Snow, Cold, Misery. Begin Rant.

So, we're in the midst of a snowstorm right now, a pretty major one at that, as its been snowing steadily since the middle of last night.

But here's the thing....

....I really wish the rest of small town/small city Canada would just STOP with the ridiculing of Toronto and our poor response to snow. Every time we have a major storm, or even not so major, the city advises residents to stay home and flights, transit etc gets cancelled. Fine. Then it takes about 1 hour before we hear the rest of Canada weigh in on how pathetic Toronto is and have to hear irritating yokels from the rest of Canada say stuff like "WE call this winter, what does Toronto call it? Har Har Har."

You know, I want just ONE of those people to live, work and DRIVE in this city for one snowy winter and then say the same thing.

First, no other city has to contend with 3 million people trying to get where they need to go. Three million people. That is hundreds of thousands of cars on the few highways and major arteries that come in and out of the city. Hundreds of thousands of people trying on public transit, which is subject to its own delays. Lots of these people DIDN'T grow up in the Far North as I did, instead they grew up in places like India and Barbados where snow doesn't factor into their lives and is part of their DNA. So, treacherous roads are made worse by not only ridiculous volume, but also by drivers who are not properly trained to deal with it. On a good day, one accident can back up a busy highway for hours...its not LIKE Thunder Bay or elsewhere where you can zip around an accident and keep going the 10 minutes until your at your house. Once an accident has slowed you down, it can take a half hour to even get to somewhere where you can exit the highway. You and a hundred thousand other people trying to get to the same detour. Try it sometime. Its pure joy. Especially when, say, you have to pick your son up a daycare in 5 minutes and you're still an hour away.

I'm sure everyone remembers the fateful year that the city had to call in the army to dig us out of the snow. Toronto will never live it down. Oddly Torontians are not especially embarassed by this fact. Why? Because is WAS a disaster. I lived downtown at time, and when I saw those army trucks pull up and the men with shovels jump off I wept with joy. As they loaded tons upon tons of snow into the waiting trucks, I wanted to bake them cookies.

Here's what the rest of Canada doesn't GET....in addition to being a huge city, Toronto is an OLD city. That means that houses in a good portion of the city are close together and often don't have driveways and if they do, it's frequently front lawns that have been paved. And the big old houses are often now apartments which means there are tenants who own cars who need to park on already overcrowded city streets.

Without a front lawn or boulevard and cars parked everywhere, there are very few places to put the snow. Those few places consequently have towering snowbanks that get so tall and narrow its impossible to put more snow on them and are so big that drivers cannot see around them without pulling into oncoming traffic. People who have to park on the street have to dig out their cars with nowhere to put the snow so we wind up with little snowbanks in front of and behind the cars or worse, thrown back on the street. The snowbanks means less street parking available third, but the number of cars has obviously remained the same. Consequently cars have to park at odd angles and jut out into traffic or park in illegal zones. And the reason for this isn't a blatant disregard for bylaws or mere Torontian self-centredness. We're just trying to get on with our lives. Plows can't clear the streets properly because there are so many parked cars with nowhere to move to. I know because I WAS one of those cars.

People get frustrated and drive too fast. People get scared and drive too slow. Buses and trains are packed and hot. People are cranky. But we still have to work, which is often no where even close to where we live. We still have to buy groceries and go the doctor. We still have to work in hospitals and banks and, even, like myself, keep TV stations on the air, so the rest of Canada has stuff to watch on their TVs when they get home at night.

So, rest of Canada, can you just lay off? Winter in this city has ZERO upside for those who live here. We're hours from ski-hills and ice-fishing and other outdoor pursuits that make winter more bearable. And our roads are 100 times more crowded and dangerous as yours. So yes, we are advised to stay home from work and school is cancelled. I'm all for it.

I just can do without the snide remarks. Okay?