The Fishin’ Politician? Seriously?!

February 8, 2013

Look. I don’t begrudge Mayor Ford the perks of the job. Despite my demand for perfection from those holding the office, it is, ultimately, a thankless position. You can never make everybody happy. uneasyliestheheadThere is unceasing scrutiny and criticism from assholes like me. (I’m thinking that should be an ‘I’. Assholes like I am?) The pay level is far below what someone with this kind responsibility and oversight would get in the much vaunted private sector. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown, and all that.

Nor do I take exception to journalists covering the local political scene the fun outing that occasionally crops up in their line of duty. Have at it, folks. Embrace the breaks from the usual grind of the job.

But along with the fringe benefits come the odd bouts of doing the more mundane aspects of the job. Like, I don’t know, forging a consensus across political lines. Leading the discussion on the city’s more pressing problems like transit. Attending events you don’t necessarily share an affinity with.

Because our mayor seems to have an allergy to that particular aspect of his job description, I then resent the times he enthusiastically goes about doing the things he so clearly enjoys. And the journalists and their news outlets who so willingly play along and give Mayor Ford an unfettered platform to deliver the Everyman schtick he loves to play. Hey, everybody! ribboncuttingIt is all fun and games.

I watched Jamie Strashin’s coverage of the mayor’s Sportsmen’s Show outing yesterday with dumb amazement. Lookit. Mayor Ford fishes! Mayor Ford’s apprehensive around skunks! Owls love Mayor Ford! Mayor Ford shoots a target with an air rifle! Mayor Ford loves the Sportsmen’s Show. It’s Mayor Ford’s favourite show after the Super Bowl halftime show!

Again, I get that part of the mayor’s role is as an ambassador for the city, a promoter of all things Toronto. I’m sure in that capacity David Miller did likewise. Touting Toronto FC. Hanging out at the Wine and Cheese Show. Proclaiming a David Suzuki Day.

But why does the normally prickly with the press Mayor Ford get a free pass when he finally deigns to make a public relations appearance? Oh come on. Leave the guy alone. He’s having a little fun. Hey, Mayor Ford? What do you think of the city worker caught surfing porn while on the job? Keep it in your pants, boys, until you get home.

“And with that, the mayor was gone. Out of the wilderness and back to City Hall.”

Am I being a killjoy here? Clearly I don’t understand the relationship etiquette between the mayor and the media. Coverage on the mayor’s terms. He’s available when he’s available, take it or leave it. And if you don’t mind lobbing up a couple softball questions for him, it’d be much appreciated.

I probably could’ve let it all pass unremarked on had I not read fedora sporting Joe Warmington’s Sun scribblings. Why did I do such a thing on this beautiful wintery day? I cannot tell you. Maybe I was up too early this morning. Hadn’t had my cuppa before turning on the interwebs. My bad. Serves me right.

joewarmington

Talk about taking direct aim at a political foe.

Even it was just an air-powered pellet gun, it was a very clear message sent:

Hunters and sportsmen and women are very welcome in the city of Toronto.

And take that, former mayor David Miller. Councillor Adam Vaughan, too.

What a contrast from three years ago when the legal gun owners and law-abiding hunters were discriminated against.

So yesterday’s outing wasn’t simply an exercise in mayoral city building and promotion. chucknorrisIt served as a dog whistle to his supporters that he was out erasing all traces of the previous administration while sticking it to his political rival, Councillor Adam Vaughan. Bet Vaughanie’s never petted a possum.

It seems rather than combat ‘murderous gangster gun crime’ in the city like Mayor Ford was by shooting an air rifle at targets, the Millerites banned the gun loving Sportmen’s Show from city property at the CNE. They exiled it all the way north of the lake and a few blocks east to the Convention Centre. Fucking downtown elite despots. Enough was enough.

“I told [Sportsmen Show chair] Walter Oster if I am mayor it will be back here,” said Ford with a Cheshire Cat grin. “I am a man of my word and it’s back here at the CNE where it never should have left in the first place.”

“Bang, bang.”

Yep. Political correctness by damned. Sportsmen shouldn’t have to be subject to no stinkin’ trip to a convention centre when they want to battle a fish on a television set. courtierThey should be allowed to roam free in the cavernous halls of the Direct Energy Centre. As God intended.

