UPDATE: The TTC Commission promptly asked Rick Ducharme to clean his desk out today, not on Nov. 30th as the former-GM had suggested in his resignation letter. Tim Kevin McGran writes, “But there were acrimonious parting shots fired between Ducharme and Moscoe, threats of lawsuits, more allegations of Moscoe’s meddling coming to light, city councillors wondering how things went so bad so quickly while others demanded Moscoe’s resignation. ”
Though the situation is no laughing matter, I’m slightly amused by the disorganization of the right-of-centre councillors to even cobble together a coherent stance. Mayoral candidate Jane Pitfield said back on May 30th that she thought Mayor Miller should have done more to stop the wildcat strike. Meanwhile, the hapless Karen Stintz (and Pitfield supporter) said, “I don’t think it’s appropriate for the chair of the TTC to have backroom dealings with the union on the weekend because of another threat of an illegal job action,” while calling for an investigation into Ducharme’s resignation.
No doubt there are problems at TTC HQ, but this seems more to do with personalities clashing, and some new blood needed on all three sides. But I have problems watching the same dough-headed councillors yell about how they are outraged at how political the situation has become, while at the same time fan the flames of the crisis to enhance their own political gains.
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Rick Ducharme confirmed that Howard Moscoe is the reason he is quitting his post as GM of the TTC. In the Scarborough Mirror (of all places) Ducharme writes, “Dave Gunn left because of Mr. Moscoe. (Former chief general manager) Al Leach also had issues with Mr. Moscoe. I am the third victim.â€
Transit advocate Steve Munro throws his two cents into the mix.
Royson James wonders why the GMs of the TTC fall but the politicians, who are supossed to be held accountable by the electorate, never seem to find their heads on the chopping block.
John Barber writes: The best evidence that the hard-headed engineer temporarily abandoned his normally impeccable good sense is the fact that, while resigning in anger over what he called “political interference,” he attempted to dictate a distant retirement date — Nov. 30. The cruel fact is that if he does show up at today’s emergency TTC meeting called to find a successor, he won’t be asked to hang around. “I think in the circumstances that’s not possible,” Mayor David Miller said yesterday…. But the player who tips the board does not surrender everything. He gets to make other losers, among whom the mayor is the one who will suffer longest from this fiasco. But the biggest loser also makes the biggest winner. By surrendering so dramatically, Mr. Ducharme has congratulated Bob Kinnear, president, Local 113 Amalgamated Transit Union, for the ultimate triumph of last week’s illegal strike.
There is also an overview of Ducharme’s resignation in the Star with comments from Mayor Miller. There is a special meeting of the TTC that just started (2pm EST) — it will be interesting to see how the commissioners deal with this sticky situation (it looks like Ducharme will be gone by the end of the month, much sooner than his suggested Nov. 30 departure).
photo montage from NOW and Toronto Star
11 comments
Thanks to the kind reader who pointed out my typos — They are fixed now. That’s what happens when I spend 45 seconds throwing a post together between phone conversations.
Howard Moscoe is a worthless excuse for a transit comissioner. He was originally a professional wrestler, he should have stuck to that. Its time for a replacement- long overdue.
“He was originally a professional wrestler…” If that’s a serious statement, then I’m pretty sure you’re wrong, Jim. If that’s a joke, then the context doesn’t make it apparent (or particularly funny).
Typical of the half-assed leadership in this city, when is the province going to step in and impose a maximum of two four-year terms for councillors? Most of these guys have been around way too long.
Why has Spacing become such a lapdog for David Miller’s do nothing administration? Guess what? David Miller runs this town, he’s responsible, for the TTC, for the Bata building, for everyting. Stintz or Pitfield have every right to “enhance their own political gains.” That’s their job, they’re the opposition. They’re doing their job, and your boy Miller isn’t.
I can’t think of one signifcant improvement the TTC has made in 20 years. Yet the management and most of the press continue to repeat the myth that the TTC is “one of the best transit systems in the world”. If you ride the subway to and from work the TTC is functional, the rest of time I think it is lousy. It seems to me the TTC is stuck somewhere around 1970 and management has to be the one to blame. The employees can’t change or improve the system, that is the job of managment. Any modern busniness that uses a 50 (or more) year old method of issuing a proof of payment, paper transfers, can’t be taken seriously. There are so many things wrong with the TTC but improvement does not appear to be goal.
Commenting on the hypocricy is not lap-dogging it for Miller. My comments stem from how poorly organized the right wing councillors are. They have had a good opportunity to turn the tide against Miller & co. becuz, like you noted, they have not done very much.
But Pitfield, Stintz, etc. are not the “opposition”. Council does not opperate like parliament. It is a co-op over at City Hall and people like Stintz have very little clue about what they are talking about during council and need to sit with a lobbyist for 30 minutes in the Rotunda to find out where they should stand on an issue. She is a pretty poor excuses for a councillor. Have you ever heard her talk or ask questions? Its like being in a grade 11 science class with that one student who just keeps asking the same dumb quesiton over and over again and everyone elese in the class is getting god damn annoyed. and Jane Pitfield is so uneven and is constantly switching sides on every issue to appease everyone. When she talks to me its like she’s talking to her grandson — I suprised she hasn’t tapped me on the head, patted me on the bum and told me to “run along now.”
My lament has more to do with city council not having good or effective city councillors than sucking-up to the Miller side. I will say that Miller’s side at least has some decent people who generally understand what is good for the city, though there is much to be desired in terms of acheivement this term. The right of center folks have mush for brains at best.
Re: Matt’s comments that “people like Stintz have very little clue about what they are talking about during council and need to sit with a lobbyist for 30 minutes in the Rotunda to find out where they should stand on an issue.” It may sound like an exaggeration, but I’ve actually seen Stintz do exactly that. In fact, she often doesn’t even bother going out into the rotunda but will actually spend most of a day happily chatting away with a lobbyist right on the Council floor – and less than a metre away from me, I might add. The one thing I wanted to point out, Matt, is that the Star’s transportation reporter is named Kevin McGran, not Tim McGran. Perhaps you were thinking of country music star Tim McGraw?
Maybe it’s time they’re all let go – Moscoe, Kinnear, everybody. I’ve never seen a bigger bunch of dysfunctional adults.
Moscoe – apparently doesn’t play with others
Ducharme – Hard-headed engineer
Kinnear – Idolizes Jimmy Hoffa (See this week’s Torstar article)
No wonder nothing gets done.
I understand now. We have a do nothing administration filled with decent people who generally understand what is good for the city but still do nothing and it’s all Karen Stintz’s fault.
The city rots from the head down, dudes.
Palmerston > you simplistic answers do nothing to help your side of the debate. this isn’t Wawa, Ontario where things can get done with the wave of a wand — this is the 5th largest city in North America and the 4th largest government in Canada. I do not mean to demean your stance, cuz I know you care about city issues by the regularity of your posts, but I think contrite accussations of being “lapdogs” and our politicians as “do-nothings” is wrong and off-base. Things go slow, and it has much more to do with previous local/provincial government decisions than with the politicians we have now. Don’t get me wrong, I think they need to move faster and accomplish more, but the bureacracy is a beast unto itself that needs taming. If that happens, then I believe we can have effective government (if we have smarter and less dough-headed councillors, too).