C’mon, people! Get ahold of yourselves!

Rarely have so many self-loathing, self-hating citizens congregated in one conurbation. Your inferiority complex has you so messed up, you won’t even believe it when someone pays you a compliment.

The world thinks Toronto is a pretty special place. Deal with it.

They think we are smart and intelligent. Embrace it. Don’t waste time pointing out how much smarter Silicon Valley is.

Lie on the couch for a moment, will you? You need therapy.

In 2011 the World Wildlife Fund named Toronto the second greenest city in Canada. (Yes, other cities have concrete jungles as well).

A year later, the awards and honours exploded: 2nd least risky city in the world for employers; 3rd best city of opportunity, according to Price Waterhouse; 7th in the top 10 smartest cities in North America; 5th most competitive and cost-effective city in the world, said KPMG; 4th most livable according to the Economist and 2nd in North America for IT jobs.

If you can withstand the barrage of praise and honour, 2013 brought more: 2nd most reputable city in the world; 4th most livable (Economist).

And this year, KPMG named Toronto the world’s most tax-competitive city. Others named T-dot the most resilient, the most youthful, third best for transit and walkability . . .

OK, stop the screaming, already. You can’t endure the love, I know. You’d rather wallow in inferiority. You told me so in response to my column saying Toronto was just named the 2014 Intelligent Community, beating out 326 smart cities.

Instead of exulting in the news, some of you challenged the intelligence of those making the ranking.

Catherine from Thornbury, Ontario, a former Toronto dweller, apologized for “subjecting you to this rant,” but didn’t seem sorry for slagging everything from our streets, buildings, public squares, condo towers . . . Toronto, she opines, is a “solid, second-rank North American city, no less, no more.”

Thanks, Kate.

A correctional officer who admitted to not being easily pleased thanked me for “putting our fears and jobs into formidable perspective.”

One reader said he found it difficult to think of us as intelligent “when we have a major thoroughfare called Lane Street, or Road Lane, or Street Lane, or even Street Avenue, or Road Avenue, or no, that’s right, it’s Avenue Road. Good to know we are so creative!”

I get that. But would you prefer 1234 124th St., suite 125B?

And Teo: “Your article started with ‘Toronto is clean,’ but I’m not sure this is a correct statement.”

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Maybe I have learned that if you don’t think highly of yourself you will be squished and run over by a world that too often discount you on sight.

So, I love the bush where I grew up: Orange District, Sign, P.O., St. James, Jamaica, West Indies. I call it the sublime suburb of Montego Bay. I view MoBay as a delightful place. Jamaica is paradise, even without the jobs and a righteous distribution of wealth.

Toronto, my adopted home, is a treasure that the world would storm, if only we trumpeted our positives. Ontari-ari-ari-o, I love you. Canada. Wear it on my sleeves. No place like it.

That means I’m flummoxed by readers who would scoff at international rankings that put Toronto at the top of places to live, do business, build a future, grow a family, co-exist with other mortals, change the world.

In the Wednesday column I was going to tell readers that the same outfit that named Toronto a smart city also gave the “Visionary of the Year” award to Toronto-area resident Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of DataWind.

He developed the Aakash11/UbiSlate tablets, dubbed the world’s cheapest computer by Forbes Magazine.

I was going to tell you Tuli once said he doesn’t care about creating the iPad killer. He cares about the “four billion people who can afford this device.”

I’m glad I didn’t. Too much dissonance. The head might explode. Toronto and it’s people can’t be that good. That smart. That brilliant. That world-class.

And, no sir, my tongue is not in my cheek. It’s sticking out at you.

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More Columns by Royson James on Thestar.com