If the mayor’s going to load even the most innocuous of outings with politics, the press can’t just stand idly by, playing along and dutifully noting his exploits. That’s what I would call, if you’ll excuse my Joe Warmington attempts at punning, court reporting. (Think about it for a sec.) Just because Mayor Ford refuses to buckle down and do his job, doesn’t mean the media should too.

– poor sportingly submitted by Cityslikr

1 Comment | CBC, City Building, Municipal Politics, Newspapers, On The Road, Press coverage, Sports, The Toronto Sun | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
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Birds Of A Feather

January 21, 2013

Suppose sometime over the course of the next couple weeks or so, Mayor Ford’s conflict of interest appeal is upheld and he’s officially tossed from office. Suppose not assume because, waiting2for me at least, my assumptions over the last 3 years have been woefully off the mark, starting with my early mirth about the improbable prospect of a ‘Mayor Rob Ford.’ Here, there be no more assumptions.

But let’s do suppose the courts toss him from office.

Much has been made of the Candidate from The Left who would best oppose him. Olivia Chow? Councillors Adam Vaughan and Shelley Carroll? All with the inevitable concern for vote splitting between them, allowing the mayor to slip up through the middle to another unlikely election win.

But recently, there’s been chatter about the right. bowlingsplitThis poses as equal if not greater threat to the mayor than any sort of alignment on the left, I think. A split on the right side of the spectrum would probably be fatal to his re-election chances unless somehow the left fragmented into tiny little pieces which, after 2010, I don’t see happening.

That’s assuming (ooops!) there’s a vote at all. Council could simply appoint a mayor instead of electing to have a by-election. Re-appointing Mayor Ford has been seriously floated by the likes of Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday. Like some real life Dallas re-do. It’s all just been a dream.

But why would council do that? More specifically, why would council conservatives do such a thing? Why would they allow Rob Ford to continue damaging their brand?

That speaks to a bigger picture, frankly. imwithstupidA response to my post yesterday, My Problem With Conservatives, summed it up in under 140 characters. “Have been curious for some time about why moderate conservatives have allowed, what were fringe radicals, to co-opt their parties.”

We’ve seen it down in the States with the Republican Party and, to some degree, up here at the federal and provincial levels. These are not your daddies’ Progressive Conservative parties. Hell, in Ottawa they cut to the chase and dropped Progressive altogether.

And it’s meant a certain degree of electoral success. At least in the short term. The results of the 2012 U.S. election suggest right wing radicalism is, however, hurting the conservative cause now. Here in Ontario, after 2 terms of far-rightedness under the Common Sense Revolution, the P.C.’s have experienced trouble bringing voters back into the fold even in the face of discontent with the ruling Liberal party working in their favour.

And here in Toronto, well, Rob Ford.

It’s not like his type of right wing crank politician never existed before. But they just weren’t usually allowed to drive the bus. proppedupDriving it into a ditch.

I guess a cynical view might be that council conservatives with an eye on the mayor’s office could see fit to prop him up until next year at this time when the official 2014 campaign kicks off. Then, all bets are off. Whoever decided to run could take the 10 months to draw a distinction between their type of right of centre politics and the mayor’s. The right message delivered by the wrong messenger and all that.

That would be a calculated risk, I’d think. If Mayor Ford continues to blow up in such spectacular fashion, it might be difficult to continue keeping the fall out off of you. A smart, progressive campaign would tar all conservatives with the same brush.

Political calculations aside, surely to christ, moderate conservatives at the municipal level must now realize that the mayor’s conservatism is harming the greater good of the city more than anything either of his immediate predecessors did. citybuildingIn fact, if any moderate conservative can still say with a straight face Toronto is in better shape now than it was three years ago should not consider themselves a moderate conservative. They’re willfully blind ideologues.

Take for example John Tory. A seeming old school Red Tory. Too red certainly for the provincial Progressive Conservative party.

As chair of Toronto’s CivicAction Alliance, he is now the public face of a group advocating for greater investment in public transit infrastructure in the GTA. They along with conservative leaning interest groups like the Board of Trade recognize the negative impact congestion is having on the region and the only solution is to spend money bringing our public transit system into the 21st-century. That means considering new taxes. Road tolls.

