In Defense of Toronto

You know, overall Canada's not a bad place despite America (and England 's) knee-jerk tendency to malign it at every opportunity, in fact the main point I'm asserting here is that if anything, more cities should aspire to be like Toronto. I recently had the privilege of bumming around Toronto and the metro area after an eleven year hiatus from visiting the city, and I have to say that there's more going on than people will give credit for.

Oh, and here are the main reason why Toronto is pretty fucking sweet:

1. They play 90s music fairly frequently
American (non-satellite) radio stations have this shitty tendency to overplay songs to death due to the fact that their "countdowns" never consist of anything outside of the American Top 40, and accordingly, rarely include anything more than two years old. Canada however, is like the eighty year old man who just does not give a crap any more and will play whatever the hell they feel like. I was treated to a delightful audio trip down memory lane at no less than three of the random coffee shops/restaurants I walked into, and we're talking some obscure freaking songs...like the ones that you vaguely remember from when you were seven, but can't quite put a finger on the artist or title. It's amazing how Canada gets it, but the musical country of origin is more interested in the new single T-Pain just came out with.

2. Rollerblades
Yep, they use 'em, and to a pretty high extent I might add. Going off the whole "the 90s was immeasurably better than the 2000s" tack, I saw no shortage of people in the metro-Toronto area getting around the suburbs on these four wheeled, inappropriately-placed brake wonders. The best part about this was probably the fact that Canadians proved rollerblades can be used without a fanny pak and helmet with neon colors.

3. It's actually...diverse
And not even fake diversity, i.e. when there's a lot of one minority that works in the service industry and doesn't really interact with other groups...I even went to a restaurant that was some sort of openly gay establishment (there was a gay pride flag flying right outside, beat that middle America). In all honesty, for a city of 2.5 million, Toronto's outdone itself in terms of how many different shades of people live in the area. I'm not denying that these groups have their differences, which periodically creates trouble, but good on the people of Toronto for becoming an international city in every sense of the word.

4. They have the highest population of incidentally hot girls I've ever seen
Here's what I mean by that: from what I've heard, Toronto gets ragged on for not having the best-looking female populace, but I think that's a little unfounded. The trick is that you don't find good looking girls in typical places there (i.e. clubs, bars, the mall). Usually, you'll catch a passing glance at them walking the other way on the street or walking to the bathroom in a restaurant. In my personal experience, I did a whole lot of double-takes because hot chicks walked by me when I was in the walking "zone" where I don't usually like to be disturbed. That being said, Toronto's a good-looking city, you just won't see the ladies oot and aboot like you normally do.