In Rob Ford’s Toronto, less will be more

Christopher Hume, Opinion, The Toronto Star:

Suddenly it seems the future has arrived in Toronto. And for the first time in our history, perhaps, it doesn’t look better than the past. Indeed, it looks a whole lot worse.

All that remains for us is to carve up the remains of the city, now revealed to be a luxury we can’t afford. Turns out that the whole idea of Toronto the Livable City, the City That Works, was more than we could afford. We just didn’t know it until Rob Ford came along.

Why, in poor little old Hogtown, we can’t pay to remove the snow and keep the libraries open; it’s one or the other. All these years, we’ve been living a fantasy, actually daring to believe we could be an international city.

And so the future has arrived; next year is this year. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, an anxious citizenry looks to you to lead the city out of this mess of its own making. Thank you, also, for reminding us that we must pay for what we have and that everything costs money.

As you said, “our city has spent more than it brings in.” Though some might take that as a cue taxes should go up, or that the country should rethink how public funds are distributed among the different levels of government, you have the foresight to decide — and even before the facts are in — that it’s better to cut than to grow.

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