It's worked for the Provincial Liberals for the past 10 years, only they have nothing to show for it. At least a subway will get built this time.
Rob Ford Defends Robocalls
- Thread starter terom
- Start date
Right, he not only raised taxes, he just raised them for 30 years.
On top of that, we have to pay for running the scarborough subway, the province would have paid for running the LRT.
If the project goes overbudget, the city is on the line, for the LRT it would have been the province.
Idiot.
whew! sure glad about that! otherwise all of this hubb-ubb would have been all for naught!
what a fearless leader the city of toronto has!
The unfortunate thing about the robocall is that it tells a half truth. Councillor Ainslie opposed the subway plan because it is not economically viable or transparent. In other words, we cannot afford it and we'll be paying the debt for a very long time. That is a justified reason for opposing the subway and hardly giving the finger to constituents. This is a fact that the Mayor deliberately left out of his call and is using it to paint Ainslie as the villain i.e. slanderous. I hardly consider someone a villain that opposes a plan that does not make business sense. That's the whole point of a democratic process; to have checks and balances to make sure a single person does not abuse his power.
Mayor Ford loves touting his business acumen, but building a subway in an area of low population density does not make sense because we will never generate enough fare revenue to offset the cost. Given that most of TTC's operating revenue comes from the fare box, we need to put the line with the higher population density such as downtown or at least the high priority neighbourhoods of Scarborough. Unfortunately, it seems that Mayor Ford has a general disdain of downtowners since they are a bunch of left-wing pinkos, so we'll likely never see a DRL.
Who the heck wants street cars in Scarborough?
That's right, mainly the downtown elitist.
There is more than enough money to build subways. No street cars means more subways.
This next municipal election and the next provincial election will be fought over this one single point in this city.
Finally, we will get rid of that Stinz woman for good.
Wasn't Ainslie the person who claim Ford was drunk at some function? Allegations which did not stick.
The only thing about this new episode, is Ford Nation loves to see Ford on the attack.
Good for him. He took a lot from his opponents. Now gives some of it back.
What do they do?
They run crying to the Intergrity Commisioner.
That's the best they can do. Ford's opponents are going to get their political asses handed to them.
Yes, plenty of money to build subways. So the line will be free and no property tax increases right?! I think not.
As usual, all that Ford and company have is the suburb vs downtown mentality. The fact is and always will remain that there are a lot more people living, working and travelling to downtown. Those people need transit because driving down there is near impossible.
Since we're all about subways, subways, subways: let's build one to Centre Island so those island homes don't have to use the ferry!
Think again!
You have to believe!
The current subway extension, provincial Liberals coming up will $$$, federal Conservatives coming up with $$$, and we still have to listen to the NDP of Toronto city hall tell old lies about no money?
Subways to be built in the suburbs first before anything downtown street car lovers.
Harper & Flaratty in Ottawa. Hudak at Queens Park = Subways, subways, subways!
:deadhorse:
Good luck, Ford blew the very rare chance of getting three levels of government to commit to funding transit on three little stops in an underused corner of the city. He raised taxes for 30 years to do it. Assuming he could win again (hahaha) the chances of him getting more funding are about the same as Ford understanding the difference between an LRT and a streetcar. If it took $1 billion to do three stops, how likely do you think it is that Ford could get a line built on Sheppard (like he promised he could, with business paying) or for another one on Finch or even one where we actually need it downtown.
No, when you look back at the Metrolinx plan that was fully funded and in place, that Ford personally killed and then look at his puny three stop gravy train, his work is total disaster, a fucking disgrace of epic proportions.
From a city wide, fully funded transit plan to 30 years of tax increases for three measly little stops.
Fucking idiot, excuse the language.
Now you are lying there groggy.....all the other lines planned are seperately funded. None will be cancelled. We added funding to one line and modified it. That's it.
Oh and I'm betting the Sheppard east line gets modified as well. With more Federal money in time for the 2015 election.
Oh and I'm betting the Sheppard east line gets modified as well. With more Federal money in time for the 2015 election.
And so a slow learner who obstructs everyone who already knows better until he finally catches up is good because … ? leaving aside all the other catching up he has still to do on all the other issues where his smug ignorance has kept him from seeing, what everyone else knew long ago.
It may well be that he's elected again, but only if enough voters ignore the repeated instances of blatantly lying, self-serving, conflict of interest, and public misconduct that speak to his low standards of ethical behaviour, integrity and willingness to obey ordinary laws and rules. But remember how many picked him only as the least-worst.
