David Miller's Legacy: A Bankrupt City

I was speaking with a friend of mine last night and we were discussing different aspects of the city. With me being kind of centre-right and her being more to the left, we of course have different perspectives. She dreaded the arrival of Rob Ford while I am relieved that we have somebody with a unique and very ambitious plan for Toronto.

However, she took me totally by surprise in suggesting that David Miller had a positive, long term vision of the city and that Toronto is one of the better fiscally managed cities in Canada. She also indicated that Toronto's debt has been managed very well compared to other cities in Canada.

Needless to say, I was dumbfounded. While I didn't want to take her to task over this -- being well aware of the ballooning budget -- I decided to not say anything about the debt level until I could present to her the actual numbers. So, this is what I pulled up.

Toronto - 2003

• Debt: $2.1 Billion
• Annual Budget: $6 Billion

Toronto - 2010

• Debt: $3.1 Billion
• Annual Budget: $9 Billion

In case it doesn't jump out at you right away, these numbers indicate that both the debt level of the city and the annual budget post-Miller is 150% of what it was pre-Miller. And let's not forget that Toronto is now pulling in approximately $750 Million more each year with the new Land Transfer Tax and Vehicle Registration Tax.

And when we compare Toronto to other cities, the picture isn't pretty either. Toronto has the third largest debt per capita of any Canadian city:

1. Montreal = $8,274
2. Calgary = $3,843
3. Toronto = $2,671

This kind of lays to rest any discussion on whether or not Toronto has been well-managed. It's not like David Miller was mayor for 30 years; he was in power for 7. To increase the debt and budget size of the city that significantly in that short of a time... it's almost imperceptible.

David Miller may go down as the most destructive mayor the city of Toronto ever had. One need only look at his spineless approach to unions in capitulating to their each and every wage demand...

...his ridiculous approach to poverty and community housing by giving away property...

...his mindless approach to the homeless in not even trying to figure out who they are, how many there are and coming up with a concise plan based on real numbers...

...his approach to roads in the city that have left businesses in ruins...

...and his complete disregard of the taxpayers' money.

Toronto is in sore shape right now. Thankfully we have somebody who is ready to give the city the shock therapy it so sorely needs. Let's hope that Rob Ford is able to enact the changes he plans. Toronto is on the brink. If Ford can do for Toronto what Rudy Giuliani did for New York, we may enter a new Golden Age for the city. And if anybody has the cojones to do it, it's Rob Ford.

UPDATE * * *

As pointed out in the comments section, my debt figures in the trillions of dollars is incorrect. As it is, I was using figures from the City of Toronto's website in which they quote their figures as being in millions.

The gross outstanding debt in 2010 is 3,063,064 (millions). Clearly, if the base value is in millions, that number becomes $3,063,064,000,000 or roughly $3.063 Trillion. However, Toronto's gross debt is actually $3.063 Billion. That would mean their base value is in the thousands: 3,063,064 (thousands) = $3,063,640,000

I've correct the debt figures back to being in the billions. Surprise, surprise that the City of Toronto's finances are so screwed up that they can't even quote financial figures on their website correctly.

Why my support of Harper is on a razor's edge

I have long believed in Stephen Harper. From the time he was the leader of the Canadian Alliance, I have long held him in the greatest esteem as a brilliant political leader with the intelligence needed to lead Canada away from the mud that the Liberal Party dragged the country into.

Unfortunately, my support is now on a razor's edge. And it all has to do with Julian Fantino.

It is my view that the Conservative Party is as much at fault over the Caledonia catastrophe as any other party. The Harper government has presented itself as a law-and-order party. It has brought in long-needed reforms. It has stood up to the lunacy of the farcical long-gun registry. And yet, it did not have the cojones to stand up to the rampant lawlessness and threats to our fellow citizens that has gone unchecked in Caledonia.

However, the actions taken by Julian Fantino -- from ignoring the rule of law, to blaming and trying to penalize the victims of violence to outrightly threatening the elected officials of Caledonia -- has been the most disgusting and disturbing action taken by a police official I have ever seen. I have nothing but utter contempt for the disrespect and cowardice displayed by Fantino.

