Another poll

[james_davis_nicoll]

[Poll #1770486]

Comments

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

Was this one of the cases where people voted for him because he promised to do the exact opposite of what he's doing?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, this is all part of the process of discovering an unforeseen downside to living up to one's campaign promise to saw off the branch one is standing on because the leaves on it offend one.

[(Anonymous)]

See, this is the sort of thing that (trumpet fanfare) Toronto City Councillor (/trumpet fanfare) Giorgio Mammoliti was talking about: unreconstructed Bolsheviks such as yourself pointing out obvious truths so as to undermine our Proud Canadian Heritage.

Shame! I say, Shame!, Shame!

Where would This Country be, without This Great Land Of Ours?

TSM_in_Toronto

[ice-hesitant.livejournal.com]

Yes. He a) promised not to go cap in hand to the province b) signed a memorandum of understanding this spring with the province saying he won't come cap-in-hand to beg money for his moronic plan because the private sector would love to do it for free.

Now, he's come cap-in-hand to the province.

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

Who else will pay for it, then? The city? Ha. The feds? Ha.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Wasn't the private sector supposed to open their wallets?

[nicosian.livejournal.com]

Yes. That was his fantastical idea. Like every other idea spilled from his head as of late, pure golden spun fantasy.

And we had a transit plan. A good serviceable plan. It wasn't flashy subways, but it was perfectly reasonable LRT that every last city I've been in everywhere is now using, and he flushed it.

So kinda, no, I don't want the gov to bail his ass out on this plan. I want transit expansion, but his plan was a ludicrous mess.

this is also the turdball who's thinking we can get by NOT replacing the streetcars with new euro-low floor ones, and I can't EVEN fathom the stupidity and cost that will come from that.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

I say "no", but only because I have a better idea.

Get BioWare to endorse the subway line, rename it the "Shepard" line, and promote the heck out of the upcoming Mass Effect 3 video game with it. Private enterprise at work, man.

-- Steve'll even point out that it's a Canadian company, so folks can wave tiny Canadian flags at the opening.

PS: I'd also want to rename one of the stops, "Wrex." I'd link to a video showing why, but the office abacus doesn't handle YouTube.

[ice-hesitant.livejournal.com]

You couldn't get more than $10 million doing that. A subway line costs $300 million per kilometre.

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

So we get a thirty-three meter long subway line. Who needs any more?

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Context is for the weak? Or for the week?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

It's one of those "if you're Canadian, you know what I am talking about and if you are not, it's not really that relevant to your life (except in a theoretical sense) in as much as it's not your nation's largest city currently hamstringing itself."

Toronto elected an idiot as mayor. Now it turns out unexpectedly that the idiot is an idiot. The mayor is threatening the provincial premier that if the province does not make quick with the moola, the mayor will unleash his legions of suburban voters on the side the suburban voters almost certainly going to vote anyway.

You know, given that the PC seem likely to win in the fall, I don't really see the upside for the (Liberal) Premier to spend money here. The 'burbs aren't going to vote for him out of gratitude. It may be strategically better to leave things be and let the effects really start biting after Hudak gets in.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Actually, my sister-in-law lives in that largest city . . .

[realinterrobang.livejournal.com]

Couldn't we not spend the money, watch everything turn to shit in TO, and then have McGuinty and friends point and yell very loudly "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU ELECT IDIOT TORIES! DON'T DO THAT, YA MORONS! REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED WITH MIKE HARRIS?!"? But I suspect that would be a little too much to hope for.

If there was a minimal intelligence requirement for public office, Idiot Face wouldn't even have been able to run. And given the reality of Idiot Face, Mike Harris and his high-school-dropout Education Minister, and the rest of the Usual Gang of CRAPs in Ottawa, my Inner Fascist thinks that enacting such a requirement has suddenly become a really good idea. Then again, I am the person who thinks that neoconservatives should be legally prohibited from holding elected office in Canada under Constitutional grounds, given that our Constitution guarantees "peace, order, and good government" and a bunch of ideologically warmongering, disaster-capitalist, "government is the problem, so let's drown it in the bathtub" anti-statists aren't going to be able to deliver on any of that, so grain of salt as required.

[nicosian.livejournal.com]

The other bit of it is, he doesn't actually seem to have a plan on paper, only a "seat of the pants" kind of "if we have money it'll happen" thing.

Which makes me question his role at Deco, it can't be in a critical capacity, he's a shite business man if he thinks any funder is going to generally cough up money on nothing at all.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

You know, given that the PC seem likely to win in the fall

Last poll I saw showed a statistical tie between the Libs and Cons, FYI.

-- Steve thinks that, with Ontario's notorious habit of electing governments from the federal opposition and Hudak's tone-deafness, that McGuinty may actually get the nod again.

[nelc.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to put a contract out on the offending mayor?

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

He's got a brother on City Council, too (who is even stupider than he is). And other supporters.

In other words, just removing him would not be sufficient.

[catbear.livejournal.com]

If and only if it is an out-and-out purchase.
As in, they have to keep him, in exchange for the money.
What they do with him is of little concern.

I suggest a dunking tank, though.

[maruad.livejournal.com]

Meh. We have had our idiot, transit wrecking mayor longer than Toronto.

[armb.livejournal.com]

What are the costs to the province of leaving the foolish policies unmitigated? If it's multiple billions, pony up. If it's millions, don't.

[ice-hesitant.livejournal.com]

They are already ponying by spending $8 billion in a place where we actually need a subway. Ford wants a parallel useless one.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

The lack of provincial tax support is part of the reason the city needs the money in the first place, thanks to downloading by the them and the feds.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, if you do the municipal/provincial math here, it looks like about 2.5M Torontonians, more or less (the Google Gods did not smile upon my searches), and about 13.5M Ontarians -- and that suggests that Premier McGoo should be spending, right here Toronto, about 2.5M / 13.5M, or call it 18.5% of all of the provincial, province-wide-transit-system-money that gets spent in the aggregate of places like, you know, Goderich, Smith Falls Huntsville, Fort Severn, and so on ...

Fair is fair, after all.

TSM_in_Toronto

[ice-hesitant.livejournal.com]

Torontonians earn more so they pay more income tax than proud citizens of Fort Severn. Also, the lion's share of corporate tax is collected here.