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Syndicate
Oh thank god the war on cars is over! Does this mean that Michael Bryant the Murderer can go free? He is free? But didn't he...?
E-mail: mayor_ford@toronto.ca
Mail:
Toronto City Hall,
2nd Floor,
100 Queen St. West,
Toronto ON
M5H 2N2
Phone:
416-397-CITY (2489)
Dear Mr. Ford,
I strongly urge you to not cancel Transit City. It is the only viable solution on the table to help get Toronto moving again, to reach tens of thousands of commuters, to make for a more productive and wealthier city
Money has been committed by the city, province and federal government to the project, money that cannot be taken back. Cancelling Transit City will cost the city hundreds of millions in cancellation fees, and that is before even a shovel goes into the ground for your subway plan. What is your plan for convincing the province to back your plan for a new Sheppard subway? Also, where is the money going to come from to fund the Sheppard line? The province has already indicated that the cupboard is bare.
A subway in Scarborough will do nothing to help the taxpayers on Finch and Eglinton Avenues to get to work more quickly. It will do nothing to help the taxpayers in Etobicoke. It will do almost nothing to help people conduct business in the city, as the overcrowding on buses and trains will continue. Have you taken a 32 or 34 bus recently? It's jam-packed, with people left behind at every other stop. Those people will be late for work, for school, for doctor's appointments. How do these things help Toronto and its economy?
Yours sincerely,
Edmund O'Connor
Perhaps I am naively optimistic here, but if Ford's strategy is to cry that the province and/or council is deliberately thwarting his agenda, I'm not certain how well this will play over all.
If he starts asking the province and Metrolinx for money to build subways, the province can just say, "you said there are inefficiencies that can be removed from the budget. Go find 'em." That leaves both Transit City and Ford's plan both dead. Now presumably, he'd gamble that he could use such a crisis in order to deliberately engineer the privatization of the transit system at that point.
That's the hypothetical scenario I could see unfolding at this point. That said, he'd be gambling that he wouldn't wear the blame for the city not having any transit strategy of any kind, and that involves a lot of blaming everyone but himself. It's worked for him so far in his career, but can he make it work on this level?
I suggest everyone PHONE Mayor Ford's office. I understand that he has committed himself to personally returning ALL phone cals to his office. Let's hit the phones!!
I predict the whole issue will disappear into the planning department of the TTC until after the provincial election. McGuinty and Metrolinx will simply say they are open to all suggestions, but that they need a comprehensive plan.
"POOF"
Problem solved.
The NDP/left has about 8,000-9,000 votes in the ward. Some of those people are from the John Sewell-Alan Sparrow orientation that focuses on planning and transportation issues but does support collective bargaining. Those people fully expect to see Adam supporting collective bargaining and fair wage policies (probably even more of the latter). Those people are why Adam won. If he loses them, he loses the election.
It is also true that those people look askance at party politics. In particular, since the capture of the local riding associations by the apparatchiks many of them have reduced their connection to the NDP. The democracy issue amongst the local leftists is significantly about the internal democracy issues in the NDP.
Thanks for answering that query about the "democracy". Issue, as you can see, I don't agree with your analysis of Vaughan's positioning in the Ward. I was at an all candidates meeting where Vaughan was asked about those collective bargaining issues and he was less that forthright, pointing out that half of garbage collection in TS is already handled by private subcontractors. There was nothing that he said the ensured me that he had a clear no-go line on any of these things.
His support for Smitherman coincides with this view.
If half the garbage collection in TS actually is already handled by private sub-contractors - why don't i recall anyone (least of all Pantalone) demanding that this arrangement be stopped immediately and that all of the work be "contracted in"?
I think he may need reminding of where his ward is.
It is entirely possible that his analysis matches yours and not mine. If he acts on that assumption the next election will demonstrate who's right.
Pantalone was quite explicit about not supporting further privitization. He certainly didn't imply that just because some garbage collection was contracted out that all of it might be, and there was no objection on principle. Pantalone was quite clear on opposing further privitization, on the issue.
You however are not, which brings me back to the point I was making. Adam Vaughan could easily vote for further privitization, and cut backs of city hall staff, and NDP'rs such as yourself would still vote for him, as long as he doesn't act like a suburban rube.
Wow! It boggles my mind that ppl actually believe that the already spent monies on City Transit, is a justifiable reason to continue with the WORST PLAN ever!
Those monies did NOT go up in smoke, they went into the pockets of ppl like you & me that work for a living. Those salaries have already made their full circle BACK into the community coffers! As for the penalties, better to take a smaller penalty loss than a expensive long term permanent disaster!
