Common Sense Doesn't Seem To Be An Attribute

When it comes to the political process. Everyone agrees that Miller's performance during the last three years has been less than satisfactory and this is highlighted by his refusal to recognize four simple business practices:

Zero based budgeting at city hall;

Value-for-money audits;

Streamlining red tape;

Ending so called 'union only' contract provisions; and

Publishing information about government procurement and contracts

but people will still vote for him.

EDITORIAL: Jane Pitfield for mayor

Before casting your ballot in the Toronto election tomorrow, ask yourself one question about Mayor David Miller.

What’s he done? Name one thing — other than stopping the Island Airport bridge.

He said that wouldn’t cost us more than a toonie.

So far, it’s cost us 18.5 million of them, cleaning up the legal mess he caused.

Three years ago, Miller said he would transform our city.

What’s he transformed?

Look around. Are you getting better services to go with the property tax hikes you’ve had to pay every year?

Is our city safer? Cleaner?

Is gridlock better? Has public transit improved as fares have gone up?

Never mind the self-congratulatory reports coming from City Hall on these fronts. Trust your own judgment.

Most people already know the answer, which is why the same polls that show Miller will win tomorrow also show almost six in 10 Torontonians believe we need a new mayor.

Even the Toronto Star, Miller’s biggest booster, has given him only a lukewarm endorsement.

Their advice is to hold your nose and vote for him because there’s no serious alternative.

We think that’s absurd.

Our advice is to vote for veteran city councillor Jane Pitfield and get Toronto moving again.

Pitfield’s campaign has been disappointing, but not her record at City Hall.

On issues from incineration, to fighting crime, to getting the homeless and panhandlers off our streets, to breaking the stranglehold city unions have on the taxpayers of Toronto and the services it provides, Pitfield gets it.

The status quo is not an option. But as long as Miller, his merry band of NDP councillors and the hoary pack of Liberal and Tory backroom boys advising him are in charge, nothing will change.

Miller will be, if re-elected, what he has been, a caretaker mayor constrained by a rigid, left-wing orthodoxy.

Pitfield, by contrast, an eight-year veteran of City Hall, has done exactly what a councillor diligently preparing for the top job should do.

She’s worked in the big jobs that count, that help one understand the nuts and bolts of city services — how they work and why they don’t.

She’s been chair of the works committee, a veteran member of the key budget and audit committees.

She knows where your money goes and how it’s spent, and misspent.

She’s also familiarized herself with the social challenges Toronto faces — serving as chair of the aboriginal committee and the co-chair of the homelessness committee.

Her record speaks to someone genuinely interested in finding effective ways to help Toronto improve its services to all residents, including its most vulnerable.

But what Pitfield does not believe in, to her credit, is throwing money at every problem, because she understands that when you do that, there will never be enough money and the problems will never be fixed.

Miller has accused Pitfield of flip-flopping, which is rich coming from a mayor who used to campaign against dumping our garbage into the ground, and who has now bought a garbage dump, with no public consultation, and with the price we will pay kept secret until after the election.

That’s just one reason, among many, we endorse Jane Pitfield for mayor.