Let’s de-amalgamate this horrid Metro mess

Is Kathleen Wynne as bad for Ontario as Mike Harris?

In the political wrestling match at Queen’s Park the question of which of two concurrent political villains is the meanest, greediest and least competent.

It’s a tossup.

The evils that ex-Premier Mike Harris imposed on Ontario residents and their representatives was absolutely horrid and inept; much like the man himself, some might say.

Harris destroyed Toronto by Amalgamation (his term) with the separate and distinct municipalities of York, East York, North York and Scarborough.

Each of those municipalities had their own cultures, their own properties and assets…and their own distinct identities. No more.

Mike, who was no deep thinker, mushed them all into the same tight kettle, showing what an insensitive and ignorant creep had been elected Premier of Ontario. Similar to today’s Queen’s Park denizen who, in what seems to be a Liberal tradition, sold face-time with party officials to businesses. Just as Pierre Trudeau’s silly son Justin also did. And like Wynne, he’s no prize.

But beyond that simplistic corruption of Amalgamation is the municipal mess known as Metro. It’s an ungovernable monster. It needs to be rethought and rebuilt.

Currently there is a movement to free Scarborough from amalgamated Toronto posited by Scarborough resident Robert McDermott (see his dedicated website http://bit.ly/2jqjOMQ). That’s good for Scarborough and it’s good to see the thought of de-amalgamation brought forward.

What’s needed is a Metro-wide movement to break up this awful violation of citizen’s rights and municipal identities. McDermott has stepped up for his community. Other residents of the dissolved cities of Metro should do the same.

The amalgamated city council is a governance horror with 44 members and a mayor who waste our resources and underserve citizens. They make mistakes that affect the entire municipal region instead of restricting errors to a single municipality such as, say, East York.

Take note of those mushroom-looking on-street garbage bins amalgamation produced. Many are now missing and many others are broken or damaged. Is that the money-saving positive benefit Harris envisioned? One that’s costing more than the bins they replaced?

The examples are rife and the waste is beyond sinful. Keep in mind the Rule of 10 when forming committees. As a committee grows beyond 10 members it becomes evermore dysfunctional and ineffective.

— Frank Touby