*** Do you ppl have any idea just how advanced the entire GTA public transit would have been today if no one interfered with the plans to expand our subway lines in all directions since the 60′s? We would not have this crisis today, if ppl did not stop subway progress in lieu of the so called iconic streetcar, which in many ppl’s opinion belongs in the Smithsonian’s Institute rather than on the roads of 21st Century living.
We progressed out of medieval times, out of the pioneer era, yet we are continuously being forced to maintain and support the crudest mode of transportation that is only capable of providing rides equal to that of Canada’s Wonderland’s touring trains, bcos of the whims of the few.
It’s a BAD IDEA to spend good monies after bad! Think about it….if Transit City was such a great idea, why would it take 7 yrs. in the planning? Great ideas take no time at all. Bad ideas are dragged out in the hopes of finding something good about them.
*** Way to go Mayor Rob Ford! Way to go! Keep those subways coming!
I am sick and tired of politicians making expensive decisions that benefit the few, (the few that came out for elections) just to get their vote.
I am sick of politicians that have no long term vision or accountability of their inept, costly short term decisions.
I am sick of politicians that have NO BUSINESS SAVVY!!! These guys would not survive in the private sector running a personal business the way they run our city coffers.
I am sick of City Planners that also lacked vision, handing out condo construction permits left right and center, without the forth-sight to high density congestion.
I am sick of City Planners not looking for ways to encourage employment growth outside of the downtown core of Toronto…..heck, that would solve the high density commuter congestion over night and at no cost to the city coffers, meaning Taxes would not have to be continuously raised to support a War on Cars, Archaic Transit City plan!
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and Mississauga Mayor Hazel Mccallion have business savvy along with common sense and long term successful and profitable visions!
Yes, I agree, Toronto did get what it deserves…….a Mayor that can think his way out of a paper bag!
Canada needs more politicians like Rob and Hazel……period!
Yes, that's what Toronto needs. To look like Mississauga.
And by the way, it was the business savvy Mike Harris government that canceled the Eglinton subway. Ford's father was part of Harris' caucus and undoubtedly supported canceling a subway that had already been started. Harris was at Ford's victory party.
1) Light Rail is a viable transportation system. You can just go to Calgary, Edmonton, or several cities in the US or Europe to see the successes. It can carry large numbers of people, and the lead time to construct an LRT line is far less than what it would take to construct a subway.
2) "Good plans" do not come out of thin air. You don't just snap your fingers and voila, I have a good subway/LRT route map. You have to take into consideration a variety of things, such as traffic pattern flows, population density, neighbourhood characteristics, all of those things. It's a time consuming, detailed process. Additionally, the best plan in the world will not make it anywhere without funds to back it up, and it took some time for the City of Toronto to secure funding for those projects.
3) Beware when a politician decides to scrap an existing plan for one that (s)he thinks is better. It has ramifications in dealing with higher orders of government as to how reliable a partner you are. There's termination costs, plus what do you do if some work has already started? You can look to the City of Ottawa being sued over tearing up its contracts to built light rail, or the City of Winnipeg still struggling to build some form of rapid transit after the current mayor basically tore up the plan he was later dragged into implementing.
I wasn't even talking about who I would vote for personally. If someone who was a loyal New Democrat ran against Vaughan because on a whole host of issues - he had swung wildly to the right - I would probably vote for that person. But I wasn't talking about what I would do personally. My point was that as long as Vaughan continues to oppose the vast, vast majority of (if not all of) Ford's policies - I would be surprised if anyone on the left would get any traction running against him.
People voted to stop the gravy train, not stop the train entirely.
I was using you as an example of an NDP'r who was soft on these issues revolving around collective bargaining. You are my sample set. There are a large number of NDP'rs who are soft on these issues, and, as JRootham has been pointing out, many NDP'rs voted for Vaughan regardless of party loyalty. And when it came down to it, party loyalty was not an issue for NDP'rs.
Therefore, if party loyalty is not really an issue for TS NDP'rs and they are soft on the collective bargaining issues, as well, Vaughan should have good chance of success over the combined NDP/Labour vote in TS, regardless of who runs against him from the left, especially if he can pick up some votes on the right.
The problem was that "the gravy train" was never defined. It's whatever Rob Ford wants it to be. And it won't be lucrative city contracts to provide services that could be provided more cost effectively in house. When there are cost overruns on large projects, like the St. Clair right of way, where do people think the money goes? Right into the hands of building and trades contractors. But who gets blamed? Civil servants.
