By: Metro Canada Published on Fri Nov 28 2014 As he gets ready to take office next week, we should take a minute to acknowledge mayor-elect John Tory’s state of the city speech from yesterday. Because it was quite good. Detailed, measured and genuinely mayoral. Easily the best speech we’ve seen from a Toronto mayor in at least four years. Sure, that’s a low bar, but it’s still worth celebrating...
Tory's LRT fence-sitting leaves door open for political opportunists
By: Metro Canada Published on Wed Nov 26 2014 Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti really doesn’t like the planned Finch West LRT. Before October’s election, he expressed his distaste for the project by renting a large truck and having it pull a U-turn across Finch. It was a confusing attempt to show that the LRT right-of-way would cause traffic tie-ups. He later charged the cost of renting the truck to his...
Two ways Toronto can deal with Uber cabs, without running them out of town
By: Metro Published on Mon Nov 24 2014 I’ve never had great luck with Toronto cabs. Way too often, I’ve found myself standing past midnight on a bitterly cold street corner, trying to find a cab driver who will gladly accept a debit or credit card — who won’t tell me his machine is broken. As a result, I’ve become a big fan of apps that allow customers to both hail a cab and pay the fare with...
The biggest police budget question is how many cops does Toronto need
Depending on who you ask, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair’s flat-lined 2015 budget request is either a trend-reversing big deal or a total red herring that disguises how the budget will almost certainly increase after a new collective agreement is negotiated with the police union. The truth? A little from column A, a little from column B. Blair’s budget request is a pretty big deal — and good...
It's time Toronto started giving a tax break to businesses blocked by construction
By: Metro Published on Mon Nov 17 2014 The upside of new transit construction seems pretty darned obvious. It means that people in the area will get new and improved transit — eventually. But the downside of new transit construction is clear, too. New transit construction — whether it’s subway or LRT — means roads get ripped up. It means access to local businesses gets restricted to customers who...
Let's try for better mayoral debates in 2018
By: Matt Elliott Metro, Metro Published on Fri Nov 14 2014 Before Toronto’s 2014 election becomes nothing but a faint and confusing memory, we should talk about the debates. Because the debates were bad. And it wasn't because of the candidates…OK, maybe it was a little because of the candidates. Nor does the blame fall on individual debate organizers, many of whom did a huge and mostly...
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