If every single one of their municipal councillors spontaneously combusted tomorrow, most Torontonians probably wouldn't notice until the next time they went to the polls. And considering that fewer than 40% of voters turned out for the last round of local elections, most would continue to live on in ignorant bliss even then.
Right now, that's not exactly a huge problem. As fond as I am of lecturing friends on why they should take an interest in federal or provincial politics, I have a hard time making the case that they're shirking their civic duty by failing to know the name of every real estate agent or student activist hoping to represent their ward at City Hall. But before long, that may change.
As it presently stands, city council is a minor-league operation. Some of its members are promising (or at least ambitious) political novices cutting their teeth at the local level before moving up to the big club. Others are past their prime, their once lofty aspirations reduced to haggling over zoning issues and going through the motions to get re-elected every three years. With the odd exception, they're a decidedly unremarkable lot -- and in a few cases, they're such utter buffoons that it's hard to imagine them succeeding either in the private sector or at any other level of government.
For now, there's little danger of them doing much harm: Most of the really important decisions -- the ones that have a major impact on Torontonians' daily lives -- are made either at Queen's Park or on Parliament Hill. But the consequence of the "new deal for cities" movement that's swept across the country in the past few years is that, before too long, these folks might actually have some real power. And that's where things start to get a bit scary.
In theory, Dalton McGuinty's plan to introduce new legislation to better enable Toronto to chart its own future is difficult to quarrel with. As the Premier put it, Ontario's current framework leaves its cities in a "legislative and fiscal straitjacket that would baffle Houdini," forcing it to seek provincial approval for everything from speed bumps to minor bylaws. And since the province has bigger fish to fry than most relatively mundane municipal issues, it's not unreasonable to entrust most local decisions to those who have the time and inclination to pay them due diligence.
If the city has its way, however, it will be picking up a lot more than a few new housekeeping chores. Among other things, Toronto is reportedly seeking sweeping new taxation powers (including freedom to impose higher business taxes and the right to levy a hotel tax), increased authority over housing projects and the right to change the size of its own council, set speed limits on local roads and adopt a more flexible approach to bar hours.
Not all of this may appear earth-shattering on first glance. But it would still mean that, from one day to the next, councillors would inherit considerable power over the fiscal policies and infrastructure of Canada's biggest city and most powerful economic engine. And if that happens, it will become incumbent upon voters to begin holding them to account -- perhaps even more so than with their federal or provincial representatives.
Say what you will about the centralization of power in the offices of our prime ministers and premiers, but there's an upside: Professionals are running the show. No matter how wacky the MPs or MPPs, reasonably rational -- if occasionally out-of-touch -- backroom operatives keep things from getting too far out of hand. But that's not the case at the municipal level, where the absence of any party system (at least in Toronto) and the lack of legislative powers bestowed upon the mayor makes every issue a free-for-all.
If voters took care to send a slate of qualified candidates to council, that might be a good thing. But consider that this is a city which greeted Mel Lastman's embarrassing foibles with such a shrug that no serious candidates even bothered to run against him in 2000. If that's the standard for the mayor's office, it's not difficult to understand why council's benches are so crowded with mediocrities.
As eye-glazing as municipal politics might be, Torontonians may soon be doing themselves no favours by tuning it out. But that's not a warning that the staunchest advocates of municipal empowerment -- the ones at City Hall -- are likely to issue anytime soon.
