Make Old City Hall a museum

Re A very bad idea for a great building, Sept. 30 I very much agree with Edward Keenan. Surely we can do more for this grand building. Toronto is long overdue for having a city museum recounting its varied history and contributions to the country and beyond our borders.

On my travels around the world, I make it a point to visit these museums to learn more about the cities I’m visiting. Sydney, London, Cape Town, Rio, Paris, Frankfurt, Singapore, Shanghai, Montreal, Vancouver — cities that aspire to “world class” all want to tell visitors about their history.

And while we do have several individual city museums (Mackenzie House, Fort York; the First Parliament interpretive centre has reverted to an automobile showroom) we still have nothing that tells locals and visitors our story, from the settlements of the First Peoples, to the arrival of the first Europeans, and onward through today.

So let’s not waste an opportunity to do something lasting with a treasure of a building. Toronto doesn’t need a Queen Victoria Building, a classic Victorian structure in Sydney, Australia, that was turned into yet another retail mall. David Balcon, Toronto