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Tuesday, August 25, 2009 6:04 PM

Toronto: still unsung

Marcus Gee

San Francisco has “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” New York has “New York, New York.” Toronto has never seemed to inspire song writers in the same way. It’s a heck of a nice town with some pretty darn nice places to go, but it's hard to imagine someone waxing lyrical about it the way Tony Bennett did when he crooned “when I come home to you, San Francisco, your golden sun will shine for me.”

Perhaps that is why the latest government-directed attempt to capture Toronto in song falls flat. Love to Live in Toronto is the product the Toronto Song contest, held in honour of the city’s 175th anniversary. It was chosen from among 10 finalists at the opening of the Ex. George Axon and Aidan Mason have turned out a bouncy jingle along the line of A Place to Stand, A Place to Grow (Ontari-ari-ari-o!), the upbeat tune written for Ontario’s pavilion at Expo 67. The song sails along nicely enough, even if the twangy Country Western sound is a bit odd for a big eastern city, but the tourist-brochure lyrics never hint at why anyone would “love” to live in Toronto. As the song writers have it,

“It’s the view from CN Tower

It’s the feeling in the neighbourhood

It’s when friends meet

For a bite to eat

In Toronto the good”

Those may be things to like about Toronto, but no song yet has found anything about the city that really tugs at the heart.

(Hear the song at: http://www.toronto.ca/175/song_contest.htm)

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Inside City Hall Contributors

Jennifer Lewington, City Hall Bureau Chief

Jennifer Lewington

Born on a farm in southern Ontario, I broke into journalism with a scholarship for summer reporting at the London Free Press in 1967. A graduate of the University of Western Ontario and Columbia University, I started my career with the Financial Post in Ottawa, then moved on to the Montreal Gazette (in Montreal), the Canadian Press (in Ottawa) before joining the Globe and Mail in 1981.

In 1984, when posted to Washington, I became the Globe’s first female foreign correspondent, winning a National Newspaper Award. In 1991, I was named a Neiman Fellow at Harvard University before returning to the Globe in Canada to write about education and later about urban issues.

I am currently Toronto City Hall Bureau Chief, reporting on news and features of interest to residents. I am still a farm girl at heart and like to bring those down-to-earth values to my reporting.

 
Brodie Fenlon, Reporter

Brodie Fenlon

I moved to The Globe and Mail's City Hall Bureau in 2009 after a two-year stint as reporter, editor and multimedia specialist at globeandmail.com.

I have a teaching degree from Lakehead University and graduated from the journalism program at University of Western Ontario in 1999. I began my career at the London Free Press two days after I got married, spoiling the honeymoon. Later I moved to the Toronto Sun, where I was involved in all manner of spot news and investigative features. I was working as a city hall reporter for the Sun when I moved to globeandmail.com.

My wife and I eventually got our honeymoon. We have two beautiful boys. I ride a Suzuki Burgman 650 in the nice weather and spend far too much time in movie theatres.

 

Marcus Gee

I’m one of those rare birds: a native Torontonian. I grew up in Moore Park in North Toronto, lived away for 10 years in Vancouver and Asia, then came back and have been here ever since. Through most of my career at The Globe, which I joined in 1991, I have been writing about foreign affairs, as an editorial writer, columnist and, most recently, Asia business reporter. Now I’m exploring my hometown as a columnist.

 
Jeff Gray, Reporter and Columnist (Dr. Gridlock)

Jeff Gray

I have been at The Globe and Mail since 1998, and started covering Toronto City Hall in 2004. In my Dr. Gridlock column, I try to tackle the city's traffic problems.

I took off in 2002 to work at the BBC's news website in London and to freelance for The Globe. In 2000, I was part of the team that relaunched globeandmail.com.

Most of the time, I bike to work. I like to think my two little boys enjoy my renditions of Bob Dylan tunes on guitar and harmonica, but I fear they prefer Raffi.