Final Rating: 2/5
A new documentary argues that Toronto owes much of its status as a cultural centre to the CN Tower. The Tower That Built A City, directed by Mark Myers, looks at the influence the iconic structure has had on Toronto since its opening in 1976.
The CN Tower was conceived in 1968 as part of a plan to modernize Toronto’s waterfront. Controversial at the time, it has become emblematic of Toronto, one of the city’s biggest tourist attractions, and a symbol of Canada throughout the world on account of its presence in films, music videos, sports broadcasts and more.
Tower is split into six chapters – a nod to Toronto’s nickname “The 6ix” – but really it’s a movie about Toronto before the CN Tower was built, and after.
The “before” part is fascinating. Starting in the 50s, Tower establishes Toronto as a sleepy, conservative town very different from its metropolitan status today. The earliest scenes compare Toronto with Montreal, a bustling cultural hub and the main rival for the major Eastern Canadian city. Under mayor Jean Drapeau, Montreal would go on to host a world’s fair in 1967, and the Olympics in 1976, two massive architectural undertakings which would bring the eyes of the world to Montreal and Canada.
By contrast, Toronto mayor Fred Gardiner, contemporary with Drapeau, is shown talking about the excesses he sees in Montreal’s various projects. “I would never have supported the World’s Fair for Toronto,” he says, “it would have cost us millions and millions of dollars that are a damn sight better invested in sewers and roads and streets.”
Tower frames the 50s-70s as a cultural arms race between the two cities. When Montreal hosts Expo 67, it’s framed as a huge missed opportunity for Toronto. When Montreal hosts the Olympics, the lead up is shown in parallel to the construction of the CN Tower, hinting that one architectural project will inevitably come out on top. The development of both cities is directly compared to the space race, one interviewee even calling the construction of the CN Tower “our Apollo mission.”
The movie builds a compelling narrative around what it takes to become a country’s cultural capital. Gardiner’s implication that showy projects are a waste of time is taken seriously, especially in interviews with former Toronto mayor David Crombie, who repeatedly stresses that, while he’s come around on it now, he wasn’t a fan of the CN Tower at the time.
Providing a counterpoint are a who’s who of Toronto cultural personalities. The film features interviews with radio and TV host George Stroumboulopoulos, music video director Director X, photographer Caitlin Cronenberg, and baseball player Joe Carter, among others. Each speaks to the Tower’s place as a marker of the city, and as something of a lightning rod for Canadian media.
The most compelling interviews in this respect are those with CityTV producer Moses Znaimer, who explains in some detail the importance of a giant radio transmitter tower, breaking down exactly how much the technical capabilities of the Tower extended the reach of Toronto’s radio and TV stations.
Tower’s second half doesn’t come together as well as its first.
Once the tower is built, the rivalry with Montreal falls away (despite still existing in real life). Even the CN Tower becomes a passive character in the film, as the focus instead shifts to the evolution of Toronto as a cultural capital in the 1990s. After spending half the movie discussing the origins of the CN Tower, and the other half discussing Toronto as a city whose culture is shaped by the Tower, a city columnist for the Toronto Star responds to the question “Would Toronto be Toronto without the CN Tower?” with “On some level, yeah.”
The cultural angle is worth exploring, but in trying to do so, the film loses its focus on the tower. There’s some tenuous connection as Znaimer and Stroumboulopoulos discuss the rise of MuchMusic as a competitor to MTV, but the attempts at cultural discussion quickly devolve into a list of musicians from Toronto and conversations about Toronto’s sports teams.
The last interview clip in the film features David Crombie responding to another interviewee claiming we need more symbols like the CN Tower: “Apparently we disagree. I could say your opinion is as good as mine, but that would be absurd.”
So the best opinion in the film is that the CN Tower isn’t all its cracked up to be then.
The Tower That Built A City was seen during the 2026 Hot Docs film festival. Thank you to Route504 for the screener.