Had Ford started of up to the same speed as everyone else, or given them any credit for having the facts to back their decisions in place, we'd have Transit City a-building across Toronto now, and wouldn't be looking at decades of hiked property taxes (from the guy we voted in to lower them) to buy another Melway for NoOne in the NE.
Still unaddressed due to two years of the Rob'nDoug Perpetual ClownShow are all the other long-needed city-building measures that we used to manage reasonably well as half-dozen little cities we understood, until Harris threw everyone for a decades-long loop sorting out his unplanned, badly instituted amalgamation fiasco.
But he had a good time at the Hootnanny in Austin I hear. Sorta Taste of the Danforth without the "Opa!" and we didn't have to worry about him driving.
Check out the history, its a mess of what was proposed and what is still happening, but Ford definitely has fucked things up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_City
Isn't it convenient that you forgot to mention the property tax increase we'll be paying for 30 years for another subway to nowhere.
Back to the OP's issue about robocalls; I find it interesting that Ford has no issue lying about Ainslie's conduct, yet is upset that the media went after him about crack allegations, conflict of interest, and the list goes on and on. If Ford hates being attacked by the media so much, he might want to try not doing it to his fellow councillors.
Ford told a voting fact......the media is more interested in allegations.....the conflict of interest is as trivial IMO as him being maligned for leaving a KFC restaurant......the differences are obvious....
He added a lie, stating that Ainslie was spearheading a campaign against subways when he just didn't vote against one that required 30 years of tax increases.
That lie is what will probably get him in trouble.
And Polaris said this one:
Ainslie was a Ford backer, a member of his executive committee at the time.
One of his few remaining team.
He was one of the people, who made the suggestion that he was on something, judging from his behaviour and asked Ford's staff to take him home. Nothing was proven either way, but Ford's fondness for a few pops at festivities has been noted other times, as well has his continuing, unwisely, to drive himself on these occasions.
People talk about the downtown having all the people, they need the subway, etc etc.
maybe if we had been building subways for the past 40 years....there would have been tons more people in these subway regions....spreading people out more....necessitating less cars.....
maybe if we had been building subways for the past 40 years....there would have been tons more people in these subway regions....spreading people out more....necessitating less cars.....
Toronto council could take lessons from Paul Ainslie’s b**********y: James
I have been a fan of Ainslie's for awhile - I even tipped him off to some idiocy Sue Ann Levy was spouting off about him awhile back.
This man is a fiscal Conservative and that fact is based on his actions... not on his baseless chants and soundbites...
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...ns_from_paul_ainslies_b**********y_james.html
The conservative councillor's message to Rob Ford's "bullying" robocalls: "I'm not scared of you.”
Councillor Paul Ainslie a wimp? A politician who needs to get his big boy pants on? Far from it.
The Toronto councillor is among the bravest politicians at city hall. The rest of council may want to take lessons from the Ward 43 rep.
Ainslie was the only councillor from Scarborough who voted against a subway extension to the east end, citing cost concerns, even though the consensus is that it is political suicide to not support a subway to Scarborough. That takes guts — and solicits a questioning of one’s political smarts.
It was Ainslie who went on the record and confirmed that Mayor Rob Ford was asked to leave a public function, the Garrison Ball. He refused at first to explain to the Star why, but several other guests told the Star the mayor seemed intoxicated or impaired. For that, Ainslie has been on the mayor’s hit list.
Too many councillors have been deferential to the mayor and his pushy, obnoxious, divisive, confrontational and embarrassing behaviour. Couoncillors tend to enable and excuse the mayor’s escapades when they should decry them for diminishing the mayor’s office.
From the day he arrived at city hall, Rob Ford has shown a penchant for rolling around in the muck. He’s nearly come to blows with opponents. He’s launched verbal attacks. He’s near-slandered and abused those with whom he disagrees. Joined by his smiling assassin of a brother, Doug, the two are the twin Rambos of municipal politics.
So when Ainslie voted against a subway to Scarborough, against the Fords’ wishes, Ford used his enormous financial resources to launch an automated telephone campaign against the councillor, telling his ward constituents that Ainslie led the charge against the ward interest.
It was an election campaign tactic popular in rough-and-tumble American politics — one the mayor relishes and has been using increasingly. It fits his image. It’s in keeping with his character. It’s something to be expected of a leader who thinks the best way to coalesce 44 independent councillors around an issue is to bully and harangue and criticize and disparage them at every turn.
