Toronto Free Press, Toronto Politics
We’re baack!
By Judi McLeod
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Like most everybody else, Toronto Free Press (TFP) snoozed through the municipal election campaign.
Having observed civic elections over an 18-year period, TFP knew that there would be few, if any changes in the outcome of the 2006 race. Plagued by voter apathy, civic elections draw the lowest percentage of voter turnout of any level of government. For those seeking significant change and a more business-like city council, municipal elections are a heartbreaker. Municipal elections almost always return incumbents like Councillors Howard Moscoe and Joe Mihevc to Toronto City Hall. The only changes occur in wards left empty by incumbents for one reason or another.
Even though the Toronto Star’s Royson James had valiantly tried to breathe life into it, the 2006 election campaign was a yawn.
Today TFP returns to Toronto City Hall as torontofreepress.com.
Torontofreepress.com editors Judi McLeod and Arthur Weinreb are convinced that the Municipal Elections Act must be changed to allow new faces and fresh ideas at Toronto’s City Hall.
With the help of hundreds of candidates who lost out to incumbents over the years, and with four long years to work on it, we are confident those changes can be made.
The first words from Mayor David Miller after what the Toronto Star described as his “crushing victory” over opponent Coun. Jane Pitfield came in the form of a demand of a $450-million share of sales tax for Toronto.
Miller sang the same old tired tune during his first term in office.
In addition to its crime, garbage and gridlock problems, the City of Toronto is strapped for cash.
Toronto which has a whopping $7.6-billion budget is going into its annual budget deliberations early next year at least $500-million in the hole.
David Miller’s alibi?
It’s the feds and province’s fault, as they should give the free-spending city more money.
Miller’s “crushing victory” at the polls happened because there was little in the way of competition.
His closest challenger, who lost by an almost 2-1 margin, was in over her head.
Her campaign which wasn’t doing that well from the get go, tanked after Stephen Le Drew, former President of Canada’s Liberal Party, stepped into the race, discovered his chances of a win were dismal, and threw his support behind Miller. When the votes were tallied, Le Drew had garnered less than 2 percent of the popular vote.
Just as predicted, the same crew was returned to city hall on Monday night.
Only one veteran councillor lost his seat. Councillor Peter Li Preti went down to defeat to longtime nemesis Anthony Perruzza, who had challenged him in the last two consecutive elections.
The campaign between the two was so bitter that police officers stood guard at every poll in their ward after accusations erupted with Perruzza claims that Li Preti’s camp was intimidating voters and bringing in people to vote from outside the ward to vote in advance polls.
At a time when the City of Toronto seems to be in decline with no vision and business ideas on the table, Socialist Mayor Miller and his returned-to-public-office councillors will run the city like their personal fiefdom for the next four years.
Miller’s first mayoral campaign was hoisted on his plank to kill plans for a bridge at the Toronto Island Airport, which resulted in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the federal government.
The suit was settled last May when Ottawa agreed to pay the port authority which runs the airport $35 million. The Port Authority continued discussion with Robert Deluce, CEO of REGCO Holdings Inc, who ironically this election year launched a regional passenger airline service from the Toronto Island Airport.
It’s going to be a long four years. But just as Miller and Company are baack, so is torontofreepress.com.
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