In fact, if anything, the current scheme is more dangerous for everyone — young males, already shafted on the insurance, may feel entitled to young male-like behaviour and feel they have little to lose by driving dangerously.

People expect me to know what street is what, and where it is located in the entire GTA. I have no idea. I know where Queen street is, and that is only because an ex lived on Queen.

I have no want or need to understand the geography of Toronto. I know where it is located in Ontario, and I know the QEW. I know where the ACC is, the CN tower and the Sky Dome (eff yo rogers center). I know where BMO field is, and the hockey hall of fame.

When someone tries to explain to me where Bathurst and Yonge meet Dundas, I’m lost.

And I’m fine with that. They can go screw themselves.

It’s about fundamental knowledge. Call it “know your enemy” if you want. If you showed me a sketched (not really caricatured) map of northern Ontario, with arrows pointing south of Sudbury labeled “thar be dragons”, I would recognize it as a map of northern Ontario. Much as Torontonians like to hate on New York, if you showed them a sketched map of New York City (or even just Manhattan), they would probably recognize it as such, especially if a sketched Statue of Liberty was included. At least the right kind of Torontonians would. Same with Hamilton, or Vancouver, or Montreal, or London.

You dislike Toronto and that’s fine. You want to know little about Toronto and to a degree that’s also fine. Just don’t be offended when others are surprised you don’t notice the CN Tower on a map.

Very similar deal exists between Canada and the U.S. From personal experience, I can tell you almost exactly the same thing occurs in Poland between Warsaw and the rest of the country, and then between Gdańsk/Gdynia and their outer suburbs. Fundamentally, this is us vs. them – and the people on the other side of the big city are more like ‘us’ than ‘them’ in the city.