Eleven days from the registration deadline, candidates are massing in near-record numbers to snag one of 44 Toronto city council seats, and the near-$100,000 annual salary and freebies that go with the plum, four-year posting.Across the border into York, Durham, Peel and Halton — where the salaries can be higher and workload lighter — the campaigns for mayor may surpass Toronto's sorry contest on the excitement meter.

There are new mayors to be crowned in Newmarket, Richmond Hill, Markham, Burlington and a new regional boss in Halton, and good contests anticipated in Oakville and Vaughan.

At Queen and Bay, we barely have a race, despite tens of candidates gasping to be mayor of Toronto.

Challenger Jane Pitfield's policy announcements are less of a nuisance to the incumbent than a fly on a horse's behind. And Dennis Mills, the flamboyant, rambunctious ex-MP who could be a burr under the mayor's saddle? Mills seems more interested in the tease than the tango.

We are left to ponder, what if?

What if Barbara Hall's vote hadn't collapsed in 2003 and vaulted David Miller ahead of John Tory into the mayor's office? Can you imagine Tory sitting back on his butt for three years with little progress on garbage, waterfront revitalization, transportation, the city budget?

What if Miller is challenged, even just a bit, for the November vote and forced to outline a list of deliverables over the next four years? Maybe voters would have something to measure his performance against.

For, try as you might, you won't find too many promises from 2003 with Miller's fingerprints on them.And if he isn't challenged more than we've seen so far, what's the incentive to outline a broad, comprehensive vision — including hard, risky decisions and tough pills he wants the electorate to swallow for the good of the city?It'd be almost like running against yourself.

We elected a mayor in 2003 whose only plank was to stop a bridge to the island airport — a promise whose keeping has brought jets closer to resuming flights over the island, with the new Porter Airlines.And, of course, Miller's campaign will soon be rallying the troops to stop Bob Deluce, Porter Airlines, the Port Authority, the federal government and every phantom monster lurking to destroy the degraded waterfront. Toronto voters love the exaggeration.

It gives us a common external enemy when the internal, perennial giants of garbage, gridlock and crime have proved so difficult to tackle, much less slay.

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