Choice of Toronto’s next mayor affects us all
It's embarrassing but true: I know way more about the municipal election race in Toronto than I do about the one in my own town and I'll bet most other southern Ontarians do, too.
If you read a newspaper or watch television news, you know all about the top four or five Toronto mayoral candidates and their views. Meanwhile, I can't tell you who's running in my town except for one new woman whose name I forget -- and she's in my ward.
So you can't blame us for having opinions on who would make the best mayor of Toronto. After all, he (or she) will have a big impact on us, too.
The prickly David Miller certainly did, with his Fortress Toronto mentality and his scorn for smaller communities. You can't blame us for thinking that in his world, we'd all live in downtown condos and do what he told us.
He wanted us to pay for his roads, but stay off them. He sneered at other municipalities' projects that didn't fit with his ideas -- the Clarington incinerator is a prime example. He was out front on environmental issues that eventually hurt rural people. What became a provincewide ban on many pesticides was only one.
The idea of Toronto as a city state levying its own taxes instead of contributing to the province appealed to him mightily -- even though we all now contribute to the city's transit, roads and infrastructure in a number of different ways.
So almost anyone who is not David Miller or one of his pet councillors would appeal to southern Ontarians -- which hurls deputy mayor Joe Pantalone out right away.
Then there's Rob Ford. Not a lot to like about him as far as an outsider can see.
A maverick, he doesn't display a lot of talent for consensus building. And although he talks a good game about integrated transit and sensible spending, I get the feeling he's just the other side of David Miller's worn-out broom and a bit of a loose cannon.
Former deputy premier George Smitherman hasn't had a lot to say so far on how he'd run the city. But he has a number of strikes against him before he opens his policy book.
He was health minister when the e-Health spending scandal occurred and didn't acknowledge responsibility by at least offering his resignation.
Second, he's a McGuinty Liberal and outside Toronto, Liberals are not that popular. Once Hydro One rate increases and the HST kick in, they'll be even less popular in or out of the city.
Which brings us to that breath of fresh air, Rocco Rossi -- someone most of us, along with most Torontonians, had never heard of until this year, but the candidate with the most to offer us all, if you ask me.
Sure, he's the former national director of the Liberal party, but he's clearly a fiscal conservative and a realist. Right from the start of his campaign, he made it clear he's passionate about Toronto and yet understands its place in the big picture -- that Toronto and its surroundings can't be separated.
We need Toronto and Toronto needs us. The rest of us would be welcome in Rossi's Toronto.
He understands that transportation of all kinds is important -- not just transit -- and he knows there needs to be an overall transit network, not just the TTC.
I don't think you'd catch Rossi sneering at other municipalities. He's an inclusive guy, a bit reminiscent of David Crombie, one of Toronto's best mayors.
He wants to fix everything from bike lanes to city finances and he doesn't have a grudge against the 'burbs. What's not to like?
Trouble is that with a long list of candidates on the ballot, there are umpteen different ways for the vote to split in October. So Rossi may be the best candidate, but his chances aren't all that good.
http://www.lfpress.com/comment/2010/05/14/13954381.html