The fact that the Conservative Party would welcome Fantino into the fold is like pouring salt on an open wound. In fact, that is exactly what it is. They have rewarded the actions of a man deserving of contempt. While Julian Fantino earned a reputation as a first rate policing leader, he pissed all over that reputation by ignoring his sworn duty and holding himself above the citizens who gave him their trust to do what is right.

As it is, I am at a crossroads. If an election were held today, I would still vote for Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party. But there is no way in Hades that I am going to donate to the party now. That money would better serve a victims of violence group than a party who gives a pat on the back to a man like Julian Fantino. And so long as the Conservative Party touts itself as the defender of law-and-order while turning their backs on the citizens of Caledonia, I will certainly not be rewarding their hypocrisy.

Toronto to Ontario to Canada: A Conservative Cascade Effect

The victory of Rob Ford in Toronto's mayoral race certainly changes the political landscape significantly. Having a staunch conservative running the show in one of Canada's most liberal cities is a coup of the highest order. But it is the timing that could prove to be the most promising aspect.

As we all know, October 2011 will mark the next provincial election in Ontario. All signs are pointing towards McGuinty and the Ontario Liberal Party's demise with a possible takeover by the Tim Hudak lead Progressive Conservatives. The next Canadian federal election is set for October of 2012 though this could be overridden by actions of the official Lame-O-pposition.

It is the annual frequency of these elections that offer a certain degree of promise for supporters of the federal Conservative Party of Canada. If Rob Ford can withstand the obvious resistance he will face from Toronto City Council and build a certain degree of momentum, the changeover of the provincial government to a more conservative government could turn the tide in the options available to Toronto.

There can be little doubt that some of Rob Ford's more ambitious plans would find a louder resonance with a Conservative provincial government over the current Liberal one. And if Rob Ford can build a coalition within City Council to move his agenda forward, combined with both a provincially and federally Conservative atmosphere, Torontonians may in fact see this as a windfall of cooperation between the levels of government that has not been seen for decades.

McGuinty rams heads with Harper. Mike Harris had to ram heads with Chretien and Martin. David Peterson and Bob Rae rammed heads with Mulroney. Bill Davis rammed heads with Trudeau. To have three levels of cooperative, like-minded political ideology between Ford, Hudak and Harper... the promise is certain.

If Hudak takes power and works with both Harper and Ford, it may be possible to destroy the Liberal bastion that is Toronto and shift it forever to the right. Of course, this will all depend on the Harper Conservatives maintaining power until the next scheduled election of October 2012.

If they can do so and at the same time build a coalition of willing participants to change the Toronto landscape, Stephen Harper may be able to secure the majority that has eluded him thus far. If that majority is achieved with the help of a Toronto that begins to see the benefits of conservative principles in governance, there will be nothing stopping Harper from taking back those mandatory government political party subsidies that have been so difficult for Harper to dispose of.

We all know such a change of funding will ruin both the Liberals and the Bloc entirely. But more importantly, without this income, the Liberals may never be able to take Toronto -- or Canada -- back again.

Mayor Rob Ford... yes, it's official!

All I can say is, thank the maker... we have a real fiscal conservative in control in Canada. And in Toronto of all places!

The city needed shock treatment and that's what it got. I certainly am hopeful that Rob Ford surprises everybody and is able to implement his seemingly mountainous platform.

More subways? Yes!

Less streetcars? Double yes!

Respect for drivers? Triple yes!

Councillors being held accountable for both their voting and spending? You better believe it!

And, uh... Mr Miller? Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Your legacy has arrived. And his name is Rob Ford.

Google Blocking Blogging Tories?

Somebody mentioned this on another blog and I looked into it myself. Sure enough, Google is blocking access to a few Blogging Tories blogs. Doing a Google search I found they had a harmful site block on:

Blogging Tories

Stephen Taylor

Small Dead Animals

All on the same day. Coincidence? I don't believe in coincidence.

Seems like the official Lame-O-pposition supporters may be engaging in their typically petty games.

Tomorrow is the End... Hallelujah!

Regardless of who becomes Mayor of Toronto tomorrow -- George Smitherman or Rob Ford -- I think the overwhelming majority of Torontonians can breathe a sigh of relief that the David Miller regime will be gone.

