The Toronto Star

By Royson James City Columnist

What if?

What if Mayor Rob Ford wasn’t a rotund, rich, balding guy from the suburbs whose suits don’t fit, who doesn’t deliver a great speech and who didn’t have a big brother who doubles as mayor and says outlandish things?

What if Rob Ford hadn’t slobbered you with incessant talk of “gravy train” a year ago?

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The above is just a smattering of language in  to-day's Royson James column . The top sentence is the opening. The theme has been constant since the announcement of candidates in the last municipal election.

The column parallels one about the  new Calgary Mayor whose "honeymoon" continues.He is young. a rookie, good-looking, slim,  single,  raised by Muslim immigrant parents, Harvard-educated  with  no sign of a portly white brother on the scene and lots of other good stuff.

Ford is  going to save $12 million dollars by reducing the city payroll by attrition by  1500. A far cry from the $200 million he said could be saved when he was a candidate.

Calgary's Mayor is proposing a 5% tax increase in this and  each of the next three years.  Three new libraries,one central branch and four recreation facilities are on the horizon.I suspect already planned before his advent.

Calgary residents are hoping to shed their "red-neck" image. The Mayor is hoping to persuade the Alberta government  to open up  the purse strings. He has an in there. He helped the new premier get elected.

His colours during the  campaign were purple. A mix of red and blue to signify allegiance to  both or neither, Conservative or Liberal philosophy..

Cute ... eh!

The story states  the Alberta government has already taken $45 million off their share of the city's  property tax bill. The Mayor however is telling Calgarians not to look for  a  tax break.

It's a tad difficult to make the comparison between the two Mayors and cities  Toronto has had a larger budget than  prairie provinces for  most of the last century.

Calgary's Mayor has failed to reduce the police  and fires services budget as promised during his campaign.

Rob Ford did succeed in obtaining a commitment over this year and next from the Police Services Board,  to a reduction of ten per cent. I  missed seeing the final figures on  the city's  budget so the picture is still a bit fuzzy. Because  obviously it's still not finalised.

It's clear enough  though for Royson James  and the Toronto Star. It's probably safe to conclude James and  the  Star  were  Smitherman supporters in the last city election.

Didn'r help him much. Maybe the support for Smitherman blew a  Chinook in  Ford's favour.

I   am amusing  myself   We have no stake in Toronto or Calgary politics.

But  media involvement. or lack thereof,  in municipal  politics always intrigues. The area where they have greatest opportunity to comprehend, they don't. It's where Canadians live.  But it's not worth the time or space. 

On the other hand Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan,Libya, Belarus,Bosnia,  they really help us to understand  our world, right?  I don't think so.

The media  deplores, as a matter of course,  lack of public interest in  government affairs.

Their own  role is becoming increasingly irrelevant.

Still they employ guys like Royson James to turn us off.

Four decades they nurtured  Hazel McCallion . Now Hazel advises young people not to get involved in municipal politics. Because of the  merciless media.

How droll