Preville on Politics

Green whine

Posted on June 26, 2007 by Philip Preville

image for Green whine

Council’s executive committee yesterday approved Mayor David Miller’s climate-change plan. But despite the unanimous vote, a few of the suburban councillors in attendance—led by Etobicoke Centre’s Gloria Lindsay Luby—were visibly nervous about the proposal to ban gas-powered two-stroke engines, i.e. lawn mowers and leaf blowers, by 2010. They are clearly worried about votes. And they ought to be. You can make fast enemies of people by outlawing their garden tools.

The tone on the part of the dissenters was decisively indecisive, which is to say whiny. They weren’t willing to argue their opposition on principle. They did not point out, for example, how foolish it is for one city to outlaw machines that have been in widespread use across the continent for decades, as though it were in council’s power to turn back the clock on human invention. They merely wondered whether people would be compensated if they had to go out and buy a new electric lawnmower and if 2010 wasn’t a bit too soon to implement a full ban. It was all very tepid. I expect a bigger show from the opposition councillors. I can already see the American Gothic parodies with Mayor Miller holding a leaf rake in front of city hall, or the Welcome to Toronto posters with the list of outlawed home-convenience appliances. And I hope the ban’s proponents respond in kind, with lots of propaganda about noise levels and emissions, which I would wager are at least as hazardous as second-hand cigarette smoke.

I support the ban on leaf-blowers, by the way, but that’s easy for me to say since I, like many old-city-of-Toronto-dwelling-owners-of-small-semidetached-homes-with-tiny-yards, have no need of one. I think rakes are great machines, and I think a return to leaf-raking over leaf-blowing will provide lots of weekend penny-ante work for neighbourhood teenagers, which is one of the reasons rakes were invented. Lawnmowers I hadn’t considered banning (and again I have no need of one personally) but if we all had to switch over to electric lawnmowers I suppose that might be okay, provided we don’t have to burn more coal to get the electricity.

Comments

Neither the author nor Toronto Life necessarily agree with the comments posted below. Editors will not correct spelling or grammar. Toronto Life reserves the right to edit or delete comments entirely. Read our full policy

Mark Dowling June 27, 2007 at 2:34 p.m.

Like you I don't think leaf blowers are appropriate but I don't mind the right wing losing the battle on them - they've got a war to win on land transfer tax.

Rational Policies July 10, 2007 at 6:41 p.m.

Doesn`t matter for the old city, comepletely idiotic for everywhere else. But then that`s true for every single environmental rule that council ever passes.

Susan July 14, 2007 at 7:25 p.m.

I was so pleased to read your complaint about leaf blowers. I live in Los Angeles in a nice Spanish duplex. Almost every single day I hear these annoyingly loud leaf blowers and it jangles my nerves soooo much I can't even begin to tell you. It's either our building or the buildings surrounding the area and believe me, even when I hear it in the distance, it's so high pitched I get agitated then. I wanted to go for a walk on a break from work and give my parents a call while walking and all the way down the block and around the neighborhood they we're blowing leaves!!! I even watched one of the guys try and get one leaf off the property chasing it down the driveway!!! It also releases dangerous pollutants into the air and I can smell the noxious fumes from the gasoline. I remember back in the day there were such things as a rake and a broo. What can we do??
Please refer me to a website or let me know what progress has been made on this issue, it must stop!!!

COXDEHBB4 July 18, 2007 at 10:48 a.m.

Hello. <a href="http://www.tCOXDEHBB2.com"> COXDEHBB5 </a> [url=http://www.tCOXDEHBB3.com] COXDEHBB6 [/url] Thanks


Author Bio Pic

Philip Preville

Veteran freelance writer Philip Preville lived much of his life in Montreal and Edmonton before he was lured, like so many Torontonians before him, by the promise of more work and a better living. A National Magazine Award winner and former Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, Preville writes Toronto Life’s politics column. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in Riverdale, just close enough to the Don Valley Parkway that he can hear it when he steps outside his house—but just far enough away that it doesn’t keep him awake at night. On his office wall hangs a 1938–39 press pass belonging to his grandfather, Elias Gannon, who wrote for the Montreal Star.


Preville on Politics RSS Feed