Global City Formation in Toronto: The Case of TOCore

This research discusses the relationship between Global City formation and the City of Toronto’s recent urban transformations in the era of contemporary globalization. Taking cues from foundational texts authored by John Friedmann and Saskia Sassen, I look to investigate the hypothesis that Global City formation leads to shifts in occupational structure, along with an increase in intraurban social disparity and polarisation. Further, I examine how Toronto’s recently approved Downtown Secondary Plan, TOCore, may (re)produce Global City formation through its land-use policies. While Regulation Theory is employed to analyze how planners and the planning process may play an active role in regulating/normalizing Global City formation. This paper concludes by calling on planners to include a Global City perspective in their practice while focusing their attention on the contradictions that will inevitably arise.