David Miller's last day as Mayor of Toronto

After seven successful years of serving the City of Toronto as mayor, David Miller is now serving his final day. Here are two recent articles from the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star, discussing Miller's achievements and the mark he left on the city. As of midnight, December 1, Councillor and mayor-elect Rob Ford (who, as a city councillor, has no accomplishments to his name to speak of) will assume Toronto's mayoralty. Anyways, what these two articles didn't really mention is that Toronto has the lowest property tax rates in the Greater Toronto Area; a AA1 credt rating from Moody's Investor Service; a $355 million budget surplus; Price Waterhouse Coopers rated Toronto the most liveable city in the world; AON Consulting rated Toronto the least riskiest city for employment in the world; Statistics Canada rated Toronto with the third lowest crime severity in Canada; Worldwide Centres of Commerce rated Toronto the third best place in North America to do business; Foreign Policy Magazine rated Toronto the fourth best cultural centre in the world; and KPMB Auditing Services rated Toronto with the fifth most competitive taxes in the world. Also, thanks to Mayor Miller, Toronto will be hosting the 2015 Pan Am Games, has been hosting the annual and very popular Nuit Blanche arts festival for a few years now, and overall, Toronto is a much better place than it was seven years ago.

Give David Miller his due:

In a series of media interviews on Monday, Mayor David Miller listed all the great things he has done in seven years as mayor of Toronto. Tooting his own horn? You could say that. But after an election when his legacy was under attack, and that ended with the victory of one of his fiercest critics, Mr. Miller deserves a chance to remind Torontonians that he wasn’t all bad.

In fact, for all his faults, he can boast some solid accomplishments. To begin with, he made city hall much more accountable. When he took office in 2003, the city administration was under a cloud cast by the MFP computer-leasing scandal. Brandishing a broom, he promised to clean the place up – and did.

Miller’s exit strategy: a long nap, then the World Bank:

A fitting memento, considering Miller is likely to be remembered as the Transit Mayor. It is for his work in that area that Miller hopes to be remembered.

“I’m proud of the complete transit renaissance in this city. When I was first elected mayor, we were running 24-year-old buses,” he said. The bus fleet has been completely replaced. Streetcar and subway replacements are on their way.

“And of course Transit City, which went from being an election commitment in 2006, to being a plan in early 2007, then a fully funded plan on June 15, 2007, and to construction starting in 2009, which in Toronto terms is lightning speed.”

Also on his watch, the crime rate has dropped — in large part thanks to investments in priority neighbourhoods and community policing strategies — and Toronto has become an environmental leader on the world stage.

Miller remained popular throughout his two terms, including a landslide re-election victory in 2006. And despite the disastrously handled garbage strike two summers ago, which left pundits declaring that Miller’s political future was toast, an Ipsos Reid poll conducted in late August showed that Miller, had he run again, would have won handily.