Last call
A martini — Belvedere straight up with a twist — outside on the rooftop bar at the Park Hyatt Hotel at Avenue and Bloor because it has the best view of the central city and of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. Not too high, not too big, not too expensive.
Last supper
I’d have the wild game at Canoe or the black cod at C5 because chef Ted Corrado does the sweetest black cod in the city, and the room is unique in Toronto for its intellectual and sensual intensity.
Last big city purchase
A BMW 6 Series Coupe — Monaco blue, at a BMW downtown — because this model offers an exceptional balance of engineering, size, style, capacity and statement. I would drive it down the Don Valley Parkway at night.
Last chance
[I would] play a piano concert on the stage of Massey Hall. The music would be from the Great American Songbook and some of my own compositions that I’ve been working on for the last couple of decades. I’d hope people I didn’t know would be in attendance — less of a risk.
Last dance
With a stranger to a slow dance in an anonymous club. We would dance to “Let It Be Me.”
Last good deed
Give my David Urban paintings to the AGO. I have two that I’ve acquired in the last 10 years. They’re very different from each other, and they’re both very complex and brave.
Last view
Of the city from a sailboat on the south side of Toronto Island because it captures water, wild and urban, in one frame.
One last memory scribbled down before leaving
The memory of taking possession of my first house in Moore Park, in August 1984, knowing beyond a doubt that I had made a superb decision in moving from Alberta to Toronto. I had come for a wonderful job opportunity with the Globe and Mail and had visited before briefly, and I knew that we were a good match.
Last crime
I would hang a naughty sign from the top of City Hall. I would have to wait until the last minute to decide what to put on it.
Last minute
Find a knoll to glimpse the CN Tower through
the trees.
Last words
Toronto is not just a city of neighbourhoods; Toronto is a neighbourhood in a bigger world.