Strike 2 for Ford in TTC showdown

Council opponents score another major coup by revamping transit board, sidelining mayor’s allies

Mayor Rob Ford is down to his last strike in a titanic transit tussle waged against his own city council majority that opposes the mayor’s all-subway vision.

City council removed Ford’s allies from the transit commis- sion Monday and installed a new team that promises to abide by council’s wishes. It was council’s second straight rebuff of the mayor and sets up the final political encounter when council votes March 21on the future of transit along Sheppard Ave. E.

Forced into a corner by a mayor who won’t take no for an answer, council has seized control of the transit file in an unprecedented coup. “Council has control over council,” said Councillor Joe Mihevc, when asked if Ford had lost his leadership grip.

Through sheer arrogance and stubbornness — plus an inability to govern and use power levers greater than every other Ontario mayor possesses — Ford has managed to become a poster child for how not to be a mayor.

It hasn’t been a political picnic, but the outcome is as simple as 1, 2, 3.

Strike 1: Feb. 8.

Councillors took the most difficult step of rejecting the mayor’s all-subway vision. Instead, they reinstated much of the LRT vision in former mayor David Miller’s Transit City plan — a plan Ford unilaterally stopped.

Ford retaliated by using the transit commission to defy the will of council. First, Ford allies on the commission refused to allow chief general manager Gary Webster to report on the pros and cons of subways versus light rail. Then, they comprised the majority in a 5-4 vote to fire Webster for his pro-light rail views. Strike 2: March 5. Faced with an intransigent mayor and his defiance of council’s will, city council dissolved the current nine-member transit commission and installed a new slate prepared to follow council’s intent.

Instead of nine councillors, the revamped commission will have seven councillors and four civilians, to be added at year’s end.

As a measure of revenge, city council rejected all five of the Ford allies who dismissed Webster (Vincent Crisanti, Frank Digiorgio, Norm Kelly, Denzil MinnanWong, Cesar Palacio). Ford allies John Parker and Peter Milczyn, who voted to keep Webster, were returned — as were Maria Augimeri and chair Karen Stintz. New are Raymond Cho and Glen Debaeremaeker of Scarborough and Josh Colle from midtown. Strike 3: Coming March 21? Council is to vote then on the future of the Sheppard line: subway or LRT? An expert panel is studying options and word leaking out suggests they will opt to end the subway at its current Don Mills Rd. terminus and use light rail to extend the line all the way to Conlins Rd., near the Toronto Zoo.

With Ford losing every round of this transit fight to date, the best the mayor can hope for is a March 21vote that extends the Sheppard subway two stops to Victoria Park, any farther left for a future council.

But even that compromise seems doubtful, as Ford has proved incapable of winning over a majority. In fact, the mayor has repeatedly moved to alienate council, insult its decisions, and ignore council votes.

With each vote, Ford is further hamstrung on one of the city’s most important and expensive files — left, instead, to babble on with his councillor brother, Doug, on his radio show as more councillors abandon his leadership.

The transit debacle — as stunning a rejection of a mayor’s leadership as Toronto has seen — is entirely Ford’s fault.

At council Monday, as the reality of the latest rejection sank in, his allies were left shaking their heads, bemoaning the hobbling of an administration in just 15 months.

Students of urban studies, political science, local democracy and municipal governance will be citing this issue and this era for as long as such programs exist.

A mayor is given many tools to move council toward approval of key issues. Instead of using facts, arguments and strong policy positions to convince councillors, the Ford administration has insulted and bullied them.

Unlike all the mayors before him, Ford has failed to find the middle ground that makes Toronto politics work. Even as the vote came down Monday, his attack dog, Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, was calling for a citizen revolt against council and the “left wingers who have taken over the TTC.”

Several councillors are now asking: “Is this the new normal? Must we rescue every issue from the administration’s incompetence?” Email: rjames@thestar.ca