Christopher Hume, speaker, freelance writer and former urban issues columnist and architecture critic of the Toronto Star
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Articles by Christopher Hume
Opinion | ‘Outsider’ Chris Alexander is running for Toronto mayor — and outside is where he’ll find himself
Exactly what Chris Alexander was thinking when he decided to join the throng of would-be Toronto mayors is difficult, if not impossible, to determine. Why would the former federal immigration minister, remembered as the face behind the infamous “Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act,” believe he has a chance of victory in one of the world's most diverse cities? Hope, they say, springs eternal.
Christopher Hume: We must value housing as more than a simple commodity
Go figure. Despite having endured a building boom that has lasted three decades and changed the face of urban Canada, we now face the worst housing crisis in the country’s history. Finding a place to live, let alone affording one, is a national obsession. From coast to coast, Canadians are fed up and stressed out. Trying to explain this contradiction has preoccupied politicians, pundits and professionals for years, to no avail. Yes, interest rates play a role, as does inflation.
Christopher Hume: Are Canada’s cities still ‘world-class’?
Commentary 9 December 2024 An aerial view of a watch party in Toronto, July 9 2024. Cole Burston/The Canadian Press. New York is the best city in the world, but is the most beautiful. Abu Dhabi may be the richest, but Vienna is the most livable. Though Tokyo has the largest population, London is the most global. These are just some of the findings of various urban surveys released in recent years. Ranking “world-class” cities has emerged recently as a kind of international cottage industry.
Christopher Hume: Ford’s tunnel-vision is Ontario’s latest counter-intuitive and costly infrastructure idea
Commentary 8 November 2024 The sun sets as traffic moves along Highway 401 in Belleville, Ont., December 21, 2021. Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press. Like the road to hell, Highway 401 is paved with good intentions. And if Ontario Premier Doug Ford gets his way, the country’s busiest and most congested highway will also be tunnelled—with the best of intentions, of course.
Mike Colledge: What happens after the Conservatives axe the carbon tax?
Commentary 26 September 2024 Supporters of federal Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre in Ottawa, March 31, 2022. Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press.
Christopher Hume: Why does Canada feel broken? Losing our all-important public spaces to crime and chaos certainly isn’t helping
Commentary 25 September 2024 A man rests outside a tent at a homeless camp in Vancouver, B.C., June 13, 2020. Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press. An old man at the back of the streetcar sitting in a pool of his own urine stares into middle space clearly unaware of where he is or what’s happening around him. He is lost. But for his silence, he himself is a cry for help. Yet those around him are more focused on ignoring him than helping.
Richard Shimooka: Canada’s defence capabilities are in disarray. Here are the three biggest reasons why
Commentary 16 August 2024 Canadian Forces personnel stand easy at CFB Kingston in Kingston, Ont., March 7, 2023. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press. Over the two years that I’ve been a contributing writer at The Hub, I have discussed a fairly wide array of issues and thinking surrounding defence. Generally, my articles identify a problem or issue and attempt to provide a solution at the end.
Theo Argitis: Taking stock of Canada’s complicated economy before tomorrow’s Bank of Canada decision
Commentary 23 July 2024 Governor of the Bank of Canada Tiff Macklem speaks during a news conference on the Bank of Canada’s rate announcement, in Ottawa, on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. Justin Tang/The Canadian Press. As the Bank of Canada prepares to unveil its latest rate decision and new suite of forecasts tomorrow, it’s a good moment to assess the state of the nation’s economy.
David Mulroney: The next PM must remind Canada’s public servants who really runs the show
Commentary 25 June 2024 A woman walks past the the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council building in Ottawa, June, 30, 2020. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press. The Canadian Public Service enshrines respect for democracy among its core values. Public servants are required to faithfully implement the policies of a new government regardless of their own political views. If they can’t, public servants must disclose this impediment and accept the possible consequences that flow from it.
Christopher Hume: When did airports become so unbearable?
Commentary 04 Jun 24 Delta passengers stand in line as the carrier slogged through day two of its recovery from a global computer outage Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016, in Salt Lake City. Travelers on Delta Air Lines endured hundreds more canceled and delayed flights on Tuesday as the carrier slogged through day two of its recovery from a global computer outage. By early afternoon, Delta said it had canceled about 530 flights as it moved planes and crews to “reset” its operation.
