If we were to buy into the hype of current deal-making megacity councillors, Jack Layton and Olivia Chow have given up on socialism.
The jockeying for position and deal making to accommodate as many council egos as possible has advanced Coun. Chow--who made an early 1990s career of police bashing--as the latest council appointee to the long suffering Toronto Police Services Board.
Most of the councillors on the unwieldy city council were around in the days when Layton and Chow were unabashed supporters of the ambitious Susan Eng.
That was then, this is now and it's not too easy making appointments to city boards with so many councillors feuding it out behind the scenes.
Only time will tell if Olivia has outgrown her cop bashing behaviour.
If she hasn't, let's hope municipal voters remember that it was all made possible, courtesy of the ego of Coun. Judy Sgro.
In her appointment to the services board, Chow replaced Coun. Sherene Shaw, out of favour with the council elite because she was part of a failed attempt last January to unseat Sgro as the board's deputy chairman.
According to city hall sources, Shaw, who is a quick study in the power of city council's elite, had to be "punished".
Rather than allowing her name to stand, she issued a letter stating she no longer wanted to be considered a candidate for the police board.
It’s all too typical of this back-biting council, that Chow also got the post originally designated for York Coun. Frances Nunziata, who was Mayor Mel Lastman's original choice for the Shaw replacement. Even persuasive Lastman staff members like Vince Negro, could not finesse enough support for Nunziata, reason being that Sgro, has an ongoing political feud with the Nunziata family, and councillors believed the bitter blood from that battle would spill over to the Police Services Board.
Apparently Sgro never got over the blow to her sensibilities when John Nunziata, running as a lonely independent, soundly defeated her even though she was a hand-picked candidate by Prime Minister Jean Chretien in the York-South Weston election campaign of 1997.
In other words, three warring municipal councillors paved the way for a cop basher's final debut to Toronto's Police Services Board.
So much for hypocritical right-leaning councillors who wax most eloquently in public speeches about their disapproval of the antics of council's NDP faction. It was right wing elite members of the striking committee who sanctioned Chow's appointment.
Proving how far political rhetoric can go, deputy mayor and striking committee chairman Case Oootes predicts, "Olivia has the credentials, the experience and the political skills," to deal with the job. "She will do what's in the best interests of the public regardless of the consequences."
Right, Case.
Curious and curiouser are the words of Craig Bromell, President of the Toronto Police Association.
"I think we could have done a lot worse than Olivia," said Bromell.
The only one worse would have been husband Jack Layton.
Is the same Craig Bromell who was going to identify council cop bashers in a well-publicized ad campaign?
At least retiring Police Chief Dave Boothby, sometimes accused of being too politically correct, was telling it like it is.
Chow has not been a friend of police, he admitted at a news conference following the Chow appointment.
Let’s hope Chow was sincere in her words: "I want police officers to feel proud of this city. They are the ones risking their lives."
Rank-and-file police officers are the ones risking their lives for the rest of us.
We think Olivia Chow should have admitted it long ago.