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I'm just back from the Milano Expo and while it was an enjoyable enough day, I didn't come away really seeing the point in it all.

It seemed more like a forum for insecure countries to grandstand and for secure countries to either do very little or not attend at all.

Yes, my partner and I were there in May and that really sums it up very well. However, I can see the advantage to a city in having large events like World's Fairs or Olympics as it is a way of getting infrastructure built and an event that attracts visitors for 6 months is certainly better than one that does so for 2 weeks and forces a City to build athletic facilities that are seldom used afterwards.
 

Toronto exploring potential bid to host 2025 World Expo

On Monday, Mayor John Tory will meet with two officials from the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) to discuss the 2025 World Expo. The Toronto Region Board of Trade will also hold a panel discussion on the benefits of playing host to such an event.
More............http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...-bid-to-host-2025-world-expo/article28367594/
 
Toronto is incapable of maintaining its public realm, public transit and public housing. The City is incapable of planning and delivering a decent and effective public transit system. Our municipal political class spends exactly zero time thinking about how we can maintain and enhance our competitive advantage. So rather than deal with our many deficits, we now propose to aim the Nathan Philips clown car at yet another international boondoggle? I'm sure a lot of local businesses would like to get all four feet into the Expo trough, but really, would it be too much to ask Council to demonstrate marginal competence in running the city before they wast their time and our money on bidding for one more extravangza?
 
Toronto is incapable of maintaining its public realm, public transit and public housing. The City is incapable of planning and delivering a decent and effective public transit system. Our municipal political class spends exactly zero time thinking about how we can maintain and enhance our competitive advantage. So rather than deal with our many deficits, we now propose to aim the Nathan Philips clown car at yet another international boondoggle? I'm sure a lot of local businesses would like to get all four feet into the Expo trough, but really, would it be too much to ask Council to demonstrate marginal competence in running the city before they wast their time and our money on bidding for one more extravangza?
Whether it's sensible and rational or not, having a large international event DOES encourage infrastructure expenditure and $$$ from other levels of government that would probably not come (or not as fast). It also provides firm deadlines. Of course, one needs to be careful not to build things that are really not much use afterwards (think Velodrome and Olympic Stadium in Montreal) but the Pan-Am Games managed to achieve the 'completion' of the West Don Lands without too many white-elephants and a World's Fair is really much more sensible than an Olympics or other sporting event as they are normally operational for 6-9 months and can attract LOTS of tourists. Not saying I want a Worlds Fair but there ARE reasons to say "OK, let's look at it and see if it will help us move faster towards what we want."
 
LOLOL! Sure.. Kibosh the 2024 Olympic Bid and put in a similar multi-billion dollar bid for an event nobody knows or cares about anymore.

This city is a running joke.
 
Looks like this is really KWT's baby. She has a Twitter account up at @ExpoCanada2025, which is being run by her assistant Tina Sriskandarajah.

The website http://www.expoto2025.ca/ was created in 2014 but has current marketing information. Looks like there is a concerted effort to rebrand it from Toronto to Canada - probably learning from the Olympics bid.
 
This is what makes the bid dangerous. It's easy to get pro/con emotional about the Olympics, but World Expo has Pan Am-grade "who gives a fuck" that will allow a bid to slip past the public's consciousness.
Yup.. It'll be just as expensive, with next to no visibility. I'm also sure we need all these white elephants in the Port Lands about as much as we needed a new stadium, am I right?

KWT is exactly the type of councillor who should be extricated from the city and put somewhere far away where she cannot do any damage. She fought against the Olympics like we were proposing to build concentration camps, and then focuses her energy on spending the same amount of money on something even MORE useless! She's a good one!
 
We seem to love throwing money at things that offer no tangible benefits.

Pan Am, Expo (but God forbid the Olympics; they're evil).
 

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