Douglas Porter: It’s time for the Bank of Canada to pull the trigger on an interest rate cut
Commentary 04 Jun 24 Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem and Carolyn Rogers, Senior Deputy Governor hold a press conference at the Bank of Canada in Ottawa on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press We have now reached a moment of truth for at least two major central banks.
We are demolishing our heritage and turning Canada's cities soulless
Have we Canadians ever felt so abandoned, alienated, and angry? Our architecture might have something to do with it. Everywhere we look, towns and cities are turning into a terra incognita of cookie-cutter condos and jerry-built tract housing. One by one, the places that define our lives are being remade, remodelled, reduced to a façade, or razed to the ground. In their place we build another anonymous residential tower designed for offshore investors looking to buy low, rent high.
Canada's cities are far too weak
Canada’s cities hold the key to Canada’s future, but first they must be freed from the chains of Canada’s past. Trapped in a badly outdated and hopelessly paternalistic governance structure, municipal governments, regardless of their size, are mere “creatures of the provinces.” Little wonder they can never rise above the level of their political masters who, all too often, are provincial in both senses of the word.
After Years Of Neglect, Cities Raising Taxes Shouldn't Be A Surprise
Cities, the neglected orphans of Canada’s increasingly fractious federation, are growing restless. Hobbled by a constitution that leaves them at the mercy of often-hostile governments, provincial and national, the country’s urban centres are starting to fight back. They’ve had enough of the financial abuse and political incursion that have left them spectators at their own destinies.
Densifying Suburbia Is Necessary To Address Our Housing Crisis
It’s the cities that get our attention, but it’s the suburbs that need it. Especially when it comes to building the millions of residences needed to solve Canada’s affordable housing crisis. Though not particularly pretty, interesting or exciting, the ‘burbs have long been where most Canadians live. As much as we might like to think of Canada as an “urban nation,” the fact is that most of us are committed suburbanites.
The Well Is The Mall Of The Future, Is That A Good Thing?
Even before it’s finished, The Well is being hailed as the “mall of the future.” Whether or not that’s desirable at a time when malls everywhere are dying, it’s clear the multi-use complex aspires to much more than mere malldom – past, present, or future. The sprawling new scheme, on an 11-acre site bounded by Spadina, Draper, Wellington, and Front, is designed to extend the hustle and bustle of the downtown core farther west.
Op-Ed: Ford's Developer Antics Left Their Stink On 2023
It may not compare with 1992, Queen Elizabeth’s year from hell, but has an annus in Ontario ever been quite so horribilis as 2023, its season of disappointment, depression and decline? It was a year when Canada’s most populous province turned into Tennessee North, a place beset by growing poverty, increasing social inequality, bureaucratic incompetence, scandal and an endless parade of political corruption.
From Suffragette Rallies To Encampments, Allan Gardens Tells Toronto's History
A walk in the park isn’t what it used to be. In a city like Toronto, where housing is beyond the reach of so many residents, green space has become living space for the homeless multitudes that have nowhere else to go. Their tents now occupy the lawns where kids played and dogs cavorted.
In A City Unsure Of Its Identity, Worsening Transit, Traffic, And Housing Is No Surprise
“Cities,” Jane Jacobs famously told us, “have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” That may have the ring of truth, but how accurate is it? “Everybody” is a pretty broad word. In large cities, “everybody” encompasses a vast range of people, many with different, often opposing, points of view. Conflict lurks at every turn. It’s no surprise, then, that Toronto is a mass of contradictions. What city isn’t?
Love Park A Heartening Symbol For Toronto's Public Realm Original
Love may be everywhere but it’s still a shock to find it at the thoroughly unremarkable intersection of Queen’s Quay and York Street in downtown Toronto. Until recently, this was where the off-ramp of the eastbound Gardiner Expressway dumped traffic into the city. Then came Love Park. When it opened in June, it changed everything; a corner long avoided by anyone not behind the wheel of a car is now a place of beauty, an attraction, a destination, and, yes, a locus of love.
