Harper screws Toronto

No real surprise. How could you expect anything different from a party that is comprised mainly of big-business types and countryfolk who are accustomed to dipping into pork barrels paid for by city taxes?

The particular one that concerns us now is the Toronto Port Authority of ill repute; a curse slapped on us thanks to ex-MP Dennis Mills and the rest of the Toronto-bashing Grits like Bill Graham whom deluded Torontonians continue to return to power.

Toronto taxpayers shell out millions of dollars each year for this money-losing boondoggle that, among few other things, flies government bureaucrats and other aristocratic types from Ottawa to Downtown Toronto and back once a day.

It is so minor a port operation it doesn’t even rank as a port. It even violates the rules for port authorities that they be self supporting.

The notion of having airplanes flying freely around the heart of our nation’s business district, you’d think, would bring fears of terrorism in this post 9-11 universe. Just load a few up with fertilizer, diesel fuel and fly them into…

Nonetheless, from our tormentors far away in Ottawa comes word that Loose Larry Cannon, the transportation minister, has just filled the nearly empty board of the TPA, including some 3-year appointees and one individual in particular who has airline expertise.

Harper’s bunch had earlier stoked hopes of justice for Toronto, which strongly opposes the TPA, by Cannon appointing an investigator to see whether it should continue to exist. Reinstating the TPA board indicates, in the words of council contender Adam Vaughan, “Nothing has changed on the waterfront; the city’s optimism about the Conservatives has been misplaced.”

The move spells an end to Toronto’s waterfront development hopes of a plane-free people place.

But what did we really expect? Tories will be Tories—as will the right-wing bunch of losers who pretend to be liberals and pretend to have the best interests of our city at heart.

Bring on the walls of condos. Bring on the public-private partnerships. Roll out the barrels. Scarf up some pork.