Simple Truths Allude Comrade Miller & The Politburo

Keep up the heat, Councillor
By Lorrie Goldstein

Toronto councillors can ridicule Coun. Rob Ford all they want.

But his ongoing campaign to shame them into giving up some of their perks, even as they demand that the rest of us pay more for diminishing city services, deserves support.

Sure, Ford is grandstanding in part, but so what? At least he's not a hypocrite.

Every year, he spends the least amount of money set aside by councillors to ensure they can live in the style to which too many of them have become accustomed.

On one level, what Ford's critics say is true.

Things like free golf passes for councillors at city-owned courses, free parking at "Green P" municipal lots, free passes to the TTC, Toronto Zoo, Casa Loma and Exhibition Place, free tickets for plays and concerts and free food at council meetings, don't amount to much in the $7.8-billion budget council approved this week.

But the optics are terrible, and not just because councillors jealously guard their own perks, while asking the rest of us to pay more.

Just as important is the fact that people who get things for free don't tend to value them.

How can councillors appreciate what a hardship it is for a family of four on a tight budget to shell out $60 (plus parking or TTC fares) for a one-day trip to the Toronto Zoo, if they never have to pay for it themselves?

Since it doesn't cost councillors anything to ride public transit in Toronto, they will never develop the common sense perspective that comes from paying your own way. One that would cause them to pause and think, for example, "geez, we can't hike fares so soon after the last time, it's just not fair."

It's hard to treat the public's dollars like your own when you're constantly helping yourself to them.

While Ford can be a buffoon, the reason the attacks against him by other councillors on this issue are so persistent, personal and vicious is that deep down, they know he's right. They simply lack the courage to admit it.

Worse, they are too greedy and arrogant to do anything about it.