Europe Has Figured Out Transit, Why Can't We? Original
It’s not just the big things that European cities get right; it’s also the small stuff — cars, for example. By North American standards, European cars are positively, ridiculously, miniscule. You can see dump trucks at work sites that are so tiny they make ours look like locomotives. Then there’s the question of what Europeans drive. Visitors can spend weeks in cities like Vienna, Prague and Budapest without seeing a single SUV, let alone a pick-up truck.
The Nicknames 8 Iconic (And Infamous) Toronto Buildings Deserve
Every building should have a nickname. Well, maybe not every building, but certainly the big ones, the tall, dark and handsome, the new and novel. London, which boasts the best nicknames, has the Shard, the Gherkin, the Cheesegrater, the Walkie Talkie and Big Ben (actually the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster). In Prague, there’s Frank Gehry’s Fred and Ginger. Beijing, not known for its humour, has the Bird’s Nest.
The Greenbelt Review Is A ‘Pudgy Middle Finger’ To Ontarians Original
What’s a guy to do? You try to help out a few friends by quietly giving them a few thousand acres of weed-filled fields in the middle of nowhere and just because you’re the Premier of Ontario all hell breaks loose. Your approval ratings drop to 28% — your lowest level ever — you have to throw your Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and his Chief of Staff to the wolves and worst of all, your base is seriously pissed.
If Developers Won’t Build Affordable Housing, The City Of Toronto Has To Original
By now it should be clear, the development industry is not going to solve the country’s housing crisis. It has no interest in building anything that doesn’t make a profit. Only government can deliver the social and affordable housing so desperately needed across Canada, let alone Toronto and the GTA. That entails more than coming up with the billions of dollars necessary to build the millions of homes needed to meet demand.
Not Just Toronto: Canada’s Major Cities Can’t Get Public Transit Right
What is it about public transit in Canada? From Toronto and Ottawa to Edmonton and Montreal, safe, convenient and reliable mass mobility eludes us. We just can’t seem to get it right. It’s no surprise the overwhelming majority of Canadians choose to drive. But at a time when the catastrophic effects of the climate crisis are devastating the planet, getting people out of their cars is more crucial than ever.
Toronto Is Broke, But Targeted Taxes Could Fix It
It goes without saying; Toronto is broke. So what else is new? As former mayor John Tory used to say, usually that means crawling, “like a boy in short pants,” to Queen’s Park or Ottawa to plead for money. But now, faced with a staggering $1B fiscal hole, the City has no choice but to find new ways to raise the funds it so desperately needs.
Hume with a view on STOREYS's site
Toronto Transit Has Gone From Bad to Worse, And So Will Congestion Toronto transit has gone from bad to worse. And though that doesn’t seem to bother anyone at City Hall, it should.
Chow Win A Clear Sign Toronto Voters Are Happy To Ignore Ford Original
If Olivia Chow was the big winner in Toronto’s mayoral by-election, Ontario Premier Doug Ford was the big loser. His candidate, former police chief Mark Saunders, came in a distant third, attracting only 62,000 votes — a drop in the bucket in a city of three million. Conventional wisdom throughout the seemingly endless campaign saw it as a “change election.” It most emphatically was.
Aging In Place: Toronto Couple Ups Long Game By Adding Elevator, Suite for Live-In Help Original
We grow old. We grow old. Whether we wear our trousers rolled or try to deny a future foretold, death and decline await us. Yet for many, accepting the reality of old age barely goes beyond rudimentary financial planning and saving for the “golden years” of retirement, good first steps at best. By contrast, Toronto husband and wife, Richard and Isabelle, decided to go all the way.
Trading Character for Condos: Toronto Residents Increasingly Feel Like They Don’t Belong
Until a week or two ago, the east side of Spadina between D’Arcy and St. Andrew streets, was home to a nondescript one-storey building that for decades housed a number of small shops and restaurant of the sort that give Chinatown its unique character. Then, suddenly, in the space of, perhaps, 48 hours, it was reduced to a pile of rubble and carted away. The reason, of course, was to clear the way for a condo tower.
Allowing Multiplexes a Sign Toronto Has Finally Woken Up to Reality Original
Though residents of what’s now called “Old Toronto” might have wondered what the fuss was all about, in a seismic move last week council approved new planning rules that will bring the city closer to the sort of place it thinks it should be. The decision to allow multiplexes of up to four units in every neighbourhood breaks the decades-old stranglehold exclusionary zoning has had on growth in the city’s residential areas.
