| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
|
 Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:22 am Post subject: TTC chief Gary Webster gets the Axe |
 |
|
| Quote: | TTC chief general manager Gary Webster has been relieved of his duties, following a vote during a special meeting of transit commissioners Tuesday.
In a motion describing termination "without just cause," the transit commission voted 5-4 to fire Webster, who has worked at the service for 35 years, just two weeks after he expressed open defiance to a subway plan championed by Mayor Rob Ford. His ouster comes a year before he was set to retire. |
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/.....bster.html |
|
|
|
 |
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:32 am Post subject: |
|
|
Good on Ford for finally showing balls.
I understand that democracy is a concept that folks in Toronto like to only evoke at times of extreme convenience but Rob Ford was elected with nearly 100,000 more votes then his nearest competitor.
His transit plan did not come out of left field, he was very vocal about his plan to bury mass transit lines and take them off the roadways from day one of his campaign and he got elected.
Karen Stintz seems to have decided that she wants to run for mayor, that's fine.
However attempting to undo a platform promise by hijacking city council at an opportune time is nothing more then politics for the sake of politics.
She opted to take on the mayor;
Gary Webster backed her play, and now Gary Webster has been fired.
Webster's termination is 100% on Stintz.
Good on Rob Ford to following through on what he was elected to do. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 2:39 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I agree that Stintz is hungry for more - but I.m not sure what it is. She has essentially written off voters east of Victoria Park in what was once old Scarborough. They will stand freezing in the cold waiting for the non functioning streetcars. Eglinton Avenue will lily be torn to pieces and everything along it wrecked for the next decade with loss of busainess and depressed real estate values. Who could profit from such "opportunities"? Follow the money.
I have seen it pointed out elsewhere that Scarboro is largly non white and poor while north Toronto, Stintz's area, is largely white and rich. I would like to see the lefties wear the descrimination label for once. I can't read their minds so it seems unfair to call them racist. I can read the results and they are clearly descriminatory.
Ford is right. The subways will have to built eventually. Do it now or do it 10 years from now at 10 times the cost.
Toronto already has the worst commuting times in North America.
Thankyou David Miller.
Last edited by Daveeire on Thu Mar 01, 2012 7:14 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 10:14 am Post subject: |
|
|
Stintz approach isnt bad politically;
You will very well be riding a Street Car well before a Subway, and a Megaproject of this size ultimately ends up destroying politicians because they take a long time, cost a lot of money and you don't see results in some cases for decades.
However, its the right thing to do.
The "pro" streetcar folks seem to be making arguments about "density" and a lack of ridership to justify Subways in some areas of Toronto and for some reason seem to use the half completed Sheppard Subway to nowhere as the gold standard for Subway expansion.
Toronto is the 5th most populated city in North America and their numbers are growing as are the commuters who roll in from the bedroom communities to work there.
The idea that adding street cars down the middle of any roadway which is seeing an increase in auto traffic is shortsided thinking at its finest.
Toronto easily needs more 100 KM's of Subway track, and as we have seen with most old systems Subway infrastructure isn't something measured in years or decades it has the potential to service a city for a century.
It will be painful, it will be expensive, but sooner or later Toronto needs to do it right rather then doing it fast and cheap. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:09 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Just looked at a Forum Research poll that shows in a two-way race Stintz would beat Ford. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:28 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Progressive Tory wrote: | | Just looked at a Forum Research poll that shows in a two-way race Stintz would beat Ford. |
Which assumes Smitherman who decline Toronto-Danforth doesn't run, and that assumes that Gord Perks doesnt run, it assumes Adam Vaughan doesnt run etc etc etc.
The reality is that unless the anti-Ford contingent consolidates you find yourself with the potential for a good ol' fashion walk up the middle Jean Chrétien-esk 38% majority.
That aside;
As it pertains to the topic we are discussing;
Ford seems to have 57% of Toronto on his side of the issue;
http://www.torontosun.com/2012.....bways-poll
Whereas Stintz route seems to have the support of 38%.
If the voters are clearly in majority of the Subway route, I would argue just as I did above that Stintz's motivation is political rather then practical. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:10 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| cosmostein wrote: | | Progressive Tory wrote: | | Just looked at a Forum Research poll that shows in a two-way race Stintz would beat Ford. |
Which assumes Smitherman who decline Toronto-Danforth doesn't run, and that assumes that Gord Perks doesnt run, it assumes Adam Vaughan doesnt run etc etc etc.
The reality is that unless the anti-Ford contingent consolidates you find yourself with the potential for a good ol' fashion walk up the middle Jean Chrétien-esk 38% majority.
That aside;
As it pertains to the topic we are discussing;
Ford seems to have 57% of Toronto on his side of the issue;
http://www.torontosun.com/2012.....bways-poll
Whereas Stintz route seems to have the support of 38%.
If the voters are clearly in majority of the Subway route, I would argue just as I did above that Stintz's motivation is political rather then practical. |
The poll started off asking how people would vote in a three-way race with Adam Vaughan included and he was in second place to Ford.
Would the anti-Ford's be smart enough to run one candidate against him in 2014, if he still has a strong following but is as unpopular as he is now? |
|
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 10:23 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Progressive Tory wrote: | | cosmostein wrote: | | Progressive Tory wrote: | | Just looked at a Forum Research poll that shows in a two-way race Stintz would beat Ford. |
Which assumes Smitherman who decline Toronto-Danforth doesn't run, and that assumes that Gord Perks doesnt run, it assumes Adam Vaughan doesnt run etc etc etc.
The reality is that unless the anti-Ford contingent consolidates you find yourself with the potential for a good ol' fashion walk up the middle Jean Chrétien-esk 38% majority.
That aside;
As it pertains to the topic we are discussing;
Ford seems to have 57% of Toronto on his side of the issue;
http://www.torontosun.com/2012.....bways-poll
Whereas Stintz route seems to have the support of 38%.
If the voters are clearly in majority of the Subway route, I would argue just as I did above that Stintz's motivation is political rather then practical. |
The poll started off asking how people would vote in a three-way race with Adam Vaughan included and he was in second place to Ford.
Would the anti-Ford's be smart enough to run one candidate against him in 2014, if he still has a strong following but is as unpopular as he is now? |
Heck yes!
Ford's unpopularity is vocal, however he still has his support in the Toronto suburbs.
Slashing counselor budgets was very popular in old Etobicoke and Scarborough, while his critics are very vocal Ford still has a strong base of support around Toronto proper, and if you end up dividing the core amongst two non-Ford candidates then you very well end up with the same result as last time.
The problem is that Stintz is someone I could consider center in the political spectrum whereas Vaughan is hard left which is why I could see an issue with one stepping aside for the sake of the other beating Ford. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 1:28 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Stintz is a PC, I'm pretty sure, so she would probably not be to bad of a mayor, from an ideologically stand point. Don't know anything about her though. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 3:24 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Progressive Tory wrote: | | Stintz is a PC, I'm pretty sure, so she would probably not be to bad of a mayor, from an ideologically stand point. Don't know anything about her though. |
She is a 416 PC;
Which largely makes her a 905 Liberal ideologically.
Think Rocco Rossi. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 7:24 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Stintz reminds me a bit of two woman who once had promise in Toronto but bioth flamed out.
1) Susan Fish was a PC MPP but was taken out in the Liberal landslide of 1987. She initiated a run for the Toronto Mayor;s position in 1991 but bailed.
2) June Rowlands had been a Liberal MPP with conservative leanings. She ran for Toronto Mayor in the same election as Fish, The other many player in that race was none other than Jack Layton. Rowlands won but then frittered away her support with boneheaded moves like banning the Bare Naked Ladies and condeming Marine Land and Game Farm (which is not in Toronto). She was tossed after one term in 1994 becasue many of her original supporters stayed home.
Stintz has essentialy given the middle finger to Scarboro residents. I can't see a way the Mayor's offic eby vlowing off 25% of the votes, She may be vying for provincial or federal office from a comparatively safe - and white - north Toronto seat.
I still say follow the money. Somebody(ies) is (are) set to profit from wreaking Scarboro witht hese above ground "cattle car" runs. |
|
|
|
|
|
