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Mayor Olivia Chow's Toronto

oops!

City’s largest workers union votes in favour of strike mandate​

On Tuesday, CUPE 79, the union that represents 30,000 city workers, said more than 90 per cent of its members voted in favour of a strike.


CUPE scuppering an NDP mayor again at this point in history would be an “interesting” look!
 
Olivia for the longest while has been going off her association with Jack and name recognition. She is an old school NDP stalwart that in my opinion does not remain in touch with the current reality of things.

Please present actual policies you disagree with and evidence as to why they are somehow dated or out of touch.

I don't agree with your take here at all.

Her current policies are from the pre-2012 era of the NDP where grassroots socialism ruled the day. What she does not realize is that people don't want higher taxes because the cost of living in Toronto is already high.

Again, I disagree and would like to see your evidence.

I think that Unions are waking up to the NDP and realizing that they no longer support them. They are supporting other parties which will enhance their members quality of life overall, not just say they will fight for them if and when they can get into a position of power.

I have been a member of the NDP since I was 18 (2006) and more recently I have noticed that the party has lost its way. They have not been the party of hope and optimism since Jack was alive and quite honestly, I would have been proud to call Jack Layton the PM.

Unfortunately, when Andrea Horwath and Tom Mulcair became leader everything changed. They went from a party who fought for Canadians to the party who kept attacking everyone else.

It has got to the point where I am actually planning to vote liberal in the next elections.

Really, Richard your anti-NDP animus which you've shown and written about multiple times over the years is a bit over-the-top. We all get it, you hate the NDP pathologically. That's fine.......I suppose. But its really hard to take, because you seem to let it permeate and colour your view of everything.
 
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I think most people who would consider voting for the NDP in Toronto recognize that Toronto's property taxes are lower than other municipalities in Ontario, whether you measure either my the rate or the absolute amount paid. Obviously nobody loves paying more taxes, but I don't think most people in that group object to Chow's tax increases as long as they see city services improving from where they were a few years ago.
 
Quite frankly, I am not going to apologize for any of what I said and I stand by it.

Ask anyone in Toronto if they want higher taxes to support the homeless or increase spending to social programs and see what they say. I doubt you will find many people agreeing with it when they are already finding it hard to make ends meet in many cases.

You'll find lots of people here at UT who disagree with you, the majority in fact. But I can tell you that looking at many neighbourhood FB groups there's a lot of strong support for this tax hike, and for the expanded library hours, swimming pool hours and better transit service it will fund.

Also worth notiing here is that tax hikes for this year are as large or larger in many of the Cities and Regions surrounding Toronto, where there is no 'NDP mayor or chair'.

What people want is affordability, not higher taxes and people who hide between deferrals and studies without actually doing anything. Olivia does not see that, what she sees is a need to help the homeless and increase spending on social programs.

You keep making statements without evidence. I want polling data or something else of substance. What I see with these comments of yours is "I, Richard have declared that my personal opinions are widely held by almost everyone"

You are entitled to your own preferences, but not to suggest they are widely held by others without at least some substantiation.
 
Quite frankly, I am not going to apologize for any of what I said and I stand by it.

Ask anyone in Toronto if they want higher taxes to support the homeless or increase spending to social programs and see what they say. I doubt you will find many people agreeing with it when they are already finding it hard to make ends meet in many cases.

What people want is affordability, not higher taxes and people who hide between deferrals and studies without actually doing anything. Olivia does not see that, what she sees is a need to help the homeless and increase spending on social programs.

Increased social spending have long been pillars of NDP platforms. Take Bob Rae who increased social assistance, child care payments and housing. Tommy Douglas came up with universal healthcare. Jack Layton was the only one who truly fought for Canadians other than Tommy Douglas.

I am done having this discussion.
@Admiral Beez for one has stated many times he'd support higher taxes if it gets people off the streets.
 
Ask anyone in Toronto if they want higher taxes to support the homeless or increase spending to social programs and see what they say. I doubt you will find many people agreeing with it when they are already finding it hard to make ends meet in many cases.
I support raising municipal taxes and broadly support what Mayor Chow has been able to accomplish thus far.

I don't see CUPE voting in favour of strike as some sort of failing on the Mayor's office. Their ability to strike shows that we still live in an operable democracy where these things will be sorted out either through negotiation or arbitration, or however else they are able.
 
@Admiral Beez for one has stated many times he'd support higher taxes if it gets people off the streets.
For what it is worth, I would join the Admiral, at least on this. All cities have problems (made worse by the disruptions of covid), ours were made worse by (non-NDP) Mayors who refused to raise taxes. I was bit doubtful about Olivia when she first ran but she has be quite 'brave' to do what I and many think is the "right thing'. Even the new tax rate is, compared to many places, quite reasonable - particularly when one takes into account that we are trying to 'catch-up'.
 
