The liberal Toronto Star began an in depth feature about how to make Toronto and the GTA a better place to live. Even the Star that supports the socialists on Toronto City Council acknowledges that the city is not as good as it can be. The reasons are obvious at least to others; we’ve turned into a full blown nanny state where people who are not members of the elites’ special interest groups are ignored. We are a police state if you count the idling police, the puppy police, the plastic bag police, etc. We are blessed with a council that simply cannot stop taxing and spending as they strive to take care of all the residents who they deem incapable of looking after themselves.
The latest example of the silliness that is government in Toronto was Councillor Joe Mihevc’s argument that Toronto should not sell two ski hills that the city owns in order to raise some much needed cash. According to Mihevc, if the hills are acquired by private concerns, those companies will increase fees. So to Mihevc and his ilk, residents of Toronto have a right to affordable skiing. It’s no wonder that the city is deteriorating as taxes go sky high.
One of the problems facing Toronto is gridlock due to the war on cars that the city mothers are fighting. Traffic congestion is not only ignored but is made worse by the continuous construction of bicycle lanes on major arteries. Common sense dictates that if the congestion was eased, it would make it much easier for bicycles and public transit to move. But there’s no room for common sense.
The major problems are overspending, taxes that are too high and over regulation but don’t look to the Toronto Star to come up with any solutions to the city’s problems other than more of the same.
A column by Joe Fiorito last Sunday provides a perfect illustration of how those on the left deal with such problems. Fiorito wants a mandatory law that businesses over a certain size must hire new immigrants for a one year internship in order to gain Canadian experience and eliminate racism. Who’s going to pay for all this? No problem, all three levels of government (ie the taxpayers) will pay.
So in this economy where no one is guaranteed a job, recent immigrants will be. And contrary to what those on the left think, evil white men will not be the only ones who will resent this legislation; less recent immigrants wouldn’t like it either. Fiorito might as well be honest, go all the way and just argue for a full socialist society where everyone has a job even if it means standing around eight hours a day doing nothing.
The columnist also wants mandatory language training at lunchtime for new immigrants. Again, the cost of that is no problem; the government will pay.
Fiorito also thinks that businesses that are disrupted by long periods of construction (usually occasioned by public transit work) should get tax breaks or credits. Again, any problem can be solved by throwing more money at it. How about letting experts in transit or planning or construction run these projects rather than know-nothing councillors at city hall?
As far as regulation goes, Fiorito of course wants more of it. In his opinion, landlords should be licensed in order to go after crack houses. Well, houses don’t smoke crack; people smoke crack. And if we did away with the puppy police and the kitty kops who are paid to look in peoples’ homes to root out unlicensed pets, and a lot of the overpaid, underworked and sleep-on-the-job union workers, we could afford more real cops to go after those who hang out in crack houses.
Fiorito’s dumbest idea to make Toronto a better city is to legalize marijuana. To begin with, marijuana laws are criminal in nature and within the jurisdiction of the federal government, not the city. While there are cogent arguments for the legalization of marijuana, simply making it legal in Toronto or the GTA would make the city a haven for every druggie who just wants to sit around and smoke up. The city would become worse than the east side of Vancouver. On second thought, perhaps the idea of Fiorito’s job being taken over by a columnist who just arrived in Canada yesterday isn’t such a bad idea.
Notwithstanding the jurisdictional problem of making Toronto the pot capital of the world, the government could still make smoking dope legal in Toronto and nowhere else. Even though the Conservatives have a minority, all they need is the support of one other party and Jack and the NDP would never say no to drugs. This type of legislation would go a long way in showing that Stephen Harper indeed has a sense of humour. And if this is too much for the Tories they could always pass a law making marijuana legal at Joe’s house.
Fiorito’s solutions are more of the same; spend more money, make more regulations and although he doesn’t say it, raise taxes to pay for these new government handouts.
What we really need in order to make Toronto and the GTA better is to get rid of the left wing politicians, reduce red tape, reduce gridlock, lower spending and taxes and allow businesses and people to prosper which in turn will result in higher tax revenues and more jobs.
That would really make Toronto a better place to live.
