It should have been the last thing cut but Toronto's long-promised lobbyist registry was slashed almost immediately after city council delayed a decision on two sorely needed new taxes. The budget crunch resulting from ...
The Clean Sweep
August 3rd, 2007I call it the “New Broom Syndrome”.
Ever notice how well a new broom works.
After a while though, the broom grows weary, a little tattered and it misses the odd spot here and there.
David Miller had that brand-new broom. Remember the picture of him on the stage during his election victory – smiling with new broom in hand.
Boy, Miller seemed keen. Cleaning up city hall was to be his number one priority.
That big bad M.F.P. will never happen again. Remember he ensured us all of instituting a lobby registry.
We the people would finally know who was seeing who.
Even now with the M.F.P. long gone, we never really heard – publicly - about some of the persistent rumors. How David Miller’s wife worked in the Attorney General’s office. How she was instrumentally involved with Judge Bellamy and Ron Maines. Or, how was Maines a key player, to aid in Bellamy’s original appointment as a judge? Or, Bellamy’s discussions with “The Millers” during the enquiry. Or, how much money Maines, and his associates really were paid for the enquiry? Or how the Y2K chief, Dick O’Brien’s wife, Gail, worked for Jeff Lyons. Or how Jeff Lyons called in a favor and had Paul Godfrey get Linda the accountant her job at Hydro.
Well here we are in Miller’s second term.
And we do know one thing for sure.
Since his mayoral inception the city has blown through billions of dollars. All the excuses in the world can not justify his failure to actually have an open and transparent functioning lobby registry.
Maybe we could all learn how to spell the word “swept”.
After all, we, as a citizenry, deserve a clean mayor.
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