Is Toronto regaining its sanity?

It was with significant surprise that I read yesterday how Rob Ford has slipped into a comfortable lead over all of his opponents in the Toronto mayoralty race. It is surprising considering how comfortable Torontonians were in electing the spendthrift David Miller over the fiscally responsible and always full of unique ideas John Tory.

Perhaps this is a sign of resignation of the citizens of Toronto after endless disruptions by the spoiled brat leaders of the TTC and the Toronto Civic Employees union that has resulted in transit strikes and garbage strikes and saw David Miller fold like a deck of cards every time. To put simply, Torontonians are fed up.

Now, I don't see Rob Ford as a knight in shining armor. I tend to find some of his views to be a little too far to the right for me. But as long as his more socially conservative views are not going to cause a ruckus or lead to ill treatment of minority groups, I don't see this as a problem.

Toronto's problems are fiscal in nature. Under David Miller's seven-year leadership, the annual operating budget has risen from $6.4 Billion $9.2 Billion almost a full 50%. This is as clear a sign of the utter ridiculousness of the Miller team.

And what has it gotten us? Ask any Torontonian what David Miller's legacy will be and most will have no clue. Ask any Torontonian what major changes happened in Toronto since David Miller came to power and they are likely to give you windfall of negativity and no positive angles at all. From new tax after new spending after new tax, Miller has achieved the most epic of epic fails.

Make no mistake, Toronto is a left-wing city. The fact that the federal Conservatives can't make a single headway into the Metro core is a clear sign. As such, it is more likely that people aren't being drawn towards Rob Ford so much as David Miller's policies are driving them in that direction. They know that they were sold a bill of goods by Miller and his cronies who have achieved nothing substantial for the incredible increase in costs Toronto has seen.

As Kelly McParland so eloquently put it, David Miller's legacy could very well be Rob Ford.

Unlike certain places that refuse to accept that there is no such place as a utopia where you can pay anybody anything they want without taking in more tax money to cover the costs, everyday Torontonians have obviously recognized that you can't spend money that isn't there. And while it's a nice fantasy that unions should be able to pay uneducated trash collectors the same wage as some of the most trained professionals out there, fantasy does not bode well in reality and can usually kill it.

Here's hoping that a Rob Ford victory will find him actually able to implement the kind of policies that would save this city from its fiscal destruction.