude that Toronto has the potential to be considered throughout the global community a world class city, is where the solutions to Toronto’s quality of life issues lie. If Toronto were to acquire this attitude, faster processes would be implemented to not only improve the quality of life for Torontonians, but to bring our city’s progress hand in hand with the community to a world stage for proper and effective urban expansion. If I were a politician, my first step would be to bring the vision of our city’s potential to the doorsteps of the people of Toronto and then implement such projects that would bring Toronto to a new international stature as one of influence, importance and example, a “world class” city.

One of the first things I would implement as a municipal politician would be to extend a series of benefits to transit takers, in conjunction with slight increases to the costs of choosing to travel with a privately owned automobile within the city. For example, if motorists across the city of Toronto paid an additional three cents per litre, than the GTA could be awarded 150 million dollars in transit infrastructure benefits. Unfortunately, the urban transit funding issues are not always top on the political priorities for Canada’s federal government. However, I believe that clear incentives, financially and otherwise, need to be awarded to the growing number of transit takers in Toronto and other major Canadian cities. Some may take this as a drastic step, but making driving within cities more expensive is a necessary one, especially in Toronto, for two reasons.

The first is that Canada has the highest immigration percentage, per capita in the world and 43 percent of those immigrants choose to live in Toronto. With this in mind we can project that public transit may surpass driving as the most used form of transportation for Torontonians in the years to come and that it is likely that our current transit system may not be able to accommodate these growing needs in the future.

Secondly, the world’s environmental issues are becoming more prevalent and are increasingly advocated for my many in the global community, Toronto has a chance to set an example for North America’s east coast cities and sway the balance of transportation choices in turn with reducing greenhouse gases and decreasing air pollution. With an increase in transit funding, innovation of new, greener public transit systems can be made to accommodate higher populations and wider areas. In a study about what makes a city world class, it is noted that a world class city is a regional transportation hub, connecting itself with the other urban centers in the region. With this type of goal in mind, Toronto could drastically increase tourism by creating ease of transport along populations of the lake Ontario area. Connections to the United States, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City could all exist through eco-conscious water transportation systems along the St. Lawrence.

In terms of Toronto itself, an active connection between the waterfront and the rest of the city needs to be put into effect. This means a high-speed system east and west along the entire lakeshore, perhaps aboveground railing or boardwalk streetcars. Other major international cities have drastically improved transit through above ground “minitracks” such as Madrid and Barcelona. Other than connections and infrastructure, other elements need to be taken into effect when it comes to world class transit; overall atmosphere and user friendliness are other attributes I would hope to improve in Toronto’s transit system. For example, I think a transit system should reflect the people it’s moving. In Toronto this means special attention to foreign languages given the area. For example, for a streetcar route going along Dundas St. through the Portugal Village and China town, announcements