Toronto Islands

            I visited Toronto Islands on a lovely September afternoon, while it was still warm enough for the Island to have many people visiting it (though to be fair, I have no knowledge of how popular the islands are as a tourist destination on what could be considered the off-season—fall and winter). Nonetheless, when I took the ferry over to the islands, the ferry was fairly packed with people of all ages—though there were perhaps more families (IE one or two parents with one or more children) heading to the island than any other group. There were also several people taking bikes over to the island, and many people had cameras with them as well to take photos.

            The interesting thing about going to the Toronto Islands is that while they are still a part of Toronto, one almost feels as though they are leaving the city to go over to them by crossing Lake Ontario in the ferry. Once you arrive on the islands, the Toronto skyline is still clearly visible and not that far away. There is this strange dichotomy here—the visitor both has and has not left Toronto in order to visit the islands, and so the presence of the city feels both close and far away at the same time, largely due to the nature of travelling from Toronto proper to the islands.

            On the island (it should be noted that I only went to Centre Island, and from here on ‘the island’ will refer to this one in particular)  I personally just walked around on the paths, passing through the small zoo and amusement park area, and then spent some time relaxing at one several beaches on the island. The island is quite large and it takes some time to get from place to place, though I observed people biking around, which makes the distances much smaller. It is possible to both bring one’s bike to the islands or rent them once on the island itself, and given the number of people I observed biking, this is apparently quite a popular activity on the island. Besides this, people can be observed relaxing and walking around, and some were swimming (though the water by this time was actually quite cold—I dipped my feet into the water briefly and that was enough for me). Overall, there was a feeling of relaxation and ‘getting away from it all’ that overcame me, and the friend I was with, when we were on the island.

            On other islands that I did not visit, there are small residential communities. Historically, the Toronto Islands were not so focused on tourism. Indeed, the islands were mostly marshland in the late eighteenth century, but by the mid-nineteenth century a hotel had been opened on one of the islands, and this resulted in the rapid development of the islands—including a theatre, dance halls, an amusement park, and a baseball stadium by 1897 (Higgens 1999). These attractions resulted in the development of cottages and residential communities on the islands, creating essentially a community of people all over the islands who went there during the summer as their second homes, with infrastructure in place (such as stores, pharmacies, etc.) to support them there (1999). However, in the 1950s the establishment of the Metro Toronto Council resulted in demolishing of homes on many of the islands and deconstruction of business established there (1999). By 1993, residents on the island had managed to procure the rights to maintain communities in much smaller areas, leaving the rest of the islands for commercial use more akin to what can be seen today (1999).

            It was near the end of the nineteenth century as well when developers decided to try to turn other parts of the island into large, beautiful gardens for the general enjoyment of the community. These initial parks were heralded as the ‘people’s park’ on the island and took considerable effort to make, as what had originally been sandbars were turned into parts of the islands in order to create areas where gardens could be built (1999). Notably, the creation of many of these gardens involved essentially commandeering or getting rid of previous patches of natural wildlife and plant life, and though these pockets still exist, the presentation as a whole of the Toronto islands is that of a manufactured garden environment, created by humans for consumption by humans (1999). This is largely how the islands have come to be the way that they are to this day—largely manufactured, and designed with consumption in mind.

            The Toronto Islands, therefore, generally fall in line and have similarities to Raymond Williams’ ideas of the country-city dichotomy, as well as his theory of structures of feeling. When one goes to the Toronto Islands, it is almost as though one is escaping to the country, and getting away from the city and its associated meanings—the rushing, the noise, and its inherent pulse of activity (Williams 1973:5). The city has these associations with being chaotic but important—a demonstration of humanity’s ability to build and create wonders (1973:6). This stands in opposition to the country, which carries meanings more associated with hard work coupled with a slowness, using one’s hands, tending to the land, etc. (1973:3-4). This is embodied in the dichotomy between Toronto and the islands. The islands are still technically a part of Toronto, and yet they feel very separate, and inspire feelings more akin to those of the countryside. It is slower-paced, and there are attractions on the island meant to inspire a more country-esque feel, such as a small zoo that contains mostly animals that are raised on farms, such as chickens and cattle. There is even the Franklin Children’s Garden (which I personally must have missed, but is detailed on the City of Toronto’s website), where children can take part in interactive learning experiences about what it is like to grow plants. The islands the countryside—and a different way of life—that people from the city go to for tourist purposes, but also to escape the hustle and bustle that is so prominent in the city.

            This too, begins to play into Williams’ ideas about structures of feeling. His Marxist-inspired theory revolves around the notion that people in a society will create ‘structures of feeling’—that is, that a sort of articulated history that exists within culture allows for a political economy to be created that serves to benefit the few at the expense of the many (Williams 1977:132). It is a complicated idea because ‘structure’ and ‘feeling’ seem like such opposed concepts, but Williams marries them well. Essentially, people are using feelings of loss in specific ways in order to benefit.

            In the case of the Toronto Islands, there is a clear goal to create a structure of feeling and in turn create economic gain through a romanticized presentation of the country, which cultural narratives have turned into something that has been ‘lost.’ In the case of the islands, they were once free from human development and interaction, but were then heavily developed into housing projects, etc. A structure of feeling was later created to undo this and present the Toronto islands as a romanticized image of ‘country life,’ by having such things as pony rides, farms, etc., while also quite clearly creating a man-made experience. Essentially, the image of the countryside and ‘getting away from it all’ is being used as part of a capitalist system of gain. The Toronto islands are very much manufactured—while there are tons of green spaces, beaches, gardens, and these country life-focused attractions, they are still all in existence for the sake of economic gain. The islands do this quite well. They serve the purpose of creating somewhere that Torontonians and tourists can escape from the hustle and bustle of the city to reclaim what has been lost—the country atmosphere and lifestyle, even if it is for just a few hours. And at the end of the day, the people who run these attractions on the island benefit economically from it.

Sources:

Delwyn Higgens, 1999. “Toronto Island’s Homes and Gardens,” accessed at Toronto Island Community, http://torontoisland.org/briefhistory.

Raymond Williams, 1973. “The Country and the City,” Chapter 1 in The Country and the City, Oxford University Press.

Raymond Williams, 1977. “Structures of Feeling,” Chapter 9 in Marxism and Literature, Oxford University Press.

City of Toronto. “The Franklin Children’s Garden,” accessed at the City of Toronto Website, http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=e9b8dada600f0410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD.