2018 Municipal Election: Toronto Council Races

[BurlOak]

Don't know exactly which post, but Mulroney (Caroline) could end up being "Deep Throat" revisited, or perhaps pen an 'anonymous insider' Op-Ed to the Globe and Mail. Deja Vu deluxe. (Cdn edition)

I think Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba will be the one leading the Resistance.

 

[BurlOak]

The first and most important job of a politician, especially at a local level is representing their constituents. If i have an issue with city governance, i want to talk to my elected politician, not a bureaucrat. If city councilors are to act as managers, we need elected community councils at a more local level.

Then should we disband 311 and distribute the staff to the various Councillor's offices?

 

[BurlOak]

Well, perhaps--I won't be surprised if you're right. Nor will be all that disappointed. But if Ford went nuclear yesterday, then the Trudeau gov't stepping in and blocking this puts an exponent beside the detonator.

We can kiss goodbye even a modicum of cooperation between the levels of gov't for at least 1 year, and probably longer since my money's on Trudeau forming the next government.

Pretty well everyone you talk to believes that the Trudeau government is failing on pretty well all files. Nobody thinks Trudeau is a serious leader and anyone who voted Liberal is Likely regretting their choice. Longtime Liberals from the Chretien era (Kinsella, McTague, Manley, etc.) are embarrassed by what has become of their party. Does Toronto actually still support that moron?

 

[DSC]

Then should we disband 311 and distribute the staff to the various Councillor's offices?

Don't be silly! 311 deals very well at forwarding information/complaints etc to other City departments but sometimes nothing is actually done - a problem falls between several departments or is simply ignored. That is when one might use your Councillor's staff to sort it out. I doubt many people use (or should use) their Councillor's office as the first stop but it is REALLY a very useful check. This also allows a Councillor to find out where problems are seen by citizens but City Staff think things are fine or Council has not given them the resources to actually deal with the problem!

 

[Northern Light]

Pretty well everyone you talk to believes that the Trudeau government is failing on pretty well all files. Nobody thinks Trudeau is a serious leader and anyone who voted Liberal is Likely regretting their choice. Longtime Liberals from the Chretien era (Kinsella, McTague, Manley, etc.) are embarrassed by what has become of their party. Does Toronto actually still support that moron?

Just stop!

Your entire post is nothing but trolling.

There's nothing factual.

Nothing useful.

Full of base insults and childish slander.

Its designed to incite, and its unworthy of this forum.

If you have nothing to contribute, don't post.

 

[Miscreant]

Pretty well everyone you talk to believes that the Trudeau government is failing on pretty well all files. Nobody thinks Trudeau is a serious leader and anyone who voted Liberal is Likely regretting their choice. Longtime Liberals from the Chretien era (Kinsella, McTague, Manley, etc.) are embarrassed by what has become of their party. Does Toronto actually still support that moron?

'

Alright, I'm willing to bite.

Start me off: can you elaborate on what files exactly Trudeau is failing on? And then can you defend why exactly the responsibility for those purported failures lies mostly, if not solely, with his government?

 

[steveintoronto]

I think Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba will be the one leading the Resistance.

Perhaps I should have been a little clearer for those who don't read widely.

"Resistance" was in reference to the now infamous NYTimes Op-Ed:
Opinion | I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

And if so many Ford supporters dislike Belobaba's ruling, I suggest you appeal it. In fact, I implore you to. You got off too lightly.

And btw: The only party I ever voted for in this nation when I had the vote here is the Conservative Party of Canada. And my last vote was for Joe Clark's regime (I forget the local MP I voted for). Clark, I'm sure, will be having a piece published in the mainstream press on this issue shortly.

 

[nfitz]

Pretty well everyone you talk to believes that the Trudeau government is failing on pretty well all files. Nobody thinks Trudeau is a serious leader and anyone who voted Liberal is Likely regretting their choice.

Everyone? Nobody?

This isn't even remotely true. And has no relevance in this discussion.

If this was true, then polling would show that Trudeau would be the least preferred person for Prime Minister.

The truth is that he's first.

Can the moderators please try and eliminate such off-topic false statements?

 

[nfitz]

Yesterday Doug Ford said he'd appeal the Ontario Superior Court ruling.

Seems odd to me that into the afternoon of the following day, we only hear crickets.

Is something happening on this, or is this another example of Doug saying he'll take legal action, and then doing nothing?

 

[BurlOak]

I fantasize about Trudeau using his power of disallowance, but it would be extremely controversial - perhaps even more than Section 33. It hasn't been used in decades.

I fantasize about Trudeau admitting that he is in over his head and is stepping down, and it was all part of a bet with the major TV networks that if they worked together they could actually get someone as unqualified as Trudeau elected. Sort of like the movie Trading Places with Eddie Murphy.

 

[BurlOak]

'

Alright, I'm willing to bite.

Start me off: can you elaborate on what files exactly Trudeau is failing on? And then can you defend why exactly the responsibility for those purported failures lies mostly, if not solely, with his government?

• NAFTA, where he's deliberately sabatoging the process just to gain Trump Hate votes - even though Mexico was able to come to agreement.
• Pipelines, where first he said Carbon Tax would give him the social licence to built, and the put all his eggs in 1 basket (Trans Mountain), then did nothing to help project along, then purchased $2B pipeline for $4.5B, preventing private sector from pouring $b's in investments into Canada.
• Economy that is trailing the USA since he took over, even though we beat the USA in terms of jobs and GDP in the previous 10 years timeframe.
• Border security - done nothing for illegal border crossings.
• Safety - 50% increase in Toronto homicides, and national crime severity up, since he took over.

