[Whoaccio]

The Agenda had a panel on whether or not the City of Toronto should switch to a "strong mayor" system. Glen Murray mentioned that in it's current state city council was to fractured to build a subway system. Shades of the Shephard Line all over again.

Regardless, it seems like Toronto has really fallen behind the curve on relatively un-glamorous tasks like organizing an efficient administration or clear divisions of power. If the result is projects like Transit City where all 40 Councilors have to be in essence bribed just to get approval, we should seriously look into changing things.

http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/theagenda/index.cfm?page_id=7&bpn=779151&ts=2008-03-18 20:00:45.0

 

[lordmandeep]

I do like the idea.

We in Toronto dream about having mayors like New York Bloomberg or Chicago's mayor, but they literally rule like appointed dictators for 4 years.

My cousin in NY, said the mayor is like how in Roman times, the senate could appoint a console dictator and he could do whatever he wanted for 6 months.

I do wonder, Giving miller that kind of power would be dangerous.

 

[Glen]

What's next?

A strong Premier or a Strong Prime Minister?

 

[TrickyRicky]

^We already have those. Well, that is if they chose to exercise their near limitless powers.

I don't mind the strong mayor system but I think they should revert back to a 3 or even 2 year term.

 

[Glen]

^We already have those. Well, that is if they chose to exercise their near limitless powers.

The Premier gets only one vote at Queens Park and so does the PM in the HoC. They have no more or less voting power than any other member. What they do have is party influence. So does Miller

 

[lordmandeep]

however a majority ruling PM is literally a dictator for 4-5 years.

He can do whatever he pleases unless he does not want to be elected.

Also under the surface, the PM has a lot of power such as the war measure act..

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

The War Measures Act is no longer on the books, it was replaced by the Emergencies Act in 1988, a much less draconian piece of legislation.

 

[lordmandeep]

oh, no we wont see a repeat of the October Crisis then...

The differences are that (from wiki)
1. A declaration of an emergency by the Cabinet must be reviewed by Parliament
2. Any temporary laws made under the Act are subject to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

So the govt can pass it without Parliament but it must be reviewed by Parliament right away, I assume???

 

[ducati0000]

if we have a mayor that has the ba**s to crack down on crime and really clean up the city and not catered to the loud minority or special interest left wings groups Im all for it.

 

[MetroMan]

I just came across this site on the issue:

www.torontospeaks.org.

 

[Filip]

It would be amazing to get our version of Bloomberg, Giulliani or Daley. Bring on the strong mayor system!

 

[TOinTO]

The mayor should be empowered to effectively operate the executive branch of municipal government. With authority over the civil service and a cabinet that is allowed to debate policy in private. Just like the Premier or PM.

Council should operate as the legislative branch - reviewing and voting on policy developed by the executive.

I believe this is what is on the table. Unfortunately it gets muddied by suggestions that the mayor is asking for multiple votes on council.

I also think that a lot of people believe that this is how City Hall works. The Mayor gets blamed for every daft idea that comes out of the place even though a lot of them come from committees on which he doesn't sit.

 

[freshcutgrass]

The mayor should be empowered to effectively operate the executive branch of municipal government. With authority over the civil service and a cabinet that is allowed to debate policy in private. Just like the Premier or PM.

The big difference is that federal and provincial governments work under a constitutional monarchy system, which allows for concentrated powers.

A municipal government is just an arm's length division of the provincial government...so not really a "government" system of its own. As such, there is no "crown" in which to vest powers in to allow for an "effective" and "responsible" municipal government system with a concentration of powers.

Toronto does have a powerful leader...he/she just doesn't sit in City Hall...he/she sits in Queen's park. The mayor and the council just dicker about with whatever powers and responsibilities the province decides to give them.

The Mayor gets blamed for every daft idea that comes out of the place even though a lot of them come from committees on which he doesn't sit.

This is true...our municipal system in a way resembles the American republic system...where leaders are voted for on the basis of their platform...but have no power to perform their mandate, and when they can't complete that mandate because they don't have the power to...they can can just say.."hey, i tried, but it was thrown out by a majority vote against it".

This is not effective or responsible government. Give the politicians the power to do what they were elected for...if we don't like it...throw them out next election.