Wednesday’s headlines

15 comments

1. Bill Murdoch may be a joke, but the fact that he actually thinks Toronto is holding back the rest of Ontario is symptomatic of a larger problem that no longer is a joke. Why is it that the biggest Toronto-hating tax-cutters come from the places that are the biggest leeches on tax revenues generated in Toronto? And Murdoch is not alone. There are a few letters to the Star today from 905ers who also think Toronto is being subsidized by the rest of Ontario and not the other way around.

   Torontonians are too polite about this sort of crap. This city is no longer full of wealthy WASPy bankers and burghers who can afford to laugh off this vile hate. It remains politically convenient for provincial and federal governments to ignore Toronto whenever they are not actively bashing it. The results are a decaying transit system, comparatively underfunded schools, and a municipality that can no longer afford to provide social services that the province dumped on us a decade ago.

   Someone should call Murdoch’s bluff.

   And just for fun: Let’s All Hate Toronto (2007): http://uk.video.yahoo.com/watch/1384749/4767551

2. Making the Province of Toronto seems to be one of those things that no one opposes, but everyone assumes is impossible.

3. Re: Students reimagine 52 Division plaza

   I’d love to see what the students came up with. One feature I feel sorely missing in Toronto is small, intimate neighbourhood public squares. I always dream about a small public square in Annex neighbourhood, say, Bloor and Bathurst. Yet the few small squares we do have tend to be desolate concrete pad where nobody cares to spend time. I really like to know what are wrong with them and how to make it right.

4. Bill Murdoch’s proposal is entirely typical of the brain-dead right. These knuckle draggers feel so aggrieved that Toronto has any influence whatsoever, gettin’ in the way of all the huntin’ and gatherin’ that goes on in the hinterlands.

   The reality, of course, is that rural Ontario (and rural Canada) is entirely over-represented at higher levels of government, and sucks on the teat of Toronto’s largesse.

   This reminds me a lot of the teabag phenomenon in the US, where all these “red” staters complain about government spending and overreach, when in fact the red states are a huge drain on the federal coffers, subsidized, naturally, by the blue states.

5. Or, I should say: what John@10:19 says…

6. I’d like to recommend this book on the subject.

   Urban Nation: Why We Need to Give Power Back to the Cities to Make Canada Strong
   by Alan Broadbent.

   http://www.harpercollins.ca/book/index.aspx?isbn=9780002008839

7. Here is the description on the HC.ca site of Mr. Broadbent’s book.

   “Canada’s cities are crippled by a lack of financial and governing clout. Their infrastructures are crumbling and their citizens are disaffected by the inability of municipal government—or any government, for that matter—to act on the issues that influence their constituents’ lives. Cities generate a disproportionate amount of Canada’s wealth and are home to the majority of the population, yet they have no means to control their own destinies.”

   “Alan Broadbent suggests that the problem is a slavish devotion to a constitutional structure and a federal government that is ignorant of how crucial large cities are to our national prosperity and heritage. Canada’s landscape has been changed by the forces of urbanization and immigration. If the country is to prosper, Broadbent argues, cities must be given the same amount of power as their federal and provincial counterparts. Thoughtful and provocative, Urban Nation ignites controversy among politicians and passion among citizens and action groups eager for practical urban reform solutions.”

8. I don’t really believe Toronto, or rather the GTA, will ever become a separate province. Look at the fate of other eminently sensible initiatives like proprotional representation and senate reform. However, the GTA should and probably in the next 30 years will become more autonomous, with a regional government – similar to the old metro structure. This government will be fully responsible for capital projects like transit, roads and waterworks, but will have a fixed share of the sales tax or income tax, or both, with which to finance them. The current system where one level of government is responsible for the doing, but has to beg other levels for the funding because they lack the revenue tools themselves is a waste of everyones time and energy. Even in the heart of capitalism, the good old U.S.A. they have figured that out, and the majority cities have these revenue tools.

9. If Toronto were to leave, wouldn’t the rest of Ontario have to fund building a new legislature? I don’t think Murdoch’s carefully thought this out!

10. “Toronto to leave”, looks like this is one thing that rural Ontarian and Torontonian all can agree on, so why everybody think it is impossible?

11. If there was a place in Canada I thought should be split out in such manner, I would have said Ottawa-Gatineau, as a National Capital Territory.

    To split Ontario into a northern and southern half (the northern half containing both Sudbury and North Bay for critical mass) would help both halves of the province to play to their strengths, but surely Owen Sound isn’t rural in the way Sioux Lookout is.

12. @Yu: Because it would require a constitutional amendment, which would require approval of six other provinces (in addition to Ontario).

    And though Ontarians might like the idea, other Canadians might wonder about the consequences. Should Montreal become a province too? What about Vancouver? Should Ottawa-Gatineau become a special district that belongs to no province? What does this mean for the rest of Canada? What does it mean for Quebec if Quebec loses both Montreal and Gatineau?

    Not to mention that a lot of people in Canada simply disagree with anything Toronto wants.

    And if Meech Lake and Charlottetown have shown us anything, it’s that it’s very hard to get the provinces to agree on Constitutional changes.

    I’m not saying it’s impossible. I’m saying it might take a lot of time and work.

13. I was half-joking, Ted 🙂 But still thanks a lot for the explanation.

14. Yesterday the Sun was all over police officers “jaywalking” (in reflective uniforms) to issue tickets. Today it is Giambrone for taking a cab over the TTC when he has to get to a place quickly and/or is carrying stuff that would be difficult to take on transit. What’s tomorrow’s “expose”: The CEO of Molson caught enjoying a Labatt? At least the Star presented the story with a sense of journalism.

    With that said, maybe I should apply at the Sun. I graduated grade 4 well over a decade ago, and have done my fair share of stupid inflammatory posts. Looking at what they publish, I’d say I’m more than qualified to be chief editor.

15. If you separate Toronto proper from the GTA the financial consequences look a lot different. Without the higher per capita income, lower social costs and huge differences in provincial transfers of the 905 region, Toronto on its own would hardly be better off.