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2014 Municipal Election: Toronto Mayoral Race

Chow has never done anything herself, only ever rode others coat tails.

Ideas for election ---- Term Limits for Councillors
some research done on the viability of Toronto gaining some independence,
Toronto gets no respect from Ottawa yet many imigrants choose to come here and contribute to Canada
 
Tulse said:
Um, the what now? It wasn't the province that stalled and hemmed and hawed and flip-flopped back and forth -- it was the city.

Whatever the mess is regarding Scarborough transit, it's not the Province's fault.
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The LRT plan was in full force from early 2012 and Ford had zero power at City Hall. Then out of nowhere, the Province re-opened the subway debate.

Even before, Ford campaigned on the B-D subway extension and the Sheppard subway. The Province obviously did not want the B-D subway extension (or Sheppard) and that is why they agreed on the Eglinton/SRT Crosstown. If the Province ever thought that a B-D subway was a good solution, they should have proposed it at the beginning of 2011.
 
BurlOak said:
The LRT plan was in full force from early 2012 and Ford had zero power at City Hall. Then out of nowhere, the Province re-opened the subway debate.

Even before, Ford campaigned on the B-D subway extension and the Sheppard subway. The Province obviously did not want the B-D subway extension (or Sheppard) and that is why they agreed on the Eglinton/SRT Crosstown. If the Province ever thought that a B-D subway was a good solution, they should have proposed it at the beginning of 2011.
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Not true. One of the first things Ford did after getting elected was to declare Transit City dead. He had a strong mandate and city council gave him the benefit of the doubt because of it, and because the full extent of his crazy hadn't been outed yet. That is the root of all the LRT vs. Subway mess we're dealing with now, not the province.
 
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Ramako said:
If Chow's apparently lukewarm support of the DRL is merely to avoid being labelled as a tax and spender, I don't think that's any better. I want someone to raise taxes to pay for public goods like the DRL, and if she's willing to but doesn't want to admit it for political expediency, then she's just as much as liar as any of the other candidates. As I voter, I hate being patronized.
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Well said. Interestingly, we definitely know her lukewarm support isn't due to a lack of knowledge about the potential line. When she was taking questions she showed she isn't clueless on the DRL either, she mentioned issues such as alignment, how far it should go (I am assuming she means how far north and west) and even mentioned the 'using GO line' which to me shows she is as informed about the project as any of the other candidates.
 
ttk77 said:
Not true. One of the first things Ford did after getting elected was to declare Transit City dead. He had a strong mandate and city council gave him the benefit of the doubt because of it, and because the full extent of his crazy hadn't been outed yet. That is the root of all the LRT vs. Subway mess we're dealing with now, not the province.
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I think both of you have a point. Yes Ford was all about subways, but the Libs didn't help things either with all that 'subway champion' nonsense when Mitzie Hunter was running in the by-election.
 
Southcore said:
I think both of you have a point. Yes Ford was all about subways, but the Libs didn't help things either with all that 'subway champion' nonsense when Mitzie Hunter was running in the by-election.
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Except that that wouldn't have happened had Ford not re-opened the debate. Transit city had passed it's votes on council.
 
ttk77 said:
If she can't get her support numbers up she doesn't really stand to pass on much support to Tory even if she does end up dropping out to endorse him.
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She doesn't necessarily have to (although it would be a boost for Tory). All she has to do is be able to sling some well-timed mud at opponents, say, ooohhh, I dunno - let's pick one totally at random - Olivia Chow.
 
Tulse said:
I wonder if Chow's push for LRT and lukewarm response to DRL both spring from a desire to project fiscal responsibility. In both cases her objections seem to be that they cost a lot (in the case of the LRT, she said it is a cheaper alternative to a subway, and in the case of the DRL, she said she didn't want to raise taxes to fund it). In other words, I'm not sure that her soft position on the DRL stems from a sense that it isn't a priority, but rather that she doesn't want to be tagged as a tax-and-spender.

(It may also be difficult politically to reject the Scarborough subway extension while at the same time supporting the DRL, since the latter is erroneously seen as predominantly helping downtowners.)
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Correct on all counts.
 
SecretSquirrel said:
She doesn't necessarily have to (although it would be a boost for Tory). All she has to do is be able to sling some well-timed mud at opponents, say, ooohhh, I dunno - let's pick one totally at random - Olivia Chow.
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Not disagreeing, but any mudslinging on her part could end up being redundant considering Kouvalis is working for Tory.
 
ttk77 said:
Except that that wouldn't have happened had Ford not re-opened the debate. Transit city had passed it's votes on council.
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Ford did not open the debate, the people of Toronto opened the debate by electing Ford.

Why did the Liberals re-open the subway debate in the summer (or was it spring) of 2013 - was it based on a mandate from the people or were they just trying to save seats and money be damned?
 
BurlOak said:
Ford did not open the debate, the people of Toronto opened the debate by electing Ford.
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The two are one and the same. Ford's success largely came through tearing wide the rift between the burbs and downtown, and yes, transit policy was part of that. Still, I'm glad you see it wasn't the province who was responsible.

BurlOak said:
Why did the Liberals re-open the subway debate in the summer (or was it spring) of 2013 - was it based on a mandate from the people or were they just trying to save seats and money be damned?
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It was already blown wide open at this point. No dispute from me about it being about saving Liberal seats. The cons and NDP would have done the same.
 
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