I didn’t vote in the 2010 election. I had only just moved to Toronto, and I didn’t know anything about any of the candidates, let alone the issues.
But it doesn’t take a genius to realize that Rob Ford should not have won the election.
The guy ran on a platform of too-good-to-be-true promises, essentially promising to cut revenues without cutting costs, citing some magical gravy money as the source for ongoing expenses.
Turns out there wasn’t much gravy after all.
Edward Keenan explores the issue in his op ed from this week’s edition of The Grid TO.
Step One: Ford got elected promising he could cut taxes by eliminating “gravy”–wasteful spending and inefficiency–and “guaranteeing” there would be no service cuts whatsoever. He claimed extravagance by his predecessors had created billions of dollars in waste that could easily be eliminated to save money for citizens.
Step Two: Upon taking office, he cut taxes to the tune of about $320 million, which created a giant budget hole that had not previously existed.
Step Three: Pointing to that budget hole, he proclaimed there was a crisis in the city’s financing, so we would need to drastically cut services. He blames the fact we cannot afford these services on his predecessor’s years of excessive spending.
