November 3, 2003
Would you have any faith in a mayor who says of Toronto Island Airport expansion: "It’ll Be Like the Air Show. Only 365 days a year?"
That’s the word-for-word scare mongering of mayoral candidate David Miller on his latest brochure, which depicts dozens of super jets converging over Toronto’s waterfront. The American-style image is presented on a high-gloss, two-sided, card-quality brochure--delivered to every Queen’s Quay condominium resident within the last 10 days of the 2003 municipal election campaign.
Miller didn’t bother pamphleteering the largely set-for-life population of the Toronto Islands, most of whom are already in his back pocket.
Nor does the union label appear anywhere on the glitzy campaign piece, even though the NDP Miller has the most trade union support among the mayoral candidates.
…"When Ms. Hall and Mr. Tory say they fully support the expansion of the Island Airport, they are not just supporting the destruction of our waterfront. They’re simply not thinking about the future of our city," states the brochure. "David Miller is. That’s because, of all the candidates, David is the only one who opposes any expansion of the Island Airport."
Aside from Miller’s irresponsible, scare-mongering, the election literature of the man the Toronto Star identifies as the front runner in the Toronto mayoral race, displays arrogant disdain for public interest.
As the medical pipeline for the province of Ontario, The Toronto City Centre Airport is a relied upon life-saving airport.
With the stroke of a pen, the heartless David Miller would casually cancel up to 4,000 Aero-Medical flights per year--and hundreds of more private Air Ambulance flights that rely on the airport’s advantageous location.
Downtown Toronto–the healthcare capitol of Ontario and Canada–supports the neo-natal, organ transplant, blood transfer, emergency and non-emergency specialized functions of our healthcare system.
When TIME SAVES LIVES, not only is the Island airport the closest and most convenient landing site to Toronto’s highly specialized downtown hospitals and advanced care facilities, short land ambulance transfer times become essential for time-critical patients, emergency blood and organ transfers.
Hype notwithstanding, pulling the plug on the service is not something Premier Dalton McGuinty wants for the province. It is less expensive for Ontario taxpayers to fly patients to Toronto for specialized or advanced care than to build scattered replacement facilities with billions of scarce healthcare dollars.
In the dying days of Toronto’s mainline media-massaged mayoral campaign, Miller is sounding more like his Toronto Island friend, Community AIR activist Allan Sparrow. Sparrow has never given up on his push to make Toronto Island, Coney Island, in a plan that will bring more than a million visitors a year flocking in to a giant amusement complex, restaurants and world-class hotels.
That computes to 250,000 visitors in four months, while the Robert DeLuce airport expansion would bring only an estimated 600,000 to 900,000 air passengers in a given 12-month period.
People come from everywhere, not just downtown Toronto to use the Island airport. Indeed, more than 2.75 million have used the island airport since 1984.
Does Miller not care about the residents in Scarborough and North York?
Is it the Sparrow/Miller or modest airport expansion, which will better serve public interest?
It is the council-approved bridge that Miller most objects to. Yet, a bridge will significantly reduce land ambulance transfer times by eliminating 15-minute ferry waiting times and will therefore relieve some pressure on general ambulance response time by freeing up dispatch availability for non-air ambulance business.
The cost of construction, maintenance and operation of a bridge would be far less than the $1 million per year it takes to run the smelly and antiquated ferry service. The ferry is a financial drain on the airport’s viability, and it accounts for most of the losses incurred by the airport.
Not that the many American draft dodgers who make up the Toronto Island population would care, but we now live in an age of terrorism. The Island airport protects the citizens of Toronto from the potential effects of man-made or natural disasters. The airport’s proximity to the city core makes it an ideal platform for multi-model emergency response over land, water and air to any crisis that could paralyze our city or afflict its citizens.
The 1996 Emergency Services Task Force made its recommendation clear: Emergency services need enhanced access to the airport via a bridge to ensure they can carry out their role if ever required. Building a bridge would eliminate any potential liabilities to the city for failing to respond adequately to emergencies--on or off the island airport.
Miller’s hypocrisy in this election campaign is unprecedented.
As Parkdale resident Gangadai Persaud points out in a letter to the editor, "While saying he is against the Island airport, Miller booked a flight back to the U.S. for Robert Kennedy Jr. from that very same airport."
Miller’s hypocrisy was not lost on Island airport personnel when Kennedy Jr. also boarded a helicopter via the Island’s Esso lounge for a tour of the city, residents of which he was about to lecture during a Miller-paid $25,000 (American) September speaking engagement.
Nor is the fly-Kennedy-from-Toronto-Island-Airport gig, Miller’s only hypocrisy.
"While saying he is against huge developments such as the Gothic Avenue condominium, the small-street Miller owns a house at 46 Gothic and supports the oversized Minto project near Yonge and Eglinton against the wishes of the vast majority of the residents," said Persaud.
"While saying that he works for the poor, Miller was behind the shutting down of rooming houses and gentrification of Parkdale, driving out the poor."
There are some–including the Toronto Star who believe that Miller as the only one of the four major candidates to oppose the bridge "has skillfully used that stand to separate himself from the crowded mayoral field."
The unbridled ambition of Miller, of course, does diddly-squat in serving Toronto’s public interest.
Meanwhile, New Democratic Party David Miller’s opposition to airport expansion should come as no surprise since he represents a party that wants to rid all Toronto roads from the big nasty automobile.
Perhaps the Toronto mayoral frontrunner’s main means of conveyance should be the one he sports on all election signs and brochures: a broom.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2018 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2018 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement