Big city mayors to meet in Toronto

[ganjavih]

Big city mayors to meet in Toronto

Last Updated Sat, 10 Jan 2004 10:59:53
TORONTO - Mayors from some of the biggest cities in the country are banding together to push Prime Minister Paul Martin for a new urban agenda.

Toronto Mayor David Miller invited the mayors of Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Regina and Halifax to Toronto for Jan. 22-23.

He believes most will attend the meetings in the week before the federal government's Feb. 2 throne speech.

Miller says he wants to make it impossible for the prime minister to backtrack on promises he has already made.

"I think it's much harder for the federal government to ignore the mayors of Canada's largest cities when they have the same message and the same agenda," said Miller.

The Toronto mayor says public transit, affordable housing and immigration are just a few of the common issues the cities are facing.

Myer Siemiatycki, urban politics professor at Ryerson University, says municipal governments are no longer competing with each other over issues of transit and housing.

"It's trying to pull together a united front of cities across the country in saying, on the basic issues of the future of Canadian cities, we stand together," said Siemiatycki.

Details of exactly what the mayors will ask of the federal government will be decided at the meeting.

Written by CBC News Online staff

 

[spmarshall]

Ah, Myer Siemiatycki. I managed to get this professor again this year. He is an amazing politics teacher.

Out of curiosity, does Miller speak French?

The old "Big 5" cities was too exclusive, and included Calgary, not Edmonton (which are almost the same size). I'm surprised that the "big 10" doesn't include Mississauga. After all, it is Canada's 8th largest city! :rollin Anyway, the scary part is that in 10 years, Brampton and Surrey will be up there in the top 10, with their rapidly growing populations, as I expect both to surpass Winnipeg and Quebec City.

 

[Chuck100]

The mayors of Mississauga, Brampton, Richmond Hill and Markham should go too. Vaughan...well it has its own agenda.

 

[building babel]

This is the way to go. We can't just rely on the Feds and the Province to give us a few top-down 'new deal' crumbs from the table...

A grassroots political movement is the most effective approach. Getting mayors of the cities together is part of it. The Board of Trade email initiative is another. Other approaches, involving as many ordinary people as possible, should be part of it.

We need to re-conceptualize this thing.

The union movement in the '20's and '30's, the black civil rights movement in the '50's and '60-'s, the women's movement in the '70's and '80's, the gay rights movement in the '80's and '90's. They were grassroots movements and very effective. We can learn from them.

 

[Are Be]

We can all hang together or we can all hang alone.