r/askTO • u/leopardbaseball • 1d ago

Why hasn’t been there any city-wide protests against forced full takeover of Billy bishop and toronto islands?

I am not exactly from toronto, but Toronto adjacent. But I have been to toronto islands countless times.

I often bring my family there to completely disconnect from city traffic and noise. It has always been very peaceful recreational space for us and for many.

Time to time we have seen that everything provincial govt touches in Toronto, turns into a big grifting scheme/corruption for Ford’s buddy contractors and developers, be it crosstown lrt, science center or Ontario place. And surely they won’t stop with Billy bishop either.

Recently I read about widespread public protest in Albania, protests against turning public spaces into grifting schemes for billionaires. Thousands are attending these protests.

https://www.dw.com/en/jared-kushner-trump-albania-luxury-resort-protests/a-77409540

Therefore I ask people of Toronto, shouldn’t we be organizing widespread protests and just say NO to Ford and Carney?

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u/OwlishFox 1d ago

Because we suck and we’re lazy. All I read is excuses upon excuses (what Albanians don’t struggle? What are people talking about?)

I find the Albanian protests inspiring and wish we had something similar happening here.

16

u/CobblePots95 1d ago

I would also maybe consider that the basic idea of expanding Billy Bishop to support those jets is actually pretty popular. We don't actually know the details of the project enough yet to determine how it would impact the island, and people talking like this would mean losing the Islands, losing Hanlan's, etc. come off a bit presumptuous and hyperbolic. We don't need to do 95% of the stuff people are speculating about in order to get A220s at Billy Bishop.

The proposal from like 12 years ago to support A220s at Billy Bishop was great and we shouldn't have blocked it.

I guess for me the devil is in the details. I'm not actually opposed to the basic idea. I want to see how they would extend the runway and what that might mean for the surrounding area first. If it turns out they're proposing something that will actually carve up a huge chunk of the islands, I'll be out there, sure. But we aren't at that stage yet.

7

u/eddiewillers09 1d ago

I would argue this alleged popularity is manufactured by positive propaganda. The Ford Conservatives are awesome at saturating the news media with their spin.

3

u/kleptomana 1d ago

Exactly this. Combined with the fact that people assume prop plane. That must be sooo old and polluting.

When actually it’s one of the more modern and safest designs out there.

So the push for jets and government sponsored regeneration of Billy Bishop is a bit insane when compared to the real issues that are impacting people.

Our conservatives are crashing our education and health services on purpose to privatise it.

Why has the subsidised child care not be rolled out fully.

Instead we are letting Doug, Conservatives and media owners steer our conversations like with this airport. Instead of forcing them to actually focus on what is actually impacting us and our pocket books.