Now that Doug Ford has become Premier of Ontario, he is looking to shake things up after 15 years of abysmal and corrupt Liberal rule.
His first month in office has been pretty admirable: he got rid of politicians receiving free meals and tickets on the taxpayer dime, he scrapped a sex-ed curriculum created by a convicted pedophile, and he eliminated costly green energy programs.
But his latest move may be the best so far: slashing Toronto’s city council in half.
Toronto’s politicians are a bunch of entitled, overpaid bureaucrats who need to constantly intervene, consult, and spend tax dollars to justify their existence. They have proven time and again that they hate progress, they hate fun, and they hate residents outside of the downtown core.
From whining to watch the Toronto Blue Jays play in the postseason during a session to proposing a motion to “develop intersectional gender-based analysis and approach to gun violence,” Toronto city councillors are ineffective paper pushers, whether they’re right-leaning or communist.
It is estimated that the premier’s move will save taxpayers approximately $25 million – each councillor earns $114,306 plus benefits.
Mayor John Tory and the city council are in uproar because the municipal election is in October and they have already increased the number of seats by three.
If Ford is intervening into the municipal affairs of Toronto, then he should take it one step further: impose term limits. There are so many people down at city hall who have served most of their adult lives in public office.
According to the legal experts, all of this is perfectly legal. Although everyone should be concerned when the province tells the municipality what to do – in the same way the McGuinty-Wynne regime forced municipalities to have wind turbines – this is a step in the right direction for small government.
Then again, Los Angeles only has a dozen or so councillors, and look at the bureaucratic, leftist mess over there.
Perhaps it is the philosophy of government that matters, not how many people serve in office.
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