All Fried Up In The Big Smoke

Less political. More fictional.

Vaughan Gone

Posted on April 19, 2014 by "Brother" of Cityslikr

We should’ve known something was up when the eye glasses changed, became more bookish.

Aside from the news that Rob Ford had been elected mayor of Toronto, hearing that Councillor Adam Vaughan was opting for a run at a federal seat comes a close second in terms of a bummer municipal politics turn of events. He provided much of the spark and lightness during this dark term at City Hall, sparing no opportunity to skewer and eviscerate the bumbling, destructive exploits of the Ford administration. Nothing could lift your spirits like an indignant broadside from Vaughan directed at the latest boneheaded malignancy the wrecking crew had cooked up.

He was the poster boy of anti-Fordism, held up as the example of everything that was wrong with the forces of downtown elitism at City Hall. Whippet smart, tart tongued, dismissive and derisive, his detractors, those preferring their politicians dumb and willfully ignorant, labelled Vaughan smug, pompous and arrogant. There’s certainly some truth to that. At times he came across as prickly, impatient with those not keeping up with him. The proverbial inability to suffer fools gladly.

But if his critics were truly honest with themselves they’d admit that what galls them most about Adam Vaughan is that he was right about this mayor and the administration he misruled. Incompetence above all else. How would you say that in Latin? Imperitiam, quod super omnia. The motto emblazoned on the Team Ford crest. Vaughan called them on it regularly and, many times, ill-manneredly.

Should he have been more temperate in his engagement? Maybe. Except, at this juncture, knowing all that we know now, given all that we’ve seen, what would that have accomplished? The Fords brooked no opposition, sought no compromise with anyone who disagreed with them or called them on their bullshit.

It seldom pays to concede to bullies and thugs. Next to incompetence, what the Fords did best was to play the thug card. Councillor Vaughan stood up to that, many times encouraged it, bringing it out into the open for everyone to see.

During one particularly heated debate, I forget exactly which one of the too many to commit to memory, Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti leaning back in his chair and yapping down the aisle at Vaughan. I used to beat up guys like you in high school. Yes, we’re sure you did, Giorgio. We’re sure you did.

Over the past 3 years or so, I was fortunate enough to have some conversations with the councillor outside of the political arena, beyond the political melodrama, to talk about building a city. He knew his shit, and his enthusiasm for transforming streets, neighbourhoods and communities was infectious. It challenged me to try and better understand the nature of what makes cities successfully tick.

I imagine when Councillor Vaughan gets asked what he sees as his biggest accomplishment from his time at City Hall, he will point to the redevelopment of Alexandra Park that is just getting under way. Both in private and publicly, I heard him boast about the process and how it hinged on the input from the residents of the community. This was not going to be his redevelopment or the city’s, but theirs, those who lived there.

Which makes his jump to federal politics all the more puzzling.

I get the impetus. Any city councillor worth their salt is going to feel the limitations of municipal governance. There isn’t access to all the necessary tools, especially the fiscal ones, to get the job done on major issues like transit, child care and housing. t must be head-bangingly frustrating to care about these items and know there’s only so much you can do, to battle with colleagues who view such shortcomings as a way not to deal with them.

Councillor Vaughan says he wants to go to Ottawa to finally deliver a national strategy on housing for cities. I truly wish him good luck with that but, frankly, these days, Ottawa is where good intentions and direct, hands on democracy go to die. Olivia Chow, whose vacant federal seat Vaughan is seeking to fill, became an MP with similar purpose in mind, and Jack Layton before her. It’s been some time since the federal government paid much attention to the needs of this country’s cities. Maybe Adam Vaughan can turn that around. I won’t hold my breath in anticipation.

I’m guessing the past four years have been a study in frustration for Vaughan. Time spent mostly trying to push against the reactionary, roll back impulses of the Fords and their ilk. He’s done his hitch. While I’d hoped he’d be around to help pick up the broken pieces of what gets left behind after this messy weather passes through town, he won’t. It’s going to be a pretty big hole that needs to be filled.

When this term is up, Adam Vaughan will have served at City Hall for nearly 8 years. Rob Ford’s time in office there? 14 years. If you are ever trying to figure out why Toronto faces the problems it does, engages in the kind of politics it does, that’s as a good a place to start as any. Fixing that sort of discrepancy will go a long way to sorting our problems out.

— sadly submitted by Cityslikr

You Call Yourself A Conservative, Huh?

Posted on January 15, 2014 by "Brother" of Cityslikr

We interrupt our regular programming to bring you another instalment in our What The Fuck Is Wrong With Conservatives These Days? series.

God almighty.

Listening to Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak on the CBC’s Metro Morning yesterday, touting his Million Jobs Act which he plans on tabling in the provincial legislature next month, it all sounded a little, I don’t know, empty. Look, Matt. I’ve strung together five or six of my slogans, slapped on some improbable but round number, packaged them up with a nice pithy title and, there you have it. Bob’s yer uncle. Thanks for having me on the show. Beats paid advertising.

Not that the show’s host, Matt Galloway, didn’t try and engage with Mr. Hudak seriously but what can you do when somebody insists on tossing out fantasy numbers based on increasingly dubious economic theories? Respond with only the sound of your head banging repeatedly against the desk in front of you? Just call bullshit on every statement that comes out of your guest’s mouth?

