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Next Mayor of Toronto?

kEiThZ said:
The strike ain't helping the total tab though. Whatever he concedes to these strikers is only going to end up adding to the tab.
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You are right. He might even blame the expense of a forced settlement plus increased welfare expenses for the increase. Giving him a scapegoat, even though a large increase was coming regardless.
 
Glen said:
You are right. He might even blame the expense of a forced settlement plus increased welfare expenses for the increase. Giving him a scapegoat, even though a large increase was coming regardless.
Click to expand...
IMO even a relatively poorly-informed voter will realize that much of the cost issues are as a result of his not significantly reigning in expenses prior to 2009.

And even if some voters don't know, I'm sure his rivals will repeatedly remind them come election time.
 
I really don't see how Miller is going to be hurt by the strike in the long-run. He's doing what many have complained about in the past, and playing hardball with the union (and surely letting them stew for a few weeks without any new offers was part of that ... until the union realised that the city wasn't going to run to the province after a fortnight and end up in arbitration, they had not reason to negotiate - as abritration was in their best interest).

So come the next election, presumbaly there will be a challenger somewhat further to the right. The union and left-wing support will still end up with Miller ... and at the same time, he'll have the benefit of playing hardball with the union.
 
Eug said:
IMO even a relatively poorly-informed voter will realize that much of the cost issues are as a result of his not significantly reigning in expenses prior to 2009.
Click to expand...

Where was this insight when Miller got elected? On the one hand he led the public to believe that he would hold tax increases to the rate of inflation. On the other he promised lots of new spending.
 
Glen said:
Where was this insight when Miller got elected? On the one hand he led the public to believe that he would hold tax increases to the rate of inflation. On the other he promised lots of new spending.
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To be fair, since McGuinty bankrolled him, he has been somewhat able to meet those promises. The concern here is what happens when the province gets fed up will Miller running up the tab and expecting the province to pay it. There aren't enough reserve funds and light poles in this city to pay for next year's deficit. And it'll be much harder to make the "Toronto is an exception." argument when communities throughout the province will be facing shortfalls and cutting back.
 
I wonder if they were passing out campaign buttons?

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/665968

'Citizen' Smitherman leads garbage cleanup

Deputy premier denies interfering in strike, says he and others are demonstrating pride in Toronto

George Smitherman is usually called deputy premier of Ontario, but today he insisted he was simply Citizen Smitherman as he and about 30 residents patrolled the streets of his riding picking up trash that's piled up because of the civic workers' strike.

Smitherman insisted his morning's work wasn't intended as an intervention in the strike that has seen debris pile up on the streets for more than three weeks.

"It's about expressing our pride as citizens in this city we love very much," Smitherman said of the clean-up,carried out in conection with an organization called OneToronto, which styles itself as a "grassroots group of local residents."

"I am a representative of the people of Toronto Centre and I'm an MPP. There's no intervention here (in the strike) except the intervention of citizens demonstrating their pride in their city."

Smitherman insisted that the morning cleanup wasn't intended to be part of talks to end the strike between the city and two locals of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

"There's obviously people focussed on a labour negeotiation and that's their responsibility," he said."We're not part of that."

"We're taking one side and one side only — the side of clean streets in our city," he said.

"You have to recognize that citizens cannot be told that public spaces are not the domain . . . like me and these folks, who want to do a little bit to make a difference.

"We know the stakes are high, and people are negotiating. But here as citizens we express our desire in making sure that public spaces that we enjoy and that we live in are kept in an appropriate level."

Smitherman said he's trying to encourage morecitizens' groupsto make a big push to clean up the city this Saturday.
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The office of Mayor of Toronto is pocket change for Smitherman. He'll become Premier once Dalton has had his share and there's the potential for 24 Sussex Dr. once Smitherman retires from Provincial politics.
 
Then he'll become the first president of the new global government?
 
Good for Smitherman!

Don't know if anyone else has noticed, but some streets actually look cleaner today than a week or two ago.

I live in King-Spadina, and on more than a few occasions people from some of the local businesses have been out cleaning the sidewalks on King Street.
 
