The Star's Christopher Hume on Rocco Rossi - Friday Feb 26, 2010
Here's what Christopher Hume says about Rocco Rossi. I certainly couldn't say it better myself, but I was thinking the same punchline - if Rossi wins, Toronto loses:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/771756--rossi-s-jarvis-proposals-a-road-to-nowhere
By Christopher Hume
Urban Issues, Architecture
If for no other reason, Rocco Rossi's mayoral campaign is interesting because of what it reveals about the state of Toronto beyond the downtown core.
As Rossi would have it, new post-amalgamation Toronto is fed up with having old preamalgamation Toronto shoved down its throat.
The defining issue, of course, is the car. That sounds simple enough, but the implications are many and varied, everything from transit expansion to closing the infamous fifth lane on Jarvis St. to make way for pedestrians and cyclists.
Rossi, a neo-conservative and former Liberal Party fundraiser, has made no secret of his belief that Toronto will ride to its glorious future on a high-speed multi-lane highway free of bike lanes and walkers.
"I am calling for any further work on this project (Jarvis) to be suspended until the people of Toronto have spoken on Oct. 25," Rossi said this week. It is, he declared, "a clear affront to democracy and to the voters of Toronto."
Other than the fact that this is bunk, unworthy even of a candidate whose platform is one of unrelieved banality, many Torontonians would rather listen to the Rossis of the world than face the truth. Therein lies his main political advantage.
Rossi's constituency is made up of people whose lifestyles are threatened by changes ahead, whether that means cutting greenhouse gases or closing a lane of Jarvis. It's okay, Rossi wants them to know, you can carry on as you always have, just bury your head a little deeper in that sand and don't forget to vote for me.
There's nothing new about the politics of middle-class disgruntlement.
The best local practitioner was former premier Mike Harris, a master of divide-and-conquer tactics. Rossi hopes to adapt the strategy to a civic situation.
Though it's unlikely he will succeed, his popularity offers clear evidence of the growing backlash against the sort of progressive policies that have made Toronto one of the planet's most admired cities.
Tolerance, the quality for which Canadians are most respected, has no place in Rossi's Toronto. According to him, Torontonians feel such anger at this point that even a program requiring drivers to share one street with cyclists and pedestrians has them freaking out.
How ironic that a candidate who likes to present himself as the non-politician would turn out to be the most cynical of the bunch, in populist parlance, therefore the most obviously and crassly political.
On the other hand, it doesn't help that governments, bureaucracies and institutions are very poorly run; as an exemplar of public transit, for example, the TTC leaves much to be desired, GO isn't much better. Transit in the Toronto region has failed to keep up with demand and we have slipped behind much of the world. Even now that we're starting to expand various systems, we're still using technology – most notably diesel – that's decades out of date.
Despite all this, Rossi's desire to eliminate change rather than promote it amounts to little more than a vain attempt to turn back the clock. It's easy to understand the lure of nostalgia, of the good old days, but they are finished, over, caput. And never should it be mistaken for public policy. That would be disastrous.
Needless to say, Torontonians know better than this. Support for transit as well as the Jarvis remake is overwhelming. That's why Rossi will lose.
As long as there have been politicians, they have appealed to our most selfish instincts. Rossi's pitch is just more blatant and unashamed than we're used to in Toronto.
Though it's early days still, already it's clear that if Rossi wins, the city loses.
