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| Source: AZ quotes and City News. |
It's not so much that reducing the size of Toronto Council is a bad idea, it's a question of how he got to the idea, and how he's executing the idea that stinks of diseased shit.
There is no rationale for reducing Council. Google it. There is no magic formula to set the ideal Council size. Ford's rationale is, apparently, to synchronize Council boundaries with Federal riding boundaries. But even then - to what end? Federal riding boundaries determine how Toronto will be represented nationally; City Council boundaries determine how Toronto governs itself internally. These types of boundaries serve two entirely different purposes, so there's no reason at all they should align. And it's irrational to think otherwise.
To maintain a sense of social well-being and involvement, the citizens would need accurate, detailed information and time to digest it properly. If Ford cared about improving the quality of life in Toronto, he would have a meticulously justified and evidenced rationale for shrinking Council. Since he hasn't provided it, he either has no rationale, or it's a rationale he doesn't want the public to know.
I personally think it's the latter, and that it's part of a conservative strategy to turn Toronto "blue" so as to help Federal Conservatives win nationally in 2019.
Beyond the missing rationale for the reduction is the process by which Doug the Slug is implementing his plan: he's forcing it down everyone's throats just before a Municipal Election next month. All planning to date for the October election has been based on the original Council and boundaries. By violating a court ruling and trying to use the bizarre "notwithstanding clause" of the Canadian Constitution, Doug the Slug is throwing the entire Municipal election into chaos.
(I say "bizarre" because it doesn't really serve any purpose except to give governments a sneaky way to pass legislation that isn't up to judicial snuff, thus circumventing proper democratic process.)
What he should do (assuming he can first provide a proper rationale for the change) is implement a process of consultation and design that would result in a longer-term, more carefully phased in way to change Toronto Council's size. Doing so would help avoid the chaos and partisanship that is ruining public debate these days.
D'ya see why I think Doug the Slug is in kahoots with the Federal Tories? He has to ram it down our throats now to even try to effect next year's Federal election.
Let's be clear: I welcome an open, intelligent, and evidence-based discussion about whether or not Toronto Council should be smaller. And if the evidence and rationale were to point in the direction of a smaller Council, I would support that too, so long as the implementation were carefully thought out and properly designed and timed.
But there is no rationale; and there is no intelligent implementation process. Without those two things in place, any change is a terrible idea. It is dividing the people, undermining social well-being and security, and virtually guaranteed to only make matters worse.
Let's also remember that the last time Toronto got royally screwed over was another Conservative disaster: the amalgamation of 1998. That was an attempt to dilute the united political power of urban Toronto - which really ought to be a City State at this point - by forcing it to include a bunch of suburban areas that have nothing in common with it. As a ploy to disrupt Toronto as a political force, it worked spectacularly well - thanks to the stinking corruption of then-Premier Mike Harris.
So the Provincial Conservatives have a long and successful history of fucking Toronto over for their personal and political gain.
Resizing Toronto Council is just one more way that Doug the Slug and his theocratic, regressive, social conservative fuck-buddies are ruining Toronto, Ontario, and Canada. He's just being a ham-fisted dictator, trying to ruin Toronto - probably because Toronto wouldn't just bend over for his demented brother. Fuck him and all of Ford Nation.
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