Jane is saying the right things but it is falling on deaf ears........
If not Jane, then who?
By JOHN DOWNING
Now is the time for all good men (and women) to come to the aid of the city (and Jane Pitfield.)
An influential and famous Grit is on the phone. He dislikes David Miller's behaviour in power to the point of feeling betrayed the mayor hasn't delivered on one "damn promise."
His questions are also on the lips of the majority of Torontonians who don't vote NDP and gloomily contemplate an election where we may be stuck again with socialists controlling City Hall with the mayor, the largest voting bloc and the unions all flip-flopping off the left side of any issue.
He asks: Can Pitfield win? What can be done to help her? Can another big candidate be found?
A veteran Tory is calling, one who has watched Miller from his undistinguished days as just another west-end lawyer and elected councillor after he ran for everything, including the Queen car and was defeated three times in mean campaigns.
My answers are that Pitfield can win providing leading Tories and Grits get off their comfortable behinds and take the risk of being seen in support of a possible loser.
It's time for those who have led the city -- Paul Godfrey, Alan Tonks, David Crombie and Art Eggleton -- and other political pros like senators David Smith and Jerry Grafstein -- to start working and stop yapping. After all, there isn't any Plan B.
Ironically, John Tory would win this time with the Grits and Tories uniting against a union-dominated City Hall where even the cleaners clean-up in pay. Except Tory is performing credibly as Opposition leader. And with Dalton McGuinty's government starting to unravel along with his truthfulness, next fall he could be Premier Tory (which will cause some to think that's a typo.)
Let's not waste time dreaming of what could have been.
Of course Dennis Mills, the idiosyncratic Grit, would have had more grand schemes and people skills if he could have been weaned from the mega bucks of Magna.
And another flawed Grit, or whatever-the-hell he is these days, John Nunziata, would dance around Miller's corporate urbanisms.
The quip of the 1972 race was that the handlers of the intense David Rotenberg decided he looked best on radio.
Now we have a candidate -- definitely not a Plain Jane -- who sounds best in newspapers. Her ideas are better than her delivery. She's always stuck too much to her script.
We need more time to sense the real mood.
Early debates have both sides trucking in supporters, and then the usual activists hungry to be noticed.
We need issues to ripen. For example, most details on the latest dump deal will be kept hidden before the election. But if the city is paying $220 million now, it could have bought it and saved money years ago because the search and delays cost $250 million.
Miller hoped he had waved a wand and made the garbage crisis disappear, but questions for the Miller Lites remain.
Why did they sandbag the Adams Mine proposal where our garbage would have gone to an ugly mine pit with fewer neighbours?
Miller is always preaching about being saved by other governments: a new deal for cities, a national transit strategy, better revenue-sharing etc. Why doesn't he confront the reality that council must clean up its own house first or the foundation will stay wormy. Blaming others gets tiresome.
We're reminded everywhere from Luke (Physician, heal thyself) to Pogo looking in the mirror (I have seen the enemy and he is us) that God helps those who help themselves.
Pitfield sees the city's rot is within, which is why she needs more help.
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