Toronto Life: Preville on Politics

Preville on Politics

Posts with category ‘Queen's Park’

I have a new home

Posted on May 29, 2008 by Philip Preville

For those of you not yet in the know, this blog “Preville on Politics” goes dormant as of this post. From this point forward, you can find my scribblings at “City State,” an expanded Toronto Life blog that, I am glad to announce, features some beautiful graphic banner by Evan Munday in lieu of a smirking me in the right-hand column. (Never liked that photo.) Henceforth, all smirking will be done exclusively through prose. Come join the newly-rebranded hijinx over here. Continue...


The upside of being a have-not province

Posted on April 30, 2008 by Philip Preville

It appears Ontario may soon be on the receiving end of transfer payments. So says this report co-authored by TD chief economist Don Drummond (who seems to issue all the most controversial economic reports) and this screaming headline in the Star. This news, though unfortunate, does confer some benefits. As a have-not province, Ontarians can expect the rest of the country to stop quietly, seethingly resenting them. Henceforth, Ontarians will be made fun of out in the open, in an endearingly corn-pone kind of way. In other words, “Ontarie” jokes will now replace Newfie jokes.

Continue...


Transit Riders of Toronto, Unite!

Posted on April 28, 2008 by Philip Preville

I found myself having an unexpected reaction to this past weekend’s transit strike: I was glad there was no sign of the TTC anywhere. No buses, no streetcars, no workers, no management. Over the course of the past four weeks, everything about the negotiations—the demands, the strike threats, the nail-biting, the coverage, the frequent Bob Kinnear appearances on CP24, the rare, pale and ghostly Gary Webster sightings—has left me hot under my white collar. Some commentators, most notably this one, felt that Friday night’s hasty job action represented the moment the TTC employees’ inner kettle finally hit the boiling point. It was the moment mine boiled dry. I was happy to have it all disappear for a couple of days. Continue...


Why not let the kids redesign Leslieville?

Posted on April 23, 2008 by Philip Preville

The battle over big-box retail is heating up in the city’s east end. SmartCentres is planning a 650,000-square-foot retail development on Eastern Avenue near Leslie Street that may include a Wal-Mart. The city has vetoed the plan. The developer has appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board. Asked to declare a provincial interest in the matter, Queen’s Park declined. The matter goes before the OMB next month. We’ve seen this before. Continue...


Top two reasons the TTC won’t go on strike (plus one reason why they might)

Posted on April 18, 2008 by Philip Preville

By now, you are either busy making alternate commuting plans for next week or you still have your head buried in the sand about Sunday’s looming 4 p.m. TTC strike deadline. Me, I got my bike tuned up last week. Nevertheless, I see two compelling reasons why a strike will be averted, one for each side of the bargaining table.

Continue...


David Miller and the politics of YouTube

Posted on April 8, 2008 by Philip Preville

David Miller has taken his campaign for a Canada-wide handgun ban to YouTube. He is asking people from across Canada to sign a petition that he will personally deliver to Parliament Hill. It’s a fine and worthy objective. It’s also nice to see someone other than John Tory take the lead on the issue of gun violence in the city. Still, I can’t help but notice that our mayor is full of bold initiatives for governments other than his own.

Continue...


$100,000 worth of sunshine

Posted on April 2, 2008 by Philip Preville

Everyone has their take on Ontario’s public sector salary disclosure records, also known as the Sunshine List, which names everyone on the public payroll earning $100,000 or more. My take is that it’s far more fun to peruse the list yourself, so here you go. You can look up your favourite politician or the prof who flunked you out—or you can parse the many, many, very ordinary job titles earning good dough—and develop your own take.

Continue...


Richard Florida: from celebrity academic to budget highlight

Posted on March 26, 2008 by Philip Preville

Being Richard Florida comes with some nice perks. Your name really does turn up everywhere, including in government budget documents. Here are the two awkward paragraphs in which he is featured: Continue...


Flaherty vs. McGuinty: Top Five Theories

Posted on March 25, 2008 by Philip Preville

Why is Jim Flaherty going out of his way to pick a political fight with Dalton McGuinty over Ontario’s business tax rate? It’s anybody’s guess, and the guessing is getting good. Let’s run down the top five.

Continue...


Make the mayor accountable—give him a political party

Posted on March 19, 2008 by Philip Preville

The Globe scored an exclusive with Mayor David Miller, and the result is a headline plucked from a 2005 time capsule: the mayor wants more powers from the province. Nowhere does the story raise the issue of municipal political parties, even though it quotes one councillor—Brian Ashton—at length who supports them. Reading the Globe and Star on this issue is starting to feel awkward. You have to work hard to write around a growing blind spot.

Continue...


I am battery recycling’s nemesis

Posted on March 13, 2008 by Philip Preville

Wednesday’s Globe and Mail was up in arms over a proposal by Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, chair of the public works committee, to create a deposit-return system for batteries in order to keep them out of landfills. In his column, John Barber explains the root of the proposal’s inanity: Queen’s Park will soon be establishing its own province-wide system to divert such materials. The provincial system will be voluntary and deposit-free and involve many drop-off locations. Alas, this is why it won’t work, and I present myself as Exhibit A to prove my point: I am in the habit of tossing used batteries into the trash, and I can’t be bothered to behave differently.

Continue...


The genius of Dwight Duncan

Posted on March 13, 2008 by Philip Preville

Mayor David Miller has, for years, repeated that cities need “revenues that grow with the economy.” The unfortunate reality is that the economy doesn’t always grow. A bad year can leave tax coffers dry, and an unexpectedly good year can leave them nice and flush. So Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan’s announcement yesterday was a clever way of sharing both risk and reward: if Queen’s Park has a good year, the city will share in the surplus, but if it has a bad year or a just-OK year, the city gets nothing. Continue...


Memo to John Tory: Unleash the asshole within

Posted on March 3, 2008 by Philip Preville

image for

I recently got turned on to a blog called Ottawa Watch and found this enjoyable little post about the “asshole factor” in politics. It mentions just about everyone except John Tory, who, judging by my discussions with him and every public display of behaviour, is a really nice guy. Maybe that’s the problem.

Continue...


A message from our political leaders: Don’t pay attention to politics

Posted on March 3, 2008 by Philip Preville

image for

I was away last week, but before I left, the big story was a WWE-style war of words between “Pencil Neck” McGuinty and Jimmy “Hell’s Elf” Flaherty. Upon my return I find the war has “escalated.” Continue...


The elephant in the room is a party animal

Posted on February 25, 2008 by Philip Preville

This blog will be on hiatus for the rest of this week. This means that there’s no point in checking out my take on tomorrow’s federal budget, because I won’t have one (and we will all be better off as a result). Nor will I bother having an opinion on what John Tory did for those three hours on Saturday, except to say that I hope he had a nice nap and that I’m not surprised by his final decision because I think he has a messiah complex: he believes his party needs him (apparently more than anyone else does). But before I go, I do want to sound off, briefly, on the rejuvenation of the “strong mayor” hullabaloo at city hall.

Continue...


Flaherty v. McGuinty: Many cans of whoop-ass later

Posted on February 22, 2008 by Philip Preville

Hot on the heels of Wednesday’s melancholy post about the rotten economy comes the news that federal finance minister Jim Flaherty and Premier Dalton McGuinty are going toe-to-toe over who is responsible for it. There are many conclusions to draw from this spat. The first is that the economy must be pretty bad for two government leaders to be so eager to pin blame. The second is that a federal election must be just around the corner. The third is that the stakes are high, particularly for the entire automobile industry and, in a roundabout way, my old pal Richard Florida.

Continue...


A (vague) new plan for Toronto’s future

Posted on February 21, 2008 by Philip Preville

Ask a panel for unanimity and you get vagueness. The mayor’s fiscal review panel—made up of blue-chip businessmen, academics and labour—released its report at a packed press conference this morning. It’s an 86-page opus full of recommendations, the most concrete—and contentious—of which is a proposal to toll the city’s highways (more on that later.) Contrary to widespread rumour, it does not recommend the privatization of Toronto Hydro, although, to judge from what the panelists had to say this morning, I got the sense that at least some of them wish it did.

Continue...


