A business trip took me to Toronto last week,...
...giving me an opportunity to sample the automotive world on the other side of the world's longest international border.
...giving me an opportunity to sample the automotive world on the other side of the world's longest international border.
The thing that's always struck me about the English-speaking part of Canada is that it's different, but not all that different. I imagine Canadians visiting the U.S. have similar reactions. Between the big pointy Space Needle-y thing (see photo above) and the Jimi Hendrix monument (see photo at right) and the presence of hipsters and Starbucks and organic grocery stores, Toronto feels at times like it could be Seattle--if Seattle were only a lot flatter and got more sunshine.
But of course, Toronto is Toronto and Seattle is Seattle. Though our two countries have a great deal of shared culture, they are, after all, different countries. The differences come out in things like the spelling of certain words,...
...and bilingual food labels,...
...distinctive word choices ("washroom" instead of "restroom," "constable" instead of "officer") and turns of phrase, unique local institutions,...
...and the fact that they still use the metric system. (And then there's the issue of the parliamentary system versus the presidential system, but we're not going to get into that.)
...and bilingual food labels,...
...distinctive word choices ("washroom" instead of "restroom," "constable" instead of "officer") and turns of phrase, unique local institutions,...
...and the fact that they still use the metric system. (And then there's the issue of the parliamentary system versus the presidential system, but we're not going to get into that.)
As you'd expect for a city of 2.5 million people, Toronto is a very cosmopolitan place, with trendy urban neighbourhoods and shops...
...and restaurants serving exotic cuisine from distant lands.
While it's true that, generally speaking, the Great Cars of Toronto aren't a whole lot different from the Great Cars of Greater Cleveland,...
...there are uniquely Canadian makes and models (such as Fargo trucks, the Frontenac, and the Acadian) and a few imports (such as Soviet-made Ladas) that were never sold south of the border. I had a couple of free hours one afternoon and went for a stroll in search of examples, but I only found one: a Pontiac Pursuit,...
...which is a rebadged Chevy Cobalt sold in 2005 and 2006.
Other than that, it was the usual mass-market stuff like we have at home--Toyotas, Fords, Hondas, VWs, and so on. Not nearly as many SUVs as I expected, but an unusually large number of latter-day GTIs--proof that Canadian culture promotes good taste in hot hatchbacks, I suppose.
Just when I had begun to despair that one Chevy-turned-Pontiac wasn't enough to build a "Great Cars" blog post around, a sunny Saturday brought forth an array of exotic iron I definitely wasn't expecting: a Lamborghini in front of the hotel,...
...a Ferrari and a Bentley in the bumper-to-bumper traffic on Cumberland Street,...
...and a pristine old-school Alfa Romeo parked across from where we ate dinner that evening--with a bonus Maserati sneaking by as I took the pictue.
...and restaurants serving exotic cuisine from distant lands.
While it's true that, generally speaking, the Great Cars of Toronto aren't a whole lot different from the Great Cars of Greater Cleveland,...
...there are uniquely Canadian makes and models (such as Fargo trucks, the Frontenac, and the Acadian) and a few imports (such as Soviet-made Ladas) that were never sold south of the border. I had a couple of free hours one afternoon and went for a stroll in search of examples, but I only found one: a Pontiac Pursuit,...
...which is a rebadged Chevy Cobalt sold in 2005 and 2006.
Other than that, it was the usual mass-market stuff like we have at home--Toyotas, Fords, Hondas, VWs, and so on. Not nearly as many SUVs as I expected, but an unusually large number of latter-day GTIs--proof that Canadian culture promotes good taste in hot hatchbacks, I suppose.
Just when I had begun to despair that one Chevy-turned-Pontiac wasn't enough to build a "Great Cars" blog post around, a sunny Saturday brought forth an array of exotic iron I definitely wasn't expecting: a Lamborghini in front of the hotel,...
...a Ferrari and a Bentley in the bumper-to-bumper traffic on Cumberland Street,...
...and a pristine old-school Alfa Romeo parked across from where we ate dinner that evening--with a bonus Maserati sneaking by as I took the pictue.
Toronto is the banking and financial capital of Canada, and so it's not all that surprising that the city is home to people who have the income it takes to have rides like these--but I wouldn't have expected so many of them to be playing with their road toys in midtown traffic.
I enjoyed my stay in Toronto--it's an interesting city with a strong personality, and the Canadians I met were, on the whole, as polite and friendly as legend would have it. I'd particularly like to give a shout-out to Mr. Scott, our tour guide for part of Saturday, who was one of the funniest, most entertaining people I've met in a long time, even if he was a little hung up about the War of 1812.--Cookie the Dog's Owner