Is John Tory prepared to stand idly by and let Mayor Ford continue to spout his subway nonsense, given the opportunity to replace him with someone more forward thinking? And I’m not talking about Tory running for mayor necessarily. birdsofafeatherWith the talk radio bully pulpit he has, is he going to pipe up in favour of the status quo, keeping a mayor in place whose closet counsel is his brother, a politician on record as saying all taxes are evil? The private sector will build us our subways, folks.

It won’t. John Tory must know that. TTC chair Karen Stintz too. How about Councillor Michael Thompson?

For the sake of keeping a conservative in power will they all be content to let Mayor Ford stand for the conservative banner? Reasonable people shouldn’t let blind loyalty to their ideology trump city building. It’s OK to state that Mayor Ford has been an unmitigated disaster and still be a conservative. Someone serious from the ranks should step forward soon and say as much. Otherwise, it’ll start to look like conservatives of every stripe are more interested in power rather than good governance.

– helpfully submitted by Cityslikr

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When You Roll The Dice…

January 11, 2013

Having attended Wednesday night’s casino consultation at City Hall, I was all prepared to write up something about it but was beaten to the punch on almost every front.hijack Before deciding not to follow suit, I had sketched out a rough outline of my thoughts on the event which included — very, very tongue in cheek — some variation of the word ‘hijack’. I thought it kind of funny to use such an extreme word to describe what was really a fairly modest twist in the turn of events that had actually transpired.

Lo and behold, yesterday’s coverage of the meeting was rife with hijackings and coups as if the councillors who’d opened up a committee room for the people present to actually voice their opinions had burned the fucking rotunda to the ground on their way up the stairs. My God! They Stood On Chairs!! Anarchists!

Now, I hope I’m not jaded enough not to believe that, in organizing the casino consultations as they did, city staff were trying to create a safe, dry space to discuss and inform the public on what is certainly a very heatedly divisive issue. Here’s how Hamutal Dotan described the set up in Torontoist yesterday. informationdump“Residents entered the City Hall rotunda to find the usual assortment of open house accoutrements: printed information sheets, large posterboards with diagrams and key details, blank survey forms to fill out, and name-tagged City staff on hand to answer questions.”

Or try this: Go to the Toronto Casino Consultation on the city’s website, open up every link that’s contained within that and print out the pages. Blow them up to placard size and imagine them all set out in a horseshoe fashion in the rotunda of City Hall, with hundreds of people milling about, trying to garner information on numbers, locations, etc., and figure out which name-tagged city staffer to pose their questions to.

My more cynical nature screams Information Dump! You know, that standard practice of overwhelming with sheer volume, hiding details in plain sight. For instance, I only just a few minutes ago learned via Twitter that under questioning from a councillor this morning, city staff admitted the city will have no say on the ultimate location of a casino if it agrees to host one. An interesting and pertinent tidbit to know but I’m having a little trouble finding that in all this consultation material.

More cynical still, I could view all this as little more than the pretence of public consultation. Yeah, yeah. standingonachairWe want to hear from you Toronto. Listening, though. That’s another matter altogether.

It is my experience, almost exclusively anecdotal, that while it’s good and important to sign petitions you are passionate about, I have seen too many introduced at council or committee meetings, stacks of signed petitions, placed before our elected officials. Their presence temporarily felt before being carted off to places unknown. It’s an integral part of the democratic process. Just not the only part.

In no way do I mean to sound as if the fix is in and that our input doesn’t matter. I’m just suggesting that when City Hall opens its doors for public participation it should include time and space to speak their minds and to have their questions and concerns addressed directly. That certainly wasn’t the case at Wednesday’s consultation.

So yeah, a group of councillors took it upon themselves to present that opportunity to the public who’d come out. But why did they have to stand up on the chairs?! There was no microphone to make any sort of announcement, no stage upon which to get everyone’s attention above the din of hundreds of people conversing. Horror of horrors! A couple councillors got up on a chair to announce an impromptu addition to the evening’s planned activities.

“Again, if you want to have an actual conversation,” Councillor Gord Perks said from high atop a chair, “some of us will be gathering up in Committee room 2. Thank you.”

Inflammatory! Incendiary! Hijack! Coup! COUP!! beavisBURN!BURN!BURN!!

