Toronto Council’s left wing councillors love to show off their power. And Mayor Rob Ford could not be a better foil for them. The only problem is that Toronto ends up without direction, leadership, ideas, or a future. It is a shame as it had the potential to be a great city.
There might be a bit of a bias in this. This is the city where we were born and where we spent our formative years after the Second World War. It grew so fast at that time and we were used to people living in their basement until the first floor of their home could be built. We understood the needs of rapid growth and the city accommodated it. Toronto built Canada’s first subway and ran a first class transit system. We built new roads and widened old ones, bringing in the additional labour we needed from Europe and the rest of the world. Our city might have been smaller then but it had an unlimited future.
But Toronto has developed a supposed left wing of council that today preys on the downtown wards. These are not people who care about people. These are people who realized their power under left-wing Mayor David Miller. They want to use that power for their own ends. Under a single, amalgamated government, Toronto has become a city divided. It is downtown versus the suburbs.
And with this growing dichotomy, came a reversal of roles. The downtown left-wing councillors became the preservationists, the conservatives. The suburbs continued the struggle for growth and relief from the city’s traffic congestion. A good example of the problem is that the left has no sympathy for the problems of air travellers and want to stop growth of the Island airport. Given the chance, the left will build barriers to the best business success story of Toronto in the 21st Century. The city of Toronto needs Porter Airlines more than Porter Airlines needs the city. If the city lets the left wing of council fabricate alarms over jet noise and other potential problems such as pollution, it will be a cruel disservice to a great city.
The left wing is looking for Olivia Chow to take on Ford for the mayoralty next year and, without other options, she could win. That would be a very sad end to the long term growth of Toronto. All you need to do to understand the concern is check Chow’s voting record for the years she was on Toronto Council. This is no leader. This is not a progressive. Chow is the same problem as Rob Ford. You cannot turn an uninspired ward healer into an effective mayor.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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