Preville on Politics

June 2007 Archive

Visionary and incendiary

Posted on June 29, 2007 by

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Those of you who read my column in the June issue of Toronto Life already know just how disorganized the city’s planning bureaucracy is, but it appears the politicians in charge of the department are no better: only three members of council’s Planning and Growth Management Committee showed up for Thursday morning’s meeting, leaving it short of quorum. As a result, guest speaker Greg Clark, a British consultant and one of the world’s foremost experts on urban economic growth, said a lot of fascinating, visionary, and incendiary things to a bunch of empty chairs. Here are the highlights:

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Green whine

Posted on June 26, 2007 by

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Council’s executive committee yesterday approved Mayor David Miller’s climate-change plan. But despite the unanimous vote, a few of the suburban councillors in attendance—led by Etobicoke Centre’s Gloria Lindsay Luby—were visibly nervous about the proposal to ban gas-powered two-stroke engines, i.e. lawn mowers and leaf blowers, by 2010. They are clearly worried about votes. And they ought to be. You can make fast enemies of people by outlawing their garden tools.

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Transit City Revisited

Posted on June 26, 2007 by

Back when Toronto’s Transit City proposal for a new network of light-rail transit lines was first announced, I and many others had a bit of a laugh over the fact that it was a plan without money. So here’s a belated update: just before I went away on vacation last week, the McGuinty government announced its transit vision for southern Ontario, which includes a promise to fund two-thirds of the cost of Transit City. So now we know why the city rushed Transit City into being—it wasn’t for the federal or provincial budgets, but because the provincial Liberals wanted a plan they could fund come election time.

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The black banana

Posted on June 25, 2007 by

Bad news for Dalton McGuinty: Ontario’s economy is headed into the tank. When Ontario’s economy grows slower than those of other provinces, we like to reassure ourselves by saying it’s because Ontario’s is a “more mature” economy, evoking images of a beautifully ripened fruit. But when Ontario’s jobless rate surpasses the national average, as it did this past year for the first time in its history, that’s a pretty black banana.

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Make mine 75 litres

Posted on June 21, 2007 by

I’ve had to go AWOL this week. Alas for me, I missed out as council adopted the trash-charge trial balloon they’ve been floating for what feels like years now. I’ve never blogged about it, so just for the record: it’s a fine idea. Pay-for-use in garbage makes sense on many levels—far more than I’m willing to delve into during a week off. Away I go now. Back with regular posts next week.

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My new kitchen is almost complete!

Posted on June 15, 2007 by

And I will not be installing a microwave oven. I have made the proud choice to omit a useless appliance from my life. Apparently this very literal-minded guy in the comments thinks I’m an idiot. In deference to him I will mark the occasion with a meal of pressure-cooked meat and toast.

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Taking a toll on the city

Posted on June 15, 2007 by

This morning Toronto City Hall released its Climate Change, Clean Air and Sustainable Action Plan, a truly remarkable policy proposal with many laudable recommendations, including a massive expansion of the bicycle-lane network and a ban on leaf blowers, which, as I argued for in one of my very first posts on this site, is a fine idea. The plan also suggests road tolls, which, as I argued some time ago on this site, are stupid. They’re still stupid, and the mayor knows it, which is why he’s already full of caveats about it.

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Crash course on the Canadian economy

Posted on June 14, 2007 by

If you’ve ever bothered to peek at my blogroll down there on the right, you may have wondered why I bother linking to Statistics Canada. Here’s why: Anyone who’s interested in getting tomorrow’s news today should subscribe to StatsCan’s bulletin, The Daily. At least twice a week you’ll find information in there that will serve as fodder for the next day’s headlines. Like this tidbit from today, from which it’s easy to deduce that income taxes will likely make a comeback as an election issue.

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Michael Thompson, MPP?

Posted on June 11, 2007 by

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City Councillor David Shiner has already announced he will be running for the Ontario John Tory Party in Willowdale, but at this weekend’s convention of the No-Name Party there were whispers that another “veteran Toronto councillor” will also be running provincially come October 10. The identity of said councillor remains under wraps—apparently he or she has yet to make a final decision. I have no idea who it is any more than you do, so let’s have some fun guessing.

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PC hide-and-seek

Posted on June 11, 2007 by

Last week I posted about the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party’s damaged brand. This past weekend the party unveiled its election platform along with its campaign slogan and logo—on which the PC logo has been reduced to small print, like a footnote.

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Time to call an end to the facial hair

Posted on June 7, 2007 by

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One last thing about hockey, then we'll get back to politics: Can NHL players please do away with this beard-growing playoff tradition? From Lanny McDonald in 1989 to Scott Niedermayer this year, I'm sick of watching Father Time hoist the Cup aloft.

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Boy was I wrong…

Posted on June 7, 2007 by

…about this. Except that Alfredsson had a good game. Incidentally, unless I missed something, I think I was also completely wrong about this, which is a shame for Stephen Harper. I presume that, given his stated intention to reform the Upper Chamber, he couldn’t bring himself to support any kind of Senator.

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Do not go gently to the golf course

Posted on June 6, 2007 by

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It's a topic of intense debate in Toronto as to whether it's okay to cheer for the Ottawa Senators. This debate is, I think, confined to lifelong 416ers and 905ers. Those of us who are part of the pan-Canadian diaspora— those who live in Toronto by choice rather than by birth—don't wear blue and white blinders, and we would be more than happy to see the Senators win. I'll go one step further and goad Leafs Nation: I really like Daniel Alfredsson.

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Who to believe?

Posted on June 5, 2007 by

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Who would you rather buy soap from? Salesman A, a decent, trustworthy man flogging a damaged brand? Or Salesman B, an inept guy pushing a trusted brand? That is what this rash of stories is all about. It’s also what the entire provincial election campaign will likely be about too.

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Author Bio Pic

Philip Preville

Veteran freelance writer Philip Preville lived much of his life in Montreal and Edmonton before he was lured, like so many Torontonians before him, by the promise of more work and a better living. A National Magazine Award winner and former Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, Preville writes Toronto Life’s politics column. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in Riverdale, just close enough to the Don Valley Parkway that he can hear it when he steps outside his house—but just far enough away that it doesn’t keep him awake at night. On his office wall hangs a 1938–39 press pass belonging to his grandfather, Elias Gannon, who wrote for the Montreal Star.


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