After years of mild winters, a February snowstorm buries Toronto – and exposes its cold-weather struggles
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I made this assessment in a recent Instagram post. It’s not a profound comment, I readily admit. We certainly haven’t had a significant amount of snow in this city in recent years, although that changed this month. A total of 71.4 cm has reportedly fallen in Toronto, most occurring between Valentine’s Day and Family Day weekend. (It was only 8.2 cm of snow last February, as a point of comparison.)
Alas, it seems like many Torontonians have forgotten how to deal with Ol’ Man Winter.
Canadians are familiar with the elderly gentleman who is the historical personification of winter. The ancient Greeks believed he was a deity. The Old World pagans and others occasionally depicted him as a giant among men. The Native communities and Iroquois have a few stories, too.
There’s also Nancy Wood’s captivating poem, “Old Man Winter,” published in her 1974 collection, Many Winters: Prose and Poetry of the Pueblos. It’s a scintillating depiction of the fictional, mythical and all-powerful wintry marvel.
To wit,
 Why is Toronto the Good so bad when it comes to dealing with snow? |
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Old Man Winter blew in on a cloud from the north
And lay down on the mountaintops
Covering them with snow.
His fingers reached down to the valleys below
Stealing the leaves from the trees.
His hands closed around the water
Gripping it with ice.
His breath roared out from his lips
Stopping all streams at their source.
The feet of Old Man Winter walked upon the earth
Freezing all the grass.
When he was through
Old Man Winter curled up and went to sleep
Drawing into himself
All beasts
All land
All men.
I’ve waged many wars with Ol’ Man Winter. Some involved but a few flakes of snow, while others were battles for the ages. My trusty snow shovel is always at the ready, and I yell out a hearty “en garde!” before the first shot of white stuff has been fired!
Yes, I’m obviously exaggerating my tale for dramatic effect. The weather conditions and wintery battles others face across Ontario and in different parts of our country are far worse. The massive snow storms I faced while working for the Harper government in Ottawa would give most Torontonians a regular series of fits and nightmares.
It wasn’t always that way in fair Hogtown, mind you.
The “snowiest winter on record in Toronto,” according to a Feb. 25, 2015 toronto.com piece, occurred during the winter of 1937-38. A grand total of 207.4 centimetres of snow, or more than two metres, fell in the city and wreaked havoc. There’s also what Reader’s Digest Canada called the “Great Toronto Snowstorm” of Dec. 11, 1944. It ranked fourth on a list of the 10 worst snowstorms in Canadian history. “The weather forecast called for light snow that day,” Anna-Kaisa Walker wrote, “but Toronto got more than it bargained for, with a record 57 centimetres dumped over most of the city. Traffic was paralyzed for days, cutting off vital deliveries of milk, bread and coal, while important munitions factories supplying the war effort had to shut down.”
Some vintage photos of Toronto snowstorms published by the Toronto Guardian on Jan. 13, 2017, provide a different story, too. Clean-up crews for a snow-blocked train in 1896, a snowy highway route to Hamilton, Ont. with a stranded car in 1918, icy formations at Kew Beach in 1926, a snow scene in High Park in 1932 and photos from the massive 1944 snowstorm showed a city that was used to dealing with massive amounts of snow.
The 1999 snowstorm in Toronto, along with the winters of 2007-08 and 2013-14, had some harrowing moments and slow clean-up processes. Alas, what most Canadians remember is when Toronto mayor Mel Lastman went completely overboard during the former event and called in the army.
Why is Toronto the Good so bad when it comes to dealing with snow?
There are several possible reasons. Warmer temperatures over the past few decades have turned those historic snowstorms into distant memories. Younger Torontonians have rarely experienced that much snow in their lifetimes. New immigrants don’t know how to prepare for their first winter weather experience as previous generations did. Many Toronto drivers are not interested in rushing out to purchase winter tires, leading to a mess on the roads and highways when huge dumps of snow occur.
That’s why Ol’ Man Winter beat Toronto into submission this month. We’ll see if a return bout is scheduled before spring.
Michael Taube is a political commentator, Troy Media syndicated columnist and former speechwriter for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He holds a master’s degree in comparative politics from the London School of Economics, lending academic rigour to his political insights.
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