While I saw no selective shepherding (Only anti-casino types welcome!) or vetting of who got into committee room 2, it was certainly almost entirely one-sided in its No Casino tone. The five or six people who did get up to speak their allotted three minutes in favour of at least considering bringing a casino to town were treated mostly respectfully by the gathered crowd although a couple were subjected to some heckling.

In fact, I wished there were more pro-casino voices to speak. I want to hear their side. Representatives of the Toronto Taxpayers Coalition were in attendance but, for whatever reason, chose not to run their $400 million/year idea past anyone other than the collected media cameras and microphones.

Councillor Adam Vaughan had the last word of the informal bull session and, like Councillor Perks does in the video in the Torontoist article, he urged everyone gathered to fill out all the forms, paperwork and online feedback that city staff had provided. He stressed the importance of doing so in terms of having the public’s voices heard, recorded and presented to city council for consideration. publicforumI’m not particularly sure what was so circus-like about that or what there was any councillor had to apologize for.

Call it a disruption or departure from the planned proceedings if you want. But please. Wednesday night was hardly a coup or hijacking.

– sanely submitted by Cityslikr

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Further Season’s Greetings

December 28, 2012

(Reflections on moments past and hopes for better moments ahead continue. Up today, Councillor Adam Vaughan, Ward 20 Trinity-Spadina!)

*  *  *avaughan

1) The Gift of Councilling: What is the one moment in 2012 that struck you as the best example of why it was you became a councillor?

Moving the rezoning on Alex Park Revitalization through council would have been the moment, but the process with the residents has had so many “moments” it’s hard to pick the vote as a defining moment as most of the community wasn’t there to share in it.

As background: The movement to rebuild this housing community south of Kensington Market has been under way now for almost six years. Ground will break in the new year. In the last year a developer, an architect and tenant agreements have been put in place, along with the rezoning.

To select a single moment in this process is tough, but in December an event at one particular meeting stands out. Throughout the years of monthly meetings one particular father in the community has been insisting on making sure the TCHC retains basement storage areas in the new town homes for co-op residents. The gentleman is a talented woodworker and uses his basement as a workroom. The man helps other residents by building shelves and doing small repairs. He also helps out the community gardeners by building their planter boxes. The question of whether the new units will have basements has been touch and go, as TCHC expressed concerns about hoarding. The developer on site was confident basements could be included, the residents pushed hard and staff kept negotiating.

At the last meeting of the year it was announced that basements would be part of the new design. The man beamed, the room celebrated, even the TCHC staff person was all smiles. Moving the big stuff forward is important, but we all need reminding sometimes that getting the details right is quite often what defines the achievement. In this case one resident fighting with his neighbours made his life better, his community stronger and in doing all that made my year.

2) Going Forward: In 2013, what is the one aspect you would like to see happen that would help develop better civic discourse?

Continued success on getting transportation challenges in the city solved. Whether by foot or on two wheels or more, whether by public transit, wheel chair or car, this city needs to figure out how to accommodate the choices people make about how to move in this city. Despite the rhetoric, despite Ottawa and Queen’s Park doing just the bare minimum and despite the relentless focus on traffic, as if road capacity is the only issue that needs addressing, I believe that real progress is possible if we can work as a council and begin work as a region on this issue. Part of the solution lies in finance, but just as much involves convenience trumping efficiency. It requires focussing on creating and sustaining streets as destinations as much as protecting them as thoroughfares. It also of course demands that council celebrate great design, and stop tolerating mediocre one size fits all solutions to building better, more complete streets for all.

merrychristmas2012

– seasonally submitted by Councillor Adam Vaughan

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Gardiner Conundrum

December 19, 2012

Deep down in my bones, at the most visceral of visceral levels, I stand opposed to the selling of public assets to private interests. It always seems like some desperate measure and seldom turns out very well at the public end. justnotrightOf course, that may just be the confirmation bias punching its way to the surface.

But then, Councillor Adam Vaughan, whom I nearly always agree with, floats the notion of selling off or leasing out the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway. What?! Yesterday on Metro Morning, the councillor went full on Ford and touted mysterious ‘telephone calls’ he’d been getting from ‘major investment firms’ and ‘consortiums’, apparently drooling over the prospect of gobbling up some crumbling infrastructure. What next, Adam? Folks in line at Timmies, telling you to go for it?

