Another publicly owned institution in Toronto is an abattoir, built and operated by the city. Here any cattle dealer or local marketman may have his animals killed under the most sanitary conditions. The city owns also its waterworks and has a Hydro-Electric Commission which furnishes power to its factories and homes at low rates. It has invested more than two million dollars in grounds and buildings for the Canadian National Exhibition, held here every September with an attendance of over a million.
Its street railway system is Toronto’s latest and largest venture in public ownership. Both the cars and the service are by far the best I have seen anywhere in Canada, and few of our cities can show better. The city paid forty-five million dollars for the property, and within two years it had doubled the single fare area, increased the mileage twenty-five per cent., built extensions out to the suburbs, replaced antiquated cars with the newest and best, and speeded up service. On the main lines, the cars are very large and during rush hours they are run in twos, coupled together. In the newer cars the conductor sits perched in a cage in the middle. Passengers enter by the front door, and if they pass down the aisle to sit in the rear they pay the conductor as they go by. If they take seats in the front half, they do not pay their fares until they get up to leave by the door in the middle. It is interesting to know that the first electric street car in America was operated in Toronto.
Conservative Montreal looks upon Toronto’s plunges into public works as the height of folly, and sometimes gives her sister city a lecture. Replying to such criticism, a local paper said the other day it supposed Montreal would have every Torontoan go to bed at night saying these verses:
Oh, let us love our occupations,
Bless the squire and his relations,
Live upon our daily rations,
And always know our proper stations.
Unlike Montreal and Quebec, Toronto is a city of sky-scrapers, and the Yonge Street canyon makes the American visitor feel much at home. Toronto has hustle, enterprise, and the courage to do whatever it pleases.
