The Obstructionist Party Of Canada
As I voyage around Toronto, I enjoy watching the city's flow. Vive la difference, as they say - our mosaic is alive and well. Unfortunately, it's being delayed, roadblocks being thrown up, progress denied; Toronto is a city backwatered.
The culprit? Our own Council, the ones we chose to lead us.
Instead of thinking twenty years - or more - into the future, we glumly settle for the St. Clair "right-of-way", and even threaten to repeat that mistake. Instead of neighbourhood planning that reflects that mosaic, we get threats of Wal-Marts in treasured spots like Kensington Market.
We can't even get traffic lights right. Goodness, even The Big Apple has long since figured out that you can't force people out of cars - and if there ever was a city with incentive to declare War On The Car, it's New York.
Our Council isn't, well, counselling much of anything that actually works, which has given rise to a new curled-lip epithet in the Dewdney house; when we get stopped at three red lights in a row on one street in less than four minutes (oh, the horrific inconvenience - but imagine this repeated times millions of drivers - how much time gets flushed) we snarl, "OBSTRUCTIONISTS!!"
In 2014, we have the chance to elect a Council - never mind the blasted Mayor already - that can actually work together. Maybe there will be a Councillor who rides the TTC to work. Maybe there will be Councillors who will actually try biking instead of just screaming about it - who knows, anything is possible - and maybe, just maybe, we'll start holding some feet to the fire, demanding a city that actually WORKS, damn the ideologies.
Throw those ideologies under the St. Clair streetcar - and get the heck out of the way.
