Toronto’s inferiority complex is showing. We’ve always worn it on our sleeve, of course, but in an age of industrial-strength tourism and mega-marketing, the city that shouts the loudest draws the biggest numbers.

Since we’re not out there screaming our praises to the skies, Toronto often feels itself overlooked and under-visited. We have no Disneyland to offer, no beachfront resorts, no significant historical precinct, no Eiffel Tower. . .

Just little old us and, by our own admission, we’re pretty dull.

As the Canadian National Exhibition opens today for the 132nd time, we are reminded that many of the attractions we do have seem stale, slightly rundown and even shabby. Think of Casa Loma, which could be a jewel but is a dump. The CN Tower, too, is starting to feel just a little past its prime, especially at street level. No longer the world’s tallest, it has let itself go. Then there’s the Ex; it has become the old lady who insists on dressing like a teenager. The Eaton Centre, which is reported to attract one million visitors weekly, feels like a high-school hallway between classes.

As for the various marketing campaigns that have been launched over the decades to help the world better appreciate our charms, one after the other, they have fallen flat.

This year it’s “We’ve been expecting you.” Sounds just a little ominous. Previously it was “Toronto Unlimited.” And before that, “Toronto: You Belong Here,” “It’s time for a little T.O.,” “Toronto: Affectionately yours,” and so on

None really works. Little wonder, then, that the blog Torontoist has launched a contest to find a better slogan. We could certainly use one.

Then there’s our much-vaunted diversity. It is, in the words of the city motto, “our strength.” Indeed, but diversity isn’t unique to Toronto. Many cities are every bit as diverse, if not as tolerant. (But with the rise of the right here and the rest of Canada, that’s now debatable.)

Toronto’s virtues are of a quieter kind; we are clean, safe, helpful and full of neighbourhoods, therefore better suited to residents than visitors. We pride ourselves on our courtesy and politesse. Though these claims grow ever more tenuous, if nothing else we do at least respect the protocol of the public lineup.

What makes Toronto most exciting are not the official destinations, but things that emerge spontaneously, out of view of civic scrutiny. It’s Ossington Ave. north of Queen, and Queen St. itself, east and west; it’s Roncesvalles, King St. E., Bloor St., Danforth Ave., Little India, Gaytown, Chinatown, Lansdowne, the Junction. . .

Yes, the city’s many cultural destinations are crucial; the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum and the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art have turned heads around the world, not to mention the film festival and its new front-and-centre home on King. Toronto now ranks as a cultural draw of international proportions. The new architecture also brings in its share of visitors. But in the absence of a Bilbao Guggenheim, Toronto can’t depend on its artistic infrastructure alone for its tourist appeal.

In fact, what makes Toronto so engaging is the spectacle it presents of a city changing and unfolding as it is rediscovered, recolonized and reinvented by its own residents. This phenomenon isn’t restricted to Toronto by any means, but it happens here regularly, almost routinely.

It’s tremendously exciting to watch as a city is transformed by the raw energy of thousands of people, each looking after their tiny part of the urban whole. But it’s not Canada’s Wonderland or Marineland, not the stuff of mass advertising campaigns, though why that should be is hard to understand.

The travel section of the New York Times has run several stories about Toronto’s emerging neighbourhoods — including Ossington and the Junction — but that doesn’t lead to the sort of mega-numbers tourism officials would like. Though it might attract a more sophisticated and urban audience, we seem determined to become Orlando. As if a new aquarium or a revamp of Ontario Place would accomplish that.

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If that’s the price of success, may Toronto fail. Let the rest of the world continue to think that Toronto’s a great place to live, but not a place anyone would want to visit.

chume@thestar.ca