Nice to see that Toronto continues to rate in the top ten of the world’s most liveable cities, at least according to the Oxford-bred wits at The Economist. In these days of threatened subway closures, trimmed library hours and angry political recrimination from both ends of the spectrum, kind words from abroad are a balm. Even if they are a little, well… condescending.

Because liveable isn’t the same thing as exciting, world-class or, well… big. New York, Paris and London do not make the top 10. Zurich, Perth, and - oh yes - Vancouver do.

Toronto’s been trying hard to be an exciting, world-class and big city for a couple of decades now. We’ve tried to get Olympics twice and a World’s Fair once (barely). We have a fine Pride Day parade, a well-regarded film festival, and some unusual new architecture bedecking our cultural institutions. And we do have some fine cultural institutions. We also have big theater, even if the most recent example of it was an over-long and critically-panned attempt to give J.R.R. Tolkien the Andrew Lloyd Webber treatment.

And when it comes to big? Well, we’re flirting with big city taxes; the city certainly seems awfully big to someone trying to get across it at rush hour; there are some tall buildings here and there, and they make things look big; and we do have the CN Tower, which for at least another week will still hold title as the tallest free-standing structure in the world.

But the other things that make big don’t seem to apply here. Astronomical murder rates, race riots, terrorist bombings - all of these things have happily and at least for the time being passed our striving mid-sized burgh by.

So I’ll take my pat-on-the-head from The Economist. At least they’re not telling us to impose a congestion charge like all the proper cities have.