Evelyn:
How does this relate to Aurora, or does it?
I would really like to keep Tronna political news out of our town.
Does due diligence occur any more or is it simply a catch-all when everything else fails?
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I write here about our town's business and whatever I feel relates to it. When I read the Toronto Star story about the City Clerk of Toronto removing a Councillor from office, I immediately connected.
The municipal election in Toronto was hard fought. Provincial Liberals ran a candidate for Mayor with attributes, they felt would be ideal as a partner to work with in the City of Toronto.
Who exerts most power in Ontario? Toronto or the Province? That has been question in Ontario for years.
In the recent municipal election it seemed obvious if Liberals had one of their own in charge things would be simpler for them.
But despite all their effort and support or perhaps because of it, their plans ran agley.
A most unlikely candidate was elected. Considering the recent sweep of seats to federal hybrid Conservatives in Toronto with support from the red-neck, true blue, conservative Mayor of Toronto. whose popular support continues to grow, Provincial Liberals have good cause for concern.
If they were to stop calculating strategy at the shallow end and start attending to what is happening at the deep end ,in the lives of people, they might have a chance.
On the other hand, the NDP is likely to look like a reasonable alternative after their showing in the federal election. But be that notwithstanding, Provincial Conservatives will likely get the support of the "Ford Nation" in Toronto.
If Conservatives, under current leadership, take the Province in October, it most certainly will have an effect on our town. It was they who stuck the GTA with Toronto's social services at a cost of $75 million a year share with no audible objection from York Region.
Funds are still being siphoned off at $13 million this year.
My questioner, despite a lack of interest, asks , does "due diligence" occur any more or is it simply a catch-all phrase?
A question more to the point might be; does an election matter any more? When the electorate makes a decision , is the decision no longer sacrosanct.
In Aurora, we had four years of a particular Councillor being marginalised. A takeover of the town's administration . One Councillor quit early to be replaced by someone favourable to the Mayor, two more Councillors were eventually ostracized, as well as an almost complete turnover in staff and a takeover of the administration.
The question of ethics or principles became little more than a passing sneer and relegated to the distant past.
What happened in Aurora was unthinkable until it happened.
It became real because of a block of votes in the majority.
As the Toronto Star tells the story, the City Clerk's decision to remove an elected Councillor from office, to the exceeding pleasure of the Mayor's office,whom the Clerk did not consult though she did communicate and which has avowed its might behind election of a different Councillor to add to his majority does indeed have a connection to Aurora's affairs.
The true- blue red-necked Tory Mayor of the City of Toronto will not just control the City for four years. He will control the Province of Ontario of which we in Aurora, are but the creatures.
If it was O.K., without rhyme or reason, ethics or principles, to make home and business owners of Aurora pay for Toronto's social services, to keep Toronto's property taxes at a fraction of our own, what else might they do?
If the Clerk of a municipality has authority to pick and choose who will hold office and who can be tossed, at the pleasure of the Mayor, what exactly is the point of an election here, there or anywhere?
Without a single shot being fired, our rights are surrendered to the obsequious
Evelyn:
ReplyDeleteObsequious be damned.
There are four effective (or should I simply say "existing?") levels of government in Ontario: federal, provincial, regional and municipal. Some would argue that this is at least one too many, possibly even two.
There is supposed to be a separation of governmental responsibility (most people prefer the word "power") but this separation often overlaps, especially at times when things get screwed up - which is most of the time.
Then everyone tries to blame everyone else, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
And where blame fails we can look forward to periodic elections, when it seems fair game to smear your opponents with everything but original sin.
And each collects various taxes from the people, and each squanders of lot of the money so collected. Every time one turns around someone has a hand out, and invariably they get something put into it. And this is part of the blame game also; smear your opponents with squander.
To say that fatty Ford will control Ontario is totally ridiculous. Toronto voters will come to realize that while many of their number who are over-sized and possibly supported fatty, these self-same supporters appear to be nothing more than a crowd of red-necked beer guzzling hockey maniacs that worship at the temple of Don Cherry.
To end where you begin. There should be a judicial review to right this idiocy.
Evelyn,
ReplyDeleteFor those that have not lived in the GTA, it's hard to imagine that there is anything "out there" beyond the "Green Belt" that Bill Davis imagined way back when.
Toronto and GTA residents may think that they are in the center of the universe, but the reality is - that's not true. In fact Toronto is the scourge of most Ontarians.
Growing up in small town Ontario in the '60s and '70s, a trip to Toronto was a wonderful excursion. Back then the school library got the Globe and Mail and it was a newspaper from the far away place of Toronto. While it was on;y a 2 1/2 hour drive away, it was not our center of universe.
This opinion, while diminished over the years, still holds true outside of the 100 mile radius of downtown Toronto. Mayor Ford is no different to any other Ontario Mayor to them. His perceived power stops when you cross out of 905 and into 519.