Mayoral Election a Second Chance to Turn the Fantasy of Toronto into a Reality
Not often does a city get a second chance to choose a mayor. Toronto got the rare opportunity in February when the incumbent, John Tory, resigned suddenly after his affair with a female staffer was revealed. Though unexpected, the timing of Tory’s departure turned out to be entirely fortuitous; the city was waking up to the mess he had created during two terms and eight years in office.
Barcelona Has Found the Right Balance with its Cars, Why Can’t Toronto? Original
No one would ever accuse Barcelonans of not loving their cars. Indeed, the city has the highest rates of auto-ownership in Europe. Though they’re not hooked on pick-up trucks and SUVs like North Americans, four wheels are good enough. But as anyone who has spent even a few days in the Catalan capital knows, the space given to vehicular traffic doesn’t come at the expense of pedestrians, cyclists or, even more remarkably, trees, benches, buses, playgrounds or parking.
Toronto Transit Has Gone From Bad to Worse, And So Will Congestion Original
For a nation that wouldn’t exist but for transportation — in Canada’s case, the transcontinental railway — the failure to grasp the importance of mobility and access verges on tragedy. That failure has left cities across the country closer than ever to the point of no return. Urban transit networks can no longer cope with the demands of getting people where they want to go safely, reliably, and efficiently.
John Tory's Resignation is an Opportunity for Toronto to Dream Again
The irony was hard to miss; just weeks after being named Toronto’s first “strong mayor,” John Tory was forced to step down after the Toronto Star revealed he had had an “inappropriate relationship” with a female staffer half his age. His Worship’s shocking resignation was a brutal reminder — if one were needed — that new powers don’t change old weaknesses. In one fell swoop, Tory not only destroyed his political legacy, he also left his reputation for personal integrity in tatters.
The Mixed Legacy Hazel McCallion Leaves Behind in Mississauga
The death of Hazel McCallion last week at the age of 101 came as a shock to her army of admirers, many of whom believed she would live forever. Alas, we must all shuffle off this mortal coil, but by any measure, hanging on for more than a century is no mean feat. Mississauga’s longest-serving mayor, McCallion was first elected in 1978 and remained at the helm until she retired in 2014. By then she was 93 and had been in office for an astounding 36 years.
The Airport Experience is a Disaster, It's Time for Their Entire Design to Change
It’s airlines that create the mess, but airports that must clean it up. As international travel descends into an endless grind of cancelled flights, delayed arrivals, missed connections, and lost luggage, airports everywhere are drowning in a torrent of disaster that never seems to end. If that weren’t enough, they must also cope with the consequences of worsening weather, sky-high demand and airline incompetence. Little wonder they are overwhelmed.
Can Workplace Culture Save the Downtown Office? It Should Certainly Try
The data tells a disturbing story: downtowns across North America are having a tough time recovering from the pandemic. The result has been a “hollowing out” of urban cores. According to a recent Canadian Chamber of Commerce report, “workplace mobility” — whatever that may be — has dropped 46% here in Toronto. In Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver, the situation is even worse.
Opening the Greenbelt has Nothing to Do with Affordable Housing
The first thing to understand about Doug Ford’s decision to release 7,400 acres of the Greenbelt for development is that it has nothing to do with solving the affordable housing crisis. Despite what the premier wants us to think, that’s not what it’s about. The second thing to understand is that available land has never been the issue; neither have municipal approvals, development fees, or even zoning regulations for that matter.
Ford's New Housing Legislation Forgets Past Environmental Lessons
So, the civic election is over and Toronto has a handful of new progressives on council, though probably not enough to make a difference. Still, it’s much needed fresh blood at the table. Even better, perhaps, the voters of Etobicoke-Lakeshore turfed veteran councillor Mark Grimes; a rare reminder that incumbency doesn’t always ensure re-election. And, oh yes, John Tory is still mayor.
