David Miller craps on Ford's transit "plans"

Despite keeping mostly tight-lipped about the efforts to dismantle his legacy at City Hall since his term as mayor of Toronto ended, David Miller offered some criticism and advice for Rob Ford and other members of city council during a radio interview earlier today. Speaking to Newstalk 1010's John Moore, the former mayor characterized Ford's decision to kill Transit City earlier this year "extremely unwise."

By way of explanation, Miller pointed out that "we'd love to have a subway in every neighbourhood but a.) you can't afford it, and b.) very few neighbourhoods in this city have the density that justifies a subway." Transit City, on the other hand, he argued could still be built. "The plan is there, the environmental assessments are done. You could turn it on like a switch. If you wanted to, you could start construction on Finch in about two months and Sheppard probably next week."

I doubt anyone's going to hold their breath for the resuscitation of the former LRT-based transit plan, but Miller's remarks come on the heels of Ford's first significant defeat at council, even if few people seem to want to call it that. In fact, to some degree his strongest words were reserved for unnamed members of city council with Liberal ties. "I think it's time for them to stand up," he said in reference to their voting tracking records. "They should be voting for the kind of Toronto that they purport to believe in..."

Naturally Miller also took issue with Ford's (repeated) claims that he inherited a budgetary mess from the previous administration. "Everybody in this city knows that that's not remotely true. When I left government we left a significant surplus well over $300-million, there was a $75-million fund to help reduce the burden on taxes the next year."

For more on the interview, head over Newstalk's website.

Photo by Roger Cullman