{"id":56458,"date":"2016-12-13T10:00:34","date_gmt":"2016-12-13T15:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=56458"},"modified":"2016-12-13T10:19:32","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T15:19:32","slug":"lorinc-doesnt-ontarios-ndp-get-road-pricing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2016\/12\/13\/lorinc-doesnt-ontarios-ndp-get-road-pricing\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: Why doesn\u2019t Ontario\u2019s NDP get road pricing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"feature-lorinc\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How long do progressives and urban dwellers more generally have to wait before Ontario\u2019s NDP stops compensating (atoning?) for former premier Bob Rae\u2019s decision, circa the early 1990s, to slap tolls on Highway 407?<\/p>\n

The question arose again late last week when Andrea Horwath\u2019s populists stood shoulder to ideological shoulder with Patrick Brown\u2019s Progressive Conservatives to support a symbolic motion calling on Kathleen Wynne\u2019s government to reject the City of Toronto\u2019s forthcoming request to put tolls on the Gardiner and the Don Valley Parkway.<\/p>\n

I understand that opposition parties need to be, well, oppositional. But as happened in the last provincial election in 2014, Horwath revealed she\u2019s got a tin ear when it comes to not just funding urban infrastructure but deploying green policies meant to change driver behaviour, reduce emissions, and spur transit use.<\/p>\n

Instead of tabling a motion calling on the provincial government to, say, properly fund the operating costs of transit, toll all the 400-series highways or urge the Wynne Liberals to give the City of Toronto other revenue tools, such as sales tax, Team Horwath threw in their lot with a rurally-based party that has little interest in transit and scant purchase with urban voters.<\/p>\n

Why? Shouldn\u2019t progressive voters in big cities like Toronto be able to back an electoral option to the Liberals? Of course. Yet last week\u2019s stunt \u2014 which, let\u2019s face it, is what that motion amounted to \u2014 stands as a fairly crisp signal that the NDP isn\u2019t interested in Toronto. I understand why the Tories don\u2019t much care about the city, but the NDP\u2019s indifference is much more difficult to grasp.<\/p>\n

Horwath, however, has long demonstrated that she\u2019s far more interested in going for the partisan solar plexus shot than advancing a coherent set of policies that suggest an ability to manage the province, its urban regions, and our collective environmental footprint.<\/p>\n

On transit, she opposed Metrolinx\u2019s 2013 revenue tools recommendations, backed by-election candidates who pandered to the delusional Scarborough subway politics, and offered up nothing more than a pledge to hike corporate taxes<\/a> as a way of paying for infrastructure. As if.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not pretend, moreover, that the NDP-Tory motion is so much harmless parliamentary fluff. It\u2019s actually a perfectly timed shot across the government\u2019s bow.<\/p>\n

The Wynne government fully understands that the residents of the mainly Liberal-held 905 ridings who commute downtown are crabby about the prospect of tolls that could jack their driving costs by over a grand a year. Mayor John Tory instigated the toll debate last month by strongly implying the premier was on side. But does Wynne actually have her caucus members whipped, or will she be vulnerable to the sort of U-turn politics we\u2019ve seen so often on the transit file?<\/p>\n

Tory has said that City of Toronto voters will decide, in 2018, whether tolls are an acceptable form of revenue to fund infrastructure. But Wynne, I\u2019m guessing, knows she\u2019ll face precisely the same judgment when she faces 905 voters in 2018 \u2013 you know, the ones who decide the outcome of elections.<\/p>\n

With council embarking on what will likely be an emotional debate<\/a> about revenue tools and the tolling request today, the posturing at the other end of University Avenue will surely be hovering over like a cloud of smog over City Hall. We all know which councillors have strong political ties to the Wynne government, and their stances on the toll debate will serve as leading indicators about the ultimate fate of the mayor\u2019s big bold idea.<\/p>\n

After all, the most important detail in the motion that will dominate this week\u2019s council session is that the province be requested to move ahead with legislative changes to allow tolls (and a hotel tax) in 2017<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Her eye on that clock, Horwath last week showed that she understands how to press an election-minded partisan advantage, policy coherence be damned. I\u2019d say it\u2019s entirely possible the politics up at the Pink Palace could not only derail Tory\u2019s half-a-loaf revenue scheme, but also lay the groundwork for the 2018 race province-wide.<\/p>\n

So, as council lumbers uneasily into next year\u2019s wrenching discussion about revenue tools, the NDP could be choosing to push the Wynne government to make its approval of tolls contingent on other policy or revenue moves meant to appeal to Toronto voters and mitigate their pain \u2013 such as absorbing the costly operating costs of the new Metrolinx LRT lines instead of downloading them to Toronto commuters.<\/p>\n

But with their motion last week, the NDP decided not to pursue that path. They instead decided to position themselves, on a crucial file, as little more than Tories with a different colour palette.<\/p>\n

Suffice it to say that colour isn\u2019t green.<\/p>\n

photo by Ken Lund<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How long do progressives and urban dwellers more generally have to wait before Ontario\u2019s NDP stops compensating (atoning?) for former premier Bob Rae\u2019s decision, circa the early 1990s, to slap tolls on Highway 407? The question arose again late last week when Andrea Horwath\u2019s populists stood shoulder to ideological shoulder with Patrick Brown\u2019s Progressive ConservativesContinue reading “LORINC: Why doesn\u2019t Ontario\u2019s NDP get road pricing?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":56462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-traffic"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLORINC: Why doesn\u2019t Ontario\u2019s NDP get road pricing? - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2016\/12\/13\/lorinc-doesnt-ontarios-ndp-get-road-pricing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LORINC: Why doesn\u2019t Ontario\u2019s NDP get road pricing? - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How long do progressives and urban dwellers more generally have to wait before Ontario\u2019s NDP stops compensating (atoning?) for former premier Bob Rae\u2019s decision, circa the early 1990s, to slap tolls on Highway 407? 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