http://www.thestar.com/News/article/275278
Support for Hazel, in the GTA, and in the urban centres of the province continues to grow, as her campaign against the most anti-urban government in modern days.
This week, it was federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty who ran into the municipal rock of ages. "I tell you I'm taking on Mr. Flaherty," the mayor said. And, as a result, he and his government might well be picking up bits of wreckage for the foreseeable future.
McCallion slapped a 5-per-cent infrastructure levy in place – no muss, no fuss, no months of squeamish agonizing – to vacuum up some of Ottawa's GST cut and take care of what the feds won't do.
And, step aside, boys, from now on she'll lead a national campaign entitled Cities Now!, to demand Ottawa use its huge surplus to help urban centres tackle their many and mounting problems.
"I'm not fighting for Mississauga," she declared. "I'm fighting for the municipalities of Canada."
Others might be content to wait for bridges to fall down. Not Her Worship.
Suddenly, the easy outs of Ottawa have been closed off. No one can accuse Hazel of being some union lackey. No one can accuse her of running a fat and wasteful shop.
Unlike your more effete urban pols, McCallion's got a style and face and sensibility at home in every Tim Hortons and curling rink, legion hall and mall in the country.
She had street cred before the term was invented. If she says so, it must be true. And if she's angry, something must be wrong. And if you're in her crosshairs, well, might want to get your affairs in order.
"I am in a fighting mood," Greater Toronto's best-loved octogenarian announced
Come election time, the Conservatives will find that Misser Liberals will be in a fighting mood, not content to let federal mismanagement destroy Canada's greatest urban success story. The recent provincial election showed that Mississauga, once a safe Conservative area, is becoming Liberal country. Wajid Khan, at a rally the other day, talked about how proud he was to be a Conservative, and how the GTA needed more Conservative representatives. As long as the Conservatives take an openly hostile. approach towards Ontario's cities, and the GTA in particular, Khan should be spending more time discussing with his riding why he felt the need to join an anti-urban party, and less time grandstanding.
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3 comments:
Cities are, constitutionally, a provincial responsibility. Perhaps if the cities are in such sad shape, McGuinty should prioritize his spending rather than try to be all things to all people. There is only one taxpayer and I don't think that taxpayers from Saskatchewan, for example, are too keen to see their dollars being used for Ontario cities...IMHO.
Morris morris: Hazel McCallion, along with other Ontario mayors, are NOT asking taxpayers from Saskatchewan (or from anywhere else) for a handout. What they are asking for is that some of the money Ontario remits in federal taxes stay in Ontario. Ontario remits far more than it receives from the federal government. Unlike Saskatchewan, Ontario does not receive equalization payments. Perhaps you can explain why the taxpayers of Ontario should continue subsidizing other provinces, such as Saskatchewan, rather than keeping some of that money for needed infrastructure.
I fully agree with you red and proud, I really do. I have never been in favour of money being distributed around and I think Ontario should keep more of its money. It doesn't sound fair that the taxpayers of Ontario, Alberta, and B.C.(?) subsidize the rest of the country.
But isn't it the Liberal party that is the biggest proponent of equalization?
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