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Rob Ford's Toronto

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adma said:
Or else, it would lead to 45 rather than 44 wards, given that the Toronto half of the shared riding is pretty precisely "half". But it's all moot anyway, given that we're on the cusp of yet another redistribution come next federal election...
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Is there any desire to maintain an odd number of seats on council (44 + mayor), so that an exact 50/50 split in a vote isn't possible? Or is that just coincidence?
 
Well, I guess this was inevitable. Ford going cap-in-hand to Queen's Park for a bailout:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...nd-talks-with-dalton-mcguinty/article2131453/

So let me, as they say, get this straight. After doing away with one revenue source and freezing another, the mayor is going to ask for money from a guy whose re-election he's campaigning against. Oh, and it just so happens that any such money would help the mayor squirm out of the inevitable consequences of an absurd platform promising preserved services and lower taxes that's virtually identical to what the guy he is supporting in the provincial election has proposed. And the scope of those consequences would, in the absence of a bailout, hit the country's largest media market pretty much on the eve of the provincial vote.

I'm all for getting the province to pay its fair share, but this is a joke.
 
If I were McGuinty, I'd tell Ford to come back once he's re-instated the vehicle registration tax and raised property taxes. After all, those are sources of revenue over which Ford has total control.
 
Surely McGuinty only stands to gain support across the rest of province if he tells Toronto to piss off.

It's not like Hudak is going to campaign provincially on a platform of elect me, and I'll give more money to Toronto to subsidize their lower tax rates.
 
I would like to ask every Toronto Councillor if they support transit expansion if they receive no help from the Province for the operating budget
 
Just a few months ago, Doug Ford was wailing about "taxes are taxes" regardless of what level of governement imposes them. He said, no way are we going to ask the province for money. How soon they forget their lies. Let's hope McGuinty say no.
 
The city's in a terrible position to ask the province for anything: we recently killed a revenue stream with the vehicle registration tax; Toronto residents pay a very low amount of property tax relative to neighbouring municipalities; and just last month we rejected provincial money in the form of public health nurses.

Why the hell should McGuinty even give us the time of day?
 
Nurse battle redux? Province offers Toronto three more

The province has made another offer of free fully-funded public health nurses, plus some cash, this time to help the City fight bedbugs. The last offer of free public health nurses was rejected on he grounds that the province could not be trusted to maintain the funding for the nurses.

Coincidentally, tomorrow Mayor Ford is meeting with Premier McGuinty to ask for money that Ford has repeatedly claimed is not needed.

If the cognitive dissonance has not given you a headache, check out Adrienne Batra's response after the Star asked whether Mayor Ford would also reject this latest offer of free public health nurses. She said, "We do not talk to the Toronto Star."

As far as I can tell, this is the first time the Mayor's office has explicitly admitted that this policy exists. In February, the Toronto Press Gallery warned the Mayor's office about an apparent policy of leaving the Star off the mayor's distribution lists. The Press Gallery described this practice as "an abuse of process."

Will the Press Gallery take action now that the Mayor's office has admitted that it will not answer questions posed on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of Toronto Star readers?
 
GraphicMatt said:
The city's in a terrible position to ask the province for anything: we recently killed a revenue stream with the vehicle registration tax; Toronto residents pay a very low amount of property tax relative to neighbouring municipalities; and just last month we rejected provincial money in the form of public health nurses.

Why the hell should McGuinty even give us the time of day?
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I think McGuinty might be willing to hand out money to Toronto and the GTA area to secure GTA votes. It would also help his campaign dramatically, with the right angle. Hudak's municipal counterpart getting a bailout due in part to their idiotic policies could be golden.
 
So the three stooges won't speak to the Star. I'm not surprised, but this is won't help them in any case. The Star is still the paper with the highest circulation in Canada and remains quite influential, perhaps because, not just despite the fact, it is the only major non-Conservative daily in English-speaking Canada.

It just looks petty and spiteful. Plenty of other councillors, even those on the right (the sane ones, at least) will fill the void.
 
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Marko said:
In terms of who gets what - naturally some of the suburban areas have bus routes and such that are no doubt subsidized. Thing is, transit like subways and streetcars are also subsidized and maintaining tracks, overhead wires and tunnels is something no bus route needs, but I do think only someone with knowledge of the financial workings of the TTC could clarify.
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Can you can tell us where rapid transit expansion has been post-1970? Can you tell us what the biggest money loser is?
 
syn said:
I think McGuinty might be willing to hand out money to Toronto and the GTA area to secure GTA votes. It would also help his campaign dramatically, with the right angle. Hudak's municipal counterpart getting a bailout due in part to their idiotic policies could be golden.
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Eh, funds for capital projects are more likely as election promises as opposed to further uploading for Toronto's operating budget. I'd be surprised, especially given that the Ford Family will absolutely be campaigning agains the Liberal party next month.
 
GraphicMatt said:
Eh, funds for capital projects are more likely as election promises as opposed to further uploading for Toronto's operating budget. I'd be surprised, especially given that the Ford Family will absolutely be campaigning agains the Liberal party next month.
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True. I guess Ford couldn't campaign for the Conservatives by claiming the Liberals wouldn't help Toronto either...he's the one who campaigned on the premise the city didnt' need their help.

Then again Ford continually lies and contradicts himself yet still has support so who knows what will happen.
 
What I think McGuinty should do with Ford:

Step 1: Offer him 1/4 of the money he's asking for.
Step 2: Attach a condition to the money that a laundry list of services will not be cut in order to balance the budget (libraries, parks and rec, etc).
Step 3: Watch Ford turn even more beet red than he is now.

With this one of two things will happen, either:
a) Ford will say no and then McGuinty can say "look Toronto, I tried, your mayor is an idiot"
b) Ford will accept, and Toronto will be spared some of their budget crunch, and McGuinty can say "I helped Toronto and I ensured that key services that Torontonians rely on won't be cut"

Either way, it's a win for McGuinty. It would be pretty hard for Ford or Hudak to spin that as a win for them.
 
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