The PM’s love-love relationship with Toronto

Torontonians are becoming accustomed to seeing the prime ministerial motorcade drive by. In the summer, my cross-town commute was interrupted when Trudeau and his caravan whizzed past me to attend a lavish dinner at Casa Loma with the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto. The PM showed up at the Pride Parade, jumped on the stage at the Taste of Manila festival and hung out with our mayor at city hall. Torontonians like me have long believed that we live in the most interesting and exciting part of the country. Ottawa finally seems to agree with us.

Though Stephen Harper was born and raised in Leaside and attended high school in Etobicoke, his politics were formed out west. In the Harper years, the country’s centre of gravity was Alberta. He visited the prosperous suburbs of southern Ontario mostly during election time to shore up the votes of new Canadians. And, of course, he was once an honoured guest at Ford Fest, the late mayor’s annual barbecue. But he largely avoided downtown Toronto, precisely when the core was becoming a massive powerhouse—when our banking sector was the envy of the world, condos were transforming the skyline and the country’s creative class was setting up shop along Queen West.

Justin Trudeau believes that Canada’s economic future lies in its biggest and most cosmopolitan city. He sees the Toronto-Waterloo corridor as the tech and innovation epicentre of the country and has pegged many hopes on its potential. Trudeau and his ministers are selling Toronto hard—and it’s not a difficult case to make. We have an educated, skilled workforce whose members have a strong international sensibility. When he was in Davos last January, he helped convince Thomson Reuters to launch its new technology centre here. This past October, he was on the podium at the press conference celebrating all the jobs the centre will create. Torontonians got another hit of Trudeau later that month, when he was in Brampton to attend the opening of a new Amazon Canada warehouse. He now

comes here so often, prime ministerial visits are becoming almost unremarkable.

In a short period of time, he has dramatically raised Canada’s profile and, with it, Toronto’s, too. A year ago this month, our touchy-feely PM made headlines around the world when he went to Pearson to personally greet the first planeload of Syrian refugees with open arms and winter coats. Since then, the New York Times has twice published frontpage stories about our unique privatesponsorship refugee program, stories that prominently featured Toronto families who are supporting newcomers. During a time when Donald Trump’s campaign has fostered vicious anti-immigrant sentiment across America and far-right antirefugee parties are gaining traction in Europe, Canada has become a beacon, and Toronto a model of progressive urbanism.

Last year, Toronto Life put Drake at the top of our annual power list. He had rebranded the city and convinced even the most jaded, self-effacing Torontonians that Toronto was cool. The year before that, our most influential citizen was John Tory. He had just been elected and had promised to bring a steady, sober hand to city hall. This year, our number one isn’t from here, but the Montreal guy who lives in Ottawa feels a lot like Toronto’s prime minister.