That is basically what Mayor Miller and his leftwing fiscal incompotents are asking of Stephen Harper even though he actively campaigned against Harper in the last federal election. $150K for his one cent campaign is chump change but add to that the money he spent on a number Toronto Talk town hall meetings, buying a landfill site instead of getting serious about incineration, refusing to contract out services, etc. etc. plus his broken promises and Miller wonders why people don't him seriously. Lorrie might have a point but McGinty is probably getting the same picture Harper has...Miller is a millstone around the neck of anyone who takes his seriously.
Here's 2 cents worth for David Miller
By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN
We understand Mayor David Miller's desire to get more money for Toronto from Ottawa and Queen's Park.
As long as he remembers that it's our money.
But the way Miller, who's strongly identified with the NDP, is going exclusively after Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper with his "one cent now" campaign for a cent of the federal GST, is dangerously partisan.
Why only go after Harper?
Why not Liberal Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty for a cent of the provincial sales tax and, more important, to upload social services to the province, now wrongly funded by property taxes?
And why now? Sure, there may be a federal election this spring, but it's not a lock.
But by law, McGuinty has to faces voters in October. Miller should be lobbying him now.
Suppose there isn't a federal election this spring? Miller will have to revive his "one cent now" campaign months from now. By then, will anyone care?
Miller has enough trouble convincing taxpayers he and his council spend their tax dollars wisely.
By zeroing in on Harper, many of those taxpayers will angrily assume Miller is just being a partisan, NDP hack in attacking a Conservative PM.
What good will that do?
Miller risks being frozen out by the federal Tories if he goes much further down this road.
The Toronto mayor has to work closely with whomever wins the next federal election.
What are the chances that will happen if Harper has dismissed Miller by then as someone who worked openly to defeat his government?
Miller might get away with it if Harper loses. But if he wins?
While Miller still hasn't gotten the city's finances in order, he does make a good point about the danger of underfunding Toronto, the engine of Ontario's economy, which is in turn the engine of Canada's economy.
Miller's campaign for substantial new funding for public transit (beyond the York subway) and other services from the senior levels of government is a valid one.
Plus, Miller is right that social programs should be paid for by the higher levels of government, using the progressive income tax system. Not property taxes which should be used to fund hard services like police, public works, roads, sewers, fire fighters, paramedics.
Problem is, Miller and his council have dug the financial money pit they're already in even deeper by funding social programs that shouldn't be addressed by property taxes.
So much so that not even Toronto's share of a one-cent GST rebate -- about $410 million annually -- would be enough to put city finances on a rock-solid footing.
Of course it would help.
But Miller doesn't have the key to that lock. Harper does. And every day, Miller is giving Harper less reason to open the vault for Toronto.
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