During the interview, Councillor Shelley Carroll, whom I nearly always agree with, calls Vaughan’s idea an ‘insane fantasy’. Exactly, Shelley. If we’re going to start tolling the roads, why not keep the profits instead of handing them to the private sector to make off with like bandits. An insane fantasy indeed.waitwhat

Which is probably why Councillor Doug Ford agrees with Councillor Vaughan about it. Wait. What?! Get out of town! Those two guys?

“I’m glad that Councillor Vaughan is taking a page out of my playbook that I’ve been preaching for the last two years,” said the councillor and Mayor-brother, “maybe he got hit over the head over the weekend.”

For that reason alone, I now want to sell the roads to the private sector and watch as Councillor Ford slowly and inevitably realizes to his horror exactly how P3s work in the real world. Nothing comes for free. One way or another we will pay for the use of the Gardiner. I’m not sure the councillor fully understands that concept yet.

Of course, that’s not really all that constructive and might simply be cutting off my nose to spite my face. And when it comes to being spiteful, let’s leave that up to the master on the matter, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong. From Robyn Doolittle of the Toronto Star:

Public works and infrastructure chair Denzil Minnan-Wong said [Chief Planner Jennifer] Keesmaat needs to get on board with a staff recommendation to carry about $505 million of rehabilitation work over the next decade on two sections of the Gardiner.

darkhelmet“She’s in favour of spending the tens of millions that’s required to keep the Gardiner up while we could wait for six, seven, eight years to get an environmental assessment done, then flushing all that money down the toilet and maybe tearing the Gardiner down,” he said.

Ms. Keesmaat’s transgression? Suggesting before throwing a half billion dollars blindly at the problem of the Gardiner, how be we go back to that Environmental Assessment that we were already $3 million into before Mayor Ford came to power and Councillor Minnan-Wong took over at Public Works. You know, that one that got mysteriously shelved. The one that might’ve already been completed and on the table to give us some educated direction going forward.

If you could indict someone for disingenuous douchery, the Public Works and Infrastructure chair would be up to his eyes in legal paperwork. Unfortunately, that’s not illegal behaviour. Just terrible, destructive politics.

Not only was Ms. Keesmaat being quite reasonable in her suggestion that we think before we spend but she said out loud what road warriors like councillors Ford and Minnan-Wong refuse to accept and those like Vaughan and Carroll can only nibble around the edges of. According to Robyn Doolittle again, Toronto’s chief planner said she is opposed to spending massive sums on infrastructure focused on “moving more cars.”completelynuts

That’s what this all comes down to.

The future of transportation services in this city.

Single rider, private vehicle use is the least efficient, most expensive way of moving the biggest number of people. We’ve been heavily subsidizing it for over half a century now. Now’s the time to pay the piper. That bill’s come due.

The best way to go about achieving that? I guess that’s what this current tussle is about, at least among the politicians who are looking ahead and not back. Councillor Minnan-Wong is fighting yesterday’s war and should be treated accordingly.

It’s all well and good to think that if tolls are the way to go, why don’t we just start tolling and reap the profits. But in governments’ hands, it’s always political and subject to the whim of the day.nowisthetime Just like Rob Ford came to power vowing to kill the Vehicle Registration Tax, it’s easy to imagine another candidate pledging to kill tolls.

So sell it smartly to the private sector and be done with it. Let those who want to drive, bitch and moan at the major investment firms and consortiums not City Hall. And if you think you’re going to avoid paying by taking another, ‘free’ route? We’ll keep that congestion fee option tucked in our back pocket.

And hey, if Councillor Vaughan is right and engaging in a P3 will kick in federal infrastructure funds and ‘regionalize the cost’ of maintenance, why not? Cities should not be solely responsible for roads that serve the greater area.

Still… there’s that nagging feeling, deep in my bones. Lost revenue. Loss of control. Enriching the private sector while draining the public purse.

But this is a conversation and decision we need to have right now and not some time after we’ve thrown half a billion dollars at a problem that will do nothing more than handcuff another generation.

– discombobulatedly submitted by Cityslikr

6 Comments | Budget, CBC, City Building, City Council, Killer Cars, Municipal Politics, Newspapers, Press coverage, Privatization, Toronto Star | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
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