2014 Municipal Election: Toronto Mayoral Race

[SecretSquirrel]

Ugh. Blah. She wants to go back to a dead transit plan in Scarborough.

How did you feel about killing the fully-funded shovel-ready LRT? How do you feel about pouring taxes into a hole in the ground in Scarborough so that the folks can have their unnecessary subway that will drain the public purse evn further once it's up and running and can't pay for even a small fraction of its own operating costs?

The province has committed to the subway. The only way the LRT can come back is if the NDP wins big in the next provincial election which won't happen.

Oh really?

And from the sounds of it, she isn't going to push for the DRL to be the next major transit project.

Nope, I'm not buying this. Despite what Chow said, she is all for the DRL and all for raising the revenue to pay for it. She's defending herself against the current set of "Chow tax & spend" attacks.

It basically sounds like she wants to push the DRL back and on put all of Transit City back on. Thanks, but no thanks to Olivia Chow as mayor. Give me Karen Stintz or John Tory who actually want to get the DRL going and not go back to revisit the Scarborough transit debate.

Remember, Stintz knows how to pay for subways, or at least 2012 Stintz knows: raising taxes is the only way. So what's the difference?

 

[devjohnson]

At this point I don't know who I'm voting for: definitely not Ford or Stintz but Chow isn't a lock anymore for me (and I'd imagine many others as well). We still have a long way to go maybe she can clear things up.

+1

The lack of enthusiasm for the DRL really put her down a notch on my list. Still keeping an open mind, as said above she has a 'radical vision' for the city and it shows.

 

[maudlin]

I'm not thrilled with her lukewarm support for the DRL (note she's talking about concern for property taxes versus other "revenue tools" rather than rejecting it outright) but supporting the Scarborough LRT means that we won't waste city (and provincial, and federal) money on two extra subway stops. Theoretically, some of that money could be applied to other TTC improvements, including the DRL. Yes, it will take some politicking to get council in line and who knows what the hell could happen provincially, but it is likely at the very least that we get LRT funding from the province, as originally agreed.

Tory and Stintz "supporting" the DRL without committing to real ways to raise money is bullshit. They have proposed NO solid ways of covering the costs so far. NONE. Their "promises" are worthless without hard detail. Strintz's sell or lease Hydro plan is totally inadequate. That's not a plan: that's a scrawl.

If Chow is taking a step by step approach, we may still get the DRL. Chow is the only one not lying about costs. Now what she needs is a push to accept those costs. This might be one of those Rooseveltian "Now make me do it" moments.

 

[ttk77]

Nope, I'm not buying this. Despite what Chow said, she is all for the DRL and all for raising the revenue to pay for it. She's defending herself against the current set of "Chow tax & spend" attacks.

That's how I'm reading this too. She's going to have to be very careful to explain how she intends to fund items in her platform to mitigate some of the attacks she's going to face.

 

[JoeParez]

I'm not thrilled with her lukewarm support for the DRL..

Perhaps Chow is of the same mindset her late husband was on the DRL topic, in which he was vehemently against it saying that it would destroy the neighbourhoods it ran through and increase density in the core.

From UT:

The Downtown Relief Line was left with few friends as a group of downtown councillors, led by Jack Layton, opposed its construction on the grounds that it would bring more development to the downtown core. The City of Toronto’s own official plan opposed any new rapid transit lines in the city, “as part of a policy to send new development, and its associated congestion, out to the suburbs.†The DRL plan unsurprisingly went nowhere.

I'm pretty positive he helped champion the Sheppard Subway instead.

However, if Chow is leaning towards pumping subsidy into the TTC and improving surface transit, then it's something that I'll listen to because we all know that a few lines on a map isn't going to solve all the problems with the TTC. There is a severe operational problem that no politician cares to resolve and if it's going to be brought up by Chow, she has my ears.

 

[innsertnamehere]

The LRT was far from shovel ready. there was still 2 years of planning and design needed before construction. it was further ahead than the subway obviously, but it was still very far from handing out construction contracts.

 

[Southcore]

She's in a tough spot because if she out rights says 'I'm willing to raise taxes for transit projects' it plays right into the other candidates claims she's a tax and spend NDP'er. On the other hand, her LRT support plays into the Ford's 'the people in Scarborough deserve subways and we are the only one's building them' mantra.

The posters above are right too: selling of hydro or vague plans to pay for the DRL are problematic as well. The fact that all the candidates have been using the term 'fiscal conservative' is very telling, contrasting with the province saying we need revenue tools to pay for transit.

 

[ttk77]

I really don't like how this campaign has started out. By hiring Kouvalis, Tory shows he's willing to endorse the same slimeball tactics that Ford used in the last election. That makes him a slimeball in my books, just one that doesn't smoke crack. By lying about Chow's former living arrangements Stintz is showing she's no more honest than Ford. Just happens that this liar doesn't smoke crack. I hope that Chow and Soknaki can climb above the steaming pile of crap and offer up something worth voting for, otherwise this is going to be a very depressing 7-8 months.

