The sleak, slick, lying weasels of politics

[Argus]

It's kind of interesting watching these two local elections. In both cases you have a fairly ordinary guy - as these things go - against a lifelong slick politician who couldn't tell the truth to save his life. In both cases all concerned are deeply flawed people who in a perfect world wouldn't have a chance at the mayor's chair. Rob Ford in Toronto is a bit of a blowhard and not a deep thinker. But he has a lot of honest moments and is rather far from polished. George Smitherman, by contrast, is a slick weasel of a politician who has screwed up every single thing he's been given charge of and yet somehow managed to escape public condemnation. The disaster of a health care system which he presided over has had a huge increase in funding with no discernible improvement in quality of care. There have been all kinds of reports of absurd waste, of contracts going to cozy partners, often for work not done, but it hasn't stuck to him any more than the huge increase in electricity rates he engineered - with no improvement to the quality or reliability or amount of power. Somehow, the Globe and Mail gave him their stamp of approval, as of course, has the Star.

In Ottawa, the good citizens are eager to get rid of Larry O'Brien, whose major crime seems to be that he promised no tax increases last time around and then failed to deliver. Mind you, the reason he failed to deliver is that the good citizens returned to office every single city councilor who had been in the previous free spending administration. And they had no intention of cutting back anything - nor did they. O'Brien was by his own admission, an amateur at politics, and something of a disaster his first couple of years, as he realized the limitations of his power in the face of an absurdly incompetent, free spending council. Now it's virtually certain Jim Watson, who was mayor about ten years ago - and never gave a hint that he cared about how high taxes went, and whose spent the last decade with Dalton McGuinty doing a middling poor job at the municipal affairs and housing ministry. He's a dull, but professional politician, never answering uncomfortable questions, always smiling, always guiding the conversation to where he wants it to be. People seem to find that more reassuring than the crass Larry O'Brien.

It's odd how people rail against "professional politicians" and how dishonest they are with the voters, but most of the time they then turn and run to vote for them, turning up their noses at the less slick alternatives. Which just goes to prove the axiom. People get the politicians they deserve.

Look for taxes to shoot up in both cities. And watch the voters whine about it.

[Michael Hardner]

It's odd how people rail against "professional politicians" and how dishonest they are with the voters, but most of the time they then turn and run to vote for them, turning up their noses at the less slick alternatives. Which just goes to prove the axiom. People get the politicians they deserve.

Look for taxes to shoot up in both cities. And watch the voters whine about it.

Ford's going to win, I think. I don't know if that figures into your tax prediction but it seems not.

You're absolutely right about people getting the politicians they deserve. I wish there were an alternative to Ford winning, but Smitherman is really just more of the same remote-control politics-by-facebook that McGuinty has run for years now. The people sense that something needs to be fundamentally changed.

As you point out, Ford doesn't really have the goods either. At least, unlike Harris, he has some business experience but ... not really the right kind. Toronto needs a Guliani type third-way thinker. I'm convinced that Ford is right - budget could be cut without affecting services - but you would need a full and open review of all services to do so. Maybe Ford could get help from Pantalone.

[Evening Star]

deep thinker. But he has a lot of honest moments and is rather far from polished. George Smitherman, by contrast, is a slick weasel of a politician who has screwed up every single thing he's been given charge of and yet somehow managed to escape public condemnation. The disaster of a health care system which he presided over has had a huge increase in funding with no discernible improvement in quality of care.

Disagree. The number of community health centres has increased greatly (doubled iirc) and there have been reductions in waste times.

And the Green Energy Act is a hugely ambitious project. It is understandable to me that there may be higher costs in the short term.

From what I read, taxes only increased below the rate of inflation during Watson's term as mayor, while the deficit was reduced?

[Topaz]

The voters of TO sure have a problem of finding a good mayor. I don't know much about Ford so I went searching on the net and I see he has problems with alcohol and weed in the past, question is, is it in the past? Can he handle the stress of being mayor? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Ford

[Argus]

Disagree. The number of community health centres has increased greatly (doubled iirc) and there have been reductions in waste times.

There have been no reductions. The government simply changed the definition of wait time, then took money from other medical programs whose wait times aren't on the list, to improve those who were on the list.

And the Green Energy Act is a hugely ambitious project. It is understandable to me that there may be higher costs in the short term.

They didn't tell people the program would double the price of energy, nor even consider what doubling the price of energy would do to the manufacturing sector. And that's not in the short term. The price will triple after that, and continue to go up relative to other jurisdictions, thus causing businesses which use a lot of power to move elsewhere.

