People in Toronto are Crazy

That's the only conclusion I can reach after reading this:

In his 29 years of ferrying people to Toronto Island, boat crew member Frank Corbin never saw passengers as agitated as they were this weekend. There was pushing, profanity and even punches thrown; at one point on Friday, the police had to be called in to help regulate the crowd.

Just blame it on the potent combination of unseasonably warm weather, a holiday weekend and thousands of Torontonians trying to get to Toronto Island.

That, and the fact that just one puny, puttering ferry was available to haul everyone across.

"It was very busy, much busier than normal," said Corbin, the first mate of Ongiara, the 220-passenger ferry. "We were not really prepared for the crowd, basically."

Lineups at the ferry docks stretched past the ticket gates as people waited for up to three hours before leaving dry land.

People became so frustrated they were rushing onto the boat or jumping queues.

At least one fist fight broke out Friday, Corbin said.

"(People were) very impatient," he said. "Rude to me, rude to the captain. They were swearing at the deckhand, calling him a lazy bum and using the f-word."

I don't blame people for being frustrated but... it's April 4th. They didn't plan on the temperature being 25 degrees and weren't ready for these crowds. That doesn't excuse the behaviour described above. And while they should finally build at least a pedestrian bridge (or two) to the Islands for precisely this reason, I can't imagine why so many people would be so set on going to Centre Island. It's not *that* great. I suppose people in TO are just starved for any contact with the lake... which doesn't really explain why Harbourfront is so underused half the time. In any case, ocean >>> lake.