Monday, September 28, 2009

Jack Layton: If I Am Elected I Promise There Will Be Garbage Strikes All Across This Great Land

Just kidding.

But Jack is holding up T.O mayor David Miller as an example of how the NDP might govern.

Actually, I have noticed a certain softening in attitudes towards Mr. Miller since he announced that he would be stepping down at the end of his 2nd term. My wife, for example, no longer refers to him as "Mayor Asshole".

And I think you can probably make an argument that, during his first four years at least, he made notable improvements to the City's environmental policies, and gave public transit the respect and financial support it deserved. Furthermore, it is difficult to imagine a radically different end to the T.O. garbage strike no matter who was in the mayor's chair.

But this kind of thing, where an accounting screw-up puts the city 200 extra million in the red, and is not revealed to council or the people of the city until months after its discovery, smacks of either duplicity or managerial incompetence. So Miller hardly the best example Mr. Layton might single-out as a paradigm of NDP governance.

This guy might be, except that nobody knows where Manitoba is.

7 comments:

Ti-Guy said...

With posts like these, you're just going to attract more Dipper trolls who, like their opposites on the Right are only interested in yelling at Liberals.

Because it's all they have.

Greg said...

Actually, I want him to publsh more like this. Go blue Liberals, go!

Mike said...

I await the Conservatives to claim Ottawa Mayor Larry "Lex Luthor" O'Brien for his royal screw ups.

Which incompetent Mayor will the Liberals claim?

Where it Mel Lastman when you need him, eh?

Gawd I'm really starting to hate politics.

Ti-Guy said...

Starting? I've always hated politics. You're supposed to hate politics.

What I really don't care for is the lying, especially the squalid little lies and the character-assassinations over absolute trivia that we've had to endure over the last while.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Denis Coderre will move to Toronto and run for Mayor.

He's outta his Liberal job in Quebec and needs something to do these days.

Ti-Guy said...

"Outta"...I love the folksy patois of the provincials.

Scanner said...

Miller's biggest mistake was thinking that he could get along without hiring ex-media hacks to conduct his p.r. Compared to the previous mayor, he's a peach. And I think he'll be seen as one of the better mayors in years to come. You guys just haven't been through enough garbage strikes. I remember the one that finished Bill Dennison (he was a labour supporter too).
The barrel of potential Mayoralty candidates seems very low - where's the scaper? Honestly, John Tory? What next for him in his desperate search for public office? Do we elect Dog Catchers? And George Smitherman? Can you imagine him having to deal with 44 political parties?
Maybe Denzil Minnan-Wong will run - we need the comic relief. BTW, I heard that guy from Winnipeg call David Miller "my Friend David" so I guess he's gone. Hey - Sue Anne Levy could run - that should satisfy the mouth breathers. Ti-Guy? You got somebody?