2 weeks Ago
There are at least two ways to look at the Toronto bike lane controversy. One is from the perspective of the bike rider; keep them safe. The other is from the point of view of the car driver; keep them moving.
Unfortunately, neither side seems willing to concede the other has a legitimate position and our roads are simply too narrow to fully accommodate both. Both perspectives come from a place of self-interest. And while I can’t see either side convincing the other theirs is the true vision of the future, there is, I believe, one obvious solution .
We need to direct most of our our energy and financial resources toward workable and reliable public transit. Let’s acknowledge that Metrolinx has been a disaster, and fix it. Lose the preposterous idea of a tunnel under Hwy.
401. Reach out to all areas of the city and make the transit system user-friendly. Realize and accept that compromises and concessions must be made by both camps.
Most of all, accept that this cannot be done overnight but rather will take decades to achieve, and not without some pain and inconvenience. But it’s the right thing to do. No more hand-wringing, blaming and shaming.
Just get moving! Future generations of Torontonians are owed at least that much. For those who openly or secretly admire Elon Musk, you may have grounds. While he waves his support of Donald Trump others with less backbone are, to quote Boris Johnson, “great supine protoplasmic invertebrate jellies.
” Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, to name a few spineless billionaires, appear more afraid of offending Trump than doing the right thing and supporting Kamala Harris. In a perfect world, they would be held accountable. But this is a world in which the U.
S. might elect Trump as president, again. A key ingredient in the rise of fascism has always been corporate power.
That’s why, for example, the Allies broke up the giant Japanese companies after the Second World War. It’s no wonder that after decades of neo-liberalism, fascism is poised to take over the U.S.
It’s the inevitable result of private wealth seeking to further its own ends. In Canada, decades of governments kowtowing to their wealthy backers are producing the same results. Governments need to reassert their role of keeping corporate power in check.
They can do this more easily when they actually represent the majority of voters, instead of being one of the false majorities produced by winner-take-all elections. It’s only when people’s votes are freely given and actually count that we get a government for the people. As an Ontario taxpayer I am disgusted with the blatant disregard to fiscal responsibility shown by the Doug Ford government.
Ford has chosen to send a $200 “gift” to all of us, instead of using this “bonus” $3 billion to complete much-needed repairs to schools, boost hospital staffing numbers and beds or offset this year’s $6.6-billion deficit. Some gift! This is our taxpayer money.
Ontarians will not be that easily duped into voting for Ford’s Progressive Conservatives next election. This move, on top of the estimated $650 million to destroy the current Ontario Place grounds, and the possible $1-billion price tag associated with the early cancellation of the Beer Store contract proves the financial priorities of the Ford government do not align with the priorities of the citizens of Ontario. How is it possible, in our current state of housing crisis, that our premier deems it fit to send a $200 cheque to everyone in the province of Ontario, including millionaires and billionaires? This money may help many lower income families in a temporary manner, as there is no denying the cost of living is prohibitive for many.
But I’m simply outraged that more than a hundred thousand millionaires and billionaires will also receive this money. Do you know who won’t receive a cheque? All our fellow Ontarians living in tents, in ravines and in shelters around this province. A much more pragmatic and progressive approach would be to limit the cheques to those who need them most and to deploy the rest of the funds into existing housing programs and capital injections for non-profit affordable housing providers .
Or into health care, or students, or communities. There are so many more worthwhile ways to spend this money than on those who don’t need it. Not only am I fed up and tired of Premier Doug Ford, I’m insulted.
I hate being treated as stupid and gullible. Yes, his government has a majority, but he doesn’t have a mandate that allows him to treat Ontario as his personal playground, remaking the province to suit his vision. The premier doesn’t seem to understand he is not a supreme ruler, but simply the highest-ranking employee of the people.
He thinks it is all right to fork out exorbitant amounts to private clinics instead of supporting our hospitals, and to push Hwy. 413 through the environmentally sensitive Greenbelt in order to satisfy developers who own adjacent lands. I’m tired of his seat-of-the pants decisions, ignoring scientists and experts who routinely tell him he’s wrong.
In the interest of placating his base and securing their votes, he removes safe injection sites and bike lanes, ignoring the evidence that supports them. He supports Big Oil’s claim that natural gas is a clean fuel, fights congestion with more highways, reverses the LCBO paper bag ban, wastes money paying the Beer Store in order to have alcohol in corner stores one year early. My latest frustration is with his $200 vote-buying give-away .
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