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The cloud hanging over Toronto’s future

As the shock of David Miller’s announcement sinks in, it’s easy to wallow a bit in the dark edges of the political psyche. Here’s some depressing questions to ask yourself before it’s time to turn positive and think of how we’re going to find a new mayor worthy of Miller’s vision.[briefbreak]

1. If a sensitive, intelligent municipal leader with a consensual style and the dream of an artful, caring city informing his every move can get worn down by the right-wing foolery in this town, what kind of personality type do you think could stick it out for three terms? If the answer scares you, it should.

2. If the critique made by Miller-dissers is that our mayor can’t handle the city’s financial file, what, pray tell, is their alternative to finagling around the fact that senior governments are strangling the city? Do they think when Miller’s left the chair that the cash will magically pour? Or, could it be that every one of Miller’s enemies thinks the public realm is much too cushy for folks like us, and that services need more “sensible” proportions? Cue the dark shadows, please.

3. If George Smitherman thinks he’s more capable of managing the city’s treasury than Miller, as he has indicated he does, and more adept at representing city interests, what has he done for us lately?

Was he out taking a pee at all those cabinet meetings where the Libs decided to reverse Mike Harris downloading at so molasses a pace that the city’s stayed chronically at the edge of ruin? Did he care? Does he think he’ll have more financial leverage as mayor than he had as deputy premier, for god’s sakes? Or is it that deep-down under his I-am-so-downtown-cool exterior, he, too, thinks the mayor’s gone overboard on beautiful city initiatives, arts funding, priority area programs and community services and that our lavish expectations about what we owe to each other as citizens and neighbors needs serious scaling back?

All kind of gloomy to consider, isn’t it?

Vote for your choice for the next mayor in this poll.[rssbreak]

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