Category: Chairman’s Desk

Move over affordable housing, public safety, and the absolute disaster that is Toronto’s finances. Make space—a lot—for two issues that will define this upcoming Mayoral race: traffic congestion and public transportation.

Sadly, on this score, candidates have spent a great deal of time acting like Captain Obvious. We already know that congestion in this city is nothing short of nightmarish, that Toronto traffic is — in fact — some of the worst in the entire world. That it is horrific for our economy, dreadful for the environment, a disaster for families and a danger to every soul brave enough to venture, well, anywhere in this city.

While they profess platitudes, purporting to share our frustration, they are woefully thin on (forgive the expression) concrete solutions.

So, what’s needed?

For my tax dollar, the answer lies in turning our minds, painful as it is, to the failures of two of the largest and most controversial public transportation projects of late: the plagued, mislaid (literally) Eglinton crosstown LRT and the long-delayed Union Station redevelopment.

Back in 2010, the city cancelled David Miller’s Transit City. Why? Rob Ford made good on his campaign pledge to scrap the project and redirect funds for a Scarborough subway.

Despite their personal animosity, then Premier Dalton McGuinty and Mayor Rob Ford, out of political necessity, temporarily laid down their swords and agreed to a new funding plan. Ontario would pick up 100 per cent of the cost of the new Eglinton Crosstown line, conveniently serving a swath of ridings held by the provincial Liberals. In return, Toronto would pick up 100 per cent of the tab to rejuvenate and expand the most critical transit hub in the country, Union Station.

As everyone who lives, works and commiserates knows, both projects were eye-wateringly over budget and hopelessly over time. Though Union Station is now finally transformed, the new 17 km Eglinton Crosstown line is full of recriminations and threatened suits and countersuits — full of everything but transit riders.

We don’t need to get any further into the history of these sagas, as most Ontarians are already maddeningly familiar, to understand that political imperatives have delayed our vital infrastructure.

Today, due to short-term, narrowly partisan decision-making, our city finds itself in a perilous situation and yet the solution is crystal clear: we simply must remove politics from the equation. And the best way to do that is to appoint a traffic and critical transportation infrastructure czar.

If this proposal sounds familiar, it’s because we already have a lightweight version of this in the City’s Transit Expansion office led by Derrick Toigo. Never heard of him? That’s no surprise. Although his mandate is to accelerate transit projects, minimizing overall disruption is not. In other words, the role is full of talk about ‘working across’ levels of government and ‘breaking down’ silos but has achieved minimal results — as the city’s insane congestion plainly testifies.

So what’s needed is something far stronger, an office with unique powers to develop a long-term transportation strategy focused not only on getting projects built, but keeping the city moving amidst the necessary disruption that accompanies their construction. And its North Star should be reducing gridlock, not winning votes.

To work, this position must be a long-term appointment, and the appointee should also be blessed by all three levels of government who provide the necessary funding.

The bottom line is that Toronto’s traffic and transit problems will not be solved without pain in the short-term. Torontonians get that. But what we cannot and should not abide is pain that is all for naught, pain created by political opportunism.

So, when asked by mayoral candidates for my two cents, here’s my answer: we need a dedicated traffic/transportation czar who can cut through the politics, keep their eye on the big picture and keep our city moving.

This article first appeared in the Toronto Star on May 15, 2023.

Despite sinking into further disrepute since his departure from the White House, remarkably or perhaps unremarkably, Donald Trump has firmly established his position as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

At first glance, it is easy to attribute Trump’s success simply to the increased radicalization and division apparent in the “land of liberty.” But I see it differently.

For me, the cowardly retreat of Republican moderates has not received sufficient blame for the marginalization of American conservatism. Their opposition to Trump, despite increased opportunity for it to be effective, has been both pitiful and pathetic.

After the underwhelming Republican performance in the 2022 midterms, for which Trump was resoundingly culpable, one would have hoped to see the emergence of a nominee with the potential to restore respectability to the GOP’s leadership. After all, the chance was staring them in the face.

Yet, no viable moderate competitor has emerged. While some will argue that the party is so lost that, at this point, the situation is hopeless, how do we know that to be true if no one has tried?

As a result, the Trump virus has continued to fester and spread. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, considered the most likely contender to take on Trump, is just Trump without the amusement. He’s just as determined to push dogmatic agendas, be it on guns, LGBT rights, or abortion. He is just less funny. Quite a bit.

Trump’s presidency was characterized by the binary choice he created: you were either with him or against him. This polarizing force instilled fear in those who dared to defy him. However, in the current nomination context, there’s no excuse for moderate Republicans to cower. Gone should be their fear of alienating Trump’s voting base because that base has left them. After all, it is a base that despises them as much as they despise that base. Instead, they should be jumping at the chance to confront him.

But this cowardice is baked in, starting at the top. Party leaders, like Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, have often been reluctant to criticize Trump, fearing jeopardy to their political careers. Ronna McDaniel’s election as chair of The Republican National Committee is another signal. She is widely seen as having been picked because she is best positioned to prevent Trump from forming a splinter movement, should he lose the nomination.

Their support sends a message to rank-and-file Republicans that dissent from Trumpism is not welcome.

So, if the GOP is truly lost to the MAGA movement, why haven’t we seen more defections to the Democrats or an appetite for an alternative movement? The Lincoln Project, a political action committee formed by moderate Republicans, is the closest thing but its efforts alone aren’t enough.

Asa Hutchinson, former two-term Arkansas governor, is running as a “non-Trump” candidate, vowing to champion “common sense, consistent conservatism.” While commendable, Hutchinson is polling with less than 1 per cent support, unable to build any momentum largely thanks to the absence of figures like Mitt Romney, which highlights the apathy and fear that has become pervasive among moderate Republicans.

One must wonder what happened to the conviction and performance of these moderates in the face of Trump’s antics. Where is Jeb Bush, who was last reported to be attempting to buy and sell Israeli spyware through his private equity firm? And even if they are quiet now, at least Bush and Romney previously tried to take Trump on. Where are the many others who never even bothered? They carry far more of the blame.

Spineless refusals to confront Trump are directly responsible for his continued popularity. History will not judge well those moderates who abandoned a difficult fight because they thought it was a hopeless fight. Those who flew the white flag and surrendered their party to the MAGA pirates will be seen for what they are: cowards.

This article first appeared in the Toronto Star on May 7, 2023.