Toronto’s governance crisis: A global city under pressure

• Toronto is a polarized and divided city that is seemingly unable to address its urban problems.
• Toronto suffers a dysfunctional urban politics due in part to the forced amalgamation of Toronto Metro and its six cities.
• Globalization has led to increased income and spatial inequality.
• Raises question of whether Toronto is unique or whether these are common difficulties in all global cities.

The 1991 profile of Toronto in Cities presented a picture of a municipal and metropolitan government with a strong reputation for solving urban problems (Lemon, 1991). Two decades later, Toronto is a polarized and divided city that seems unable to address its urban problems. It suffers from a dysfunctional urban politics, crumbling infrastructure, traffic gridlock and inadequate investment in transit, growing income disparities, and a lack of affordable housing. We find three main changes are responsible for Toronto’s difficulties including economic globalization, political restructuring (e.g., amalgamation), and the ascendance of neoliberalism as the governing philosophy at the provincial and federal levels. Toronto’s crisis metaphor has emerged as it has achieved global city status. Toronto therefore presents a particularly fascinating case to explore a global city under pressure.