The most obvious problem for those trying to put Olivia Chow into the mayor’s chair in Toronto is her inability to lead. Even if she could win, would she sit comfortably? If you analyze left-wing David Miller’s two terms as mayor between right-wing Mel Lastman and right-wing Rob Ford, it becomes very obvious that this political ping-pong is destructive and costly for Toronto.
The city desperately needs a period of positive progress. It needs a mayor who can lead an unwieldy and disparate council to set aside their differences and work to address the needs of the city. The city can ill afford the turmoil and uncertainty of veering sharply from left to right and back to whatever. It needs a mayor who can find the middle ground and sell the benefits to councillors and citizens alike.
Olivia Chow’s plans for bicycles and buses cannot solve the city’s gridlock. The Ford desire to dig subways takes too long and costs too much. Solutions are in flexibility, staging, compromise and working with other levels of government to make things happen. Ontario and Canada both need a liveable, efficient, affluent, smooth-running city that sets a pattern for our province and our country.
Toronto is not an independent city state. It gains from the 905. It draws from the GTA. It attracts tourists and conventioneers from the province, the country, the world. It enriches us as a centre for business and finance, arts, technology and the fruits of learning at its two world-class universities. Toronto continues to build, grow and nurture. The world comes to Toronto with the arts, the cuisine, and languages that build its culture and liveability. And it shares the results of this enrichment.
Toronto is a haven. It is a city that has known peace for the past 200 years. Its quiet streets share the rustle of leaves on the trees with the laughter of children at play. Its main thoroughfares bustle with commerce. Toronto’s subways, iconic streetcars and buses transit millions to work, to play, to shop and to entertainments.
To understand and believe in Toronto is to care about it. It does not need the publicity of buffoonery. It needs caring management. It cannot grow with socialist concerns. Socialism could never create a downtown heated with steam from a central plant or deep lake water cooling. It is a city that has to continue to grow to survive. It has a huge future.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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