Five reasons Queen’s Park should take over the TTC

Posted on February 15, 2008 by Philip Preville

Councillor Karen Stintz must be enjoying the catbird seat today. Back in October, she was the first to say that the city should hand over the TTC’s subway routes to Queen’s Park. Now Premier Dalton McGuinty has pronounced himself in favour of the Stintz Doctrine. It would be unwise to underestimate the premier’s will on this one, because this is about more than just transit. Here are my top five reasons why Queen’s Park should—and probably will—take over all or part of the TTC.

Continue...


A call from Shelley Carroll

Posted on February 1, 2008 by Philip Preville

I got a call from Shelley Carroll’s office earlier this week, telling me I overlooked some key items in this year’s budget, specifically on issues I have raised previously. Here are two tasty points of crow for me to eat.

Continue...


Remember the toilet (or, Changing the budget tune)

Posted on January 28, 2008 by Philip Preville

Mayor David Miller and Budget Chief Shelley Carroll—whose name is increasingly whispered whenever talk turns to the issue of potential Miller successors—today announced what they called the first balanced budget since amalgamation. The truth is that every budget since amalgamation has been balanced; what sets this one apart is that Queen’s Park delivered the bailout in advance, so there was no squabbling over the shortfall. Follow this link to see the city’s platitude-filled, stock-photography-laden budget propaganda: updates on all the same pie charts and bar graphs they issue every year, now unfolding in real-time Technicolor, yet still failing to provide any year-over-year comparisons or, subsequently, any detailed indication of how they managed to pull it off.

Continue...


The top five political miscalculations of 2007

Posted on December 27, 2007 by Philip Preville

A look back at the year that was, through the lens of failure:

Continue...


Dwight Duncan: the Santa of Queen's Park

Posted on December 14, 2007 by Philip Preville

image for

Someone had to bring Christmas to city hall this year, and, since it sure wasn’t going to be me, thank heaven for jolly Dwight Duncan. His transit funding announcement has lifted everyone’s spirits, including the press gallery staff at the Globe and Mail, who’ve written an unprecedentedly sunny story. Continue...


Where’d that Star headline go?

Posted on November 9, 2007 by Philip Preville

Sorry for going AWOL on the blog. Long story. Anyway, the front-page headline in this morning’s Star—“PM to cities: Drop dead”—is one for the ages. Kinda makes you feel like you’re living in a parallel universe in which no one is passive aggressive, no one minces words and The Onion is the newspaper of record. But you’ll have to buy the print edition: by 11 a.m. the snarky headline had been erased from the on-line edition. Whatever words it chooses, the Star can crow all it wants: Stephen Harper will never collect a cent of sales tax and then hand it over to municipal governments because it’s bad policy. One Ottawa scribe I spoke to called it “appalling federalism.” Cities may yet succeed in wringing money from Ottawa, but it will not come—it was never going to come—in the form of a GST transfer.

Continue...


Transit's Gaping Maw

Posted on October 30, 2007 by Philip Preville

You know how Queen’s Parkies like to observe that health care costs eat up more and more of its budget, to the point where they may become nothing more than a group-insurance administrator? The same thing is happening in Toronto, in this case with the TTC. City Hall is no longer a city hall; it’s the most beautiful and elaborate transit agency headquarters ever.

Continue...


Time for a TTC fare freeze

Posted on September 14, 2007 by Philip Preville

Now that the TTC has raised fares for metropasses, tickets and tokens, it seems like a good time to remind everyone that Howard Hampton has promised a two-year freeze on transit fares if elected. It’s the kind of promise that usually proves foolhardy, because you never know what will happen to make costs go up. If the price of oil or electricity suddenly spikes, the promise could prove hard to keep. But the idea of a fare freeze is one whose time has come.

Continue...


The tax debate meets the race for Queen's Park

Posted on September 13, 2007 by Philip Preville

image for

This morning Mayor David Miller, flanked by a bevy of city councillors and surrounded by a supportive audience, launched a public education campaign on his taxation proposal—now called the Fair Tax Plan. Anyone who’s been reading this blog for the last four months knows that this initiative comes about four months too late, but oh well. Better now than never. And yet, it could end before it has barely begun: council is not scheduled to vote on the tax plan before October 22, but Miller is now calling for a special meeting of council to vote on the new taxes before the end of September.

