In a marathon session, council gives Rob Ford everything he wants
Despite some early bets that the mayor wouldn’t get everything he wanted out of council, Rob Ford has so far gotten everything he wanted and then some. Car tax? Gone. TTC strikes? Gone (pending provincial action). Councillor office budgets? Slashed. And in not a single case was the vote particularly close—the votes were 39-6, 28-17 and 40-5, respectively. In order to clear the decks in one sitting, council ran for 12 hours almost uninterrupted, sitting until after 9 p.m. last night.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, was just the first meeting of the new Ford order (Forder?).
There was much talk throughout the sitting of how, this early in his mandate, the mayor should to be given some leeway to meet his election promises. This could sometimes go too far, like when Michael Thompson made us sad by repeating the zombie “fact” that Ford won “more votes than any Canadian politician in history,” something that has the twin faults of being over-the-top and untrue.
There are some troubling signs of the way the mayor runs his shop: any and all questions about the costs of the elimination of the car tax were simply waved away by the mayor as something that would be dealt with at budget time. So could council consider the tax cut at the regular budget time instead? No. And when Janet Davis tried to move just that it went down 29-10. What happens if and when council has to approve changes to the TTC that are likely to be very, very expensive? Will cost questions be waved off then, too?
One last note—a councillor we paid some special attention to yesterday was Mary-Margaret McMahon, who replaced Sandra Bussin representing Ward 32. Despite representing a ward that voted overwhelmingly against the Mayor (2:1 for either George Smitherman or Joe Pantalone), McMahon voted with the mayor on every single important matter, including shooting down motions that would have simply slowed down the Ford steamroller. Wonder what her constituents think of the rush to dump Bussin now?
• Agenda and Minutes of City Council, December 16 2010 [Toronto.ca]
. Councillor office budgets? Slashed. And in not a single case was the vote particularly close—the votes were 39-6, 28-17 and 40-5, respectively. In order to clear the decks in one sitting, council ran for 12 hours almost uninterrupted, sitting until after 9 p.m. last night.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, was just the first meeting of the new Ford order (Forder?).
There was much talk throughout the sitting of how, this early in his mandate, the mayor should to be given some leeway to meet his election promises. This could sometimes go too far, like when Michael Thompson made us sad by repeating the zombie “fact” that Ford won “more votes than any Canadian politician in history,” something that has the twin faults of being over-the-top and untrue.
There are some troubling signs of the way the mayor runs his shop: any and all questions about the costs of the elimination of the car tax were simply waved away by the mayor as something that would be dealt with at budget time. So could council consider the tax cut at the regular budget time instead? No. And when Janet Davis tried to move just that it went down 29-10. What happens if and when council has to approve changes to the TTC that are likely to be very, very expensive? Will cost questions be waved off then, too?
One last note—a councillor we paid some special attention to yesterday was Mary-Margaret McMahon, who replaced Sandra Bussin representing Ward 32. Despite representing a ward that voted overwhelmingly against the Mayor (2:1 for either George Smitherman or Joe Pantalone), McMahon voted with the mayor on every single important matter, including shooting down motions that would have simply slowed down the Ford steamroller. Wonder what her constituents think of the rush to dump Bussin now?
• Agenda and Minutes of City Council, December 16 2010 [Toronto.ca]){kind=link}
What’s that popping sound I hear… oh that’s right, left wing heads exploding in Toronto :) Well done Mayor Ford, you have got more done for the citizens of Toronto in one sitting that Millertime managed in his entire term!
Get used to it buddy. This is the tough medicine that’s needed to clean up the rot infesting City Hall, and I’m loving every bit of it!!
Sandra Bussin was a David Miller-lacky…and it’s clear that they didn’t want more of the same and Joe Pantalone’s low support in that riding shows it. Otherwise, I don’t see why it would be unreasonable that Mary-Margaret McMahon supported the mayor’s proposals since a) the car tax doesn’t really affect her consituents that much one way or another, b) she’d be a fool to vote against slashing office budgets due to the anti-Miller sentiment in her riding and c) the TTC as an essential service would ensure that her consituents (most of whom rely so much on the TTC) never go without public transit.
It probably won’t be this easy for Ford going forward, but perhaps it’s a sign that the left wing newspapers and reporters who forecasted certain doom for Ford and his agenda…know nothing at all.
Ok, so the easy stuff is out of the way. Now what?
Sandra Bussin received 25% of the vote. Mary M got over 70%. That’s a strong mandate for change.
Bussin lost huge for a host of reasons. Mostly arrogance when you boil it all down. Tuggs untendeder contract. Sandra from Toronto on the John Tory Show. Using her office budget to rent Bunny Costumes. Tring to prevent a disabled woman from building a new home that would be will chair friendly…just to name a few reasons we’re thrilled that the Wicked Witch is gone. Sing it with me “Ding Dong the witch is…”
Many Beachers own two cars…that’s a savings of over $120 already with the car tax gone. Money that can be spent supporting local restaurants (your advertsers)instead.
As for the TTC, those of us who can’t afford cars can (if the Provincial Liberals comply with the city’s request) count on service to get to work (so we can afford to patronize your advertisers businesses.
We should be very careful to make sure that the legitimate gravy train stuff (small scale, but hey, important symbolically) does not get mixed in with policy matters that are very important and require careful consideration to avoid making huge, regrettable mistakes (like absolutely anything Ford utters regarding the TTC. The man is simply not educated on how transit systems really are planned, built and operated. Which by the way has nothing to do with ideology — I’m a conservative myself).
Meanwhile, congrats to Ford on his first legislative actions. A brisk breeze of reform is never a bad thing – only when it turns into a city-wrecking tornado.
Well done Rob. This is what Toronto desperately needed. Keep it going…
All my friends are thrilled to see Bussin gone. MMM is a breath of fresh air…upbeat, energetic, positive, a genuinely decent human being.
Have your restaurant reviewers been to the Boardwalk Cafe recently? Bussin said it was a “star operator” for the city. Really? How many stars does Toronto Life give to this embarrassment on the boardwalk?
Making the TTC an essential service was dumb ‘ and so is contracting out and putting people out of jobs but I know the knobs that voted this cretin in are figuring their taxes are going to go down and even think they will not have an increase lol .
Any GOOF can do what he has done and plans to do , nothing in the way of creating more revenues , nope , ram it up the working stiffs ass as typical conservatives like to do and blame same for all the city financial problems brought on by Mike Harris another conservative hack.
Toronto paying the lowest taxes that do not reflect the realities of the cities needs.