Problem is downtowners (and I'm one of them) think they're 'real' Toronto. Well guess what...
THIS is no less 'real' Toronto than Queen and Ossington. Maybe we need to unamalgimate and go back to insane overduplication of services and everyone will be happy.
I'm sorry, but Queen + Ossington (or even Sheppard + Finch) is way more "real Toronto" than a country road is. And that's exactly why amalgamation is a terrible idea. I'm going to go out on a limb here but, anyone living in the area you linked to doesn't necessarily want to see their taxes going towards improving the local park, putting in bike lanes, getting rid of potholes, and improving the local library and community center. Someone at Queen + Ossington, however, is highly likely to want to see those things... and is even OK with tax dollars being spent to study how to best accomplish those things.
Depending on where you live, you have a different set of values and concerns. People downtown are more likely to be concerned about timely streetcar and bus service, people in suburbs are more concerned about their commute and whatever will help them get around better by car.
Which is fine - we all have priorities and where you live has a huge influence on what they are. But so long as we're forcing people in suburbs to share downtown values - and vice versa - there is always going to be a huge amount of tension.
If we had a Mayor who actually understood this as more than "gravy" and "us vs. them" and "fuck these downtown people who do they think they are anyway", we might actually be able to craft a set of policies and a framework for discussions around the idea of "How do we satisfy everyone's needs when their values are so disparate?" Instead, everyone (regardless of class or income) is either a downtown elite who should get off their bike and drive a vehicle (which doesn't even make sense) or a hard-working suburbanite who needs their commute reduced by a minute or two at the expense of everything else.
Personally, I think the first step in the right direction
is to get people out there voting. Obama wouldn't have had the colossal amount of support he did if it weren't for basically getting an army to go out, register people, and get them to the polling station. I have yet to see a city councillor or candidate talk about how important it is to actually get out there and vote... which isn't to say they haven't, but if they have, they haven't said it loudly enough. Something like less than half the city went out and voted last time around, and that's pretty dismal.