This Swift trip into the city from the airport was Taylor made for a superstar!
And paid for by Toronto taxpayers. It was a motorcade and Toronto Police escort fit for a world leader or royalty.
President Taylor Swift? Queen Taylor? Or, in this case, prime minister?
Yes, that motorcade and police escort from Pearson International Airport on Thursday to transport the American superstar and her team to the Rogers Centre for the first of her six shows for the Eras Tour was something you might see put on in the past for Queen Elizabeth or Prince Charles, now King Charles.
She’s the pope of pop and gets the treatment Pope John Paul got here in 2002.
Needless to say, the footage of this special treatment is going viral. And while the review for Swift’s first concert by Toronto Sun music expert Jane Stevenson was positive, the reviews for Swift’s special treatment, not so much.
“Ridiculous,” posted American talk show host Megyn Kelly.
Recommended Videos
“They had to shut down downtown Toronto to make way for Taylor Swift’s motorcade,” posted X star Ian Miles Cheong. “She’s more important than all these Canadian peasants. Hunger Games vibes, anyone?”
Oil London TV posted: “This is not a motorcade for a world leader. This is not a motorcade for a president or prime minister. This is a motorcade for a singer. Taylor Swift received a massive Canadian police motorcade as she arrived in Toronto, while shutting down traffic.”
It sure has raised a lot of eyebrows and was all over the morning talk shows. Greg Brady on Toronto640, John Moore on Newstalk 1010 and Marc Patrone on Sauga 960 were all taking calls on it Friday.
All were asking the same question: Who paid for this?
Well, Toronto Police say, you the taxpayers did.
“Taylor Swift attracts a large following that are very actively engaged, and for public safety reasons, we are facilitating her movements in the city,” said Toronto Police spokesperson Nadine Ramadan, who added “to be clear, we supplemented with some scout cars and motorcycles, but the rest belonged to her own security team.
“For operational security purposes, I can’t share the exact number.”
It was enough to shut down the movement of three highways and two city roads.
And those police motorcycles, cars and blocking traffic flow on Highway 427, the QEW, Gardiner Expressway and “Taylor Swift Way” for a music artist was at the financial expense of Torontonians who are already complaining about gridlock traffic and the slow or no response from police when they call 911.
Cynically, the joke is if Taylor needs the cops they are there in the same numbers needed to shut down Adamson Barbecue during the pandemic. And like there, the Mounted Unit was out in full force outside the Rogers Centre where there was no Bad Blood from Swifties telling critics to Shake it Off any Trouble and reminding Swift She Belongs to them.
“Even our horses are Swifties,” joked Chief Myron Demkiw on X, posting a picture of police horses decked out in friendship bracelets.
But from a security point of view the police know that one Swift concert was cancelled in August as a result of a terrorism threat in Vienna, Austria and the star has had safety concerns including a recent arrest of an alleged stalker.
And fresh off the Queen Street West and Sudbury Street music studio Dodge City-style shootout with 54 shots fired and 50 unspent rounds that police prevented from being fired, it’s not an overreaction to make sure Swift gets to this venue and to her hotel in a safe manner. Toronto has had at least 407 shootings in 2024 — some 116 more than at this time last year.
The motorcade, in a way, is an indictment of the reality that Toronto is not always safe. Also, the police certainly don’t want anything to happen to a wealthy billionaire like Swift and realize they would be held responsible if anything ever did.
However, if you can’t get a police car to swing by your broken-into house or for a carjacking, it’s understandable people would be shaking their head at seeing all this hardware available for a visiting celebrity.
Of course, the talented, Grammy Award-winning Swift and her amazing fans from the GTA and all over the world are dropping $275 million-plus of new dollars into the Toronto economy and the singer and her fans’ security is important and a worth investment.
So, has this been done for an entertainment star before?
Yes. The Beatles. In fact, back 60 years ago Toronto Police led a similar motorcade from the airport in what was then known as Malton and took it down the exact same route.
On the Modern Mississauga website they quote then Toronto cop Martin Bridgeman’s chaotic experience of being on a motorcycle with the fans trying to catch up to them and also shared drummer Ringo Starr’s reaction of the motorcade by Toronto Police being “very good, one of the best actually” while adding, “It was well-organized with the police escort.”
This one for Taylor Swift was even slicker.
Videos of this detail show she had the roadway to herself and there were no bumper-to-bumper worries for the songstress.
In fact, during the next week or so, you may see this motorcade again.
So is this setting a precedent? Will Beyonce, Oasis or the visiting international World Cup football clubs get such an entourage and taxpayer-funded manpower?
Perhaps, say Toronto Police, who don’t rule it out.
“Every situation is evaluated on a case-by-case basis,” said Ramadan.
So it turns out if Taylor Swift needs a police officer’s assistance there is no problem getting one to respond. Or dozens. And there’s no waiting for 34 minutes on 911 either. Or sitting in Toronto traffic.
However, that’s a better headline to complain on social media about than something dreadful happening to her.