When You Are Making A Decision About Voting

Would broken promises by a candidate make them a no go? If so, and if you are going to vote in the municipal election, remember the names of the Toronto politicians who kept their promise and those that did not.......

Little piggies that won't

Some councillors talked a good game about not taking a pay hike, but ...

By SUE-ANN LEVY

Well now folks, here's a huge surprise from the depths of Hogtown Hall, home to council's piggies at the trough.

It appears few of Toronto's troughers, er, politicians, want to put their money where their mouth is.

A mere six of the 21 councillors who voted against their controversial 8.9% pay hike back in July have signed a pledge to roll back the increase at the first meeting of the next council.

That pledge, orchestrated by mayoral candidate Jane Pitfield in September, calls for the next council to accept a cost-of-living increase instead of the hike that will bring their $87,214 salaries to $95,000 starting in January.

The pay increase was narrowly approved 22-21 at July's council meeting when Coun. Raymond Cho left the chambers just minutes before the vote. Had he stayed and voted against the increase as he indicated he would, it would have been defeated.

Among incumbent councillors, only Frances Nunziata, Mike Del Grande, Rob Ford, Cliff Jenkins, Cesar Palacio and Michael Walker accepted Pitfield's challenge.

41 CANDIDATES

But some 41 candidates running for council made the pledge. Some indicated they are running specifically because they were so upset about the pay hike.

Pitfield says she's "disappointed" that all of her council colleagues who voted against the increase didn't sign her pledge.

"It was a good opportunity for councillors to show their commitment," she said, insisting voters have not forgotten about the pay hike. "It would go a long way to restore voters' faith in why we are here."

Del Grande said he wants to roll back the hike because he doesn't think council collectively has proven that it merits an increase -- especially since the city's debt has gone up by $1-billion while services have declined in the past three years. "We have not demonstrated that we've been good stewards of the responsibilities we've undertaken," he said.

Palacio thinks it was wrong of councillors to vote for their own salary hikes and would have preferred to give seniors a tax rebate.

We all know how magnanimous many of our councillors can be when they think the media spotlight is on them -- and how quickly their spines can turn to jelly when they think no one is paying attention.

CAN'T TURN IT DOWN

Nunziata says she thinks many of her colleagues voted against the increase because they knew "everybody" was watching them and they didn't want the pay hike to be an election issue. She feels when push comes to shove not many of them "have the guts" to actually turn the money down.

"That really makes me sick that only six people signed (the pledge)" she said.

Remember their names: Those councillors who voted against the 8.9% increase at July's council meeting but chose not to sign Pitfield's pledge include: Maria Augimeri, Glenn De Baeremaeker, Mike Feldman, Mark Grimes, Suzan Hall, Doug Holyday, Peter Li Preti, Peter Milczyn, Denzil Minnan-Wong, Case Ootes, David Shiner, Karen Stintz and Michael Thompson. (David Soknacki has been omitted because he's not running for re-election.)