It’s angered me at least three times this year that Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph and Brantford have all been included in maps that were said to represent the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
I have always felt that these cities were just big enough and far enough away from Toronto to have identities of their own. For instance Mississauga might be bigger than all of Waterloo Region but no one has heard of it outside the Toronto area. Mississauga is simply too close to Toronto to have its own identity.
But back to the problem of being called the left end of Toronto. Anger should be the response because the government promised us a green belt around the Toronto to Hamilton region. This should effectively block all attempts by Toronto to include the counties of Waterloo, Wellington and Brant.
But these maps are encouraging the building sector to dream of an urban area with Kitchener, Brantford, Hamilton and Toronto as its four corners. And lately I’ve heard of investors from the GTA coming to the three previously mentioned counties for the purpose of investing in the real estate. Why not? The prices are ridiculously cheap when compared to the prices in the GTA.
Normally all of this would anger me. The GTA has 6 million people. What do they need with the inconsequential 800 000 people to their west? But maybe a mega city would be powerful.
The green belt will still halt a full union. But the megacity can say, ‘Look at our mighty park. Take that, minuscule Central Park and its New York City environs.’
And if we left enders know we are going to be called part of Toronto, we can all invest in the real estate in this area, knowing that it is going to rise faster in value than other areas of the country. So we all could get richer.
And the GTA is already taking advantage. They are saying that the swath from Waterloo to Toronto is the biggest tech area outside of Silicon Valley. I’d have to say that here, Toronto is the junior partner. Blackberry, Oracle and a huge number of incubated tech companies have come out of Waterloo, largely due to the renowned University of Waterloo.
So the left side of Toronto should take advantage and demand better transportation links. Because of sheer size, Toronto has many things that the left side of Toronto doesn’t have.
So I have gotten over my initial anger and welcome my area being called the left end of Toronto.
Kitchener, Brantford, Hamilton, Toronto — not much of a quadrilateral… https://goo.gl/maps/UZWzp7XXcxD2
Maybe I should have said Waterloo and Oshawa instead of Kitchener and Toronto. Sure Hamilton juts out and Richmond Hill to Newmarket does too. I realize its still not a perfect quadrilateral. But that is this mega city to date.