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100 days of David Miller
Now we see the steel behind the smile
By KATHERINE HARDING AND JENNIFER LEWINGTON
Saturday, March 6, 2004 - Page M1
David Miller rode into the Toronto mayor's office in November as a populist wielding a broom of change.
He hasn't disappointed. Turning his trademark charm on high-beam, the 45-year-old left-leaning politician is regularly welcomed at public events as though he were a rock star.
But make no mistake. With his 100th day in office coming up on Tuesday, Mr. Miller has shown the steel behind the smile.
The former Bay Street lawyer turned city councillor stunned political friends and foes with the speed and decisiveness of his first victory as mayor. Just as he promised in the election, Mr. Miller mobilized the 44-member council -- 14 of them newcomers -- to kill the proposed 122-metre bridge to the Toronto Islands airport.
That sweet victory, after only two days on the job, sent a strong message about Mr. Miller's ambition to be an activist mayor over the next three years.
He delayed an early-January launch of the city budget so he could hear first from residents on their spending priorities for Toronto this year. At council this week, he won unanimous approval for his proposals to curb gun and gang violence and to beautify the city.
So far, Mr. Miller has made it look easy. In public, he has marshalled a reliable majority on council and energized senior bureaucrats into "Team Miller" after the torpor and embarrassment of the final years in office of predecessor Mel Lastman. Behind the scenes, Mr. Miller has been disciplined, focused and tactical.
"All one has to do is point to the first 100 days of Prime Minister Paul Martin and [Ontario] Premier Dalton McGuinty and ask if either of them would wish for Mr. Miller's first 100 days," observes Ryerson University political scientist Myer Siemiatycki. "As honeymoons go, it's torrid. The flame is alive and the passion is strong."
The key to Mr. Miller's early triumphs is simple, says the long-time observer of municipal politics. "He's done well by grabbing hold of the agenda and not allowing it to drive him." That said, the heavy lifting lies ahead.
Next week, for example, the city's budget committee sits down to make the first round of tough political choices on what programs to cut and what fees to raise to close a projected budget shortfall of $344-million this year.
Meanwhile, the mayor is relying heavily on Mr. Martin and Mr. McGuinty to come through with a "new deal" -- new powers and resources -- for the city.
Publicly, though, Mr. Miller is all optimism, seeming to feed off the political capital and public goodwill he has garnered over the past three months. "I knew what I wanted to do and I knew how to do it," Mr. Miller says of his early success.
"I think the agenda we are advancing is that of the people of Toronto and if you have faith in them, you can do a tremendous amount and that's what we are doing," the 6-foot-3 politician says as he flashes a toothy grin that has rarely left his face since he won the hard-fought mayoral contest with promises to clean up the city's streets, city hall and the waterfront.
A revealing glimpse of Mr. Miller's smile-and-steel approach to the job came early, with council's vote on the island bridge.
Immediately after winning the election -- and weeks ahead of the Dec. 2 swearing-in of the new council -- Mr. Miller and his team met with new and veteran councillors and lobbied Mr. Martin.
Councillor Michael Thompson (Scarborough Centre), a political newcomer who remained non-committal on the bridge until the last moment, recalls the mayor's lobbying as "co-ordinated, structured persuasion." But Mr. Miller's critics -- including a still-disorganized right-wing contingent on council -- contend the mayor used key committee appointments to secure support for the bridge vote. Deputy mayor Joe Pantalone, one of the mayor's key confidants and trouble-shooters, denies any quid pro quo and noted that some supporters of the bridge, such as budget chief David Soknacki, won key posts on council.
What is true is the sequence of events -- the emergency debate on the bridge came a day before council was asked to vote on appointments. Normally, a new council's first order of business is voting on who gets what job.
In the end, the vote to revoke city council support for the bridge -- 26 to 18 -- exposed a core level of support that seems more entrenched and natural than that enjoyed by Mr. Lastman.
Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (Don Valley East), one of the leaders of the right-of-centre opposition at council, concedes that Mr. Miller has been effective in his early days. But he's troubled that the mayor is getting such unquestioning support from council.
Freshman councillor Karen Stintz (Eglinton-Lawrence), a member of the fragmented opposition, is also surprised that "real public debate" doesn't seem to be welcomed by the mayor.
"If we have a difference of opinion, he'd like us to come and talk to him about it, as opposed to airing it openly," she says. ". . . I don't agree. It's our jobs to get things out in the open and get it on the record."
She's also worried that the city has no answers yet to the garbage crisis, the budget and problems with crime.
Even Mr. Miller's supporters concede the challenges that lie ahead for the mayor.
"There are high expectations," Mr. Pantalone says.
Bruce Scott, one of the mayor's top aides, says Mr. Miller will remain on track and not be bullied into acting on an issue. "He doesn't get knocked off his game easily," he says. Mr. Scott gives as a recent example the controversy surrounding the launch of the mayor's new antiviolence strategy, which was aimed at reducing gun and gang violence and was unanimously endorsed by council this week.
"He always keeps in mind what's really important. He wanted to get it right," Mr. Scott says about the strategy, which includes a mayor's advisory panel on crime that will be headed up by Ontario Chief Justice Roy McMurtry.
However, Mr. Thompson says the mayor responded only after calls for action from community groups and certain councillors on crime became deafening. "After enough pressure was put on him, there was no way he could avoid it."
In the end, Mr. Thompson says, "we moved things along" but that precious time was lost.
One city hall lobbyist, impressed with Mr. Miller's early success, says his activist, progressive agenda will define the "ballot question" for the next civic election in 2006. "Is the city better off than three years ago?" the lobbyist asks. "Mr. Miller has very tight timelines."
