Raise the Hammer

As much as it's tempting to make this about the Feds, this is purely a failure of Toronto's leadership. There's no love lost between Toronto and the feds, and for Miller and Co. to expect that John Baird, likely one of the pettiest and meanest politicians in Ottawa, would do anything to facilitate a deficient request from Toronto, is folly.

So is Toronto's leadership failing? The fourth estate thinks so, and how! The Star and Globe both unleashed their Toronto columnists and they've published some pretty scathing views on the city and its governors. I know avowed Milleristas will disagree, but it's not just Royson James in the Star tilting at windmills.

Macus Gee compares the City to a failing General Motors in the Globe and Mail (read it here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opin...

"The workers enjoy perks that others can only dream of. The well-paid executives avoid making tough decisions. The organization has lost touch with those it serves and become a sprawling, self-perpetuating bureaucracy. The whole vast enterprise is drifting toward the rocks.

"All of this was said of General Motors a year or two ago. It could just as easily be said of the City of Toronto today. Toronto is the GM of Canadian governments, heading for ruin, knowing it but lacking any credible plan to save itself."

Meanwhile Christopher Hume in the Star labastes Miller and co. for this screw up of the Bombardier LRT contract (read it here: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/...

"That's another fine mess you've got us into.

"Only this time it's not Ollie wreaking havoc, but His Worship David Miller, mayor of Toronto, aided and abetted by Toronto Transit Commission chair Adam Giambrone.

"In a classic display of civic arrogance verging on stupidity, the two decided they could finesse the federal government's admittedly Byzantine infrastructure funding rules and request $417 million to buy a fleet of state-of-the-art light rail vehicles from Bombardier."

I know as well as anyone how fun the sport of Con-bashing can be, but I think some perspective on this issue is required because Toronto's leadership has to carry at least some (if not most) of the blame on this one.