As Municipal Elections Loom, it's Time to Reform Urban Governance in Canada
Like Hazel McCallion before her, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie has dedicated much of her election campaign to the struggle to pull her city out of the regional government that, she insists, keeps her city from realizing its full potential. The battle, which she has waged for years, is about more than cutting costs. The issue, which pits her squarely against Premier Doug Ford, is Mississauga’s need to control its own destiny.
During an Election, Silence is Golden: Just Ask John Tory
Political engagement may be at an all-time low, but Toronto Mayor John Tory isn’t complaining. Just ask him: the less said, the better. Why else would he have refused all but a couple of invitations to debate his rivals? Sadly, His Worship may have a point; during municipal elections in Toronto, silence is golden. What matters most in the peculiar logic of municipal elections is name recognition. It is the single most important factor in getting elected or, in Tory’s case, re-elected.
When It Comes to Infrastructure, Toronto Dropped the Ball Years Ago
If Toronto moved any slower, it would be going backwards. Perhaps that’s why it often seems the city — if not the country — is advancing in reverse. Whether it’s major infrastructure projects or simple road repairs, getting anything done in Toronto has never seemed so slow and difficult. Politically and bureaucratically, the city can no longer keep up with demand, let alone respond nimbly and quickly. The ball was dropped years ago.
Memories of Covering Queen Elizabeth's Last Canadian Tour
Hume with a View Written By Christopher Hume For reasons that remain a mystery, in the summer of 2010, my bosses at the Toronto Star asked me — normally an architecture critic and urban affairs columnist — to cover the upcoming Royal Tour. I still don’t understand why, but it wasn’t an assignment I could refuse. Not that I was a monarchist — far from it. I’ve always thought of the monarchy as a remnant of an earlier, even less egalitarian age.
Who Decides the Future of Ontario Place? It's Not Everyday Torontonians
Who chooses? Who decides what gets built and what doesn’t? Is it municipal politicians? Provincial politicians? City planners? Neighbours? Developers? Architects? All of the above? None? Though never far below public consciousness, this question resurfaced again last month when urbanist and Toronto mayoralty candidate, Gil Penalosa, pledged to stop Premier Doug Ford’s controversial redevelopment plans for Ontario Place.
A Housing Non-Starter
If Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act lived up to its name, it would be great stuff. Sadly, it’s anything but. On closer inspection, it’s obvious the bill would weaken the mayors of Ontario’s two biggest cities, Toronto and Ottawa, and do absolutely nothing to alleviate either community’s housing crisis. Indeed, it’s hard to say whether Ford’s intention is to increase his own power, weaken that of the province’s largest urban centres, or both.
Five Developments Poised to Bring Excellence to Toronto's Public Realm
Toronto Hume with a View Written By Christopher Hume In a city willing to offer up its past, present and future on the altar of development, it’s no surprise the quality of architecture in Toronto has fallen as low as it has. From Ontario Place and Old Town to historic post offices and the Japanese Cultural Centre, everything is up for sale. On those rare occasions when excellence does pop up on Toronto’s increasingly unhappy landscape, it’s cause for celebration.
Gil Penalosa Could be Toronto's Chance to Challenge the Status Quo
The last time Toronto chose a mayor, John Tory’s main competition was the city’s former chief planner, Jennifer Keesmaat. This time, it’s urban activist Gil Penalosa. Both are smarter, better informed, more progressive and enlightened than the incumbent, but like Keesmaat before him, Penalosa will almost certainly fail to unseat Tory. Given a choice between the city that might be and the one that is, we prefer the status quo.
Toronto to Repeat Gentrification History at Jane and Finch
On a sunny day 20 odd years ago, a crowd gathered in a small park in south Etobicoke to celebrate its reopening after a top-to-bottom overhaul. The mayor at the time, David Miller, was on hand to say a few words and everyone smiled and nodded approvingly as he sang its praises.
Why Mississauga Is Canada's Very Own Dubai
Dubai isn’t just any old city; it is a place without limits, a paragon of civic ambition, a global centre of extravagance, above all, architectural extravagance. With its skyscraper opulence and built brashness, deliberately over-the-top towers and glittering shopping malls, it’s a truly 21st-century city, impossible to ignore yet unexpectedly generic. Designed to be exceptional, Dubai is a city of exceptions. Alas, when everything is exceptional, nothing is exceptional.
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