“Is the mayor a bully? Yes, he has been for 12 years,” says Councillor Josh Colle, who himself has felt the sting of the pugnacious Ford Brothers.
Councillor Jaye Robinson, who endured the onslaught of the mayor when she quit his executive committee, sided with Ainslie. So did Michelle Berardinetti, another ex-executive committee member who left, citing a bullying administration. Other councillors — some of them, afraid of being subjected to similar tactics — have lain low at city hall. The vocal ones tended to be those with very strong ward support.
“This is a new low,” said Councillor Paula Fletcher. If that is so, then the new low might be the new normal.
Instead of just accepting the mayor’s criticism, Ainslie responded with a barrage that betrayed a pent-up mountain of grievances stretching back many months:
“A blatant act of political thuggery,” he called Ford’s robocalls, borrowing Ford’s bombast, adding that “American-style assassin politics has no place in this city. . . . the mayor has crossed the line . . . and is a bully and a liar.
“Let me tell the Ford brothers this: I’m not scared of you.”
Ainslie’s only error is in asking the integrity commissioner to rule on the appropriateness of the mayor’s actions. Don’t bother. The mayor ignores the integrity commissioner, so what’s the use.
Better for councillors to back up their disgust with strong action — matching the mayor tit for tat. There’s nothing to be afraid of. The mayor is a paper tiger, with historically low public support for a Toronto mayor, despite the over-hyped Ford Nation.
Better if Ainslie had joined forces with a few councilors, pooled personal resources and unleashed their own robocalls to Torontonians about the mayor who cavorts with drug dealers and unsavoury characters under police watch. Imagine this call:
“This is Councillor Paul Ainslie, Jaye Robinson, Chin Lee, Michelle Berardinetti (insert other councillors here). It is extremely, extremely unfortunate that last week, Mayor Rob Ford became the only mayor, the only mayor in the country forced to call a news conference at a local gas station to explain why he is friends with an alleged local drug dealer, busted by police. Mayor Ford admitted the man was his friend, calling him ‘a good guy.’ You may remember this the next time the mayor purports to join the war on drugs.”
As the mayor’s brother says, “It’s politics, folks.” So, let’s race where the mayor leads — to the bottom.
I have been a fan of Ainslie's for awhile - I even tipped him off to some idiocy Sue Ann Levy was spouting off about him awhile back.
This man is a fiscal Conservative and that fact is based on his actions... not on his baseless chants and soundbites...
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...ns_from_paul_ainslies_b**********y_james.html
The conservative councillor's message to Rob Ford's "bullying" robocalls: "I'm not scared of you.”
Councillor Paul Ainslie a wimp? A politician who needs to get his big boy pants on? Far from it.
The Toronto councillor is among the bravest politicians at city hall. The rest of council may want to take lessons from the Ward 43 rep.
Ainslie was the only councillor from Scarborough who voted against a subway extension to the east end, citing cost concerns, even though the consensus is that it is political suicide to not support a subway to Scarborough. That takes guts — and solicits a questioning of one’s political smarts.
It was Ainslie who went on the record and confirmed that Mayor Rob Ford was asked to leave a public function, the Garrison Ball. He refused at first to explain to the Star why, but several other guests told the Star the mayor seemed intoxicated or impaired. For that, Ainslie has been on the mayor’s hit list.
Too many councillors have been deferential to the mayor and his pushy, obnoxious, divisive, confrontational and embarrassing behaviour. Couoncillors tend to enable and excuse the mayor’s escapades when they should decry them for diminishing the mayor’s office.
From the day he arrived at city hall, Rob Ford has shown a penchant for rolling around in the muck. He’s nearly come to blows with opponents. He’s launched verbal attacks. He’s near-slandered and abused those with whom he disagrees. Joined by his smiling assassin of a brother, Doug, the two are the twin Rambos of municipal politics.
So when Ainslie voted against a subway to Scarborough, against the Fords’ wishes, Ford used his enormous financial resources to launch an automated telephone campaign against the councillor, telling his ward constituents that Ainslie led the charge against the ward interest.
It was an election campaign tactic popular in rough-and-tumble American politics — one the mayor relishes and has been using increasingly. It fits his image. It’s in keeping with his character. It’s something to be expected of a leader who thinks the best way to coalesce 44 independent councillors around an issue is to bully and harangue and criticize and disparage them at every turn.
