July 13, 2010
My brother and I had lunch at a park last weekend. Afterwards, I set up a tent and proceeded to nap, as many sleepless nights in Toronto induce me to fall asleep everywhere else. I was about 10 minutes into my nap when a dog, a wet dog, came in the tent and started splashing all around! As you can imagine, I was not impressed. So I got out of the tent and asked the owners to control their dog. Okay, I might have yelled, but only because they were far away. To this my brother said: “Wow, Toronto people are so aggressive.” I knew he meant rude. He’s just too polite to say so.
I’ve always thought I was polite, so this came as a shock to me. Could my four years as a Toronto Girl have turned my small town sweetness into raw aggression? I started to reflect upon actions and the actions of Torontonians in general. For example, when a pregnant woman/elderly person needs a seat, do we offer it? When we’re driving and someone cuts us off, do we honk? When service at a restaurant takes a little bit too long, do we snap? In my opinion, we are polite. We are also assertive; if something is wrong we speak on it. Nothing wrong with that…but maybe I’m just too used to being rude to notice it. Maybe the norm in this city (as in every major city) is to be aggressive, and anything else is just plain wimpy. What do you think? Are we too rude/aggressive?
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I think we can we rude, we all have places to go and people to see and at times, everyone tends to feel like they are the most important person in the city and no one else matters.
Maybe we are just misunderstood.
I do love Toronto and knew when I first moved here that people were a little more aggressive buy always left my opinion on the back burner. When my mom drove to visit this past Spring the first thing she say was how inconsiderate the people of Toronto's driving skills were. All in all it comes down to the individual, we live in such a fast pace world that everyone is out to satisfy themselves, so its not just in Toronto.
I do feel a shift in gears when visiting Toronto, but hey, its a major city. I still most people are very polite. After all, we are Canadian :)
I'm an American (originally from New York) who just returned from a few days in Toronto. My wife and I can't stop talking about how miserable and unfriendly most people there appeared to be. It's all a matter of perception, but I've been all over North America and Torontonians are, IMO - the most self-centered and rudest on the continent!
torontonians are incredibly rude and douchy I hate this city. back to montreal for me. Chaleureux et un bon joie de vivre!
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I remember the first time when I landed in Toronto from Vancouver and I was picked up by my cousin. I'll nevr forget how she rushed me to get my suitcases in the car trunk. While we're driving on the highway I feared that someone will crash right into us because 80% of the drivers were not using their indication lights. People were speeding up and cuting off others like nothing, but it was worst on the side streets because not only cars were cutting us off pesdestrains were jay crossing every minute. I was shock. I learned that Toronto people are selfish.
Torontonians are rude, its a plain fact. Assertive?, hah, just kidding yourselves, selfish? definitely! I lived in Europe for a long while, if someone cut the line and pushed in front of you, you'd have it, but unfortunately this seems to be the norm. worst still, they don't even know its plain wrong, thats just sad.
People living in Toronto are selfish, rude a-holes. I grew up in Toronto and embarrassed to say so.
They say Torontonians behave in such rude way because they want to be like New Yorkers.
But the truth is, having lived for many, many years in New York City, I can say with a straight face that while New Yorkers are rude, the NY rudeness us not even remotely close to the level of rudeness in Toronto.
The rudeness in NYC is just plain lack of manners caused by lack of time; whereas in Toronto, the rudeness is filled with malice, passive aggressiveness and coldness.
I just can't quite put my finger on it. But there seems to be something extremely creepy and very passive aggressive about the rudeness in Toronto.
I would say Toronto is the rudest city I have been to anywhere on Earth, and I have been to many places.
As to the cause of all this rudeness, I haven't a clue. Maybe someone care to explain?
I couldn't agree more to the above statement- Oct 22, 2011. There is this underlying sneeky-like rudeness in Toronto. It's almost as if everyone snubs everyone else. It's ridiculous. I've lived in many different places in the US and Europe, and I have never experienced this kind of rudeness before.
People ignore each other constantly in Toronto. No one gives anyone here the time of day. New York doesn't do that. London England doesn't do that. No place acts that way.
The wait staff in restaurants in Toronto have such attitude! They seem to begrudge serving people. It's almost as if people in Toronto can't stand each other.
The attitude here is so weird and almost petty-like.
Having been here a month, I'm very disappointed as to the attitude, behaviour, and sense of elitism amongst people in Toronto - whether they were born here or some impoverished country where people constantly die in the street: there is no appreciation for being here (if I came from one of those countries and was lucky enough to live in Canada, I'd be kissing the ground). Having said that, there is also no sense whatsoever concerning customer service or appreciation. No 'thank you, come again!' or 'your business here is appreciated, thanks for coming!' - take a lesson from the US - you are headed down the same miserable path of poverty where you'll be dancing in the sidewalks for nickels or picking up aluminum cans for money. All your university degrees and downtown condos can, and will, go *poof* just like that when the economy here tanks.