Continue...


McGuinty’s Teflon-coated broken promises

Posted on September 12, 2007 by Philip Preville

Everybody loves a horse race, especially one with a photo finish, and that’s what many are predicting in Ontario’s election: a too-close-to-call campaign that will result in a minority government. This is everyone’s preferred scenario because it is the stuff of drama and tension—but right now it is all wishful thinking. Much of it is based on the belief that Dalton McGuinty’s broken promises from the 2003 campaign will come back to haunt him on election day. But McGuinty is more immune to attack than most give him credit for.

Continue...


The secular argument for faith-based schooling

Posted on September 11, 2007 by Philip Preville

Has anyone yet noticed that all the arguments John Tory marshals in favour of his proposal to fund religious schools are purely secular? He’s pushing three specific buttons: his proposal would ensure properly certified teachers, a government-certified curriculum, and school board oversight for every student in the province. As Dalton McGuinty positions himself ever more firmly as the defender of public education, expect him to come under pressure to explain why he allows 50,000 Ontario students to receive none of these benefits.

Continue...


Clever, clever Liberals

Posted on September 7, 2007 by Philip Preville

image for

The McGuinty platform is full of appealing promises (full-day kindergarten saves parents money and opens up daycare spaces) and wicked political moves. By announcing his intention to never roll back the Health Care Premium, he can credibly pretend to afford all his promises, which John Tory cannot. The first week isn’t over yet, but McGuinty has taken it in a landslide. Tory’s just playing out the clock now and getting ready to regroup for the next round.

Continue...


Religious schools and the meaning of diversity

Posted on September 6, 2007 by Philip Preville

The Protestant supremacism of Orange Ontario is alive and well and cloaked in the sheep’s costume called secular humanism. This is the conclusion I have drawn from absorbing the vehement reactions in the public and the press against John Tory’s proposal to fund religious schools in Ontario, which to my way of thinking falls within Canada’s best traditions of encouraging diversity and tolerance.

Continue...


Minority Report

Posted on September 4, 2007 by Philip Preville

There were no brownouts in August. In fact, to John Tory’s misfortune, we’ve had a remarkably mild summer, with most nights pleasantly cool. With no outward and visible signs of utter mismanagement by the McGuinty Liberals, recent polls are inconclusive at best. Some claim a minority of some sort, while internal Liberal polls show them in the 40% range, which is near majority territory. Today’s Star lists 15 key ridings, but far more than 15 ridings need to swing to produce a minority for any party. For Tory, just like the mayoral election in 2003, it will all come down to the last three weeks of the campaign. Back then, if he’d had an extra week to campaign, he’d have won. Let’s see if he gets the timing right this time.

Continue...


The things I’ll miss while on vacation

Posted on August 10, 2007 by Philip Preville

I’m off on vacation, so this blog will go dormant until after Labour Day, at which time I’ll be sinking my teeth into the provincial election campaign. Two things before I go. One: if the heat gets so bad that the province is forced to implement rolling blackouts, then John Tory will be Premier on October 11. Two: I’m glad I will miss out on City Manager Shirley Hoy’s much-anticipated press conference today, in which she will explain how she will cut $100 million from the city’s budget. The budget shortfall is so big that it has become a political issue, not an administrative one. The sooner she gets out of the way and lets the slings and arrows fly between the rival factions at city hall, the better.

Continue...


Dalton McGuinty sounds like…

Posted on August 8, 2007 by Philip Preville

… a premier from a have-not province. Acts like one too. Maybe he is.

Continue...


Kicking some Ashton

Posted on August 8, 2007 by Philip Preville

image for

Updated: Old news: Mayor Miller asked Brian Ashton for his resignation and got it. Not so old news: even though Councillor Gord Perks apologized for calling Ashton a weasel, many in the commentariat are essentially calling him that. Today's news: Ashton is busy defending himself. Tomorrow’s news, today: in the three weeks since the vote, Ashton’s decision to cast his lot against the Mayor has done far more good than harm, and in the long term it will do still more good and even less harm. In about a year’s time we’ll all be thanking him.