During the course of the conversation the opposition leader assured Mr. Galloway that he’d “…“I’ll argue back and forth with the evidence all day”. Obviously, a slip of the tongue although, when given the opportunity to provide evidence of how further reducing corporate tax cuts would lead to more jobs when it clearly hasn’t happened over the last decade or so, but it pretty much sums up conservative political philosophy over the last 30 years or so. Arguing back and forth with the evidence all day.

Why, over 16 years after the PC government of Mike Harris (which Tim Hudak was a proud member of) forced amalgamation on Toronto and other Ontario municipalities, a report comes out saying that it didn’t save taxpayers the money the Tories told us it would. This is not news to anyone who took notice of the proceedings back in the day. The general consensus from those possessing an expertise in these matters of municipalities was that amalgamation didn’t automatically guarantee cost savings. In fact, in a city like Toronto with much of its big ticket budget items like the police and transportation already amalgamated, there were no real savings to be had.

Turns out they were right and the common sense Harris government was wrong.

Ooops.

Of course, no one does fact-free, evidence-schmevidence policy decision making better than our current Conservative government in Ottawa. The last truthful thing I can remember it doing is striking the ‘progressive’ from its party title. Books have been written about the Harper government’s attempt to wrestle reality into submission, so I’ll just go with the latest, lightest example of this disinclination to dealz with the for realz.

The federal government blanketed the internet with ads and bought pricey TV spots during playoff hockey as part a $2.5-million publicity blitz to promote a skills training program that doesn’t yet exist…

This from a government that insists governments don’t create jobs, promoting a jobs skills training program that doesn’t yet exist. In other words, a government doing a thing it says a government can’t do but not really doing that thing, only pretending to be doing that thing it doesn’t do. On top of which, spending money it says it doesn’t have to push a thing it says it doesn’t do and isn’t doing anyway.

Now I know you can look around and reflexively scream, Well, the other guys do it too! The Lieberals, conservative backers like to say with an ever so smug snicker. Gasplants! Ornge! E-Health!

As if that somehow justifies it all. What’s the first thing about responsibility most of us learn early on in our lives? You get caught doing something wrong, it’s not alright because you claim that other people do it too. If Johnny jumped off a bridge, would you jump off that bridge as well?

And the big difference is, the entire current conservative political philosophy is based on a lie. That somehow, magically, their inherent hatred of the institution of government, their attempts to rollback the function it plays in our lives, will somehow be better for us. Our streets will be safer. Our water cleaner. Our bank accounts fuller. If we just let the private sector and the free market have their way with us, unfettered.

It’s all just wishful thinking by those who see themselves as entirely self-sufficient, independent yeoman who just want to be left to their own devices and ask for nothing in return.

So yeah. Pretty much pure fantasy. As if life is just some video game.

This is not to say I have not met some perfectly reasonable people who are proudly conservative. We can chat amicably. Disagree on more than a few things pleasantly. Politics is not supposed to be a blood sport fought to the death.

But until reasonable conservatives accept the fact their brand has been infected with a toxic substance, that, in fact, their crazy uncles have taken control of the party and movement that reasonable conservatives still lay claim to, they’re all getting tarred with the same ugly brush. The likes of Rob Ford and Tim Hudak and whatever nutty jack-in-the-box pops up this week at the federal level are now the conservative poster boys. It’s a picture that doesn’t look good on any of you.

— mystifiedly submitted by Cityslikr

Questioning Question Period

Posted on December 6, 2013 by "Brother" of Cityslikr

If the intention of the parliament of Canada with Question Period is to distance and disengage itself from the general public, I say, well done. Mission Accomplished.

Let’s start with the security which is more rigorous than it is when you board a plane. Not once but twice. Empty your pockets. Remove your belt and watch. Give up cell phones, camera. Leave your hat and jacket at the door.

Now, I get it. I guess. National figures on a public stage but there’s a point when you move from routine security to an over-hyped almost militarization. We’re going into the public gallery of the House of Commons, for chrissakes, not travelling into the occupied West Bank.

And what’s the reasoning behind no cameras or cell phones in the galleries? Are state secrets being passed between members’ desks? Even so much as lean over the railing to get a view of the MP speaking on the floor directly below you earns a visit from a security guard — one of many, many security guards — with instructions not to lean over the railing.

Just sit still. Be quiet. Behave.

Your government is busy, looking out for the country’s interests.

I suspect Friday’s Question Period is not the prime time show. Certainly today, none of the parties seemed to be playing their A teams. No prime minister. No opposition leader. No finance minister, defense minister or the regular attack dogs. Mostly backbenchers, lobbying and deflecting questions back and forth while scrambling to strategically fill empty seats to try and fool the CPAC cameras into filming what looks like a chamber more than half empty.

Even with a full house with all the star players in the line up, I’m hard pressed to see what purpose Question Period serves in our democratic process. It seems like little more than a futile exercise in giving the appearance of openness and transparency. Maybe back in the days before cameras and microphones this was an actual outlet for citizens to witness their elected officials at work. I don’t know. Today it just felt like a staged show. Question. Heckle! Heckle! Non-answer answer. Heckle! Heckle! Worse, a half-hearted dress rehearsal of a performance piece that approximates actual governance.

Give me the rough and tumble accessibility of city council and committee meetings anytime. Even at its most dysfunctional (as we’ve seen the past few months) things get done, matters settled, decisions made. It may be awkward and embarrassing at times. Sometimes even counter-productive. (Who will ever forget that time a motion to rescind the five cent plastic bag fee ended up with a complete plastic bag ban?) But it’s out there, wide open for all to see. Just like democracy was meant to be.

— unimpressedly submitted by Cityslikr