I saw a bumper sticker today on someone's Benz that said "Save Toronto" with Miller crossed out. I can't remember the address for the site they had on it.
 
Hydrogen said:
Good for Smitherman!

Don't know if anyone else has noticed, but some streets actually look cleaner today than a week or two ago.

I live in King-Spadina, and on more than a few occasions people from some of the local businesses have been out cleaning the sidewalks on King Street.
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George Smitherman squashes rumours

Jul 18, 2009 04:30 AM
Robert Benzie
John Spears

George Smitherman insists the cleanup is about civic pride, not city politics.

The deputy premier will lead another crusade today to pick up garbage in the strikebound city by hitting at least five "hot spots" where litter is piling.

The Toronto Centre MPP, long touted as the strongest possible challenger to Mayor David Miller in next year's civic election, insisted he has no plans to run municipally.

"I've said no to that every way that I thought was sensible to do so," said Smitherman, bemused that his OneToronto cleanup campaign, begun this week, has revived rumours he will make a mayoral bid.

But Councillor Joe Mihevc, a Miller ally, sees it differently. "I think this is clearly an early indication of George's intention to run for mayor," Mihevc told the Star.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/668279
 
The term fiscal-conservative is a farce. Look at the Conservatives in Ottawa, running this country into the biggest debt hole yet - or take the example of the Republicans in the US, they too billed/bill themselves as fiscally conservative and yet have managed to outspend the Democrats 10x over. I refuse to believe in this conservative propagated bullshit. While I am not a huge Miller fan, I would rather him than Jane Pitbull-field, or any other of Mike Harris' cronies - wankers like Hudak.

p5
 
p5connex said:
The term fiscal-conservative is a farce. Look at the Conservatives in Ottawa, running this country into the biggest debt hole yet - or take the example of the Republicans in the US, they too billed/bill themselves as fiscally conservative and yet have managed to outspend the Democrats 10x over. I refuse to believe in this conservative propagated bullshit. While I am not a huge Miller fan, I would rather him than Jane Pitbull-field, or any other of Mike Harris' cronies - wankers like Hudak.

p5
Click to expand...

In case you haven't noticed Hudak isn't running to be mayor of Toronto. And that 'Pitbull-field' character pledged a sensible transit plan that would not have resulted in squandering the transit opportunity of a lifetime on increasing transit speed in non-priority corridors by 5-10 kph.

And when it comes to the municipal level, there's hardly any balance at all. Council has leaned left pretty much since Lastman left. And what have we gotten for that? Deteriorating services, tax increases, and unions that now use strikes to get to arbitration instead of bargaining.

Contrary to popular belief, fiscal responsibility should not just be about lower taxes. It should be about more effective use of spending, even if that means spending on social programs. What a lot of us so-called fiscal conservatives are asking for at the municipal level are practices that are already done at the federal and provincial levels by governments of every stripe. Privatization where it makes sense, and the proper deployment of funds with sound studies to back them. This means that we don't pay trash collectors 25 bucks an hour to do half the work of his non-union counterpart earning 17 bucks an hour. It means that they city does not deploy precious transit dollars based on 'social need', but actually takes ridership into account. It means that the politicians don't vote themselves a pay raise while telling the unions to hold the line. And it means not hiring an extra 1000 unionized workers while the city is in the midst of its most severe financial crunch in a decade...which it reached after getting tax powers that significantly increased its revenue, and are not available to other municipalities.

You are right that most so-called fiscal conservatives have failed in their mission to keep the finances in the black. However, that's largely because they weren't really all that fiscally conservative to begin with. They simply used that mantra to get elected. In the case of US Republicans, it's absolutely egregious. However, that does not mean that the left at the municipal level should be given carte-blanche to run the show simply because so-called conservatives at much higher levels of government weren't as so successful as they set out to be....and it should be noted that higher levels of government have different revenue streams that can significantly vary revenue causing large deficits in a recession. Municipalities don't face such challenges. So what's Miller's excuse?

And since you are so opposed to fiscal conservatism, care to suggest any ideas for how the books can be balanced next year, particularly if the province decides that after giving Toronto additional revenue generation powers, it really doesn't want to top up Toronto's begging bowl annually any more?
 
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