I assumed you were referring to Joe Pantalone since he was 100% supportive of the city's attack on CUPE during the strike last summer.
I am assuming that you mean to say that unless someone supports a labour union on each and every bargaining issue that this means they support privitization of curb side garbage, pickup, turning the TTC into an essential serviceand laying off city workers. Am I right?
Don't make the mistake of thinking that I would equate your views with those of Joe Pantalone. For one thing Joe knows what collective bargaining is all about.
Joe knows for example that entering into a collective bargaining negotiation and disagreeing with the union is an affirmation of the collective bargaining process even if it means that there is a legal strike, whereas privitization, banning the right to strike for workers and reducing the size of the bargaining unit is an attack upon collective bargaining itself.
Collective bargaining being something that Peter Kormos calls "the hallmark of a democratic society". Democratic being the word indicated by the second letter in the acronym NDP.
How supportive the voters of T-S are of this issue is an open question. It was not an obvious or large point of distinction between Adam and Helen in the election they faced off in.
This is starting to get repetitious. I think we have established the nature and degree of of our disagreements.
That is true. But Stockholm insists on trying to equate Adam Vaughan's stated positions on collective bargaining issues at city hall with Joe Pantalone's stated positions on collective bargaining at city hall, which is plainly ridiculous. But this is really just a way of justifying his own equivocation on this issue, which is pretty much in line with Vaughan's views.
My point is simply, that Stockholm's positions on this issue indicate that Vaughan could still count on substantive support from T-S NDP'rs regardless if Vaughan accepted a deal on cutting back city hall staff, privatizing curb side pickup and making the TTC and essential service. So, doing so might not kill him in the riding because of the NDP/Labour axis which you alluded too. The labour part of the NDP vote is soft on these issues, imo.
Yawn...you really need to find a new hobby.
I feel like I just stepped on an ant.
I guess it wasn't so clear. As far as I can tell, you are misrepresenting Stockholm's position, and, more to the point, using your representation of it to impute the position to T-S voters. We don't have good evidence of the voters position.
So you are saying that Stockholm has an unequivocal stand on collective bargaining, and is opposed privitization of curb side garbage pick-up, making the TTC an essential service and reduction of city hall staff?
It's not really important or anything, but in fact he has taken no position on any of these things, even though he has had plenty of opportunity to do so when I raised them. Instead he tried to deflect any discussion of these issues by talking abbout the garbage strike, Joe Pantalone and other evasions.
That's a bit different from implying that he is in favour privatisation, which is how I read your posts.
Gotta hand it to Ford: He's as natural born a demogogue as any I've ever seen, every bit as cheap and transparent as he is thuggish and stupid. When I was working as a courier downtown during Mel Lastman's reign, there was a nickname circulating about ol' Mel that many of us found to be hilarious: "Mayor Krusty." Because it was like having Krusty the Clown as Mayor. And Ford's shaping up to make Lastman look like Sir Winston Churchill by comparison.
I mean, for fuck's sakes: "The War on Cars?" Really? From the look at the traffic congestion at practically any area of the city you'd care to name (have a look at Finch and Yonge during Rush Hour sometimes, why don'cha), if there really was a "war" on cars, then I'd say the cars won. Just like Ford's bullshit pronouncement that the city was "open for business again" after his election victory...as if it had ever been closed to business to begin with. I strongly suspect this aspect of his governing 'style' is going to severely test my patience over the next few years.
I also agree with y'all who think the simpletons who voted him into power are likely to the be the ones most fucked over by him and his agenda. Frankly, they deserve it.
Right. So now we are clear on this point. So we take your thesis which is that NDP'rs are not going to vote necessarily along party lines because of the "democracy" issue, and then combine that with the fact that issues of collective bargaining may not be a deal breaker for a substantial number of T-S NDP voters and it is quite possible that Vaughan could take positions where he accepted these things as "negotiable", even in the "least worst option" frame of concessions to Ford, and he might not kill himself in the ward.
So to my mind, I am not sure that the ward voters really act as too much of a restraint.
For the love of Pete, Stockholm; there was NO attack on CUPE during the strike. Agreeing with everything a union proposes isn't bargaining - it's capitulation.
One of my Facebook friends also thinks David Miller "attacked" CUPE during the strike by not giving in to all their demands. This guy was also an ardent George Smitherman supporter, which goes to show how being logic-challenged on one issue leads to similar deficiencies in others.
Anyhow, I've sent off a letter in support of Transit City to mayor_ford@toronto.ca, basically saying that as a taxpayer, I'm deeply concerned about the potential waste of funds, etc.