It is disturbing to look at Toronto today in comparison to where we were before David Miller took office. The city has become a dump. The roads have become a disaster. The unions have turned the city into their own fiefdom.

And the cost? The yearly city budget is now 50% larger than when Miller took office.

With nothing to show for it.

Not a single monument to the success of David Miller.

Why? Because David Miller is the ultimate failure. The only thing people will think of when David Miller's name is spoke will be the smell of garbage piling up in the streets.

Regardless of whether my favored candidate -- Rob Ford -- wins tomorrow or not, I will be able to smile on Tuesday knowing that David Miller is gone. Hallelujah.

Toronto Mayoral Poll Fabrication?

I have suspected all along that the polls showing George Smitherman running a much closer race to Rob Ford were in some ways being fabricated to change the course of the Toronto Mayoral election. It appears that the Globe & Mail has finally given us some proof that something is afoot.

The Globe & Mail are reporting tonight that the latest Nanos poll -- conducted after Rocco Rossi dropped out -- puts Rob Ford's support at 43.9 percent versus George Smitherman's 40.5% and Joe Pantalone at 15%. According to their numbers, the "lion's share" of Rocco Rossi's supporters have migrated to George Smitherman's camp.

If you will recall, just a week ago, Ipsos-Reid pegged George Smitherman's support at 31% with Rob Ford at 30% thus showing a much tighter race. They even mentioned that if you take into account committed voters, George Smitherman's lead over Rob Ford was in fact 6%.

This is where the possible fabrication starts to reveal itself...

If we take Nanos' indication that most of the Rocco Rossi's support went to George Smitherman and apply it to the numbers from the Ipsos-Reid poll, we should in fact see Rob Ford polling in the low to mid 30% range with Smitherman at 40% at least. And yet Nanos shows that we are absolutely nowhere near that scenario.

Additionally, last week Rob Ford's camp indicated that their own internal numbers had him much closer to the 50% mark than what was being reported by Ipsos-Reid, a fact that NOW Magazine derided with their typical, black tooth grin. And yet, if we are to take Nanos' poll as accurate, it would appear that Ford's internal polling was in fact more reliable than Ipsos-Reid.

Which begs the question: what the hell is going on that the polls would be so ridiculously off the mark?

Let's remember that it was the poll Ipsos-Reid released on September 27th pegging Rob Ford's support at 28% against George Smitherman at 23% that convinced Sarah Thomson to bow out of the race and throw her support behind Smitherman. It was also their polling that convinced Rocco Rossi to drop out this past week.

So, we either have both Nanos and Rob Ford's internal polling being way off or we have Ipsos-Reid being way off.

If in fact Nanos' numbers turn out to be closer to the mark on election day, we'll know that Ipsos-Reid conducted two consecutive polls that were completely off the mark. Meanwhile, Nanos' numbers haven't changed much in the past two months. So, if Ipsos-Reid is closer to the mark on election day, we'll know that Nanos conducted two consecutive polls that were completely off the mark.

But they both can't be right. And they all can't be that far off.

Needless to say, I think election day is going to reveal a rat.

Voting Laws Don't Count For Obama

So, it looks like Michelle Obama has stepped in it again.

Bad enough her Marie Antoinette trip to Spain a few months ago and the criticism it brought onto her as somebody above the common folk, now she has to go and break Illinois state voting laws by electioneering within a polling place.

Of course, some people are coming to the defense of this Harvard educated lawyer from Illinois saying that because she's the first lady and is "liked" that she should be cut some slack. Yeah... because you wouldn't expect a lawyer from Illinois who has helped out with her husband's political campaigns to know anything about Illinois law as pertains to political campaigns.

Who are the genius' who think up these excuses? I have some ideas.

But ultimately who really thinks that anybody would go after Michelle Obama for breaking voting laws? After all, we know how well the idea of enforcing voting laws goes with this administration.

Where's that vitriol now Olbermann?

Can we put to rest any doubt at all that Keith Olbermann and MSNBC are complete hypocrites?

