Toronto the Not in a Death Spiral
October 9th, 2009
Running an operating deficit of $500M, with a $460M sick day liability to employees after a strike to solve that one problem, the City of Toronto has found $30,000 for a poet laureate.
I won’t go into detail all that’s wrong with this picture, Marni Soupcoff has done the job of deconstructing this lunacy. Instead, let me offer a conversational bon mot from Dionne Brand, Toronto’s new poet laureate:
Toronto… “in its multiplicity … is constantly rich and surprising. I’ve written this about it in thirsty — that wild waiting at traffic lights off the end of the world, where nothing is simple, nothing, in the city there is no simple love or simple fidelity, the heart is slippery.”
Why do I get the feeling I haven’t written the last of Ms. Brand?
Toronto is behaving more like the city states of old… and as for poetry.. I could not tell you if that was any good or not, but it sure sounds like even she is trashing the city… and bot does she nail it when she says its heart is slippery… McSlippery.
as this plays out, we will be supporting the movement to have the glorious Teeooh seperate from Canada, and leave the rest of us in peace