Bring It On Rob...

...you were elected to KICK ass so get on with it! Open your office closet and you will find a new broom that wasn't used in eight years except as a election prop.

James: We may not recognize post-Rob Ford Toronto

Royson James says the current cost-cutting exercise gives Mayor Rob Ford an opportunity to do what he has intended since taking office: radically reducing city government.

Richard Lautens/Toronto Star file photo

By Royson James Mayor Rob Ford, the catalyst behind the unprecedented makeover, is such a polarizing leader — and proud of it — that the transition is bound to be tumultuous. (16)

Ford makes layoffs sound like a certainty (220)

It is 13 years since amalgamation and Lastman and Miller FAILED to implement the basics...we still have six "city hall" buildings, there was virtually no reduction in the size of the six "core service" workforces, social in-activists and trough feeders captured Toronto Silly Hall, money saving contracted out garbage collection in the old City Of York cancelled by Comrade Miller to get union votes, actual costs of running the city were never passed on to residents and in fact Lastman got elected on a "no tax increase" platform, etc. etc.

Carved On Many Liberal Headstones

The Jindal Effect: Limbaugh get Rushed

Wendy Sullivan writes about the liberal media's 20 year obsession with the man they love to hate.

# Kathy Shaidle

To Make Something Work You Have To Try

Amalgamation was sunk by the parochial attitude of politicians, school trustees and the bully tactics of city and school unions who were more interested in maintaining their spot at the trough instead of making way for those that pay the bills.

10 years of amalgamation ... and the Toronto District School Board is still debating whether to go back to the future

Unlike some school boards, they won't be breaking out the candles or cake today to celebrate 10 years of amalgamation at the Toronto District School Board.

Instead, trustees are doing more stewing and brooding over what to do to fix the worst effects of forcing seven school boards into one, even talking about breaking up into smaller, more manageable pieces.

Amalgamation "was probably inevitable since Toronto went to one city," says North York trustee Gerri Gershon, part of a trustee transition team back in 1997. But, "I think (the school boards) were almost an afterthought in the minds of government. We were not given a lot of the (organizational) help given to the city and there was not a lot of thought that went into this."

Little help perhaps, with a whole lot of culture clash. As at city hall, trustees from across Metro Toronto brought different ideas about doing things. Downtown trustees prided themselves on social and cultural programs and keeping under-enrolled neighbourhood schools open so students could still walk to them.

Scarborough and Etobicoke trustees were used to efficiency and doing without. North Yorkers thought highly of their student achievement testing. Sparks flew at the board table as trustees guarded their local pet programs from cutbacks.

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Would Things Be Different Today

If Mayor Mel and council, which included Comrade Miller, had accepted amalgamation as a fact of life and implemented the various components. As it stands today we still don't have harmonization of all services with the labour reduction it would have precipitated and millions and millions of $$$$ ito be gained by selling redundant property which were necessary to offset the downloads and make the process revenue neutral. If they had done so then the province couldn't dance around the issue.

Leaders failing Toronto TheStar.com - comment - Leaders failing Toronto

July 26, 2007

Premier Dalton McGuinty has it half-right. A slim majority of Toronto city councillors indeed failed their community last week by postponing action on two necessary new taxes. Their inability to make tough decisions was rightly criticized by the premier, especially since council had earlier fought hard to win new tax powers for Toronto.

But McGuinty overlooks another failure of leadership equally damaging to Toronto – his own. And Conservative Leader John Tory and NDP Leader Howard Hampton are just as lacking in leadership on this issue, which affects the lives of 2.5 million Toronto residents.

McGuinty indicated this week he would take no immediate action to reverse years of provincial downloading that have badly hurt Toronto. A comprehensive report is being prepared on provincial-municipal relations and it seems nothing will be done until it arrives in February.

The premier also noted that his Liberal government has given substantial new money to Toronto, ranging from a share of the gasoline tax to strong support for capital projects.

However, Queen's Park has also imposed costs on Toronto and other Ontario municipalities that properly should be paid by the province. With Toronto facing a $575 million budget shortfall, and cuts looming in services ranging from the TTC to libraries, the city cannot afford to wait six months in the vague hope of some relief from Queen's Park.