32 Replies to “Honey, I Finished The Internet”

    2. HR, the buses worked very well because they drew power off overhead catenaries. The first big trolley buses in Toronto entered service starting in 1947. I remember being on one of them when I was very young a few times.

      1. That’s what we rode as kids, too, cgh. Yup, all electric. The fare for kids was 3¢.

        Not sure why the electric buses went the way of the Dodo. I think it was because the wires were ‘unsightly’ and because the burgeoning ‘burbs made it impractical to run lines to all the neighborhoods. The diesel buses could go anywhere, and as new neighborhoods opened up, there was no need to run lines to them.

        But… I was too young to pay attention at the time, so I really can’t recall the real reason(s) the trolleys were axed.

        1. HR, there are two reasons for the disappearance of the trolley buses. They were hated by the Green Lobby, Greenpeace wanted them abolished because they needed electricity.

          But the real reason was maintenance. The catenaries had gotten heavily damaged by road salt over the years with increasing current interruptions. The bus fleet was wearing out as well. So TTC decided to terminate the trolley buses without replacing them.

          If you say that both of these were stupid reasons, I agree with you.

    1. I think they voted Progressive Conservative then. Pearson didn’t get one seat. Yet they named the airport after him.

      1. Toronto was the heart of Tory Ontario in the 1960s. It was the reason why the Conservatives were elected to control the Ontario legislature for more than 40 years from 1949 to 1985 when Frank Miller lost to David Peterson. In those days, Toronto voted Tory. Socialists only got elected in Hamilton, Windsor and Sarnia.

      1. It is as though the civilization of present day is on a decline and accelerating.
        If you read the decline of Athens and Rome, it is almost exactly how it happened, the producers could not support the takers. They were done.
        What Trump is doing is, in practical terms a revolution of the government. It may be helpful, though it remains to be seen if that will be sufficient to, at least get on the right track.
        While the free enterprise is doing things that are by any standard superior, the politicians are absolutely convinced that they know how to run it.
        Then came Trump.

  3. I saying often heard around home back in the day:
    “I spent a week in Toronto one day”

    Each of my sibs living there now have severe TDS.
    Must something in the water.

  4. Over an hour to drive from the Gardiner and Yonge to Dundas and Spadina (cops everywhere all the streets are closed) last night because of the Taylor Swift concert. This morning it took more than an hour to go from Spadina and Dundas to Avenue Rd and the 401 because of the Santa Claus parade.

    I saw at least a hundred cops on each trip.
    Traffic congestion is unbelievable.

    1. Walking would have been faster…

      The upside now that her “bad choices” performances are over, at least we won’t have the PoPo closing major highways to transport her from Pearson to the Rogers Center (Her taking the UP express would have been faster and less annoying to everyone else, give her her own train)

  5. It’s almost as if raw materials, business, and industry were a good thing in 1958 Toronto? Then the communists took over … Enjoy the decline

  6. Somehow Toronto seemed to survive and thrive without diversity.
    “But think of the ethnic food we have now!”

      1. During my teens and early 20s I lived in Etobicoke and I remember when a Chinese food outlet was opened in a small strip mall. That was followed by a pizza joint. Across the street was a fish and chips shop that had been there for many years. All three were takeaway only. The fish and fries were both wrapped in newspaper.

    1. Diversity happened. Ignorant welfare immigrants and the destruction of industry, and liberal socialism/communism.

    2. ‘Seems nice. Wonder what changed?”
      Lester B Pearson. He opened the flood gates of immigration of third world countries and convinced Trudeau to leave the NDP and become a Liberal. It was all downhill from there.

  9. Whenever I hear some leftist say ‘they want to drag us back to the 1950’s’, I think that would be nice.

      1. As a young child watching Back to the Future and watching Marty McFly in the 1950s I remember thinking how cool it must’ve been to live back then. In the US or Canada.

  10. 40 years back I was at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto. I was hanging out with a buddy from Saskatchewan who told me the first time he went to the Fair he came in on the train. This would have been late 50’s. In those days there was a train that gathered livestock in the west and took it to Toronto. It took days to cross the country. You hauled your livestock feed and travelled with cattle, horses sheep etc. They unloaded right at the barns which are almost directly under the Gardner. Still there today.

    He was a kid from rural SK and once they had gotten the stock settled in the barns he climbed up on the roof of the barn and watched traffic. He said it fascinated him, he’d never seen anything like it. Today it’s grid lock

  11. What a great ‘blast from the past’! Real cars made of metal, barely any traffic, women wearing skirts and no homeless. Thanks for sharing it, Kate.

  12. The Royal York Hotel. One time tallest structure in the British Empire.

    I think the huge sugar factory is still on the waterfront. Nice load of Studebakers on the truck.

  13. In the downtown of Toronto today you rarely see a white face.

    The ‘Canadian’ passenger train remains unchanged. It’s still lumbering across Canada 3 times a week with the same 50’s rolling stock!

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