Toronto learns to love success
Beloved Blue Jays’ sprint to the playoffs has lifted our battered civic psyche
As unaccustomed as Toronto sports fans are to success, winners are easy to get used to.
For the bean-counters, the sudden rise of the Blue Jays to the heights of major league baseball means selling more seats, more hotdogs and beer, more sweaters and caps, more merch in general and, of course, a whole lot more money.
For local businesses — especially bars and restaurants — it’s the same story. The team’s recently acquired prowess has led to the sort of sales they can usually only dream about.
That’s all fine; but in Toronto, the Blue Jays’ success resonates at a level deeper than even the almighty dollar.
It strikes at the very heart of a municipal culture and civic psyche left battered and beaten by decades of officially sanctioned parsimony and the mediocrity that comes with it — political, corporate, intellectual and cultural. They are the price we pay for our cheapness.
You get what you pay for, of course, and for us that means settling for the second-rate.
We see it at every turn. Even our mayor, John Tory, talks about how great it would be, for example, to build a tunnel and bury the Gardiner Expressway. But, he always quickly adds, that sort of boldness isn’t for poor little Toronto. It would cost too much, take too long, inconvenience commuters and frighten us.
Meanwhile, Canadian corporations are said to be sitting on an estimated $630 billion of what former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney calls “dead money.”
Though productivity is low and Canadian business can’t compete globally, it clings to its cash reserves, even at its own peril.
It’s tempting to understand this as colonialism’s last gasp, but in a city as young as Toronto, that can no longer be an excuse. Regardless of why, the result is a city that has come to see itself as unworthy of investment, indeed, a city that has forgotten the difference between expenditure and investment, a city that succeeds despite itself. When Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos acquired several high-priced free agents earlier this year, many thought him mad. After all, the Jays under previous executives like Paul Godfrey had happily made do with being second-rate. For years, crowds were small and few cared who won or lost, but our faith in thrift and cheapness was upheld.
In Toronto, we measure success by how much we don’t spend, not how much we do.
Anthopoulos has turned a habit of decades upside-down and reminded this city of unthinking tightwads that it can make sense to spend, and spend richly. He reminds us that investing in excellence, which almost always costs more, is smart, profitable and potentially transformative.
His willingness to spend has turned a city of losers into winners. He has enabled Torontonians to feel good about their city in a way they haven’t for ages. He has generated interest and excitement that has spread across Canada and beyond. Perhaps he has also changed how the city thinks of itself and our expectations of it.
He has also proved that parsimony makes as little sense as profligacy. He has shown Toronto how destructive its self-imposed tradition of fear and fiscal timidity really is.
Anthopoulos reminds us that of all the arguments for excellence, the most compelling may be that it’s so much fun. Being the best gives us enormous happiness. It makes us feel good. That’s true even for those who can’t tell first base from the pitcher’s mound, a line drive from a high pop fly.
The details may vary, but not the pleasure. Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca