The Second Season

"Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you and scorn in the one ahead." ~Mac McCleary

It is said in Ontario, we have only two seasons - winter and "under construction". As it is clearly no longer winter, we are fully ensconced in construction season in Toronto. What should have been a thirty minute drive home from Wellesley and Bay this afternoon, turned into a nearly two hour ordeal. Every major north-south artery is under construction - at least that's what the signs say as they narrow three lanes into one.

What puzzles me the most is that though the lanes were blocked, cones and sandbags in place, I didn't actually see any area where work is being done. What I did notice were throngs of motorcycle police officers standing at the edges of the construction zones watching the traffic. I've been downtown three or four times in the past month when traffic was being halted by motorcycle cops for long periods and no apparent reason. Call me a slow learner but after the third time of getting stuck I think I figured it out. Metro police are practicing for the G20 summit. I suspect that's what most of the road closures are about too - practicing for the paralysis of the city soon coming our way.

I for one am opposed to holding the G20 summit in downtown Toronto. Almost all the business downtown are going to be required to close their doors for the whole week of the summit. Union Station will be closed. The subway will not be running south of Bloor Street and violence is not only feared but anticipated. The financial district of the country's largest city will be barely, if at all operational. It is anticipated that there will be more security in Toronto than there was for the Vancouver Olympics. The costs will be oppressive.

Nonetheless, we will have the G20 summit to deal with at the end of next month and we will, no doubt, find a way to cope. I do wish though that the torture of Toronto's citizens wouldn't be in full force more than a month before the actual event.