The incongruity between Toronto’s aspirations and its true origins is perhaps the root cause for the disre- spect that the fort has endured. Toronto could not have come into being without Fort York, and yet, like an embarrassed teenager at the mall, the city that grew up around the fort has tried hard to distance itself from its beginnings. In the process Toronto has visited upon its progenitor every type of humiliation, going to great lengths to marginalise its origin, turning it, in essence, into a traffic island. The neo-Freudian Erik Erikson, one of the originators of Ego psychology, developed a framework of the self with a tripartite structure: ego identity, personal identity and social identity. Ego identity is the sense of personal continuity, it is the I , the self. Personal identity includes both the individual idiosyncrasies that express our differences from others and our own personal view of our ego identity. It is who we imagine our- selves to be. Social or cultural identity is our understanding of the world, and specifically our place within it. For individuals, it is critical that these parts of the self are in harmony if we hope to be happy, functioning individuals. The way that who we truly are lines up with who we imagine ourselves to be is a measure of our self- congruity. If there is a significant incongruity, it must be rectified, or the health and stability of our identity is at risk. Like individuals, cities have identities, and a city that cannot or will not reconcile itself with its true origins will face similar risks to the health of its identity. Just as for an individual, any significant incongruity must be addressed at some point, and in Toronto’s case, this has resulted in the marginalisation of Fort York. The humble fort, an unwelcome reminder of the city’s true heritage, does not fit Toronto’s self-image,leading to a situation where the fort and its history have been consistently pushed aside, built over, turned away from and forgotten. Fort York represents a simple, colonial, humble origin and is a crucial part of what the city is. Toronto may wish to be Chicago, New York or even London, but it is not. It can, however, be wonderfully and uniquely Toronto. It must come to terms with its true identity, or face the prospect of wiping its history completely from the map and being forever unwhole. C
Justin Perdue is an intern architect, digital artist and sometimes psychological researcher who likes to think that buildings can talk. He currently lives in Toronto.
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