“Is the mayor a bully? Yes, he has been for 12 years,” says Councillor Josh Colle, who himself has felt the sting of the pugnacious Ford Brothers.
Councillor Jaye Robinson, who endured the onslaught of the mayor when she quit his executive committee, sided with Ainslie. So did Michelle Berardinetti, another ex-executive committee member who left, citing a bullying administration. Other councillors — some of them, afraid of being subjected to similar tactics — have lain low at city hall. The vocal ones tended to be those with very strong ward support.
“This is a new low,” said Councillor Paula Fletcher. If that is so, then the new low might be the new normal.
Instead of just accepting the mayor’s criticism, Ainslie responded with a barrage that betrayed a pent-up mountain of grievances stretching back many months:
“A blatant act of political thuggery,” he called Ford’s robocalls, borrowing Ford’s bombast, adding that “American-style assassin politics has no place in this city. . . . the mayor has crossed the line . . . and is a bully and a liar.
“Let me tell the Ford brothers this: I’m not scared of you.”
Ainslie’s only error is in asking the integrity commissioner to rule on the appropriateness of the mayor’s actions. Don’t bother. The mayor ignores the integrity commissioner, so what’s the use.
Better for councillors to back up their disgust with strong action — matching the mayor tit for tat. There’s nothing to be afraid of. The mayor is a paper tiger, with historically low public support for a Toronto mayor, despite the over-hyped Ford Nation.
Better if Ainslie had joined forces with a few councilors, pooled personal resources and unleashed their own robocalls to Torontonians about the mayor who cavorts with drug dealers and unsavoury characters under police watch. Imagine this call:
“This is Councillor Paul Ainslie, Jaye Robinson, Chin Lee, Michelle Berardinetti (insert other councillors here). It is extremely, extremely unfortunate that last week, Mayor Rob Ford became the only mayor, the only mayor in the country forced to call a news conference at a local gas station to explain why he is friends with an alleged local drug dealer, busted by police. Mayor Ford admitted the man was his friend, calling him ‘a good guy.’ You may remember this the next time the mayor purports to join the war on drugs.”
As the mayor’s brother says, “It’s politics, folks.” So, let’s race where the mayor leads — to the bottom.
... he told one miniscule part of the whole FACT
http://www.thegridto.com/city/local-news/not-in-service/
Not in service
The bitter city council debate over the Scarborough subway extension was long on resentment and short on logic. What’s worse, as election season gears up, the transit battle is far from being over.
BY: EDWARD KEENAN
Last Tuesday, reporters gathered, once again, outside Mayor Rob Ford’s office at City Hall, waiting, once again, to ask him about a troubling police matter. Alessandro Lisi, Ford’s friend and sometimes driver, had been arrested and charged with drug trafficking, and police leaks suggested the mayor himself had been under investigation for eight months. Once again, the mayor’s brother, councillor Doug Ford, seemed to suggest it was a Toronto Star plot (though the news had also been reported independently in the Toronto Sun and The Globe and Mail).
The mayor appeared, led through the glass doors of his office and past the throng of journalists towards the elevator. Jackson Proskow, a reporter from Global News, shouted a question: “Mr. Mayor, are you under investigation by Toronto police?” Ford ignored it and continued walking. But as he reached the elevator, he let out a cry that got louder with each word. “Subways. Subways! SUBWAYS!”
“That sounded evil,” one reporter said.
“Well, I’ve earned my keep for the day,” Proskow said, preparing to upload the sound clip to Twitter, where it would go viral and draw attention from international news outlets.
The crowd shifted gears, heading up to the chamber, where, once again, councillors would spend the day debating the mayor’s favourite topic: whether to build additional subway stations or a light rail transit line on one route in Scarborough. It was the third such major debate of the year and felt like the 400 millionth of the Ford years at City Hall.
As you likely know, the debate ended with council choosing to scrap its existing agreement to build a LRT route and instead construct an underground extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway line. Councillors also voted to fund the extension by phasing in a 1.6 per cent property tax increase that, over the next 30 years, will help pay the city’s $910-million share of the bill. Mayor Ford was elated, shouting “Yes!” and pumping his fist after the 24-20 vote.
