THE YEAR TORONTO NOTICED HAMILTON
The summer we got a backhanded compliment
If anyone looks like a typical Hamiltonian, it is Victor K. Copps. His face skin is ruddy and on his nose and forehead it is cracking, as if he’d been standing in front of a blast furnace too long …
This is the year Toronto noticed Hamilton. Toronto condo king Brad Lamb pulled into town in June and declared he’s knocking down the silver CHCH spaceship at Caroline and Hunter to build the tallest condo towers we’ve ever seen. (He says he likes cities where prospects are prepared to pay $600 a square foot. Is that a club we were looking to join?)
In January, the Globe & Mail ran a spread headlined: “Why restaurant veterans are ditching Toronto for Hamilton.” (The paper reported it’s about T.O.’s “$25-a-day parking, brutal traffic, high prices, miserable people and the money-rules corporate restaurant scene.)
And the showiest splash came from Toronto Life magazine, which put this cover on its July edition: “Hamilton — Toronto’s Newest Hotspot! Parks Galore! Cool Cafes! Big Yards! No Traffic Jams! Cheap Houses! Hip Bars!”
It turns out, however, that Toronto discovering Hamilton is nothing new.
While poking through some files at the library the other day, I stumbled across a big piece that ran in the Globe and Mail 45 summers ago. The headline: “Hamilton: the lunch bucket city takes off.”
It was written by the talented Martin O’Malley, in his early thirties then. He went on to do lots of great journalism and write at least half-a-dozen books.
But in July 1972, he just couldn’t help himself. His feature opened with a joke:
“I learned to sail in Hamilton Harbour.” “Isn’t that dangerous?” “Oh, no, if the boat tips you can walk to shore.”
Well, we’ve made some progress there. Last month federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, who grew up in Hamilton, was in town to talk about the $140-million cleanup underway on the harbour.
“I do hope one day I will be able to swim right out here,” she said. “We’re getting close.”
O’Malley checked into the Royal Connaught for his assignment. He couldn’t do that today. But it’s some kind of rebirth miracle that he could now buy a condo in that heritage property. Deserted for a decade, the Connaught saw its first residents move in this year.
O’Malley sat down with Hamilton’s chief magistrate:
“If anyone looks like a typical Hamiltonian, it is Victor K. Copps, the mayor. His face skin is ruddy and on his nose and forehead it is cracking, as if he’d been standing in front of a blast furnace too long …
“The next big announcement will be a new arena, and then the next big announcement will be an NHL franchise in Hamilton. ‘No, no, not the WHA,’ Mayor Copps said. ‘We warrant the No. 1 league.’” That wound will never heal. The piece talked about Ticat fever, and the Grey Cup coming that fall. We know now that went well: Hamilton 13, Saskatchewan 10, before 33,993 fans.
It’s been more than 20 years since the championship was played here, a way longer wait than any other CFL city. Maybe we don’t deserve the big game now. We have a new stadium with more defects than a Russian econobox and a team that’s worst in the league.
But O’Malley pointed out that Hamilton then was on the move: “New towers, new roads racing up the fabled mountain, Canada’s largest ($100 million) urban renewal project, a $73-million medical centre looking like an offshore rig for an artists commune.”
He wrote that Hamilton “is Ontario’s second largest city, but to Torontonians it is forgettable, like a dull uncle across town. Its restaurants are at the ‘Golly, garlic bread!’ state, and its art, music and theatre have always suffered by comparison.”
None of that’s true today. We’ve slipped to fifth place in the province, but now punch above our weight in food and arts of every kind.
And, golly, if you need a house that’s halfway affordable, in a place that’s all-the-way real, Hamilton’s your town.