This is my seventeenth Thanksgiving Day in Toronto. I arrived in late September 1991 giving up a flourishing communications career with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to live in Canada. I walked right into the economic downturn of the early 90s and thus started a Sisyphean struggle to get my career back on track.
These thoughts ran through my mind as I sat in the audience of the mayoral debate at the CBC's Glenn Gould Studio on October 5. The debate was an off-shoot of the Toronto Community Foundation's Vital Signs 2010 report. Who has a better (may I add brighter) vision of Toronto among the mayoral candidates?
Toronto has always taken pride in its diversity --- 'home to the world' --- the city fathers proclaim --- attracting the best and the brightest. But it is a known fact that many highly educated immigrants have fallen through the cracks in Canada's largest city. Stories of doctors driving cabs, working as security guards or delivering pizzas abound. It seemed to be the norm rather than the exception.
And that is why I was fortunate enough to escape the ignominy of career oblivion in 1996 by returning to the UN through an editorial posting in New York albeit a short-term one. Indeed I felt that my adopted city lacked vision in opening its arms to qualified and educated newcomers. How do we contribute if we are stonewalled from the get-go?
Did I find a mayor with a world view at the CBC Glenn Gould Studio debate? Someone who will think beyond potholes as beautifully expressed in Toronto Community Foundation's CEO Rahul Bharwaj's Open Letter.
A statesman with a vision for tomorrow. Have we found him yet?
I remember mentioning to Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone as he worked the crowd lining up in the CBC lobby before the debate began that I was an undecided voter. At the end of the debate, Mr. Pantalone saw me again and asked whether I was still neutral ... I am afraid so, Mr. Pantalone. I'm afraid so.
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