Toronto Mayor Rob Ford demonstrates need for City's de-amalgamation



Metro Toronto used to be the envy of North America under the former governmental structure.  The Toronto Mega-City was orchestrated for Big Business interests, and not for Torontonians in general.   

It's been a roller-coaster 10 months for Mayor Rob Ford - almost literally - as he defines and attempts to enact his vision of Toronto, on Toronto.

After a boisterous and polarizing election, Ford and supporting cast powered their way into office on an expense-driven mandate of change. With major policy intentions - the death of Transit City (Toronto's active transit plan), the casting aside of the waterfront plan and a major review of city expenses still underway, Ford left a perception with the public that he's powerful, in charge, and won't accept no for an answer.

But the question is, how much power does the mayor really have?

The City of Toronto Act came into force in 1998 when Toronto was amalgamated into one city. In 2006, the act was amended to give the city more powers of taxation and regulation. At that time, the city changed its procedural bylaws so the mayor and an executive committee would have more power to drive policies through council. The executive committee essentially became a hand-picked body of those loyal to the mayor.

One of the dangers of such centralized power is the potential to turn local politics into party politics.

Certainly during this past mayoral campaign, we saw candidates begin to align themselves with various mayoral choices - most notably Rob Ford.

This is not all bad. Electing a mayor is not electing a U.S. president. There's no veto power and it's important to see who has the potential to be the executive power in any mayor's term.

But party politics or strict alignment to mayoral policy removes municipal politics from what it does best: represent the people on the street.

We've written many times about the power and the passion of council candidate forums during municipal elections. They are infinitely more real and more enlightening than the incredibly useless number of mayoral debates. Voters expect a council candidate to share their values, concerns and pride in their neighbourhood.

Blind allegiance by a councillor to a mayor is akin to the block voting in the provincial and federal governments.

A Rob Ford pronouncement is just that. A council of 45, including the mayor's one vote, still makes the final decisions for this city.

As new council members prepare for their second year in office, they will hear more and more from their constituents when things go awry in city governance. Blind allegiance to the mayor is wearing thin. We've already seen dissension in the ranks over the port lands and proposed budget cuts.

It's important to remember the powers exercised Toronto's mayor are no greater than the powers allotted to the office by law. The key remains to be a mayor, executive committee and council representing all of the city - it's global image and economic progress.

A splintered executive committee and council drawn along party lines or mayoral allegiance puts the city in peril - and starts building credible arguments for Toronto's de-amalgamation.

Internet site reference: http://www.insidetoronto.com/opinion/editorial/article/1137033--editorial-cracks-starting-to-show-in-mayor-s-power-base


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