To listen to the mayoral candidates, Toronto is on the verge of collapse. As one of the more prominent among them likes to say, “The party’s over.”

Let’s hope not.

Such a dreary vision from a man-who-would-be-mayor bodes ill for the city, especially since dreariness can be a self-fulfilling prophesy.

No question Toronto has problems: Council needs fixing — it’s dysfunctional. And no question our financial house is not in order; we spend more than we make — all of us.

But through it all, Toronto lurches along regardless. It’s no surprise civic politics are on everyone’s mind during a municipal election, but in truth leadership is all around us.

During the last decade and with minimal help from the city, for example, the cultural sector transformed Toronto from top to bottom. The Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum, Gardiner Museum, National Ballet School, Ontario College of Art and Design and others have redrawn the face of the city.

And despite general cynicism about waterfront revitalization, it is slowly but surely unfolding. With the imminent completion of Sugar Beach and Sherbourne Common, an exciting and innovative vision of Toronto is emerging in a precinct we neglected for decades.

There are those who would tell us we can’t afford parks and beaches, that they are frivolous, and a waste of the city’s most valuable resource — money.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Because of these investments, private developers will spend billions on the waterfront in the years ahead. That process is well underway and land that had little or no value is starting to become desirable.

Let’s hope that party never ends.

Even the infamous Lower Donlands ice facility has apparently been saved from banality through the application of intelligent and innovative thinking. Perhaps, the city isn’t so brain dead after all? The new proposal, revealed last week, is reason for optimism.

Then to top if off, work began last week on revamping Jarvis St. Certain candidates railed on cue, but, frankly, who cares?

Voices of the past are louder than ever in Toronto these days. That should come as no surprise; times of change bring out the best in some, the worst in others.

The G20 fiasco didn’t help; extreme behaviour on both sides — protestors and police — exacerbated divisions within the city and created feelings of self-doubt that went beyond Toronto’s traditional inferiority complex.

But think of the remake of Regent Park, a triumph for the much-maligned Toronto Community Housing. And through all the shouting and screaming, plans for Lawrence Heights could similarly transform that troubled neighbourhood.

Fortunately, the city carries on regardless. Not even an inept council can squelch the energy, though too often it seems to do its best to slow it down. In many ways, council has become a parallel universe, almost irrelevant. Just ask John Tory, the-man-who-could-be-mayor-but-has-better-things-to-do-with-his-time.

The thing about this election is that the focus on politics has stifled discussion of the city. The debate has yet to get beyond council. So far, no candidate has bothered to offer a compelling vision of Toronto. Indeed, to listen to the ranting of some of the more hysterical participants, you’d think the only issue is Kyle Rae’s good-bye party.

Get over it.

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Regardless of who becomes mayor in October, he or she can look forward to one certain pleasure: Sitting in their office at City Hall right beside the council chamber’s new green roof, a modest reminder of where the future lies.

We know that’s something each and every one of them would relish.

Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca

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