Continue...


A perfect political storm

Posted on August 7, 2007 by Philip Preville

image for

I wonder if Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty is spending his summer wishing he hadn’t implemented fixed election dates. Ontario’s economy is in a tailspin at just the wrong time for him. And at the right time for both PC leader John Tory. It’s also good timing for NDP leader Howard Hampton. Note that Buzz Hargrove is digging his heels in for the first time in years.

Continue...


The great tax debate heats up

Posted on August 1, 2007 by Philip Preville

Ever since he lost that vote on the vehicle-registration and land-transfer taxes, mayor David Miller has been saying all the right things. Today comes news that Premier Dalton McGuinty and Miller have already mapped out a path to their preferred happy ending. Not so fast: today Ontario Progressive Conservative party leader John Tory meets with a select group of city councillors regarding the city’s fiscal situation. Council’s right-wingers still think they can defeat the new taxes when the issue comes up for a vote again in October. Tory will no doubt announce his party’s intention to upload costs. He will also probably do a favour for his Conservative councillor friends and expound on the city’s need to be more frugal. Hopefully Tory will do us all a favour and compel council’s opposition to pull together a coherent alternative, which they have yet to do.

Continue...


How Toronto will eventually tax cigarettes

Posted on July 27, 2007 by Philip Preville

Funny thing happened back when the city was still mulling over its many new revenue-taxing power-tools. One of the powers under consideration was a levy on cigarettes. Chatting with Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong in his office, he pointed out just how many small, independently-owned convenience stores there are in the city. Bazillions. Some crazy figure. Anyway, Minnan-Wong says to me, these entrepreneurs all depend on selling tobacco to earn their living. “What do I tell them if we tax cigarettes?” he asked. My response: “You tell them you’re going to let them sell beer and wine.” I was only half-joking, but the scenario may yet come true.

Continue...


The axe that fell down on Mike Colle’s head

Posted on July 27, 2007 by Philip Preville

… can be found here. To sum up the week’s events in provincial politics, then: McGuinty apologizes after a member of cabinet staff makes a racial slur with regards to a black job applicant; a senior campaign advisor is forced to apologize for a sexist comment about women preferring to bake cookies over campaigning; and now the Liberals look like they’re buying friends in the province’s ethnic communities. Wow. What a bunch of Common Sense Revolutionaries. Next week’s forecasts call for high temperatures. If the province is forced into rotating brownouts, McGuinty will look like he mismanages the big files too.

Continue...


Transit City Revisited

Posted on June 26, 2007 by Philip Preville

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.

Continue...


The black banana

Posted on June 25, 2007 by Philip Preville

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.

Continue...


Crash course on the Canadian economy

Posted on June 14, 2007 by Philip Preville

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.

Continue...


Michael Thompson, MPP?

Posted on June 11, 2007 by Philip Preville

image for

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.

Continue...


PC hide-and-seek

Posted on June 11, 2007 by Philip Preville

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.

Continue...


Who to believe?

Posted on June 5, 2007 by Philip Preville

image for

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.

Continue...


Oh no, more nukes

Posted on May 8, 2007 by Philip Preville

image for

Apparently Ontario’s bright future could include up to eight new nuclear reactors. Energy Minister Dwight Duncan is downplaying the applications to build them, but Tory leader John Tory (formerly of Torys, now just a Tory) has been predicting this for a some time now.

Continue...


Mayor for all New Democrats

Posted on April 18, 2007 by Philip Preville

image for

It’s front page news in today’s Star that Mayor David Miller is no longer a member of the New Democratic Party. He says that, since he must work closely with federal Tories and provincial Liberals to achieve things for the city, he thought it best to avoid accusations of partisanship. Good idea, but actions speak louder than membership cards. Let’s recap recent events.

Continue...


Oops!

Posted on April 13, 2007 by Philip Preville

image for

The biggest news in Toronto this morning was this story in the Star, which claimed that the McGuinty Liberals were wooing former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray to be a candidate in a Toronto riding. Turns out they may have spoiled the delicate negotiations.

Continue...


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.


Preville on Politics RSS Feed