If Toronto were a fairytale, Mayor David Miller would be its wicked king.
Night after night, there's another shoot-up in T.O. Day after day, Miller does nothing about it. (See Shootings in David Miller's Toronto).
Miller, one of the clutch of socialist councillors keeping Toronto behind for years, ran a 2003 mayoral campaign centered on killing expansion plans for the Toronto City Centre airport, more fondly known as the Toronto Island airport.
a highlight of his campaign strategy was bringing in american activist Robert Kennedy Jr. for a speaking engagement warning Torontonians of the dangers of airport expansion. Somewhat hypocritically, Kennedy flew back to the U.S. via the Toronto Island airport.
Doing zilch about the ongoing shooting sprees on Toronto streets is not Miller's only failure as chief magistrate. Toronto still ships its garbage and sludge over the border to Michigan, and despite all the hype, doesn't know what else to do with it.
Miller's lackluster term, can be categorized as one of whining for more money from senior levels of government and blaming americans for the guns on T.O. streets.
On January 23, Miller's Liberal friends suffered defeat at the polls in a federal election that saw the new Canadian Conservative Party as victorious.
Within days of that momentous event, Miller took to the airwaves reminding the Tories that, here in Toronto, the Liberals and the NDP still dominate.
Diplomacy was not one of the disciplines when this Harvard graduate was earning his degree.
Like one of his favourite lockstep acolytes, Coun. Howard Moscoe, Miller is expert at putting his mouth ahead of his brain.
On February 2, Toronto businessman Robert DeLuce, Miller's mayoral campaign bogeyman last time out, launched Porter airlines, a commuter service that is to begin flying to Canadian and U.S. destinations later this year.
In other words–Toronto Island airport expansion in 2006–municipal election year.
as soon as you could say, "Karl Marx", the same Miller who was only mouthing off at the Tories about the Liberals and NDP still owning post-election Toronto, was begging the Tories to quash airport expansion.
"The City of Toronto doesn't have many tools to fight this," Miller lamented. "This is a federal agency that is under federal control that has never respected the wishes of the people of the City of Toronto, and it's the federal government that will have to bring it to heel."
When Miller was venting his spleen in the aftermath of the federal election, he had bolstered himself with the confidence that his close buddy, former Coun. Olivia Chow, wife of former Coun. Jack Layton, now leader of the New Democrat Party, was a newly elected MP.
Olivia, he thought, now held all the power for Miller-time Toronto.
For many years, the Miller-Layton-Chow trio had ultimate power when they were running Toronto City Hall.
So it was almost comical when Layton buddy Buzz Hargrove, President of the influential Canadian auto Workers, hailed the airport venture as "good for Toronto". In fact, Hargrove was one of two people flanking entrepreneur DeLuce when he made his surprise announcement.
Socialist politicians always think they own union leaders and never seem to realize it's usually the opposite.
One of Miller's own councillors, Denzil Minnan-Wong decided to seize the moment and speak out against his master.
Rather than protesting, the mayor should support a plan that will create 500 jobs at the island airport and boast the city's sagging aerospace sector, said Coun. Minnan-Wong.
"If you ant to revitalize the waterfront, you want to have business in there, too," he said.
That Miller keeps a tight rein on the city mothers makes Minnan-Wong's pro-airport comments all that more remarkable.
If that's not enough election year irony for the likes of David Miller, consider the financial backers of Porter's parent company, REGCO Holdings Inc., which has collected$125-million in equity financing and that its investors include Edgestone Capital Partners and Borealis Infrastructure–which manages investments for the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS).
add to Miller's headaches that the Toronto Islanders, who fought airport expansion for many moons, and who boasted that they elected Miller as mayor, are up in arms–again.
S.O.S to high profile candidates who might be thinking of stepping into the 2006 Toronto mayoral race: King David's crown is slipping.
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
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