Toronto Taxes, Trades, and Political Conviction

Karmageddon By Mr. ‘X’ ~ John Mutton CENTRAL EXCLUSIVE Toronto Taxes, Trades, and Political Conviction This week, Toronto’s tax-and-spend Mayor Olivia Chow proposed a 2.2 percent tax increase. Let me put a few things into perspective about Toronto taxes. Toronto homeowners do not pay anywhere near the level of property taxes that residents in the 905 do—largely because of repeated provincial bailouts over the years. That said, I do have to tip my hat to the Rob Ford years and especially the John Tory years, when tax increases were at least manageable and predictable. Now, everyone knows I am a fiscal conservative—not a socialist—but I also believe in giving credit where credit is due. Take, for example, what I consider one of the greatest trades in history, right up there with the Manhattans selling Manhattan Island for beads and trinkets, or when the New York Yankees picked up Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox. In my opinion, one of the greatest political trades ever pulled off was Mayor Chow successfully uploading the Don Valley Parkway’s asset replacement and ongoing maintenance costs to the Province of Ontario. These costs are absolutely enormous. Frankly, I was surprised this move didn’t receive far more pushback from other politicians, given that taxpayers across the rest of Ontario are now on the hook for infrastructure that was previously the responsibility of the City of Toronto. So what did the province get in return? Silence. Silence on the Ontario Place mega-project—and quiet support from the City of Toronto. No project has meant more to the Premier than Ontario Place and its spa, and it clearly mattered enough that he was willing to assume all the costs of the Don Valley Parkway to secure that political peace. This was a massive win for Mayor Chow. In fact, I initially thought this deal might even result in a smaller tax increase for Toronto residents. Instead, much of the money saved from DVP asset replacement and maintenance appears to have been redirected into new social programsexactly as the mayor promised she would do. To her credit, Mayor Chow was upfront about her intentions. She said she would expand social programs, and she said taxes would go up. She won the support of the electorate, and with strong-mayor powers, she now has the authority to implement her agenda. While many fiscal conservatives like myself may strongly disagree with her priorities, I do respect the fact that she is doing exactly what she said she would do. Credibility and accountability matter. The real problem in politics isn’t ideological disagreement—it’s when politicians tell voters one thing and then do the opposite. We’ve seen this locally before. During the debate over the Durham-York Energy-from-Waste facility, then-Councillors Foster (now Mayor Foster) and Wu were vehemently opposed to the incinerator—until they were re-elected. After that, they supported incineration. That is where trust breaks down. The moral of the story is simple: I would rather have someone in public office— even if they’re not of the same political stripe as me—who stays true to their convictions and to the public, rather than someone who tells a bold-faced lie to get elected. Now, with Trump-era tariffs once again impacting our economy, and growing pressure to double—or even triple—the size of the Durham incinerator, let’s hope we have politicians across Durham Region who actually stand by what they say. Because convictions don’t mean much if they disappear the moment the votes are counted.