Curmudgeon should just move on
We all know Mike Del Grande, Toronto’s crotchety curmudgeon of a budget chief who has resigned from the Rob Ford cabinet, but desperately wants to remain.
By that I mean we all know the Del Grandes of the world. We have one at work or home. Prickly, hard to please, forever fussed and snarly. And good at what they do. So we endure their insufferable tirade and let them carry on.
Show me a little love — no, a little more love — and hold any criticism, and I might bring my considerable talents to your aid, is the message from these sulky soreheads.
One suspects that the majority of city council would just as well see Del Grande carry on as budget chief. Despite the complaints and crabbiness, this is the happiest the guy’s been since he was elected to council, knocking off incumbent Sherene Shaw in Scarborough Agincourt.
Since arriving at city hall, Del Grande has told everyone within shouting distance that he has enormous skills handling money and his talents are underutilized. Enter Rob Ford with a mandate to cut spending and Del Grande was a natural choice. But don’t expect him to go about the task joyously.
One gets the impression Del Grande would be frowning in the crowd at a Maple Leafs Stanley Cup parade. Alas, we may never get to verify this view, heading into five decades of hockey championship drought.
The councillor has delivered three consecutive budgets that put the brakes on spending at city hall. That is Mayor Rob Ford’s mandate. That is what Del Grande delivered on each year — even when the mayor tried to sabotage his own agenda again on Monday.
It’s common for politicians like Del Grande to spin the narrative that they — and they only — stand between the city hall spenders and bankruptcy. Each year, the head of the budget-making exercise frames a narrative and relentlessly tries to stick by it. Before Del Grande was Shelley Carroll and David Soknacki and David Shiner and Tom Jakobek. The city was either on the verge of disaster, being screwed royally by Queen’s Park, in the throes of nearrecession sparked by downloading from Mike Harris or just spending like drunken sailors on frills. Never mind that the “frills” are police, fire, child care, nutrition program, transit, arts program, bike lanes, paramedics and the like. Indeed, one man’s frill is another man’s essential service. Today’s critical service is decried tomorrow as “gravy.” Don’t believe that? Consider that Mayor Ford was the lone person to vote against increased arts funding one year. This year he has signed off on a huge infusion of cash for the arts — moving the city to the promised per-capita funding. In other words, take the annual budget battles under advisement. All budget chiefs know this. It’s just not in Del Grande’s nature to acknowledge alternate reality. None of the three things that apparently pushed Del Grande over the precipice is justifiable. The most egregious — his boss, the mayor, voted against the budget in a bizarre move backing a tax freeze that would require a further $46 million not to be found — Del Grande dismissed as Rob Ford being Rob Ford, “one of the unsolved mysteries of the universe.” The most bogus is the one that seems to cut deepest — again, a reflection of the dyspeptic and thin-skinned politician. Council passed a motion asking for staff to consider making the budget process more transparent. That Del Grande would object to the “transparency” motion is just hubris. Yes, it can be more transparent. Yes, in some earlier years, residents had more time and more opportunities to study, consider, speak on, object to and influence the budget. You got a budget passed 16 days into January, the earliest in memory. Declare victory and move on. As much as councillors appreciate Del Grande’s work, they are never going to ignore constituents’ plea for services just to placate a cranky colleague. All but the most thin-skinned recognize that.
rjames@thestar.ca