I suppose that's all the space I will take up in a Toronto thread.

 

[steveintoronto]

^ The Notwithstanding Clause was a creation of Trudeau Sr. It was a *fudge*! And if any of the Ford Jackboot Scouts had an inkling of history and what the real Conservatives stood for before the 'absorption' by the reactionaries, they'd realize it was Conservatives who railed against it:

Decades ago, we should have listened to Joe Clark

LAWRENCE MARTINPUBLIC AFFAIRS COLUMNIST
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
PUBLISHED JANUARY 14, 2014UPDATED MAY 11, 2018
[...]
We can't say we weren't forewarned. We can go all the way back to the mid-1970s. On Dec. 9, 1974, we find Tory MP Joe Clark putting forward a motion in the Commons aimed at having safeguards set in place to secure the sovereignty of Parliament as intended by the Constitution.

Backbencher Clark – he hadn't even reached the "Joe Who" stage of his career yet – was becoming uneasy over how that sovereignty was being challenged by Pierre Trudeau's office. Mr. Trudeau's government "might have got out of the bedrooms of the nation," asserted Mr. Clark, "but it has more than made up for that everywhere else."

The young MP had watched throughout the 1960s as rules of Parliament were significantly changed. A guillotine rule had been passed to limit debate. Limits were also put on the number of Opposition days. Debates were diverted from the Commons floor to committees.

In tandem, Mr. Clark noted, Mr. Trudeau had "in effect, established for the first time a new 'Department of the Prime Minister' in the Privy Council Office and the Office of the Prime Minister." This office, he continued, was "created in the absence of authority from, or discussion in, Parliament. It operates beyond our scrutiny and, having the ear of the prime minister, it has the capacity virtually to change any direction or challenge any initiative that arises either in Parliament or in the public service."

The new department, he said, was overpowering the cabinet, the public service and other checks and balances in the system. While the Constitution stipulated that the executive branch need submit to the will of the legislative branch, the Canadian system was devolving to something akin to the opposite – collective obedience to the will of the man at the apex of power.

On the controversial measure, the so-called guillotine rule, Mr. Trudeau invoked closure in 1969 to impose it. This was the moment when he uttered the infamous words about MPs being "just nobodies" when "they are 50 yards from Parliament Hill."
[...]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/decades-ago-we-should-have-listened-to-joe/article16314768/

Sound familiar to you BurlOak? The doppelganger ain't Jr. It's Ford. "Just watch me".

 

[MetroMan]

Several progressive councillors including Mike Layton, Joe Cressy and Kristyn Wong-Tam are caught in an electoral limbo and locked out of the election. They made a point of waiting to register for a 25 ward election pending the court's ruling. The court ruled that we go back to a 47 ward election, so the status quo is 47 wards.

The problem is that the Province has made it clear that they're going to maintain Bill 5 by brute force and we'll almost assuredly be voting in a 25 ward election. But those who didn't register yet can't register for a 25 ward election before the deadline. There is no 25 ward election to register for. The City Clerk's office is running a 47 ward election.

Layton, Cressy, Wong Tam are probably out of City Council. This is bonkers.

 

[ttk77]

Then should we disband 311 and distribute the staff to the various Councillor's offices?

No. There's a difference between calling to have a specific pot hole fixed (311), and having a conversation with your councillor because you feel that the city is falling too far behind on road repair.

 

[Miscreant]

I think that only one of your five bullet points stands a chance of successfully answering both of my questions (1. Identify a failing file; 2. Defend that Trudeau's government is at least primarily responsible for the failure)

• NAFTA, where he's deliberately sabatoging the process just to gain Trump Hate votes - even though Mexico was able to come to agreement.

This fails 2. You're assuming that Trump's administration is bargaining in good faith and that therefore the primary responsibility lies with Trudeau's government. But this isn't reasonable to assume because widespread knowledge of Trump's character should give you reason to believe that no matter who negotiates with him, it is bound to be rocky.

Also, a brief look at the news gives reason to believe that Trudeau's government has actually handled Trump's mercurial nature quite well. And if you think that 'not successful' means 'we haven't reached a deal by capitulating to every one of Trump's demands', then PM me for a quick pep-talk about what 'negotiate' means.

• Pipelines, where first he said Carbon Tax would give him the social licence to built, and the put all his eggs in 1 basket (Trans Mountain), then did nothing to help project along, then purchased $2B pipeline for $4.5B, preventing private sector from pouring $b's in investments into Canada.

This is the only bullet point that stands even the most remote chance of your successfully answering 2. (But that doesn't mean that you have answered 2. That would require details.) I'm willing to agree that Trudeau has made a hash of this file. Though you should agree that Harper's government did no better in 10 years of power.

• Economy that is trailing the USA since he took over, even though we beat the USA in terms of jobs and GDP in the previous 10 years timeframe.

This fails 2 because, by definition, a government cannot be primarily or solely responsible for the economic file. So this is a false start.

• Border security - done nothing for illegal border crossings.

This actually fails 1. You're undercutting your own status a reasonable person by saying that the government has done 'nothing' about border crossings. Again, either read more to be informed or think more to be persuasive.

• Safety - 50% increase in Toronto homicides, and national crime severity up, since he took over.

This fails 2, and possibly also 1 unless you provide persuasive data showing otherwise. For more: see my response to your fourth bullet point.

Here's the general takeaway: your initial post was simplistic. Your succeeding post then proves it. When you want to move past caricatures and do the harder work of forming an thoughtful and informed opinion, feel free to PM me and I'd love to talk about the Trudeau government in the appropriate forum.