By Klaus Rohrich
Friday, May 11, 2007
A lot of insight into the heart and soul of a city can be gained by looking at its sports franchises. By that standard the City of Toronto has managed to turn itself into a city of losers.
Take the vaunted hockey team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. What was once a proud and winning hockey club hasn't managed to win a Stanley Cup in 40 years. Yet each year, as other teams make the playoffs, Leafs fans talk about "next year" and continue to buy season tickets at outrageous prices. One comedian recently even joked about Toronto Hockey fans holding a parade when the Leafs lose.
So goes it with Toronto's other sports franchises, as well. The mighty Blue Jays haven't won a pennant in over two decades, yet opening day of this year, the Rogers Centre (formerly known as the SkyDome) was filled to capacity for the Jays' home opener. Will the Jays win the pennant and go on to play in the World Series this year? Not likely, as Toronto fans appear to have very low expectations and will pay outrageous amounts of money to watch their teams lose.
Ditto for the Raptors and likely ditto for the newly formed professional soccer team, Toronto FC.
But then, take a look at Toronto politics. Torontonians continue to vote for politicians that embody the very notion of losers. The expectations of Toronto voters are so low that they elect a mayor whose only skill appears to be sucking and whining to other levels of government about not receiving enough handouts, while he taxes the bejeezus out of his citizens.
Toronto's annual tax increases have been well ahead of the rate of inflation, yet somehow even with the extra money, the mayor and that unwieldy Tower of Babel called a city council are unable to make ends meet. Not that they've spent any time attempting to balance their budgets, even symbolically, by cutting out some of their own perks. Since everyone knows that politicians are entitled to their entitlements, those perks assume the mantle of a sacred covenant.
I think David Miller and his band of merry councillors have realized that the federal and provincial wells have run dry and as such they are forced to forage for themselves. That's why Toronto taxpayers are in the process of getting reamed, as the gaggle of NDP councillors is exploring new rape techniques. On the table is a plethora of bad ideas including, but not limited to a 30 per cup tax on take-out coffee, a 25 tax on plastic grocery bags, road tolls to enter the city and mandatory "deposit/return" laws for paint cans and batteries.
The stated rationale for these new so-called "green levies" was run up the flagpole by Miller's point man, Councillor Glen De Baeremaeker, who said, "The idea, for example, to tax plastic bags isn't to make money, it's to send a signal to consumers that you are consuming precious natural resources and let's reflect the true cost of doing that."
Where to start? The NDP is famous for "sending signals". As to the assertion that these moves are not to increase revenues for the city, if you believe that, then I'd like to talk to you about some rare purebred Heinz 57 puppies I have for sale. The true cost of a plastic bag is reflected in the retail price of that bag, or bag makers would charge the 25 themselves, instead of deferring to the NDP. De Baeremaeker also asserts that he wants to reduce the city's landfill input by 70%. That's a noble goal, but maybe someone can explain to me how that would be achieved by taking old paint cans and batteries back to the store from which they were purchased, when the store would then be stuck with the task of disposing them. They would still end up in a landfill.
Toronto used to be a really great city, before the NDP got its stranglehold on city hall. Now aggressive panhandlers and the homeless actually have more rights than those who are paying the freight to make the city tick.
Only losers would allow this to happen.
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2024 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2024 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement