[salsa]

So the mayor votes to cut funding for city shelters, then asks for federal money for said shelters.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/john-tory-refugee-letter-1.4005883

 

[animatronic]

So the mayor votes to cut funding for city shelters, then asks for federal money for said shelters.

His plan is to use the mostly empty Scarborough subway cars as mobile emergency shelters. It's a win win.

 

[Palma]

I

Scarborough (STC) needs a transfer free connection to Yonge. There were several ways of achieving this, but sadly we went with perhaps the worst. And now, politically, trying to bring forward one of the better plans would not be acceptable as it would be (rightly) seen as re-doing the planning without accomplishing anything.
.

You mean WANTS.

 

[Palma]

What did they think was going to happen once the one year that the federal gov't provided shelter was up? Did these people think the free shelter would go on indefintely

 

[Videodrome]

https://www.thestar.com/news/city_h...nto-council-is-slow-to-raise-rates-james.html

An interesting look into property taxes.

 

[jje1000]

Reminder of Tory's Fordian pandering this week:

The debate Tuesday saw lobbyists paid for by Scarborough Town Centre owners Oxford Properties Group through newly-created organization ConnectScarborough advocate for the one-stop subway while members of the citizens’ group Scarborough Transit Action argue that the money would be better spent on a network of LRTs.

Asked about that assessment by staff and whether it was responsible for him to ask members of the public to speculate, Tory told reporters:

"Well, I guess, you know it’s funny because we have lots of experts and we get lots of reports from them but actually nothing substitutes for the experiences that people among the public actually have on a day-to-day basis. You can have all the expert reports you want but I think nothing replaces the lived experiences.”

https://www.thestar.com/news/city_h...-335-billion-one-stop-scarborough-subway.html

And of course he'd show up at a largely upper-class NIMBY protest to garner some support.

About 200 people rallied outside an elementary school in midtown Toronto on Thursday to protest the planned development of a condo tower right next door.

The protest included children who attend John Fisher Junior Public School, 40 Eskine Ave., near Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue. A developer is poised to build a 35-storey condo next to the school.

"S.O.S., save our school," children chanted in front of the school as they held handmade signs.

Mayor John Tory and Coun. Jaye Robinson, Ward 25 — Don Valley West, joined the early morning rally, which was organized by parents opposed to the development. Parents are concerned about noise, dust and traffic that the construction would generate.

Tory told reporters that it's unbelievable that the development was proposed metres from school grounds and that it was approved by the Ontario Municipal Board.

"It's preposterous. It's a distortion of priorities," Tory said."I just think we have to do something about that and that's why we're all here. We are all working together in both public settings and otherwise to see if we can find a solution."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...ic-school-protest-condo-development-1.4017192

 

[expat]

Why on earth does Tory want to fight so hard for the Scarborough stubway? He's had dozens of opportunities to walk away from it and save face, to write it off to budget or votes, or to instead use his bully pulpit to make a great case for the LRT.

https://www.thestar.com/news/city_h...-to-support-single-subway-stop-extension.html

This stubway has white elephant written all over it - it's already projected at $3.5 billion and we all know that's going to grow - we're going to be building this thing for ages and paying for it ages longer. Why does he want this to be his legacy?

 

[pman]

Why on earth does Tory want to fight so hard for the Scarborough stubway? He's had dozens of opportunities to walk away from it and save face, to write it off to budget or votes, or to instead use his bully pulpit to make a great case for the LRT.

https://www.thestar.com/news/city_h...-to-support-single-subway-stop-extension.html

This stubway has white elephant written all over it - it's already projected at $3.5 billion and we all know that's going to grow - we're going to be building this thing for ages and paying for it ages longer. Why does he want this to be his legacy?

Tory wants to be re-elected as Mayor, and has determined that there are a lot of Scarborough votes in advocating for SSE because the whole mess has turned into one of those gruesome suburban identity politics issues. Wynne apparently made the same calculation.

 

[expat]

Sure, it's straightforward as a piece of populist theatre. But as we actually start talking about signing cheques and putting shovels in the ground, it should be pretty readily apparent that it's a poor idea and a hugely expensive one.

And unlike, say, the PanAms, there's no obvious chance that the rest of town might, despite themselves, end up seeing some fun and profit from this. It spends $3.5 billion (at a minimum) to buy some goodwill in Scarborough and nowhere else.

If he's looking at this as a strategy for his own mayoralty or for the provincial/federal conservatives, that's a very, very risky gambit. It's going to be hung around his neck when this thing inevitably goes overbudget and overtime, and he doesn't want to be remembered at the man who saddled Toronto with a big white elephant.

 

[pman]

Sure, it's straightforward as a piece of populist theatre. But as we actually start talking about signing cheques and putting shovels in the ground, it should be pretty readily apparent that it's a poor idea and a hugely expensive one.

And unlike, say, the PanAms, there's no obvious chance that the rest of town might, despite themselves, end up seeing some fun and profit from this. It spends $3.5 billion (at a minimum) to buy some goodwill in Scarborough and nowhere else.

If he's looking at this as a strategy for his own mayoralty or for the provincial/federal conservatives, that's a very, very risky gambit. It's going to be hung around his neck when this thing inevitably goes overbudget and overtime, and he doesn't want to be remembered at the man who saddled Toronto with a big white elephant.

I agree SSE makes no sense, except for Oxford Properties. But very little this Council does is informed by data or expert analysis. The Gardiner East rebuild is another example that suburban councillors form a dominant majority that routinely rejects professional planning. In the case of SSE, sure it will be seen as yet another disaster along the lines of the Sheppard subway, if the wretched thing is ever built. But it appears to have broad support in Scarborough (see the Toronto Life interviews in the UT headlines section for a truly depressing demonstration of ignorance). On top of that, the North York contingent of Council's clown car are solidly lined up behind it, because, you know, suburbs, suburbs, suburbs. As for Tory, he's clearly more interested in winning the next election than his place in history. Ditto Wynne. The only hope of stopping SSE would appear to be a combination of Adam Vaughan convincing the Feds to take a pass and a PC provincial government elected with enough of a majority that it isn't concerned about pissing off Scarborough voters. Neither of which is impossible, I suppose. Anyway, expecting Tory to place the good of the city ahead of his personal interest in re-election appears to be unrealistic.

 

[Soop]

And it may get him the remnants of Ford Nation as it was Rob's project to begin with.

 

[pman]

Yes, Tory is a toned-down Ford in a better suit.

 

[Videodrome]

Who would like to see challenge Tory next year?

 

[jje1000]

Of the top of my head I'd actually be interested to see Miller make a comeback.

He did some things that set the city down the road to Ford (i.e. overly focused on LRTs in some parts, vehicle tax, union strikes), but a lot of his other work was foundational to improving the city in other ways (cultural renaissance, getting waterfront revitalization started, revitalization of social housing, etc.).

None of the mayors that followed him seem to have the same vision that he did- I think he's one of those mayors whose work you only start to appreciate some years later.


Soknacki should run again, but I still don't think he has enough recognition. The city needs someone who knows when to save money, and when to spend it smartly.

 

[salsa]

Who would like to see challenge Tory next year?

I will welcome anybody (left or right) who will bring a robust challenge to John Tory. Somebody who tells it like it is, who will relentlessly call out all of his lies and BS using nothing but the facts. Someone who will bring a binder to a debate containing every shitty vote and broken promise of his, along with all the dire warning from the city manager that he chose to ignore. "Mr Tory, you say that tackling poverty was a fundamental litmus test of whether this city wants to be great. So why did you vote for cuts to city shelters that put Toronto's most vulnerable residents at risk?". There are hundreds of similar examples you can run with. "This is what you said, here's what you actually did". Compare record to rhetoric. It's really not that hard.

Obviously he will try his best to weasel out of answering such questions using a whole bunch of words, so it's important to keep bringing that up over and over again in every single debate and campaign rally. Force him to defend his record. Keep hammering away until every voter has been educated as to what's really been happening at city hall and why it's bad for the city. With a bit of luck, hopefully Toronto will go back to being progressive and put this lying disgrace out to pasture in 2018.

Gord Perks shows us how it's done. This is how you take on John Tory.

Here's another one. "You will not see me digging my heels and insisting on charging ahead on things that don't make sense, which cost too much or don't provide the most efficient, most effective benefits to our residents. You might recognize those words Mr mayor - they were yours. You spoke them less than five months ago."