Toronto Is the 5th Largest City In North America
by Scott A. Sumner
It has been my tradition to attend two major events in Toronto eachJuly, the Honda Toronto Indy car race and the RBC Canadian Open PGATour golfing event. This year, both were held back to back whichallowed me to spend 10 days in Toronto and even do some touristy typethings.
Flying to Toronto is much easier with the arrival of PorterAirlines and their 3 flights daily to the Toronto Island Airportlocated just a short ferry ride away from Bathurst Street. In fact, it
was only two blocks and two minutes over to my first stop, the Indy carrace. Ontario Place had transformed itself into a street course for 26Indy cars that weekend.
When you travel and are in the media you never quite know what toexpect. My first sighting at the Honda Toronto Indy media area wasMichael Andretti, world renowned open wheel racer. The Andrettifamily returns each spring to Hamilton in order to support an eventcalled Wheels Helping Wheels. This event raises funds to assistpeople to live in specially designed homes. Glen Barns who livesin Able Living Care is a quadriplegic who suffered a spinal cord
injury. “I broke my neck diving into a pool when I was 23 years old inthe Brampton area. Now I can use my arms but no fingers. It was a bigadjustment for me as a 23 year old man embarking on my career at a Mississauga high school as a teaching assistant. I hadjust finisheduniversity and wanted to get into teacher’s college. I was not sure ofwhat to do but knew I wanted to live on my own,” said Glen Barns whonow works for the TETRA association that designs and build devices tohelp people. The association volunteers engineers and labour so thecost of the devices is very low with the only cost being for materials.
“I do marketing and fundraising for them. We try to find people whowill help us and the Andretti family has come on board.”
“ My spirits are good now. It took a while to get to this place. Itchanges your life 180 degrees in a matter of seconds. It is not easy attimes as the world is not necessarily designed to accommodate people inwheelchairs. We are getting better but have a way to go. This event
will be amazing to raise some needed funds.” said Barns.The 2010 Honda Indy Toronto race was exciting and won by Wil Powerof Team Penske. “It was a long race. The last restart when I passedJustin Wilson; I knew it was important to win the race. It was acalculated risk but sometimes you have to do that.Avoiding the carnage was key to winning this race this year. I couldhave lost it in the first turn but backed off and stayed in the race,”said Wil Power whose win was the 150th all time open wheel win forPenske.
“You should win with great team like Penske. To pay them back you haveto win. Overall our series is a tough championship to win with the ovalraces and street courses. Changing conditions and bumps make for adriver’s course. Both tracks in Toronto and in Edmonton are toughtracks because of the changing surfaces.”
This year with some time to explore Toronto, I was able to take acity tour with Toronto Tours which I highly recommend. My brother- in-law who has lived in Toronto for almost 40 years learned quite a bitabout the city as did I. For instance did you know Toronto is the fifth
largest city in North America with 5 million people within 100kilometres, behind Mexico City with 22 Million, LA with 12 million, NewYork with 9 million and Chicago with just over 5 million people. Thereare over 40 km ofunderground shops in Toronto. The city has had 3 city halls in
itshistory and is one of the world’s most culturally diverse cities.Going up the CN Tower really gives you a bird’s eye view of this glitzycity. You will notice condo projects galore in Toronto. In fact thereare some 250 projects going up right now. The cranes everywhere remined
me of Dubai in 2008!
My next event in Toronto was the RBC Canadian Open PGA Tour stopthis year to be held at the highly regarded St George’s Golf Club. Thisyear’s location allowed me to take the subway each day on the Yonge andBloor lines to Old Mill. It was quick and at times packed with people.
The subway is a fun way to travel.My first encounter at St George’s was with a familiar face dressedin a LA patrol outfit ready to hand cuff me. Erik Estrada of thetelevision program CHIPS was working for Transitions Lenses educatingpeopleabout eye care and how important it is to get your eyesexamined. Using the transition lenses helps eliminate harmful UV rays.
“It is a positive thing. I have been with them for two years as anAmbassador and do media,” said the 61 years old Erik Estrada. “I’ve gotone new show in September coming out, World’s Funniest Moment and amshopping two other shows and taking a pitch meeting in New York. I willdo a Spanish commercial shortly as well. Back then, with CHIPS it wasmore formula TV. Now you have more reality shows based on personality.I only like to play golf as an escape and not to knock you out. I playwhen I am in the mood and the weather is good.”
The RBC Canadian Open was a spectacular event at a classic course.As is the case recently, a European, Carl Pettersson won the eventafter an amazing 60 on Saturday’s round. The logistics of holding theevent were unreal such as closing down a section of Islington Ave for
3 weeks, shuttling golfers to another course for the practice rangeand accommodating 100,000 people in a small area to name a few. Theevent was perfect though and hats off to Golf Canada and the RCGA fortheir efforts.
My time in Toronto had come to an end and it was off to the newPorter terminal for the return flight to Thunder Bay. When you get achance, make sure you spend some time in Toronto. This world classcity is just 1 hour and a half away from us!
