First, the big news: one of premier Dalton McGuinty’s most powerful cabinet ministers, Municipal Affairs and Housing head Kathleen Wynne, the MPP for Don Valley West, doesn’t like gambling or the idea of a casino in Toronto.
She describes herself as “conflicted” on the issue.
Now the bad news: her personal misgivings aside, Wynne says it’s up to the city to decide if it wants a casino. She’s not “naive” enough to think that gambling will go away. The province, she says, will respect the decision of council.
As for the monied and very powerful forces of evil agitating behind the scenes for a Toronto casino – lobbyists are sniffing around City Hall as we speak – Wynne advises you, dear voter, to call your local councillor about your concerns. Talk about skilled deflection.
Around the cabinet table at Queen’s Park, more MPPs than not share Wynne’s discomfort with gambling. Their reticence is compounded by the fact that the brothers Ford will be the ones running the show should the decision be made to bring a casino to the Big Smoke.
But I’m hearing that a fallback position is being concocted by the Libs to land this baby in Mississauga, Markham or Oakville – better alternatives, to my mind, given their more regional location and the lesser threat they pose to existing gaming operations freaked at the prospect of Toronto sucking up all the action.
Despite the political pushing and shoving happening behind the scenes, the casino debate will be won or lost in the court of public opinion.
It’s almost two weeks and still no results, at least none that have been made public, on that casino poll linked to former Ford chief of staff Nick Kouvalis – more specifically, to the Campaign Support call centre run by his wife.
Perhaps the hoped-for results among casino advocates – that Torontonians are dying for a gambling den on the waterfront – just aren’t there.
Results of polling conducted by the Canadian Gaming Association and others to gauge our appetite for a Caesars Palace-style casino are split down the middle – not strong numbers for casino pushers.
Enter MGM Resorts International, which has hired the Sussex Strategy Group to push its gambling interests at City Hall. At last count, Sussex has placed four staffers on the casino file. Among those visited by Sussex operatives since Campaign Support’s poll: Amir Remtulla, the mayor’s chief of staff Earl Provost, the mayor’s director of councillor and stakeholder relations, and a number of councillors, including Giorgio Mammoliti twice.
So how to spin this gambling thing into a win-win?
Mammoliti opined on the mayor’s radio show Sunday, April 14, that a casino would create great job opportunities for unemployed single mothers. (Yeah, let’s send them all to college to become card sharks.)
Mammo went one better Tuesday, April 17, suggesting that gambling could provide the kind of revenue that would allow the city to back off on budget cuts – if saving single mothers isn’t a big enough carrot for ya.
Between casinos and bunny ranches, another Nevada import Mammo’s high on, a lot of palms stand to get greased, if you know what I mean.
With the province leaving this one up to Toronto, we can expect more in the way of, um, positive reinforcement on the casino question.
My hunch is that public support for it just isn’t there.
If it were, we’d have heard more on Campaign Support’s survey by now. It will be interesting to see how those numbers are reported. If the results are anything like the polls on the gambling issue so far, a casino will be a tough sell.
The mayor’s brother, Councillor Doug Ford, an unabashed casino supporter, has all of a sudden been talking about public transit as a prerequisite for any gambling facility.
The cynic in me thinks he’s angling to make a casino more palatable by linking transit to the deal.
Besides, a casino would be just the kind of catalyst the Fords are looking for to fast-track their own development plans for the eastern waterfront.
A recent consultants’ study done for Waterfront Toronto named transit as the big missing link standing in the way of significant revitalization for the area.
It might all be a coincidence. But I’m not the only one whose Spidey senses are tingling on this business.
Adam Vaughan’s motion to put the casino idea to a referendum at last week’s meeting of council (it was referred to the executive committee) takes on new meaning in light of the lobbying that’s taken flight in recent days at City Hall.
But another motion of Vaughan’s didn’t capture the same headlines. That one asks the province to put tighter controls on the misuse of telephone technology, i.e. robocalls.
Vaughan didn’t craft the motion with the current casino debate in mind, but he is wary that misleading robo-polls could be used, too, to push casinos.
Right now, any firm outside Canada providing robocall technology to a client, for example, or engaging in the funny business of loaded polls, is beyond the reach of the Canadian courts. Vaughan says that leaves the city open to “corruption” by outside influences.
The early returns on the casino question, however, indicate that the public’s no sucker.
enzom@nowtoronto.com | twitter.com/enzodimatteo
