Comments on: Toronto Secures Streetcar Contract — After Exaggerated Fight With Ottawa

By: planningpolitics

planningpolitics — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:42:25 +0000

@Alon Levy, merely a short term reaction to national political matters, plus they aren’t winning majorities, so their strategy remains weak at best.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:24:23 +0000

The Tories already win elections without Toronto. They make up for it by taking votes in the Toronto suburbs.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:38:11 +0000

“Mr. Miller’s attempt to use the stimulus for streetcar funds clearly wasn’t reasonable, and he probably should have waited for Mr. Harper to simply agree to fund the vehicles from a general source, something that would have likely occurred considering the government’s recent attempts to placate Toronto by throwing transit money at the city at high speeds.”

The real crux of the issue is that there was an expiry date set on the contract proposed by Bombardier, and it would have run out the night that Miller passed the purchase at an emergency meeting. If he’d waited for the Feds for a commitment, the contract would have expired and have to have been renegotiated, likely adding hundreds of millions to the cost.

We, in Toronto, are very fortunate to have such a committed mayor, we haven’t had someone with this degree of vision in a very long time — nor one who has been able to circumvent the thick bureaucratic web that Canada has spun to govern such a relatively sparse population.

The question of whether Miller’s request was reasonable or not is moot, for the province had the same guidelines as the federal government, and yet the premier of Ontario managed to provide $400M for the deal.

I think politics really got in the way of this one, as Misanthrope and Sean have posited, Toronto is relatively powerful in Canada — and it lead federal politicians to comment to the press, “Who does [Miller] think he is, the Prime Minister?”

I think we’re seeing a shift toward city-state politics in Canada, and the Mayor is and will be holding more power than the Feds realize is necessary to keep such an economic centre running and growing.

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:40:38 +0000

Yes, Misanthrope is right. Toronto is an immensely important, and thus powerful, city in Canada. Like you said, almost 1/4 of Canada’s population lives in or around Toronto.

New York City, with nearly 20 million in the metro area, accounts for just about 6.5% of the U.S. population, and the suburbs are often at often at odds with the city regarding many transportation issues.

By: Misanthrope

Misanthrope — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:43:28 +0000

Unfortunately, no American city has anywhere near the political power that Toronto has relative to Canada with so much of the electorate being in one place. If you piss off Miami, or San Francisco, you can always make up for it by throwing a few dollars to Atlanta or Boston, or whoever’s scratching your back this week. You piss off Toronto, you’re done.