“In the beginning, I always loved
history,” says Bruce Bell, Toronto’s premiere tour guide, as he reflects upon
his youth in Sudbury, Ontario. “Mom and Dad loved history. We as kids were
always driving somewhere; getting in the car and going places.”
One such destination: Toronto, about a five-hour drive
southeast of Sudbury, where not only the history intrigued him but also the
architecture. When he was seventeen, Bell moved to the big city. Not to pursue
a formal degree in either of his favourite subjects, though. With a walk-on
bit part in the movie “
Class of
‘44” (in 1972) on his resume, Bell returned, for good, to Toronto in 1973.
For twenty years, Bell bussed tables, acted, wrote and
produced plays, and did stand-up comedy—he was a founding comedic member of Yuk
Yuk’s Stand up Comedy Cabaret. “Never making much money,” Bell says, laughing,
“but having a really good time.”
All this while, though, history tugged at his coattails. Was
he really that passionate about acting? Bell recalls, “I was still reading up
on Toronto history. Friends would come to Toronto, and I would show them
around. And I realized: This is what I want to do; this is it.”
Not until his late forties, however, did Bell take action.
“This is what I want to do” became “I’m going to do this.” He says, “I stopped
whatever else (I was) doing, and (said) I’m going to become what I always
wanted to be.”
“The Internet changed everything,” Bell says. The wonders of
a
Web site. Tourists contacted him.
Business began to bloom, and so did Bell. In 1999, He began documenting
Toronto’s history in
The
Bulletin, a widely-read community newspaper, and he wrote the book on the
St. Lawrence neighborhood where he now lives. The St. Lawrence Market, in turn,
named Bell its official historian in 2002.
The love of history his parents had instilled in him, his affection
for architecture, and his performing experience: These factors guided Bell to
his true calling, and he incorporates them all into his act. This walking,
talking, taste-testing and teaching tour guide relishes the challenge every
tour presents. An audience of one? Or twenty-five? Visiting from Ireland?
America?
He tailors his tours to the personality and predisposition
of his customers. “I can pretty much suss them out in the first couple
minutes,” Bell says. “There are some people who are very serious about their
history, and I enjoy that.”
Especially if said history buffs are Americans. “Nothing
makes me more happy (than) if I get an American on a tour who knows his
history, who knows a bit about Canadian history. That is so enjoyable, how we
can go back an forth.”
To and fro, he says is the nature of American and Canadian
history. We were once part of the same country, after all. American history students
are familiar with the Thirteen Colonies, but they tend to forget about Canada’s
influence on the States.
Bell loves taking Americans to two places. “I take a lot of
them to St. James Cathedral,” he says. A loyalist haunt in the heart of the St.
Lawrence neighbourhood, the cathedral served as a hospital during the War of
1812. Bell says the church is where many ex-Bostonians—descendents of the
Mayflower who believed that God could not speak to a president—congregated here. These United Empire Loyalists, many of
whom lost their property as America emerged as a nation to be reckoned with,
set the foundation for Canada as an English-speaking country. “Our heritage,”
Bell tells his audience, “is American.”
The other landmark Bell visits is
Commerce Court, what
some call Commerce Banking Hall There, Bell encourages Americans to imagine
Penn Station in New York, as the grand and ornate edifice stood before
demolition commenced in 1960. “This is what you lost,” he says to Yanks. “This
is what was torn down in 1966 (demolition took three years). When you enter
this bank, pretend you’re entering Penn Station and you’re about to catch a
train to go to Philadelphia or Boston.”
New York and Boston: Both cities Bell has visited. “I really
loved New York City a lot.” He hasn’t been to Boston since about 2002, but he’s
eager to return. First, though, he’s going to revisit Chicago, to lead a tour.
You see, Bell is more than than a connoisseur of Canadian culture, more than a
trusted Toronto historian: He loves that which transcends our borders—the
shared history, the architectural similarities, and the friendly ties. He is an
American spy.
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