MB Toronto
Morning Brew: More on the likely dismissal of Gary Webster, the GTA transit picture, an undervalued historic site, a scary police sketch and some awful pick up lines
News broke yesterday afternoon that TTC General Manager Gary Webster is likely set to be fired next week, so today we get to enjoy some of the reaction to the story. Royson James calls the TTC commissioners who've called the meeting a bunch of sniveling toadies. Meanwhile over at the Globe Marcus Gee notes that such a move would send a terrible message to all senior public employees. And Torontoist's Hamutal Dotan, in a similar vein, argues that firing Webster undermines the very principles of good governance. They're all right. Sue-Ann Levy, on the other hand....
Given how heated the Toronto transit debate has been, it seems less attention has been placed on the efforts to keep people moving in the GTA as a whole. Here's a look at how some of the municipalities surrounding Toronto are trying to deal with their transit needs.
Did you know that the intersection of Front and Berkeley streets is one of the city's most significant historic sites? Now you do. Find out more about what Ontario Heritage Trust is doing to make people aware that this was once the site of the province's first parliament buildings.
And now some short stuff:
Gladstone you ho, this is all your fault.
This is the scariest police sketch you will ever see.
And these are some of the worst pick up lines you'll ever hear. Well, unless you run into me at a bar.
Photo by Dbanh in the blogTO Flickr pool
Discussion
7 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
As for Sue-Ann Levy, and the Toronto Sun in general, they've sunk to new lows. That paper used to be decent years ago. Now it's just a joke. I wish I had a daily/weekly column I could bash the supposed 'right' and get away with borderline slander.
No right-winger would ever consider the actions of that newspaper, columnist, the current administration or any government currently in government conservative. Being conservative used to be all about fiscal responsibility with a centrist/liberal/compassionate viewpoint. That, sadly, no longer exists. The fact these groups are purporting to be such is ridiculous and an insult to those of us who are progressive conservatives.
Surely, there must be a counter-petition to save Gary Webster's job. Now, I say that as a citizen and a taxpayer. Certainly, officials must be responsible public purse but when it is deemed subways will cost more and may never get completed - it falls to reason that this man is making a principled stand against the toadies.
So, yes, I would reduce his salary through taxation, just as I would of leading executives of the banks and other Rosedale, Bridal Path, Queensway, Lawrence Park, Forest Hill, etc. residents ought to pay along with the entities that seem to be paying less and less tax thus creating the crisis that we are in (which is completely fictitious anyhow).
And, if we are in the phase of city building - which Mayor Ford likes to win over support for subways - then he should ask his corporate buddies to pony up and pay more taxes here rather than keeping things offshore whilst asking the rest of to pay for the services they also enjoy.
It seems like Ford is going to try every trick in the book to stall progress on Transit, and I'm guessing that he won't mind if nothing gets done before the next election so that he can truly run on this one issue. What a mess.
Council is supreme in this town. Ford lost the transit vote, now he's going all scorched earth. No way. I say grind the bully into the ground before he causes more problems and wastes even more time.
Steve Munro summed it up better than I could, saying:
"From the viewpoint of political strategy, now is the time for Council to hold yet another special meeting to seize control of the Transit Commission. This could be done either by prematurely ending the terms of sitting members, or by increasing the size of the Commission and diluting Ford’s influence with enough extra members to ensure a majority that represented the broader view of Council rather than of the Mayor."
http://stevemunro.ca/?p=6038
Return it to the private entity it was when it ran so well. And it's owners at the time wrote a condition into their agreement with the city that it should stay out of political control.
Thanks to the ideologies and quirks of the powers of the day at city hall, etc. we now have this stalemate where nothing gets done. Where no leader willing to build something can't because anything can be used as justification to not act and, unfortunately, usually persuades the many spineless, idea-less sheep to follow.
Want to move forward? The better way is not this or what Mr. Munro suggests.