As for Watson keeping taxes down. He kept increases low by draining reserves to the point they no longer existed, and deferred capital costs until they became desperate, then he moved on. You should have a look at the way Ottawa has been failing to maintain its stock of publicly owned low income housing. Oh, and he's promised more low income housing.

Edited October 23, 2010 by Argus

[Evening Star]

Actually, I grew up in Ottawa and I've noticed that the homelessness situation has seemed to be getting worse over the past ten years. (I always blamed the feds and province.) I can believe that you're right about public housing.

Perhaps you're right about wait times and energy costs. I haven't looked into either situation really closely. (Energy is included in my rent.) I really like my community health centre though.

[Molly]

Our rural township is having probably the most exciting election in it's entire history.

The great issue- and often the elephant in the room- is the wildly excessive and apparently abused authourity of the local conservation authourity. (A sample of that is our neighbour who went looking for a permit to bring in a couple of loads of topsoil in order to plant a lawn around his new house, and was invited to first pay for an environmental impact study...)

That's an issue on its own, but it's also personal. There's a jolly internicene war going on among candidates. Some of what is being offered on unsigned screeds in the mailbox and anonymous electronic phone messages is likely actionable.

Great fun.

Anyway... I'm speaking in defense of 'slick politicians'. At least they know the ropes. Starry-eyed neophytes wandering in with their sunshine-and-roses expectations are patently incompetent. They don't recognize the pitfalls until they hit bottom, or machinations until the final bills are tallied. They don't have a faint clue how to accomplish the beautiful things they imagine, and their apprenticeship can cost us dearly.

Edited October 24, 2010 by Molly

[nicky10013]

Ford's going to win, I think. I don't know if that figures into your tax prediction but it seems not.

You're absolutely right about people getting the politicians they deserve. I wish there were an alternative to Ford winning, but Smitherman is really just more of the same remote-control politics-by-facebook that McGuinty has run for years now. The people sense that something needs to be fundamentally changed.

As you point out, Ford doesn't really have the goods either. At least, unlike Harris, he has some business experience but ... not really the right kind. Toronto needs a Guliani type third-way thinker. I'm convinced that Ford is right - budget could be cut without affecting services - but you would need a full and open review of all services to do so. Maybe Ford could get help from Pantalone.

The City of Toronto budget is incredibly tight. You might be able to squeak in a cut of a couple million, but who is going to accept cuts in TTC services, or social services which are provincially mandated and must be covered by the city?

I think anyone believing that the budget can be cut without services being cut is just asking to be disappointed. Ford will be just as big a disaster as O'Brien in Ottawa. For a city as great as Toronto, I'm afraid of what might happen if he is elected. Then again, Ford only has one vote in the chamber and on committees, so council may just ignore everything he wants to do.

[nicky10013]

Rob Ford in Toronto is a bit of a blowhard and not a deep thinker. But he has a lot of honest moments and is rather far from polished. George Smitherman, by contrast, is a slick weasel of a politician who has screwed up every single thing he's been given charge of and yet somehow managed to escape public condemnation. The disaster of a health care system which he presided over has had a huge increase in funding with no discernible improvement in quality of care. There have been all kinds of reports of absurd waste, of contracts going to cozy partners, often for work not done, but it hasn't stuck to him any more than the huge increase in electricity rates he engineered - with no improvement to the quality or reliability or amount of power. Somehow, the Globe and Mail gave him their stamp of approval, as of course, has the Star.

The Globe and Mail and the Star realize every single promise Ford has made is completely unattainable. He wants to slash council in half. Who on council is going to vote themselves out of office? He's going to slahs until he runs a billion dollar surplus at the end of 4 years. Righhhhhhhhhhht. All the while, he's going to build subways and hire more police officers. The man isn't serious and anyone who supports him isn't either.

As for Smitherman, he didn't engineer any electricity hike, that came after he left the government to take. As for the big ehealth scandal that people like to throw around, he started the project but was shuffled out of the cabinet position early into that. Perhaps why it hasn't stuck to him is because he really wasn't all that responsible. It's just the right wing trying to win.

Edited October 24, 2010 by nicky10013

[Michael Hardner]

The City of Toronto budget is incredibly tight. You might be able to squeak in a cut of a couple million, but who is going to accept cuts in TTC services, or social services which are provincially mandated and must be covered by the city?

I think that this is a myth. But there's poor visibility into what the city does so it's not easy to tell.

