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Next Mayor of Toronto?

Glen said:
There is nothing typical about it. There are many neighbourhoods in Brampton, Mississauga, Vaughan, etc, that have near identical land use characteristics and age of infrastructure, yet they have experienced a far different fate than those in Toronto. Keith is bang on.
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The way you state it, it's as if Steeles or Etobicoke Creek were 8 Mile. Oh, and a lot of 60s/70s BrampMiss is looking pretty shabby and dog-eared today, and even the stuff built since can be chock-a-block with basement apartments and their like. "Blight" knows no municipal boundaries or tax/governmental structure...
 
Coltaine79 said:
You guys need to drop the silliness! This is getting worse than the G20 thread.

There is no conspiracy. People are just throwing their lot in with Ford because they've become overly infatuated with the need to penny-pinch at all levels outside their own household (note that Canadians' level of household debt is higher than any other country in the G8).
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I understand the frustration with Miller, however Ford? One extreme to another, and Toronto doesn't normally open up to the right-wing extreme so quickly. To put things into perspective, it is like San Francisco voting Glenn Beck for mayor...
 
Towered said:
There's just no way that a councillor who's spent his whole life and career hiding in the wilds of generic suburbia should be calling the shots downtown and the pre-war city in general.
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I don't reside in Toronto so I will offer this outsider observation.....perhaps the people who reside in the generic suburban parts of the city (as it is now constituted) are sending a message that a "downtown" mayor has the same challenges in representing their issues?
 
TrickyRicky said:
Glen, I don't want to turn this into another tax thread but the issue of residential rates is important because financial considerations are at the core of the argument being made by voters during this election. As someone who is greatly interested in this subject I think your "Rosedale mansion paying a few hundred in taxes" is a little dramatic and you must fully understand it as a misrepresentative of the true tax revenue picture in the city.
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I was referring to times prior to the move to CVA. But the point stands. The very low residential taxes of the old city of Toronto were averaged into the entire residential tax base of the new mega city. Now instead of some paying a mere pittance, and others paying an amount more reflective of actual costs, everyone pays (on average) a to little.

MPAC valuations have been rising the fastest in Old City of Toronto Neighbourhoods along with house prices. Sure a lot of properties are still "catching up" to the taxes paid being equivalent to the value they should be under CVA (as you allude to in your "Rosdale Mansion" comment. But the reality is that a city fully "caught up" is one where inner city residents subsidize the suburbs. Properties throughout the Old City of Toronto have seen their property taxes increase above the city average every year of Miller's term. This is not just about Rosedale, this is about the taxes paid by hundreds of thousands of inner city residents. The implication is that tax payers throughout some areas of the suburbs must be experiencing a comparable decline in property tax burden. And yet these voters, who are shouldering a shrinking piece of property tax pie, are the ones waving the pitchforks.
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Yes and No. Yes homes with higher values will pay more. Yes homes in the most desirable areas of the city, which have appreciated more than the average, will pay more than the rest. Still, for the most part, most will not be covering the cost to provide municipal services. It would be fairer to say, that they require less subsidy, not that they are doing the subsidising. Nonetheless, property tax is a capital tax, so by its very nature it is imperfect. At least there is some semblance to being progressive.

The most conservative estimate one could use is that the costs to provide municipal service to the average household in Toronto (2.6 persons per) is ~$4,000 per year. That does not include any social services, just the traditional non downloaded expenditures. To generate that $4,000 requires an assessment of ~$680,000. Simply put, and playing the averages, if your home home has an MPAC assessment of less than $680,000 your taxes (municipal portion) do not cover the average marginal costs.
 
MetroMan said:
Well, Rocco just made a major ad buy so I doubt he's even considering dropping out now. Maybe if the next few polls show no growth, or even continued loss of support, will he withdraw but I don't see it happening. Sarah Thomson seems to be running short on campaign money and although she's wealthy, I don't know if she's willing to put her own money into what appears to be a hopeless campaign. She's the only candidate I can see dropping out soon enough to make a difference.
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It is plain now that a vote for Rossi or Pantalone or Thomson is a vote for Ford.

There are five weeks to go. It will get very interesting. The newspapers have done a meek and mild job so far of exposing Ford's shortcomings and I honestly suspect there is a deeper well to be tapped. "This ain't over".

Ford doesn't scare me like he used to. He can be handled in council and that is the saving grace of our present system. I repeat myself, yes, but if Ford wins, he won't be able to handle things well at all. It will be four years of bickering while not much gets done. Pity about that part.

Mustn't forget the nature of politics, there's this pendulum that swings ....
 
TonyV said:
There are five weeks to go. It will get very interesting. The newspapers have done a meek and mild job so far of exposing Ford's shortcomings and I honestly suspect there is a deeper well to be tapped. "This ain't over".
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I thought The National was interesting last night. They reported on the poll numbers and how far ahead Ford is polling. Then they reviewed things like his Orientals comment, his comments about how roads are for bikes, etc. It was almost as those they were not so subtly saying "is this the guy you want to vote for?"
 
lets assume ford thinks asians are hard workers as per his revised statement, compared to who? does he believe there are groups of people who are not hard workers? if not, why make such a statement? if every racial group is hard working, why make such a statement to complement one group for a trait that is shared amongst all?
 
PinkLucy said:
I thought The National was interesting last night. They reported on the poll numbers and how far ahead Ford is polling. Then they reviewed things like his Orientals comment, his comments about how roads are for bikes, etc. It was almost as those they were not so subtly saying "is this the guy you want to vote for?"
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.. and then there's this morning's Globe and Mail, with their own 'trust' poll, in which Ford beats Smitherman by a huge margin.

I can't believe it. But, at the same time, I can believe it.

One of my former bosses told me to my face, years ago, that she would "never trust a homosexual man". I believe that there are more people out there like that old boss of mine than most Torontonians would care to admit to. There were witnesses to my exchange, and I had the boss seriously censured, and she never forgot the experience. I anticipate that if Ford becomes mayor, he will be censured a lot, because he doesn't appear to be a learner.

Make no mistake about this: Ford is exploiting the anti-gay vote.
 
That's rich -- "if they aren't going to be there, why pay them?" coming from the guy who has missed how many votes and meetings?
 
TonyV said:
.. and then there's this morning's Globe and Mail, with their own 'trust' poll, in which Ford beats Smitherman by a huge margin.

I can't believe it. But, at the same time, I can believe it.

One of my former bosses told me to my face, years ago, that she would "never trust a homosexual man". I believe that there are more people out there like that old boss of mine than most Torontonians would care to admit to. There were witnesses to my exchange, and I had the boss seriously censured, and she never forgot the experience. I anticipate that if Ford becomes mayor, he will be censured a lot, because he doesn't appear to be a learner.

Make no mistake about this: Ford is exploiting the anti-gay vote.
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You've pretty much called 43 percent of decided voters in Toronto Homophobic? That's a stretch no?

Not a Ford supporter, but that's pretty pathetic.
 
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