Toronto is a calm, clean, well-ordered, cosmopolitan, peaceful city. If one long weekend in this city of two and a half million people there are a couple of murders it is an alarming law and order crisis. And Canada as a whole, as a friend of mine describes it, is a blessedly fangless country. It is strongly democratic, well-run, friendly, progressively aware of its responsibilities as a world citizen.
The cultures of all countries and creeds increasingly gather here with little friction. World-class exhibitions, plays, concerts, festivals and sporting events find a stage. After the worst of Covid the economy is again flourishing, the currency is strong, the abundance of natural resources is never-ending in this immense land of endless opportunity. Even the dreaded onset of global warming seems to be bringing the benefits of longer summers and milder winters to the land. “A miraculous country: miraculous in its peacefulness, its diversity, its tolerance and its determined non-Americaness”. It is no wonder that Nigerian-born Daniel Igali, an Olympic gold medallist in wrestling, when asked on his induction to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame what his new home signifies to immigrants softly and very simply said “Canada is heaven”.