Only in Toronto

Jun 09, 2002- Permalink

Toronto’s a very multicultural city, full of proud hyphenates. Every time a team wins, loses or ties some international sporting event, members of that community pile into their vehicles, drive up and down Yonge Street, and scream at pedestrians.

After today’s 1-0 loss to Japan, Russians were upset and rioted in Moscow, leaving one dead in the aftermath. In Toronto, an SUV full of tearful Russian-Canadians tore up and down Yonge Street with one of the guys leaning out the window, waving his flag and screaming at all of us on the sidewalks.

Russia’s a big country. But I’m quite sure that if Tonga was playing today a) you’d find an SUV full of Tongan-Canadians yelling at pedestrians and waving the flag of Tonga. I imagine there’s a flag-selling warehouse in Toronto where the clerk goes, “Nauru? Yeh, we got that flag in the back.”