Peace, Order and Good Governance? Not in Toronto

If you live in Canada’s largest city, today you are either breathing a sigh of relief or cursing at the fiasco of local government.

Since Rob Ford became Toronto’s mayor in Dec. 2010, the feisty outspoken – and edgy – Ford had caused uproar, controversy and today came close to being the first Canadian mayor to be fired by a court of law.

Lucky for Mayor Ford the court ruled in his favour, and he remains mayor of Canada’s largest city.

But through it all, the primary role of his office – of all elected municipal politicians at the City of Toronto – is to provide good governance of the city.

Good governance is a sacred right in Canada. It says so in the Canadian Constitution dating back to 1867, that we have a right to: “peace, order and good government.”

City of Toronto Councillor Joe Mihevc said himself on a local news channel that Torontonians haven’t been getting good government quite a while, and that they are frustrated because of it.

Damn right we are!

The whole notion of paying for a service which you don’t get is enough to make anyone’s blood boil. That this service is also a guaranteed right under the highest law in the land – the Canadian Constitution – makes it all the more serious of an offence to us all –or it should.

Because when politicians start to ignore the founding laws of the nation in which they serve, they tarnish the very fabric which makes that nation whole.

That’s why Toronto owes you money.

The City of Toronto should refund Toronto residents for their lack of governance.

I want a refund for the Mickey Mouse antics I’ve witnessed by our local politicians. And you should too.

It’s embarrassing to watch Canada’s largest city, with some of the most experienced veteran municipal politicians, failing to act professionally in their management of our city.

And management of our city, of our province and of our country is a fundamental law, ironed into the very weave which made Canada a country.

We have peace.

We have order.

We just don’t have good governance.

That needs to change.