Toronto is a failed state. It has been this way for some time. It failed not through some significant catastrophe, but through the neglect and complacency of a population that wants to believe in a better city, rather than actually create one.
When Toronto had a buffoon as Mayor, it was easy to ignore our status as a failed state, and instead think the problem was with the fool, or the electorate (as fools), but not the city itself. Now that there is a Mayor who is competent and capable, there’s no excuse for the chaos that will befall the city this summer with the arrival of the 2015 Pan Am Games.
The Fund for Peace, which maintains a Failed State Index, uses a number of criteria to describe and measure a failed state:
The loss of control of its territory: the condo boom in Toronto has led to a massive cash grab and development frenzy that demonstrates how the city is not in control over its own territory. Whether it’s the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) or just the inability (or neglect) to properly plan, the current craze in construction will create substantially greater problems in the future due to the speed by which it has occurred and the failure of the city to integrate it into a larger vision.
Erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions: the city has not been able to make a proper transit decision in decades, or at least one that it can stick to. There are countless other decisions that are avoided, neglected, and simply ignored, whether they be affordable housing, urban infrastructure, or transportation in general.
Inability to provide public services: the city already fails to meet the needs of the most vulnerable, and it is often incapable of providing the kind of public transit service that residents require to go to school and work.
Inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community: substitute international community with national community and you see Toronto as a kind of pariah that while generating a ton of the wealth and culture, has little to no political influence in Ottawa. Queen’s Park may be starting to say nicer things to the city, yet that’s still lip service, and it was Queen’s Park that created Toronto the megacity which many point to as the exact moment that Toronto became a failed state.
Failed states are also marked by corruption and criminality, and in Toronto both of these are incredibly difficult to measure. An inability to provide public services, also includes police and prosecutorial resources that are inadequate for a city of this size. Enforcement is arbitrary, selective, and symbolic, nobody really knows the full extent of corruption and criminality, especially when manifest at low and pervasive levels. Economically speaking however, when there is a construction boom as there is with the condo development, that kind of revenue is often associated with the ability to corrupt. We won’t know the full extent to which that is true until well after the fact (as was the case in Quebec).
Update: Two responses on this point that I’ve received that are worth sharing: “There will never be a Charbonneau commission here. The corruption is far too entrenched.” and
Neil Andersen reminds us that Toronto’s G20 experience was a case study in the modern failed city state, due to both the criminal actions of the police, and the corruption exhibited by the federal government.
What will really illustrate Toronto’s status as a failed state will be hosting the 2015 Pan Am Games. Toronto’s transportation networks are overloaded on average days, and will be completely overwhelmed for the two months of the events. The non-strategy to deal with this has been the introduction of temporary car pool lanes, and an ad campaign encouraging people to use transit or work off hours. Yet all this communication campaign does is give residents a place to direct their anger and frustration when the city breaks down.
The city of course breaks down often. Usually not for longer than a day or a weekend. Subway closure. Highway construction. Marathon. What’s noteworthy when these incidents occur, is the extent to which there’s a cascading failure, both literally, and culturally. Gridlock spreads through the city, and the attitudes, culture, and behaviour of residents change. Drivers start breaking the law, acting aggressively, and setting the tone for the cyclists, pedestrians, and others moving through.
Usually those moments only last hours, or in the case of transit strikes a couple of days. What happens what those moments become a summer? What if people decide that the authority of the city doesn’t matter when it comes to their (self-centred) need to get to where they’re going?
As that anger, as that resentment, as that realization that we live in a failed state sinks in, how will people feel about all the other elements of this city that are not working? Will it encourage an open and honest conversation on what is wrong and what needs to be done? Or will we maintain our false belief in Toronto as a great city, rather than doing what is necessary to make our city great!
Canadians, and in particular Torontonians, like to imagine that we’ve got it better than anywhere else. That it would be wrong to compare us to elsewhere, that we could never be a failed state. However it is this arrogance and complacency that has led us here.
Toronto has a unique culture, and this is reflected in the tone and style by which our state has failed. There are no brigands, (visibly) armed warlords, or (regular) looting. Yet these are not the primary characteristics of a failed state. Nor are they part of Toronto’s culture and fabric. Just because we are not failing as others have, does not mean we have not already failed. How does a once prosperous and developed city fail? Perhaps Toronto is offering itself as a textbook example. Unless of course we choose to do otherwise.
@davefleet #TTC this #transit is absolutely #dysfunctional 4 the people of #Toronto. #TTCFAIL pic.twitter.com/Q2dmeY0mtB
— memeyer (@bea_best_jrt)