Toronto..... The Body Politic

It's a down day. Councillor McRoberts has made it official. He will not be a candidate in the next election.

I expect Councillor Collins Mrakas to make the same decision .

Councillor Marsh was the first casualty of the Mormac regime.

The Good Lord and everybody else in Aurora knows of their efforts to destroy one other...Moi.

I am still standing. But my head is bowed.

The loss of these three to public service in Aurora is devastating.No matter who takes their place, the combined total of what they had to offer and the experience of a term of office is something no municipality can afford.

I look to Toronto for comfort and comedic relief.

In a poll taken August 23rd, Rob Ford is still ahead.with 32% of popular support. George Smitherman. the Liberal plant is at 21%.

Smitherman's supporters dismiss the polls

They point to Ford's latest public statement.

He said "Toronto can't afford another boat-load of refugees "

Smitherman refers disdainfully to what might have been if past governments had refused to allow Irish or Jews to enter Canada.

A Ford supporter interviewed by the Star delivered a telling blow .

He said Smitherman should read more.

Irish people suffered horrendous discrimination in Canada.

A Minister of Immigration was quoted with a negative response to a question of how many Jews should be admitted at the beginning of World War ll.

He is reported to have answered. "None would be too many"

Last week we heard of an Ontario Liberal plan to send a leaflet to seventeen thousand voters showing George, surrounded by numbers of prominent Liberal supporters.

You know....you have to wonder. Where do these people get their sense of the concerns of ordinary people ?

Why would they imagine a candidate's picture surrounded by fat cat elites would make people who are struggling to survive, feel secure ?

Do they have any understanding of what matters?

Last week, The Star had a story about Doug Holyday, a veteran Etobicoke Councillor and a former Mayor of the Borough , successfully suing colleagues with his own money, for voting to pay personal legal bills out of public funds.

Doug Holyday and Rob Ford have both been targets of complaints by colleagues under the Code of Conduct for not charging the city for office expenses. It made the rest of them look bad. They have regularly charged the full allowance of $75,000.

The Integrity Commissioner found Ford and Holyday both had office expenses and ordered them to charge. Councillor Holyday's expenses were something like $3,000.

Toronto Councillors are allowed $20,000 for legal assistance to defend themselves against complaints to the Integrity Commissioner.

I lived in Toronto for two years when we arrived in Canada. I liked it. I missed it when I came to Aurora.

I do not wish I lived there now.

But when I need to give my head a shake, like now,about what's happening in our town, for a comforting and familiar glimpse of politics and how she is still played , I look to the city at the bottom of the hill.