Should Ontario move its capital to London? One Londoner thinks so
Ian Gillespie of the London Free Press likes the idea, floated this week by Tory MPP Bill Murdoch, that the capital of Ontario should move from Toronto to London.
The idea that London should be the capital of Upper Canada (which was the name of Ontario back when Toronto was still known as York and Maple Leafs fans still had a reason to be optimistic) was born back in 1793 when Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe and a few pals paddled down to the forks of the Thames.
Of course they would have liked the idea in 1793. Would British colonial overseers consider anywhere but a place called London for a capital? They wouldn’t even need to change their stationery. But Gillespie offers more modern reasons “to say ta-ta to Toronto and lookie-here London!”:
• Beer is from London; whisky is from T.O.—and beer is more popular in Ontario
• Toronto’s mayor tweets; London’s mayor doesn’t
• Toronto ships its garbage far away; London keeps its refuse nearby
• London is the birthplace of Rachel McAdams; she merely opted to live in Toronto
Toronto may remain the seat of power in Ontario, but the title “provincial capital” is more suited to London.
Are Londoners still holding on to the hoary old “We were the capital of Upper Canada” thing? This is why I left.
I thought I was reading The Onion for a second. This is a joke, right? Honestly… as a former Londoner, now Torontonian (who still loves London and feels at home there), all I can do is laugh.
ahahahahaha
I have been living in London all my life. To even think it can be a capital is a joke. It still acts as a small town with a lot of mundane ideas. We are still light years away from the 21st century. A university town, where are the brains and innovation going to? Certainly not here.
If the capital were to be moved, the city that gets the title ought to be Sudbury. There is already a sizable federal civil service base there, some major infrastructure projects in the works and a city council that’s not completely inept (this coming from a Londoner). It’s also more geographically centered, which can help bridge the North-South divide that is all too evident in Ontario.
Not only that but having humble little Sudbury named as the capital would help crush Toronto’s growing arrogance.