 

[maudlin]

I'll be linking to Neville Park's brief explanation of co-op housing whenever possible. I don't know how many minds it will change, but it may help with some of the non-rabid fence sitters.

 

[Cooper]

A question for everyone: Do you think Karen Stintz's campaign is getting any traction? From where I sit, it looks like she's already stuck in the mud. Reader polls on Newstalk1010 and at the Sun yesterday had her support at less than 1%. Obviously, those polls are pretty worthless, but I found it interesting that her camp didn't even muster a few astroturfers to raise her number. Meanwhile, Karen's website — already a semi-literate bust —*seems to have vanished (at least, I can't find it anymore). And she's getting lambasted on Twitter. None of this proves anything, but circumstantially, it suggests to me Karen has failed to launch. I'm curious to hear other points of view.

 

[SecretSquirrel]

I really don't like how this campaign has started out. By hiring Kouvalis, Tory shows he's willing to endorse the same slimeball tactics that Ford used in the last election. That makes him a slimeball in my books, just one that doesn't smoke crack. By lying about Chow's former living arrangements Stintz is showing she's no more honest than Ford. Just happens that this liar doesn't smoke crack.

Hey - back in 2010 you probably didn't think Ford smoked crack, either. Let's not make baseless assumptions about Tory or Stintz until we can really see what's coming down the pipe.

Seriously though: wherever Kouvalis goes, the tears of widows and orphans follow. Having said that, I think he's good, but not great: sure, he rescued Ford 2010 from Doug-led oblivion, but he also happened to be in the right place at the right time to grab onto the unique and terrible opportunity which was Ford 2010. Quite apart from the slimeball factor, Tory is over-valuing Kouvalis' effectiveness, and that means Tory was double-dipping into his presumably large tub of bad judgement calls the day he hired Kouvalis.

 

[SJD_Toronto]

How did you feel about killing the fully-funded shovel-ready LRT? How do you feel about pouring taxes into a hole in the ground in Scarborough so that the folks can have their unnecessary subway that will drain the public purse evn further once it's up and running and can't pay for even a small fraction of its own operating costs?

There is no fully-funded shovel-ready LRT plan anymore. It's gone. That's what people don't realize. The subway plan has been fully endorsed by the municipal, provincial and federal governments. The Ontario Liberals have taken all money for the LRT plan and put it into a subway extension plan. Even Chow or Soknacki were to be mayor, the return of the Scarborough LRT plan will be DOA. All the provincial government has to do is say that there is no reopening the debate over LRT or subway in Scarborough. The subway plan did win in the end. Both Chow and Sokancki seem to think they can just easily bring back the LRT plan, but no, that isn't going to happen unless you have a provincial government who will put the cash back into the LRT plan. That leads me into my next point; It's more likely that we will end up with a minority Ontario government again which will either be Liberal or PC. If the recent polls suggest anything in the future, we will end up with the Grits in power again or possibly the Tories in a minority status. The NDP would have to completely knock out the Liberals in the upcoming election to win power and even if that happened, it's slim that they could end up in a majority status.

So, I would take someone like John Tory who does not want to go through the mess of reopening the Scarborough transit debate and who actually sees how important the Relief Line is and how we need to do whatever it takes to get it built before 2031 when the Yonge line is way too overcrowded. That is progressive to me. It does sound like Chow would push the Relief Line back to focus on LRTs across the city and that to me isn't the most important transit project at the moment.

 

[SecretSquirrel]

I'll be linking to Neville Park's brief explanation of co-op housing whenever possible. I don't know how many minds it will change, but it may help with some of the non-rabid fence sitters.

Too often, I find Neville Park to be unnecessarily abrasive when engaging on social media (is the "alienating allies" slogan a by-product or a proud goal?), but as a tweeter of Council proceedings, longer-form writer and researcher, I give much respect to NP.

Thanks for linking to this; I will be too.

 

[ttk77]

A question for everyone: Do you think Karen Stintz's campaign is getting any traction? From where I sit, it looks like she's already stuck in the mud. Reader polls on Newstalk1010 and at the Sun yesterday had her support at less than 1%. Obviously, those polls are pretty worthless, but I found it interesting that her camp didn't even muster a few astroturfers to raise her number. Meanwhile, Karen's website — already a semi-literate bust —*seems to have vanished (at least, I can't find it anymore). And she's getting lambasted on Twitter. None of this proves anything, but circumstantially, it suggests to me Karen has failed to launch. I'm curious to hear other points of view.

The informal poll at the Star (here) currently has her around 2.6%. Obviously not a great showing. Unless something drastic happens (ie: Ford drops out), I can't see her lasting through to the end.

 

[Southcore]

I wonder if Stintz will throw her support for Tory once she's out or just quietly now out and leave it at that.