Wait a sec here, so despite having never been to Toronto, and having met lots of people from here who weren't assholes.........you still strongly suspect that we're a gigantic stereotype.
Nice. But you know what? That was my exact experience when I lived there. Got called an "Upper Canadian" for years. So much for nice old lovey Halifax, huh? That was a really accepting thing to say to someone that chose to uproot and move there. There was also lots and lots of talk about evil Toronto despite the fact that most people hadn't experienced anything past New Brunswick. If that isn't ignorance, I don't know what is.
I knew people in Halifax that locked the doors on their cars when they drove down Gottingen St. for crying out loud! Like people were going to carjack them. What a joke. I found that incredibly telling of the attitude there. Of course if Gottingen St. was gonna scare the crap out of them, Toronto is just plain hell. So when they do actually come here, a lot of people are looking for the worst to justify holding such a horrible attitude. Then they can come back home and regale their friends and family with stories about what a craphole Toronto is.
Small towns and the good ol' east coast aren't the only places in the world where people are nice to each other, FFS. I met tons of pricks in Halifax. Small towns are chock full o' them. Nosey, gossipy bastards that love to smile to your face and stab ya in the back.
And don't get me started on the jobs thing. What you said just supported the stereotype to a T. The really frustrating thing is that people from the east coast love to claim some sort of moral superiority over the rest of Canada, while at the same time, getting the hell out of there to come work at the jobs other provinces provide. I guess we're good for something, despite being assholes.
But oh, Halifax is Happening, right? The only thing happening in Halifax was commercials about how it was happening