By arthur Weinreb
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
It was quite a weekend for news. While members of the Iraq Study Group were hitting the U.S. Sunday morning shows to pitch their report, we were told that former Chilean dictator augusto Pinochet had passed away at age 91. We also learned that rescue crews were busy searching for the 25-year-old daughter of former NHL great Bob Gainey who was swept from the deck of a Nova Scotia tall ship several hundred kilometers off the coast of Cape Cod. and if that wasn't enough, Toronto Mayor David Miller left the confines of his tony High Park neighourhood and his beloved downtown core and travelled to the outer reaches of Toronto's suburbs.
The headlines said it all. "Miller greets public on own turf” screamed the Toronto Star. The headline on aM640's website was less creative and merely stated the shocking news that "Miller visited troubled neighbourhoods”. What was apparently newsworthy was not anything that the mayor did when he got there, but the fact that he actually set foot in some of Toronto's "disadvantaged” burbs.
There is nothing particularly unusual about political leaders travelling within the confines of the jurisdiction that they govern. Since air travel became common it is not unusual to see Prime Minister Stephen Harper or Prime Minister anybody show up in any and all parts of Canada. Usually, what the prime minister is doing in these various locales is newsworthy, but we have long since questioned or wondered in amazement at the fact that the prime minister actually went there. Yet, when David Miller travels a few lousy kilometers to the Don Mills Rd. and Overlea Blvd. area of the city, the flashbulbs begin popping.
While the neighbourhoods that the mayor ventured into last weekend are troubled areas with high crime rates relative to the rest of the city, these areas aren't exactly the badlands that are found on the afghanistan/Pakistan border. Yet, the fact that Miller actually made these forays, away from the comfort of the downtown core was what was attracting all the attention.
It's not that our mayor doesn't like to travel. He goes all over the world on the taxpayer's dime. But there's something wrong when going to Malvern to speak to some of his constituents is a bigger deal than his frequent trips to Chicago to look lovingly at that city's waterfront.
The fact that Miller's weekend visits to four suburban areas of the city happened teaches us a lot about the Toronto mayor. Miller's an elitist who has no particular interest in the residents of the city who aren't his kind of people. Those who inhabit the neighbourhoods that he travelled to this weekend are of little importance to the mayor. They are nothing more than props to be used by Miller and his loyal yes-men and women on council to further their socialist agenda. The residents of those areas are merely "victims” of capitalism, racism and a bunch of other "isms” that are too stupid or too disadvantage to survive without the help of Brother David and his government.
Miller was quoted in the Star as saying, "It's tradition for the mayor to welcome people after a new city council is sworn in. Usually it's done at City Hall, but I wanted to go out and talk with people in some of the neighbourhoods that need the most investment”. What nerve! The royal mayor has deigned to leave his urinal-like castle in the city core and travel to the outer reaches of his kingdom to mingle with the unwashed masses; rather than requiring them to travel downtown to be in the presence of his greatness. If Miller didn't show complete and utter contempt for these people, merely setting foot in these areas would not have been the big deal that it was.
Let's hope the downtrodden citizens of Toronto who live in these neighbourhoods saw Miller for what he really is – a smug elitist who made himself feel better by going to the outer reaches of Malvern; an area where he ordinarily wouldn't be caught dead in.
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