The great T.O. transit showdown
Key plank in Rob Ford’s election campaign rejected as council endorses alternative plan
The Issue: After a heated debate on Wednesday, a majority of Toronto city councillors rejected Mayor Rob Ford’s subway-focused transit plan — and with it, a central plank of his election campaign. Council voted 25-18 to adopt the rival light-rail plan endorsed by TTC chair Karen Stintz and already approved by the city, the TTC and the province in 2009 — one which revives many aspects of former mayor David Miller’s Transit City. Scarborough Centre councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, who voted for Stintz’s revival of the LRT plan: “There are 130,000 people who live north of the 401 who are going to get transit today. They didn’t have it last week.” Karen Stintz, on opposing the mayor’s transit policy: “At the end of the day, we’re elected to make decisions on behalf of everybody in the city, and if we only have so much money, we need to make sure we spend it in the best way we can.” John Michael Mcgrath, Openfile: “Yesterday’s LRT vote wasn’t a narrow defeat on a trivial matter; it was a 25-18 rejection of the mayor’s signature campaign issue. In a very real way. Toronto now faces an era of minority government.”
Journalist Ivor Tossell (@ivortossell), on Twitter: “Unlike a parliament, where no-confidence dooms a gov’t, there’s no limit to the number of times a mayor can have his ass handed to him.” Writer John Lorinc (@Johnlorinc), on Twitter: “Yesterday was the most amazing debate I’ve seen at council since David Miller and Jack Layton buried the Adams Mine deal in 2002.” Royson James, Toronto Star: “Ford’s subway vision was blurred to the point of impairment because of the mayor’s fatal blind spot. He doesn’t believe in spending taxpayers’ money, a noble attribute but one that sinks any possibility of building subways in a modern city.” Mayor Rob Ford at news conference after his defeat in council: “Technically speaking, that whole meeting was irrelevant. . . . The premier, I’m very confident, is going to continue building subways.” Councillor Josh Matlow (@Joshmatlow), on Twitter: “Mayor Ford said today’s Council meeting on transit was ‘irrelevant.’ The majority of Council, Torontonians & Queen’s Park knows he’s wrong.” Joe Warmington, Toronto Sun: “Rather than lick his wounds after losing his biggest council vote since becoming mayor in November 2010, Ford took the Bloor line from his home station of Royal York and all the way east to Scarborough Centre. . . . People from every direction, employees at the TTC, security guards on their way home, moms, dads, grandmothers, all running up to say hello. . . . After being ganged up on at council, I could tell it was cathartic for Ford to be out among regular, genuine people.”
Kelly Mcparland, National Post: “Why Stintz suddenly decided to change her mind is not precisely clear. . . . She says the $8 billion available from the province would go farther if used on above-ground light rail than it would if spent on subways. That’s true, but it was always true. She knew that before the election, and she knew it (or should have known it) when she took the TTC job.” Mayor Rob Ford, in a Sun interview: “I don’t understand why (Stintz) would stab me in the back because what have I ever done to her?”