Quite frankly, I am not going to apologize for any of what I said and I stand by it.

Ask anyone in Toronto if they want higher taxes to support the homeless or increase spending to social programs and see what they say. I doubt you will find many people agreeing with it when they are already finding it hard to make ends meet in many cases.

What people want is affordability, not higher taxes and people who hide between deferrals and studies without actually doing anything. Olivia does not see that, what she sees is a need to help the homeless and increase spending on social programs.

Increased social spending have long been pillars of NDP platforms. Take Bob Rae who increased social assistance, child care payments and housing. Tommy Douglas came up with universal healthcare. Jack Layton was the only one who truly fought for Canadians other than Tommy Douglas.

I am done having this discussion.
For someone managing a building in River City, you sure seem out of touch with your residents.

I can say residents in RC 1 and 2 have been writing the city asking for more to be done for the homeless, specifically those in the encampment under Queen Street. Even more pressing given that the security guard at RC1 was attacked this week by someone from this encampment. General consensus amongst RC1 and RC2 is the city absolutely should be doing more.

There’s also been support from the community for the city to do more in other areas where encampments have popped up, including Corktown Common and Sackville Park. I know residents at RC3 have brought this up to the city as well, and the city has been quick to find housing for these people, to their credit.

I’ll add to the chorus here and say I support higher property taxes to provide more services and homes for the homeless, and in general. I want a city that works for everyone. Seeing that Toronto’s proposed increase is in line with other GTA cities just proves that the mayor is taking the correct approach here. No need to start a race to the bottom again. That’s what got us into this mess to begin with.
 
For someone managing a building in River City, you sure seem out of touch with your residents.

I can say residents in RC 1 and 2 have been writing the city asking for more to be done for the homeless, specifically those in the encampment under Queen Street. Even more pressing given that the security guard at RC1 was attacked this week by someone from this encampment. General consensus amongst RC1 and RC2 is the city absolutely should be doing more.

There’s also been support from the community for the city to do more in other areas where encampments have popped up, including Corktown Common and Sackville Park. I know residents at RC3 have brought this up to the city as well, and the city has been quick to find housing for these people, to their credit.

I’ll add to the chorus here and say I support higher property taxes to provide more services and homes for the homeless, and in general. I want a city that works for everyone. Seeing that Toronto’s proposed increase is in line with other GTA cities just proves that the mayor is taking the correct approach here. No need to start a race to the bottom again. That’s what got us into this mess to begin with.
I think people misunderstand what it means to "ask for more to be done" about the homeless.

In general, they simply want them gone, and it always happens the same way whether it be Clarence Square, Trinity, or Allan Gardens, Its always the same, start with a bit of sympathy, give them time, then through incidents as you noted, causes residents to start asking the city to do something about it, when the city takes too long they then start saying "enough is enough go away".

That is where we are at. Especially now that some municipalities seem intent on using Fords new powers to skip to the end.
 
I think people misunderstand what it means to "ask for more to be done" about the homeless.

In general, they simply want them gone, and it always happens the same way whether it be Clarence Square, Trinity, or Allan Gardens, Its always the same, start with a bit of sympathy, give them time, then through incidents as you noted, causes residents to start asking the city to do something about it, when the city takes too long they then start saying "enough is enough go away".

That is where we are at. Especially now that some municipalities seem intent on using Fords new powers to skip to the end.
In our case, it’s been more empathetic than simply ‘make them go away’. We already see that they just come back when when police take action.

It’s easy for people who don’t live next to it to think that simply ‘make it go away’ works when they aren’t around to see them just come back days later. It doesn’t work.
 
Ferry service to Ward’s Island is currently out of service Sunday due to ice buildup, the city said.
The fire boat used to create a pathway for the ferry during icy conditions is currently down for maintenance, the city said in a news release, adding people can access the Toronto Islands via bus service from Billy Bishop Airport, which has a pedestrian tunnel to the mainland.
“Unfortunately, the ferry cannot run due to ice build up in the harbour,” the city said.

SEE: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/fe...cle_3019cfa4-dc06-11ef-87d0-2f0b7a9ec2fb.html
 
adding people can access the Toronto Islands via bus service from Billy Bishop Airport, which has a pedestrian tunnel to the mainland

Since when has that been possible?
 
Since when has that been possible?
When there is no ferry service for reasons like ice, people going to/from the island can use the BB tunnel to get to the island airport and they run a bus through the airport to Wards Island - doubtless controlled by the air traffic controllers while it goes across the runways. It is always 'possible' but only permitted when there is a 'no boats' emergency.
 
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