Don't expect any help from the UofT!

Toronto Pan-Am bid likely won't go too far
Christopher Hume

Toronto's bid for the 2010 Olympics didn't work out, and it couldn't quite meet the deadline for its Expo 2015 entry. Now there's word the city might go after the Pan-American Games to be held in eight years.
If that fails, who knows what we might try for next – the World Tiddlywinks Championships?
But then, why bother? Hosting such an event is simply not in Toronto's fate.
The reasons have nothing to do with civic willingness, but with the larger question of whether the city and its masters – provincial and federal governments – can muster the will. Don't hold your breath.
Writing about the Pan-Am bid, the Star's Jim Byers noted that, "one Queen's Park source said the government likes the idea at this early stage, especially since it's geared to the entire Golden Horseshoe and not focused on Toronto, which would be a tougher sell politically in other parts of Ontario."
God forbid that Premier Dalton McGuinty should be seen to favour Toronto over Oshawa, Peterborough, Wawa and the rest of the province. Wouldn't that be awful?
Little wonder Toronto has always been passed over. Which is why there's little reason to get excited about the Pan-Am Games. However unremarkable the competing cities – former host sites include Indianapolis, Winnipeg and Cali, Colombia – Toronto, make that, Ontario, is unlikely to be chosen.
To begin with, it doesn't make sense to spread the games over an area that stretches from St. Catharines to Barrie. For a second-tier athletic event to have any impact, it needs to be concentrated in a location where it can create a critical mass of activity and awareness.
Secondly, the proposal makes it obvious that the jurisdictions involved – city and province – cannot rise above the political concerns that have historically kept both from realizing their potential.
Furthermore, city council is an embarrassment and the Legislature barely has a pulse. The former rarely manages get beyond its own dysfunction; the latter exists within a bubble that should have burst three decades ago.
Not only has Canada fallen behind its competitors, it is out of touch with the realities of the 21st century, and more critical, of itself. As national borders grow less and less important in an increasingly global economic order we remain steadfastly rooted in the parochial patterns of our 19th-century past.
Although the world is learning to think ever more regionally, Canada, and Ontario, are defiantly local. That may keep the neighbours happy for the time being, but it's no way to run a province, let alone an economy that's under growing pressure to stay competitive.
Yet hope springs eternal. Last week, we were treated to the spectacle of Greater Toronto Transportation Authority (now Metrolinx) chair, Rob MacIsaac, declaring that in just 20 years the city's transit infrastructure will equal London's. Oh really! This in a region that's already 30 years behind the U.K. What's the plan, magic carpets?
The blame goes well beyond Mac- Isaac, of course, but who does he think he's fooling?
Instead of shovels in the ground, we're treated to this sort of glib complacency. Rather than progress, we get gridlock, and words when we need work. It's no surprise there's such cynicism about the political process in these parts.
If the Pan-Am Games were actually awarded to southern Ontario, they'd have to be renamed the Highway Games because visitors would spend so much time travelling from one venue to another.
But as long as we don't offend Fenelon Falls, no reason to worry.
Ontario, still ours to discover.