Now we see the steel behind the smile
By KATHERINE HARDING AND JENNIFER LEWINGTON
Saturday, March 6, 2004 - Page M1
David Miller rode into the Toronto mayor's office in November as a populist wielding a broom of change.
He hasn't disappointed. Turning his trademark charm on high-beam, the 45-year-old left-leaning politician is regularly welcomed at public events as though he were a rock star.
But make no mistake. With his 100th day in office coming up on Tuesday, Mr. Miller has shown the steel behind the smile.
The former Bay Street lawyer turned city councillor stunned political friends and foes with the speed and decisiveness of his first victory as mayor. Just as he promised in the election, Mr. Miller mobilized the 44-member council -- 14 of them newcomers -- to kill the proposed 122-metre bridge to the Toronto Islands airport.
That sweet victory, after only two days on the job, sent a strong message about Mr. Miller's ambition to be an activist mayor over the next three years.
He delayed an early-January launch of the city budget so he could hear first from residents on their spending priorities for Toronto this year. At council this week, he won unanimous approval for his proposals to curb gun and gang violence and to beautify the city.
So far, Mr. Miller has made it look easy. In public, he has marshalled a reliable majority on council and energized senior bureaucrats into "Team Miller" after the torpor and embarrassment of the final years in office of predecessor Mel Lastman. Behind the scenes, Mr. Miller has been disciplined, focused and tactical.
"All one has to do is point to the first 100 days of Prime Minister Paul Martin and [Ontario] Premier Dalton McGuinty and ask if either of them would wish for Mr. Miller's first 100 days," observes Ryerson University political scientist Myer Siemiatycki. "As honeymoons go, it's torrid. The flame is alive and the passion is strong."
The key to Mr. Miller's early triumphs is simple, says the long-time observer of municipal politics. "He's done well by grabbing hold of the agenda and not allowing it to drive him." That said, the heavy lifting lies ahead.
Next week, for example, the city's budget committee sits down to make the first round of tough political choices on what programs to cut and what fees to raise to close a projected budget shortfall of $344-million this year.
Meanwhile, the mayor is relying heavily on Mr. Martin and Mr. McGuinty to come through with a "new deal" -- new powers and resources -- for the city.
Publicly, though, Mr. Miller is all optimism, seeming to feed off the political capital and public goodwill he has garnered over the past three months. "I knew what I wanted to do and I knew how to do it," Mr. Miller says of his early success.
"I think the agenda we are advancing is that of the people of Toronto and if you have faith in them, you can do a tremendous amount and that's what we are doing," the 6-foot-3 politician says as he flashes a toothy grin that has rarely left his face since he won the hard-fought mayoral contest with promises to clean up the city's streets, city hall and the waterfront.
A revealing glimpse of Mr. Miller's smile-and-steel approach to the job came early, with council's vote on the island bridge.
Immediately after winning the election -- and weeks ahead of the Dec. 2 swearing-in of the new council -- Mr. Miller and his team met with new and veteran councillors and lobbied Mr. Martin.
Councillor Michael Thompson (Scarborough Centre), a political newcomer who remained non-committal on the bridge until the last moment, recalls the mayor's lobbying as "co-ordinated, structured persuasion." But Mr. Miller's critics -- including a still-disorganized right-wing contingent on council -- contend the mayor used key committee appointments to secure support for the bridge vote. Deputy mayor Joe Pantalone, one of the mayor's key confidants and trouble-shooters, denies any quid pro quo and noted that some supporters of the bridge, such as budget chief David Soknacki, won key posts on council.
What is true is the sequence of events -- the emergency debate on the bridge came a day before council was asked to vote on appointments. Normally, a new council's first order of business is voting on who gets what job.
In the end, the vote to revoke city council support for the bridge -- 26 to 18 -- exposed a core level of support that seems more entrenched and natural than that enjoyed by Mr. Lastman.
Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (Don Valley East), one of the leaders of the right-of-centre opposition at council, concedes that Mr. Miller has been effective in his early days. But he's troubled that the mayor is getting such unquestioning support from council.
Freshman councillor Karen Stintz (Eglinton-Lawrence), a member of the fragmented opposition, is also surprised that "real public debate" doesn't seem to be welcomed by the mayor.
"If we have a difference of opinion, he'd like us to come and talk to him about it, as opposed to airing it openly," she says. ". . . I don't agree. It's our jobs to get things out in the open and get it on the record."
She's also worried that the city has no answers yet to the garbage crisis, the budget and problems with crime.
Even Mr. Miller's supporters concede the challenges that lie ahead for the mayor.
"There are high expectations," Mr. Pantalone says.
Bruce Scott, one of the mayor's top aides, says Mr. Miller will remain on track and not be bullied into acting on an issue. "He doesn't get knocked off his game easily," he says. Mr. Scott gives as a recent example the controversy surrounding the launch of the mayor's new antiviolence strategy, which was aimed at reducing gun and gang violence and was unanimously endorsed by council this week.
"He always keeps in mind what's really important. He wanted to get it right," Mr. Scott says about the strategy, which includes a mayor's advisory panel on crime that will be headed up by Ontario Chief Justice Roy McMurtry.
However, Mr. Thompson says the mayor responded only after calls for action from community groups and certain councillors on crime became deafening. "After enough pressure was put on him, there was no way he could avoid it."
In the end, Mr. Thompson says, "we moved things along" but that precious time was lost.
One city hall lobbyist, impressed with Mr. Miller's early success, says his activist, progressive agenda will define the "ballot question" for the next civic election in 2006. "Is the city better off than three years ago?" the lobbyist asks. "Mr. Miller has very tight timelines."