[Michael Hardner]

As for Smitherman, he didn't engineer any electricity hike, that came after he left the government to take. As for the big ehealth scandal that people like to throw around, he started the project but was shuffled out of the cabinet position early into that. Perhaps why it hasn't stuck to him is because he really wasn't all that responsible. It's just the right wing trying to win.

Huh ? Smitherman was health minister from 2003 to 2008. The initiatives that became eHealth were in place under Harris.

It`s hard to say whether eHealth is sticking to him as it should, but I for one will never vote for him because of it. I`m likely to vote for a 3rd or 4th candidate as a result of his ineptitude.

[nicky10013]

I think that this is a myth. But there's poor visibility into what the city does so it's not easy to tell.

Here's what the City of Toronto spends their money on:

Transportation:

TTC

Sanitation:

Garbage Collection

Infrastructure:

Roads

Sewers

Power

Social Programs:

Library

Sports

Homeless Shelters

Public Housing

Where does the city cut?

[Michael Hardner]

Here's what the City of Toronto spends their money on:

Transportation:

TTC

Sanitation:

Garbage Collection

Infrastructure:

Roads

Sewers

Power

Social Programs:

Library

Sports

Homeless Shelters

Public Housing

Where does the city cut?

You have hilighted the problem. This is about information as we get on how the city is run.

Roads. How much is spent ? How do projects get assessed ? There are millions spent on useless projects and penalties. But we have no idea.

[nicky10013]

Huh ? Smitherman was health minister from 2003 to 2008. The initiatives that became eHealth were in place under Harris.

It`s hard to say whether eHealth is sticking to him as it should, but I for one will never vote for him because of it. I`m likely to vote for a 3rd or 4th candidate as a result of his ineptitude.

Fair enough, but just think about this. I worked for Allstate Insurance on a couple contracts during school. They were developing internally a new claims databse system. It took them years to get it online and it still doesn't work properly and the costs went from 2 to about 15 million dollars for an office of about 100 people. This system is going to have the records of 14 million Ontarians on it. Cost over-runs, glitches and consultants are just a part of the process. The government should've been far more transparent about that, but the fact is that's how new computer systems are developed from scratch these days.

[nicky10013]

You have hilighted the problem. This is about information as we get on how the city is run.

Roads. How much is spent ? How do projects get assessed ? There are millions spent on useless projects and penalties. But we have no idea.

If we have no idea, then how can you say projects are useless. For the record, the city spends about 250 million on roads and it's no where near enough.

[Michael Hardner]

If we have no idea, then how can you say projects are useless. For the record, the city spends about 250 million on roads and it's no where near enough.

There were some news articles last year about project penalties paid by the city. My street has been ripped up 2 or 3 times in the last 3 years.

[nicky10013]

There were some news articles last year about project penalties paid by the city. My street has been ripped up 2 or 3 times in the last 3 years.

Yeah, I saw those news articles and news reports. Those projects cost like 50 grand. Sure, it's money that can be saved down the line, but in terms of the 10 billion dollar budget, it adds up to peanuts. It should be fixed, granted, but people shouldn't be claiming that hundreds of millions can be saved.

Edited October 24, 2010 by nicky10013

[Michael Hardner]

Yeah, I saw those news articles and news reports. Those projects cost like 50 grand. Sure, it's money that can be saved down the line, but in terms of the 10 billion dollar budget, it adds up to peanuts. It should be fixed, granted, but people shouldn't be claiming that hundreds of millions can be saved.

Why not ? Maybe they can. City operations are impossible to digest at this point. It may well be possible to do so. If it`s not then we`ll know soon enough.

[eyeball]

I see he has problems with alcohol and weed in the past, question is, is it in the past?

How does he feel about pot now, is he for crackin' down and gettin' tough on people? My initial impression was that he wanted to get the city off people's backs on the one hand but what about the other?

[Keepitsimple]

The voters of TO sure have a problem of finding a good mayor. I don't know much about Ford so I went searching on the net and I see he has problems with alcohol and weed in the past, question is, is it in the past? Can he handle the stress of being mayor? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Ford

How do you feel about Smitherman's five years of addiction to illegal party drugs? Could he have handled the stress of being mayor? Has he really stopped? Why did Smitherman get such a free ride from the Toronto Star while Ford got his mug shot on page one. It doesn't matter anymore because the people of Toronto have spoken.

The 42-year-old described the substances as "party drugs" that he used in the "Toronto party scene." However, Smitherman did not specify which drugs he took, except that they were illegal and not the type that would be injected.

Link: http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20060512/smitherman_drug_addiction_060512/20060512?hub=TorontoHome

Edited October 26, 2010 by Keepitsimple