The alienation of Karen Stintz

If you are wondering what in the world is going to happen next under Mayor Rob Ford, keep an eye on Karen Stintz.

As chair of the Toronto Transit Commission, Ms. Stintz is one of the leading members of the mayor’s team, at least on paper. In reality, she is visibly on the outs with Mr. Ford and his powerful brother Doug. If she leaves or is forced from her job, as now seems distinctly possible, it would be bad news both for the city, which needs a competent leader for its vital people-moving service, and for the Ford administration, which needs a moderate conservative voice to temper its hot-headed populism.

Differences between Ms. Stintz and the Fords emerged almost from the beginning. Within weeks of taking office, the Fords were negotiating with the provincial government to scrap the multibillion-dollar Transit City plan – years in the making – that would have created a network of suburban light-rail lines. The deal that emerged in its place saw the two governments go separate ways: Queen’s Park to build a mostly underground light-rail line along Eglinton Avenue and into Scarborough; city hall to build an extended Sheppard subway line.

Ms. Stintz has made it clear that she is less than enthusiastic about the Sheppard plan, which would require the city to use creative financing to attract private-sector partners. Until it can be shown that such a plan will work, she said last month, the city should content itself with simply extending the line from Don Mills to Victoria Park, and not push it all the way to the Scarborough City Centre as Mr. Ford proposes.

When Mr. Ford approached Premier Dalton McGuinty this week about help to finance the Sheppard extension, Ms. Stintz pointedly said that she had nothing to do with it. Ford associate Gordon Chong is quarterbacking the Sheppard project through a specially created body, Toronto Transit Infrastructure Limited, leaving Ms. Stintz on the sidelines of city hall’s biggest transit-expansion scheme.

A second point of friction between Ms. Stintz and the Fords is the fate of TTC chief general manager Gary Webster. The Fords are on a warpath against Mr. Webster, a veteran transit bureaucrat who shares Ms. Stintz’s skepticism about the Sheppard extension. Ms. Stintz is unlikely to do the mayor’s dirty work and take part in firing Mr. Webster.

Transit issues are not the only thing that separate the mayor and his transit chief. When Doug Ford made his famous “who’s she?” comment about novelist and libraries advocate Margaret Atwood, saying he would shutter at least one Etobicoke library “in a heartbeat,” Ms. Stintz came out publicly against closing any library branches. It is one thing for the mayor to get flack about potential cutbacks from the usual suspects on the left. But when a member of his own team speaks out, it is something else.

Ms. Stintz’s dissent has not endeared her to the Fords, who prize loyalty and are impatient with naysayers. Her relationship with Doug Ford is strained. Her relationship with the mayor is distant; they rarely meet one-on-one. When you consider how closely Mayor David Miller worked with his transit chief, Adam Giambrone, the estrangement between Ms. Stintz and the Ford brothers is remarkable.

How this all plays out will say much about the direction and character of the Ford administration. Ms. Stintz, a North Toronto councillor since 2003, is passionate about her job. After years on the outside under the left-leaning Mr. Miller, she finds herself overseeing a service that “has meaning for almost everybody.”

However, she can be expected to take only so much. The way things are going, the Fords might choose to make a clean sweep at the TTC, ousting both Mr. Webster and Ms. Stintz, changing the governance model of the transit commission and putting a businessman or close associate in charge. Mr. Chong is one name mentioned as a possible candidate. Another is Case Ootes, the retired councillor and Ford favourite.

Let’s hope it doesn’t happen. Ms. Stintz is one of the brightest lights on the Ford squad, a sensible, energetic woman in an executive suite dominated by middle-aged men. The Fords would be mad to drive her out.

Origin
Source: Globe&Mail