The Ontario Legislature feeds on the politics of Ontario municipalities. You have to get under the skin of a number of key municipal politicians before you can fathom the directions of the Legislature. It is both the strength and the weakness of Ontario politics.
Since the days of Premier Oliver Mowat, a constantly evolving and eddying coalition of municipal politicians has controlled and constrained Ontario politics far more effectively than the earlier Family Compact. And provincial politicians try to control it at their peril.
This situation came to mind the other day when learning of Mayor Rob Ford’s latest efforts on behalf of his deputy mayor in today’s by-election in Etobicoke-Lakeshore. Having two major figures at Toronto City Hall teeing off in this contest makes it a most interesting race. Normally, a mayor’s support for one of his supporters on council would be of minor interest. The difference here is that the support could end up with the Toronto mayor owning Opposition Leader Tiny Tim Hudak.
Hudak has already sang the mantra for Ford that ‘Our way is the subway.’ The two are in tune. Hudak could care less if Ford wanted hot air balloons to move people about the city. He needs a breakthrough in the Liberal stronghold of Toronto. And with Ford’s brother Doug making the moves on another Etobicoke seat, the Ford boys are protecting their bets. Ford needs the muscle at Queen’s Park to make sure that Hudak’s airy-fairy way of promising the money comes to happen.
And that means that he can only hope that Hudak wins the province. Ford as Toronto Mayor would probably not be our number one problem if Timmy Hudak ever won a majority government.
But the municipal people from across the province would also be calling on Hudak to pay up on his promises to them. They are the ones who have got Hudak to where he is. He has done the Quixotic deed of fighting windmills for them.
You sometimes get the impression that somebody forgot to tell Kathleen Wynne how Ontario works. You would think that former Premier Dalton McGuinty would have at least left her a note about it.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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