Oh, they scream at conservatives commentators who describe a politician as a "whore" and even put the word out there. But when it's an actual politician or his aide -- it has been reported the court transcriber attributed it to J.B. while leftist news organizations are falling in line with saying it was an aide -- calling her a whore, MSNBC has to beep it out of the story.

I doubt we'll hear Olbermann shouting down Jerry Brown over this... no, that would show principle. And Olbermann needs to take anger management courses before he'll show any of that.

(Hat tip to Big Journalism for catching this one.)

I, for one, am having a hard time believing that Jerry Brown himself didn't use the word. If you watch the video from the link above and listen to the audio recording you'll notice that the first time the word "whore" is used, the person's voice is higher pitched and has a little more of a nasal aspect.

But the voice is deeper the second time the word is used and sounds like it is coming from the same person who said, "I am going to use that."

There doesn't seem to be any question that it was Jerry Brown who said, "I am going to use that."

The fallout for this story hasn't even hit yet. But it will be interesting to see who gets in line. We already know that NOW has repeated the hypocritical stance it took with Bill Clinton and has quickly jumped to Brown's side after this.

The level of hypocrisy is simply stunning.

Fortune tellers join the rank of the unemployed

Honestly... who needs a fortune teller to predict the massive political shift in the United States coming this November when you have Gallup?

Yes, folks, it's true. The "summer of recovery" has been such an overwhelming success that US unemployment numbers jumped from 9.3% in August to 10.1%.

I imagine that the Democrats will be inviting Obama out on the campaign trails less and less in the coming weeks. It's not even fun anymore watching the Dems going the way of the Titanic.

Where did all those mayoral polls go to?

Is it just me, or up until last week did we not see about a poll every three or four days on who the next Mayor of Toronto was going to be? Every newspaper was spilling page after page of ink on this poll and that poll... Ipsos-Reid and Nanos seemed to be doing cycles around each other every week. And yet the last poll to be discussed was released on the 26th of September.

And now? Nothing.

Gotta wonder what the next poll is going to say when everybody is keeping their internal numbers to their own chests and the polling firms are quiet. Could there have been a dramatic turn of events? We'll know soon enough.

Freedom or Totalitarianism

Another blogger posted an excellent article in the Globe and Mail titled: Are we sliding into a tyranny of good intentions? The article specifically focuses on democracy in general. However, it segues into another topic as of late.

A few people I know have asked me my opinion on the striking down of certain prostitution laws in Canada. Certainly there has been a great deal of ink spilt on the subject already talking about the morals of society. I got into a very heated debate on the subject on another blog where asking people to point out specific ways that prostitution harms society resulted in me being called 'self-righteous'.

Go figure... I didn't know that asking for evidence of guilt is being self-righteous. I thought it was called due process.

I was even called a moral relativist. And yet believing something to be bad and saying it's none of my business doesn't imply any morally relative position at all. In fact, my morality is absolute as my opinion on prostitution is based on my opinion of government in general: participatory private acts are of NO business to government.

Unfortunately, society has increasingly empowered governments as our caretaker rather than our employee. It amazes me how conservatives complain of the far-left's tendency towards a "nanny-state" and then turn around and cry foul when citizens are given the freedom to choose how they live their own lives.

Prostitution -- like any other actions in the sphere of personal morality -- is in my books not a good thing. Whether by tradition or perception of human value, it is a dirty thing in my mind. And many people hold the same belief. But does that give us the moral right to say that everybody must abide by our personal morality?

Hello, Nanny State.

Instead of taking personal responsibility for our own actions and being models and teachers of moral positivity to shape the world we want, we have once again empowered the government to coerce and threaten others into our own personal spheres of morality. Just like schools that enforce an adoption of certain eating habits, just as governments enforce the adoption of non-smoking for free people in private establishments (BTW: I don't smoke), we have once again deferred personal responsibility and freedom to an every strengthened government fist.

And as one of my favorite musicians, Peter Gabriel, says, "The more we are protected, the more we're trapped within."

Once we give away our self-empowerment, it is nearly impossible to get it back. And then we become slaves to both the rules we adopt and the rules that those we oppose adopt on our behalf.

It's always best to err on the side of personal freedom than totalitarianism.