Friday, September 25, 2009

Miller Resigns

And Liberals rejoice. One is so delirious he endorses a Conservative. I really have not much to say about this, as I don't live in Toronto. But as an outside observer, I leave you with two thoughts. First, any "progressive" who wants to know who is really running your party, look no further than the Toronto mayor's race. Second, you have to feel for Miller. For all of this faults his biggest, in my opinion, was his lack of a Liberal or Conservative Party membership.
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7 comments:

  1. When you've been elected and re-elected mayor, if you find you can't win a third term, that's on your head, not others'.

    Toronto wasn't ready to give an NDP mayor a third term after all those strikes.

    (But yes, if you're a progressive who thinks the unions were in the right this last summer, the Liberals might not be a great political home...)

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  2. Toronto municipal politics are different from provincial or federal politics. Because there's no party system, and because the NDP have a stronger base, you tend to get a clearer left-right split. Of course, it helps that the "right" in Toronto are mostly red Tories. David Crombie wasn't all that different from John Sewell in his policies.

    Warren, I believe, worked on the John Tory campaign in 2003, so it doesn't surprise me that he's endorsing him again. Indeed, _I'm_ endorsing Tory. I think he'd be a good mayor of my old home town. What was more awkward is how much more partisan things got when Tory became the leader of the provincial Conservatives.

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  3. But yes, if you're a progressive who thinks the unions were in the right this last summer, the Liberals might not be a great political home...

    I am, so that's why (among many, many, other reasons), I will never be mayor

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  4. As I said James, I really have no horse in the race. But, Tory it seems to me, is Dalton McGuinty in a blue tie. He will hold the line on taxes and say he's sorry when he cuts services. He is the acme of the Toronto establishment, circa 1952. In other words, the perfect Liberal/Conservative candidate.

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  5. "Tory it seems to me, is Dalton McGuinty in a blue tie."

    You nailed it -- and this is precisely why the Ontario PCs just threw him out!

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  6. The Star has a list of the things Miller brought in. I suspect most of them will be gone within three years (especially the environmental and lobbying reforms). Oh, but taxes will be low.

    http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/701454

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  7. I support user-pay for garbage. Ambivalent about light rail. (That is, I'm for mass transit, but I'd just have liked to see an Eglinton subway line that went to Pearson, and maybe lines out to Thornhill, Mississauga, and Pickering...)

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