When I was still working I used to dream about being retired and having the time to take in such social and cultural events as the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). I envisioned myself sliding into comfy seats in dark downtown theatres with my icy fountain Diet Coke and a bag of warm popcorn for a series of exciting films that never seemed to reach my local suburban movie theatre. It has been many years since I retired and my only excuse for not attending—and it’s a biggie—is because I live in Mississauga and Toronto Transit and traffic issues are so daunting that it’s preferable to just stay home. Traffic, transit, and TIFF are mutually exclusive.

Even the celebs who attended TIFF were complaining about Toronto traffic and they were staying at all the convenient downtown hotels we mere mortals cannot afford. Jermaine Wilson in the Toronto Star on Saturday, September 14, 2024 quoted Will Ferrill, One Direction’s Niall Horan, and Tom Cruise in slamming Toronto’s traffic horrors. Mayor Olivia Chow insists their “congestion management plan is working.” Ha! When was the last time she tried getting somewhere in this city without her bicycle or a chauffeur?

The last time I took the GO Train to attend a show at Meridian Hall (in my world it’s still The O’Keefe Centre) the 20-minute GO Train trip took nearly an hour with long stops and periodic announcements that “There is a problem at Exhibition”.  For that outing to see Celeste Barber we allowed time to go for dinner before the show but the train delays meant we had to run to the restaurant, gobble down our quickly ordered meal, then run to the theatre to get into the show on time. It was a stressful, exhausting, and frustrating experience for a couple of old ladies like me and my friend—not to mention sweaty.

There have been times I have tried to take the subway from Kipling Station only to find there are no parking spots at Kipling. I was forced to drive around the neighbourhood looking for a parking spot in a nearby office building, then walk several blocks to the station. Why in god’s name is there not a direct subway line to Mississauga?

Young people love to live downtown. I certainly did back in the sixties and seventies. I could walk to work or go out to a movie, restaurant, or local pub and back to my apartment again in the evening. Greater Toronto was a lot smaller then but downtown was usually where all the action was. We live in Mississauga on the western border of the City of Toronto. Theoretically, we should be able to hop on a train to go downtown with minimal muss and fuss but we seem to be the ignored middle child that no one pays any attention to.

While we do have theatres and concert halls in the boonies, we still have to travel downtown for major sports events and concerts with international headliners. That means if I want to see someone with a big name, I have to figure out how to get there with minimal logistical difficulties. With traffic congestion, gridlock, and parking costs, driving is out of the question. Old people like me who live in the burbs find getting to a downtown venue is an enormous pain in the ass thanks to the lack of foresight by our local politicians over the last few decades. Trying to catch up with infrastructure updates means usable solutions will not happen in my lifetime.

Did you know that when the Paris Métro system was being built more than one hundred years ago,  it was designed so that Parisians would never have to walk more than ten minutes to access a subway station? Over the decades it has extended its tentacles to reach far out into the distant environs. That makes getting around incredibly easy and Paris is still a fabulously walkable city. Why didn’t Toronto politicians have that foresight?

All I’m asking for is more subways. Why in the name of creation do we not have a direct subway line from Toronto to Mississauga? They seem to be extending lines in every direction but west where a huge population resides. The Paris Métro and the London Tube lines fan out in all directions including airports and distant suburbs. Toronto is stuck in some kind of ridiculous political standoff with Mississauga.

When I moved to Toronto as an eager, young seventeen-year-old in 1965, the Toronto subway had one line. It ran from Eglinton Station in the north, south along Yonge Street and around the bend at Union Station up University Avenue to St. George. That was it. It has expanded somewhat since then, but our population has grown from one million people to somewhere in the neighbourhood of six million people. We deserve better transit than what we have but by the time any of our city planners sort this mess out and try to fix it, I’ll be dead.

David Sedaris, the best-selling author and humorist is coming to Massey Hall in October. I desperately want to go and see him but the challenges of getting there and back on a dark October night are positively daunting. I could drive to Clarkson station, chance the GO Train and transfer to the subway. Port Credit station is out of the question because Hurontario Street is and will be a construction nightmare until the next millennium while they build the new above-ground rail line to Brampton.

Why Brampton takes priority over a subway from Mississauga to Toronto is beyond me. Who goes to Brampton anyway and why is it a bigger priority than Mississauga? David Sedaris will be very disappointed that I will not be able to attend his show at Massey Hall. As a dedicated reader of all his books, I know he counts on my support and he will be devastated if I’m not there.

I’m planning to meet a friend at Eately in the Manulife Centre for our annual birthday lunch this week. Traffic and transit difficulties being what they are, I haven’t decided whether to gamble on getting a parking spot at Kipling Station (with everyone now working from home, I’m optimistic) or take a chance on the GO Train.

In case I don’t have enough challenges that day, I’m also going to chance a same-day visit to the late photographer Lee Miller’s exhibit at The Image Centre at Toronto Metropolitan University (Ryerson to me). Again, keeping my fingers crossed. If this outing gets screwed up by transit problems, I will never leave my house again. Transit and traffic problems will have won the battle to utterly and completely spoil my hard-earned retirement. Thank you.