There are a number of reasons why I, and many others who have followed this issue, think this decision amounts to a billion-dollar boondoggle (for a comparison of the two plans, see the sidebar below). But choosing the more expensive, less effective transit option was not even the most depressing part of last week’s council debate. Instead, a few other hallmarks of Ford’s leadership emerged to dominate the discussion: the proud repetition of blatant lies, the stirring up of tribal resentments, and the narrow focus on a single issue without proper consideration of the bigger picture. The whole broken debate over transit technology is emblematic of how the council under Mayor Ford has come to treat the city as a set of warring factions—neighbourhoods and classes and narrowly sliced interest groups pitted against each other in a zero-sum game for a pool of increasingly limited resources. The idea of Toronto as a home we all share, and the reality that individual parts of the city cannot succeed at the expense of the whole, is shouted down, tossed under the subway in favour of electoral jockeying. This is no way to run a transit system. Or a city.
Despite some partisan allegiances, the polarization of council is not a left-right split, or anything as intelligible as that. As demonstrated in the LRT-subway debate, the sides are divided into those committed to city-building based on logic and reason versus those devoted to inciting spite and playing on long-simmering resentments. During the discussion, LRT supporters mainly conveyed evidence or outlined scenarios supported by confirmable facts. Joe Mihevc, a former subway advocate, said that his backing hinged on the province contributing $1.8 billion and the federal government about $800 million—“I can go this far, and no more.” Since those conditions hadn’t been met, as council insisted in July they must be, he could no longer support the subway.
Paul Ainslie, a Scarborough councillor who voted for the subway plan in July, but supported LRT this month, said he looked at the math and thought the subway would eventually expose his community to a property tax hike of as much 5 per cent, which he could not defend. (The mayor was apoplectic at Ainslie’s reversal; Ford has since been making robocalls in Ainslie’s ward to tell residents their councillor “led the charge” against subways for Scarborough.)
Meanwhile, Josh Matlow, who has beaten the LRT drums as loudly as anyone, reminded council that the TTC says a different subway extension, the so-called Downtown Relief Line, is more desperately needed.
The subway advocates, however, framed the discussion differently: They repeated patently false information and relied on emotional appeals to paint the subway extension as a symbolic, billion-dollar reward for long-suffering residents of the city’s east end. Doug Ford claimed the Scarborough LRT would snarl traffic running in the middle of the road. (It would not. The plan was to have the LRT line run in a separate off-road corridor.) Budget Chief Frank DiGiorgio got confused under questioning about his own financial amendment (“I may have misunderstood what I said,” he explained). He then refused to justify his ultimate vote. He boiled his logic down to this: “I just happen to believe in subways. That’s the way it is.”
These proponents repeatedly dragged out the ridiculous claim that subways last 100 years and LRTs only 30 (or, in one case, 10). Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly even argued that this position was “visionary” rather than the work of “a bean counter.” The truth, which is not hard to uncover, is that subway cars last about 30 years, as do LRT vehicles. Tracks for both require refurbishment after about 30 to 50 years (which is one reason why parts of the Yonge subway line will shut down next year for track replacement). Subway signal systems need to be renewed every few decades (which is why the Yonge-University line was shuttered downtown over Thanksgiving weekend).
The only part of the subway system that lasts a century is the tunnel, which subways alone require. (The Scarborough LRT’s proposed off-road right-of-way could conceivably last even longer—witness the grade-separated CP and CN railroad corridors that still run through the city today, many of them built in the late 1800s.) These facts about longevity were established early on, but Team Subway kept repeating their fictions.
But then, the pro-subway argument was never about facts. It was about resentment. Glenn De Baeremaeker, the Scarborough environmentalist and erstwhile LRT advocate, admitted on CBC Radio in the weeks leading up to the debate that he needed to back the subway extension to get re-elected. In council chamber, however, he said he changed his position because a quarter of the city’s population had only three subway stops, and they deserved more. He also claimed (falsely, for the most part) that Scarborough residents covered the cost of downtown subway stations, and now it was their turn.
The underlying sentiment of the pro-subway side was best summed up by Giorgio Mammoliti. He called the extension a “victory for the suburbs”—as if the primary objective of burying a billion dollars under McCowan Avenue was to stick it to spoiled downtowners.
Regional resentment-stirring, pitting one set of residents against another in an angry crusade that ignores the city’s actual needs: This subway debate is the centrepiece of Ford’s approach to governing as a constant wedge-issue campaign. A discussion about the best—the most efficient and effective—way to expand transit services in one area of Scarborough became, by the design of the Ford team, a very different sort of referendum.
Instead of rationally assessing the relative worth of both the LRT and subway options, the question became, Are these people worth it?
