So long, farewell to the year that was – a political whopper if there ever was one – as it comes to an end with numerous cliffhangers poised to play out.
As all eyes turn to Ottawa and Washington, let’s look back at the highlights and mostly lowlights of 2024.
Will he or won’t he?
U.S. President Joe Biden was forced to step aside for the sake of his party – not that it helped much. Our ever sanctimonious Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, all smug smiles and bloated ego, was desperately hanging on to his own political future while NDP leader Jagmeet Singh kept playing coy before finally announcing that he’ll topple the Liberal government sometime next year.
Official Best Buddy
Shocking enough for some of us that a convicted felon is returning to the White House while bellowing threats of revenge against his domestic enemies and 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico, but who elected the world’s richest man? Elon Musk’s sudden bromance with Donald Trump – who can forget those bizarre midriff-baring leaps on stage? – has seen the Tesla and SpaceX founder increase his net worth by $15 billion as he flexes his power on Capitol Hill.
It’s tough to shake it off
Singer-songwriter phenom Taylor Swift sold out six shows in Toronto during her Eras tour, with resale tickets topping $100,000, making it the highest-grossing live music event in our city’s history. But it didn’t come without its controversial costs: many disappointed concert goers were scammed by counterfeit tickets and Toronto Police spent $1.9 million on extra security for the star and her crowds of bejewelled Swifties.
Take a hike
It was a dry two weeks this summer when LCBO’s approximately 9,000 workers walked off the job on July 5 over the Ford government’s privatization plans – though booze was still available online, at the Beer Store and other retailers. Both the TTC and Air Canada narrowly avoided strikes at the last hour while – ho, ho, ho – Canada Post workers were ordered back on the job in time to deliver letters to Santa.
Annus horribilis part II
Prince William called it the “hardest” year of his life. After months of KateGate conspiracies and a really bad, digitally modified family photo, Kate Middleton made the shocking announcement in March that she’d been out of sight because she was undergoing chemotherapy following abdominal surgery. Her revelation came a month after King Charles announced his own surprising cancer diagnosis. Meanwhile, the royal rift continued with the American outpost of Harry and Meghan, who were having their own tough time dealing with divorce rumours, while scandal-scarred Prince Andrew and his nefarious relationships – this time with a Chinese spy – continued to plague The Firm.
#MeToo movement not done yet
Sexual assault cases made headlines around the world – French mass rape survivor Gisele Pelicot became a feminist hero for insisting on a public trial against her now ex-husband and 50 other men, which detailed how Dominque Pelicot drugged her for almost a decade and invited strangers into their home to assault her while he filmed. The music world was rocked when powerful hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested and remains behind bars on federal sex trafficking charges for his “freak-off” orgy. Meanwhile, closer to home, it took six years for London police to charge five players from Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team with sexual assault. Former Canadian fashion king Peter Nygard was finally sentenced to 11 years in prison for attacking four women while industrial titan and billionaire Frank Stronach is fighting his own sex assault charges that he’s denied.
Castles in the sky, cheap
After years of crazy sale prices for shoebox homes, the condo market in Toronto has crashed, with new sales in the GTA plummeting by over 80% from last year and currently sitting at a record 30-year low, according to Urbanation’s 2024 third-quarter report.
Please tell me that’s an espresso martini
A record-breaking summer storm dumped 100 mm of water on the city – more than a month’s worth of rain in just a few hours – flooding Union Station, turning the Don Valley Parkway into a river and overflowing brown sludge over the gold floors of Drake’s $100-million Bridle Path mansion, forcing him to take time out from his rap beef with Kendrick Lamar to mop up. Perhaps more importantly, more than 167,000 people were left without power while Toronto Fire received 1,700 calls for help.
Can you say Scrooge?
Toronto city staff banned tobogganing on 45 hills, leaving only 29 slopes open to winter fun. Following public outcry, City Council voted a month later to rescind the silly decision.
Damn, this traffic jam
Even James Taylor’s song couldn’t imagine the gridlock we endure. Traffic is so bad that Irish singer and former One Direction alum Niall Horgan had to ditch his car and walk to ScotiaBank Arena to make it to his concert on time; Utah hockey players also decided to hoof it after their bus got stuck in a traffic jam. In January, Toronto beat out New York and Mexico City as the most congested city in North America. Yay, us. And adding to a motorist’s nightmare are new speed cameras and fines for blocking the box skyrocketing from $90 to $450 at most intersections. But hey, Doug Ford wants to build us a 60-km tunnel under Hwy. 401 to alleviate congestion.
The slower way, chapter 2,024
Another year end review, another entry about our abysmal transit system. A study found Toronto has the second-worst commute time in Canada and the U.S., second only to Vancouver, with the typical Toronto passenger spending one year and seven months riding transit over their lifetime. And, sigh, the “earliest possible date” for the long-delayed opening of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT is now June 1, 2025 – that will be five years late and counting.
The wheels have fallen off
Nothing is more contentious than those bike lanes downtown that have made it near impossible to get around for those on more than two wheels. Premier Doug Ford’s controversial new law is slated to remove bike lanes on Bloor St., Yonge St., and University Ave. next spring at what the City says will cost $48 million, although the province strongly disputes that estimate. But they may not be going anywhere – Cycle Toronto has launched a legal challenge, naturally.
Artificial “intelligence”?
The genie is out of the bottle. University of Toronto’s Geoffrey Hinton, “Godfather of AI”, won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics while continuing his warnings about its risks, ChatGPT reportedly now processes a billion queries a day, tech bros Sam Altman and Elon Musk are battling over the future of OpenAI, and there’ve been some, well, glitches: Google’s AI tool advised searchers to add glue to pizza sauce “to give it more tackiness.”
All talk, no action
That’s pretty much the response emanating from most political leaders – we’re especially talking about you, Mayor Olivia Chow – to the alarming rise in antisemitism. Since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas murdered 1,200 in Israel and kidnapped 250 in the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Toronto Police reported the greatest increase in hate crimes has been against the Jewish community, by 74.5%. Synagogues have been defaced, burned and protested, an elementary Jewish school for girls was struck by gunfire three times, the Toronto District School Board took some students to an anti-Israel rally while these endless protests by masked thugs have seen brazen intimidation and glorification of terrorism. Yet on the one-year anniversary, Chow was a no-show at the community’s memorial rally.
A hair-raising move
Our favourite part of the Ontario Science Centre was always the static electricity exhibit that sent our hair into Bride of Frankenstein mode, so the sudden shuttering of the 55-year-old institution in June was as sad as it was shocking. The Ford government said the roof was at risk of caving in and repairing the current building would be more expensive than erecting an entirely new one on the grounds of its controversial redevelopment of Ontario Place – count us skeptical but either way, it’s now delayed until at least 2029.
Why did the chicken cross the road?
There was your usual corral of weird animal news this year: A crash on Hwy. 401 in Milton this summer sent live chickens spilling across the roadway, an orangutan briefly escaped the Toronto Zoo, a few fare-avoiding trash pandas were back riding the subway, at least one caused a downtown power outage, and many more raccoons were found suffering from a “zombie” virus. Packs of coyotes were terrifying dog owners, and then there’s our rodent problem: Toronto once again claimed the top spot as the country’s most rat-infested city.
That seems an appropriate place to bid adieu to 2024.
Here’s wishing you and yours a happier – and rat-free – new year.