City's right needs to unite

But Ford, Shiner, Ootes, Stintz, Minnan-Wong, Thompson, Feldman, Ashton put 'I' in team

By SUE-ANN LEVY

Last Updated: 5th October 2008, 6:32am

At the last meeting of Mayor David Miller's powerful executive committee -- on Sept. 2 -- I was dismayed to see only two politicians from the right-of-centre contingent on hand to voice their concerns about a number of controversial, and costly, items.

Those councillors, Mike Del Grande and Denzil Minnan-Wong, stuck it out at the meeting for the entire day -- as unwelcome as they were made to feel by the mayor and his complicit minions.

Unfortunately, given that King David is adept at using the bylaws to his advantage to stifle debate, their concerns -- while valid -- were quickly brushed off and the mayor's priority items were rammed through in the blink of an eye.

But at least they were there and made an effort. The rest of the right-of-centre contingent, who fail to understand the concept of strength in numbers, were for the most part missing in action that day, as they have been repeatedly as of late. It's a pattern I find most troubling.

I'll bet few of them will be at tomorrow's executive committee meeting either, even though the list of controversial items is just as lengthy as last month and all major decisions are now being funnelled through this committee.

Now, to be fair, at times one sees rare flashes of feistiness from councillors.

Take Cliff Jenkins and Cesar Palacio, who have been fighting for an essential services agreement with the TTC.

Michael Thompson has consistently voiced his disapproval of Miller's approach to battling crime and Doug Holyday of union and councillor expense issues.

Coun. Karen Stintz has challenged the strong mayor system and Case Ootes took on the city's panhandler problem.

They've done a heckuva lot more, frankly, than councillors David Shiner and Rob Ford, who simply love hearing the sound of their own voices.

Still as a contingent, there's no doubt the right-of-centre councillors are fragmented. undisciplined, far too married to their own agendas and just plain egotistical. Trying to get them to work together is akin to herding untamed cats.

Whatever one chooses to call the current state of council's dysfunctional opposition -- and I hesitate to even use the word "opposition" -- there's no doubt in my mind that by sitting back and refusing to fight together, they have played completely into the mayor's hands.

Coun. Brian Ashton admits Miller is a "political black hole who sucks all power into himself." He also feels the centre-right is "fragmented" and must begin to organize as a "vocal opposition.

"I would be joyful if I were David Miller," he said. "He sleeps at night without any fear (of being opposed)."

He insists, as do many of his colleagues, that he hasn't given up.

Del Grande thinks otherwise. He even believes the idea that they can "do nothing" has spread from one councillor to another.

He says he bothers to express his concerns at executive committee (and at council) -- even though the mayor has created a very "closed, calculated, orchestrated" type of meetings -- because bad things occur when good people do nothing.

"It's easy to be silent," he said, noting he's tried to encourage his colleagues to "camp out" at executive committee, to no avail. "I think they (my colleagues) should be fighting to their last breath ... I want people to kick ass."

He adds they have a job to represent their constituents -- many of whom are telling him they "don't like this mayor and his policies.

Ashton said he's prepared to sit down to organize a group that will have a "common mission" and agrees it has to happen soon seeing as council is halfway through the term. Nevertheless, he concedes some of his colleagues may be unwilling to put their ambitions aside for a certain period of time.

Coun. Mike Feldman -- while admitting he's frustrated and council is "not fun" anymore -- insisted they're working on trying to effect a credible opposition.

"We're hard at work," he said, preferring not to provide details.

I'm not holding my breath much will change. If one thing was pretty darn apparent from my discussions with councillors, they can't agree what needs to be done or who should lead the charge.

When asked whether he feels abandoned by many of his colleagues, Del Grande responded: "Yeah I do.

"People talk the talk," he said. "But we don't learn from the NDP who are active and organized ... . we're not active and we're not organized."