This is crazy. All people across Toronto are worth the best services we can deliver to them. But which services can be delivered, given our pool of resources, cannot be discussed in a vacuum. Because people, wherever they live, don’t exist in a vacuum. Home-owners in Scarborough work downtown; residents in North York visit the Beaches; folks in Etobicoke shop at the Scarborough Town Centre; and sports fans from all over the GTA watch the Blue Jays play in the same stadium
.
The city is a network of neighbourhoods, and the way we connect those neighbourhoods should be a response to the needs of the city as a whole.
That concept is easily forgotten, though. For instance, later last week Mayor Ford said of the Downtown Relief Line, “Downtown people already have enough subways”—which is pure, distilled idiocy.
The DRL would run from Don Mills, probably down Pape Avenue, into the city core, with the purpose of taking riders off the at-capacity Yonge line, which is used by people coming from North York and Scarborough and other points north and east. The proposed line isn’t needed primarily to serve people who live downtown—it is needed to serve people trying to get downtown.
What’s more, a discussion about transit should focus not on one technology or another, but on developing the entire network: which bus service can be improved, how GO Train lines can move people better, whether streetcars can travel faster in right-of-ways or dedicated lanes, and how all these modes of transportation work together.
The old Transit City plan was an attempt to start thinking that way. The province’s creation of regional transit authority Metrolinx in 2006, and its Big Move plan, was a similar effort, itemizing $50 billion worth of work and listing projects in order of bang-for-bucks and their effect on region-wide priorities.
But that sensible, big-picture decision-making gets lost when small parts of the network and of the city are isolated and made the subject of provincial by-elections, federal funding announcements, and city-wide debates.
During that entire day of debate at city council, for example, very few people asked what a billion dollars could otherwise be spent on. Increased subway-style service on the GO Train lines that serve north Scarborough? LRT lines into Kingston-Galloway and Malvern? A subway extension out to Sherway Gardens, or up into North Etobicoke?
Or what about Toronto’s non-transit priorities? The repair backlog at Toronto Community Housing is $751 million. More than 85,000 households are on the waiting list for subsidized housing. A city assessment released in July counted over 5,200 homeless people in Toronto. And last week, city council lamented the July floods, seemingly oblivious to the fact, until councillor Janet Davis pointed it out, that funding for the Wet Weather Flow Master Plan, which builds sewer infrastructure to prevent flooding, was cut by $1.1 billion in this year’s budget.
So when we decide to spend a billion dollars on construction of three new subway stops instead of accepting the possibly-as-good, possibly-better LRT alternative that would require no city money, we’ve also decided not to invest in these other kinds of needs. (Mayor Ford has repeatedly cited the repair backlog at TCHC as one of his biggest priorities.)
This demonstrates the impoverishment of the aren’t-they-worth-it style of debate. Aren’t people waiting for transit in other parts of the city worth it? Aren’t people who need affordable housing worth it? Aren’t those who had their homes flooded due to inadequate disaster planning worth it?
Those questions went unanswered—and mostly unasked—at the Scarborough subway shout-off.
If this is how we’re going to debate every element of building our growing city, we’re in trouble. What’s worse is that the battle over LRTs and subway extensions isn’t even over. Within minutes of the final vote last week, Mayor Ford told the press that he now planned to stop the LRT routes ready for construction on Sheppard East and Finch West. He said converting those projects into subways will form the main plank in his re-election campaign next year.
Meanwhile, Metrolinx said that it intends to go ahead and build the Sheppard and Finch LRTs, but made it clear that it would be bound to respect the wishes of voters. Provincial Transportation Minister Glen Murray said various options would be considered—of course, he and his government will likely face an election in the spring, one they might lose to a party with very different transit plans and priorities.
Once again, the city’s long overdue transit needs will be subjected to the whims of election campaigns—and they will likely continue to exemplify all that’s currently wrong with our political discussion in Toronto. Is there a chance that a candidate will emerge to present a coherent big-picture plan to steer the conversation in a more productive direction? Could we actually have a proper debate? It seems unlikely. But I suppose as long as we’re all still talking about it, anything is possible.
Why does it alway seem so many of the Mayor's opponents need to C and P their thoughts from the Star.
I'd really like to see a origional opinion from them sometimes. Not regurgitated rhetoric from editorial columnists. I actually read the Star almost nightly. Can see this stuff as most can.
Try not to be lemmings people.
I'd really like to see a origional opinion from them sometimes. Not regurgitated rhetoric from editorial columnists. I actually read the Star almost nightly. Can see this stuff as most can.
Try not to be lemmings people.
