Already, Ford has inflicted serious damage on the city, painful, but none of it fatal. However, if a group of his designated cronies actually does fire Toronto Transit Commission chief general manager Gary Webster Tuesday afternoon as expected, it will be time to start worrying about the future of things.
The city won’t suddenly die, of course, but missing the opportunity to build, at least partially, a transit system that can see us through the coming congestion of the 21st century will mark a turning point for the body politic, not to mention the travelling public.
In many ways, a line has already been crossed. In this mayor, Toronto has a man who knows little about basic principles and respects them less. His treatment of Webster, and the threats against other senior TTC managers, shows a contempt that goes well beyond anything seen before at City Hall.
Recent comments by the mayor’s brother, Doug, about the TTC being in need of an “enema” were revealing of a mindset that stands out in its utter coarseness.
By now, pretty well anyone who knows anything about transit has made it clear that burying the LRT on Eglinton Ave. east of Laird Dr. is bad policy. Unnecessary, inappropriate and wasteful to the tune of $2 billion, an underground LRT only makes sense from the point of view of a driver consumed by road rage. Even then, Eglinton East isn’t where drivers are most likely to find themselves overtaken by anger.
But even if putting light rail below grade were justifiable, Ford’s actions demonstrate a degree of disrespect that raises the question of his ability to lead. Governance itself doesn’t care about outcomes; only how they are reached. That’s why process matters, especially in a democracy, which by its nature, is divided and fractious.
Claiming to speak for some mythical man in the street, those he meets at Tim Hortons and McDonald’s, Ford first declared city council “irrelevant,” and now wants to emasculate the bureaucracy.
How ironic that Ford’s petulance should be directed at a person, Gary Webster, whose integrity and intelligence are above reproach. The contrast between the two men couldn’t be starker.
That Ford can still find five members of council willing to do his bidding, no matter how transparently shabby it may be, also speaks volumes about the sorry state of Toronto politics. The members of this odious quintet — TTC commissioners Norm Kelly, Denzil Minnan-Wong, Frank Di Giorgio, Cesar Palacio and Vincent Crisanti — shame all Torontonians, including the mayor.
The message to City Hall management, and indirectly to the rest of us, is that it’s Ford’s way or the highway. There’s no room for discussion, compromise or consensus. Indeed, Ford and his TTC heavies have even gone so far as to suppress reports that don’t back up their demands.
Nobody voted for Rob Ford because he’s the smartest man in town, but his failure to understand that truth — facts and figures — plays a role in decision-making is deeply concerning.
There is no political system that doesn’t depend upon the good will of those who control it. Rob Ford’s casual relationship with the most basic aspects of government — even one as clumsily democratic as Toronto’s, especially one as clumsily democratic as Toronto’s — leaves the city vulnerable at a time when it needs to be strong.
Ford can’t be blamed for the failure of transit in Toronto; but he is responsible for the failure of his response.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Christopher Hume
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