本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Seven days before you choose a new mayor,
I stand before you ?a woman who means what she says. What you see is what you get.
I will never be a fast-talking politician.
I will never be the queen of the 15 second sound bite.
I will never be a sultan of spin.
I will return this City to a solid financial position.
I will make a new deal with Queen’s Park and Ottawa.
I will restore integrity and pride to City Hall.
And I will ensure that our citizens enjoy safety and prosperity while living in the most diverse city in the world.
It is a pleasure to be here again at the Canadian Club.
I have had the honour of addressing you three times before:
In 1995 and 1997 as Mayor of Toronto.
And again in 1999, as the Chair of the National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention.
I was Mayor of the old City of Toronto for 1000 days
from 1994 to 1997 and I am very proud of what we achieved together.
We were moving from Toronto the good to Toronto the Great.
We brought a divided council together, instilled a culture of integrity and opened up city hall to make it more accessible to all citizens.
We streamlined whole departments of city government,
made tough decisions, downsized and cut red tape.
We maintained delivery of vital public services and programs.
We promoted the arts and culture.
We streamlined the zoning process and changed by-laws to spark the revitalization of dying neighbourhoods at King Spadina and King Parliament, turning parking lots into vibrant downtown communities.
We worked together, we took action, and we got results.
During those years,
building permits went up,
office occupancy went up,
tourism went up,
and crime went down.
That’s the record.
We did it all while balancing the budget ?
we did not increase taxes when I was Mayor ?
and we paid down the debt.
Our success as a city gained international recognition.
Fortune Magazine called Toronto the best city in the world in which to live, work and do business.
That’s the record.
Even the renowned architect Jane Jacobs, who has criticized me over the issue of the bridge to the airport, was glowing in her praise of our progress.
She told Jim Kunstler of Metropolis Magazine in New York:
“Our downtown keeps getting better all the time. Even the sidewalks are being widened here and there. . . . Buildings have been put in, and often very nice buildings. And there’s lots of people living downtown now. That was a distinct policy of the city. We had a remarkable mayor, whose name was Barbara Hall, She went to work to get the zoning and get the whole vision of this changed and believe me, it was very hard for her to educate her planning department.
The various visions she had were excellent.
She just talked endlessly to anybody that might be involved and she educated them and got them around to this view.
It took a lot of work and a lot of talking and a lot of belief in what she was doing.?
In my opinion, we were seized of a bold confidence, a belief that only greater and better days lay ahead.
That was then.
Since that time, I would argue that our new city has not made the progress we hoped for.
In fact, we have stalled.
This year we have a projected deficit of $338 Million.
In each of the last six years, the City has found itself on the brink of a major crisis at budget time, and we see Budget Chiefs and Mayors and all the city politicians pleading with the provincial government for more resources.
And we see the now perennial headlines in the papers heralding a city close to bankruptcy, cuts to city programs, tax increases and fare hikes at the TTC.
This has continued, year after year.
Six lost years.
We cannot balance the books, and the city now has a debt of $1.3 Billion.
Amid all of this financial difficulty, we have been entirely unable to tackle serious social problems like, homelessness, child poverty, youth violence and gun-crime.
Some years ago, we were on the verge of a breathtaking revitalization of our waterfront.
Where did all of that optimism go?
Somehow the waterfront and the homeless and children seem to have been lost amid the back-room deals and the scandals and financial crises.
We have to get the city’s finances in order and then get back on the road of turning our Toronto into the place we are proud to call home.
Finding the funds we need to provide new services for our most pressing problems.
Getting a new deal with Ottawa and Queen’s Park.
We need to build the kind of city that we want to live in.
A city that people want to visit again.
We want to be back at the top of the Forbes magazine list.
Not on the W-H-O health watch list.
As for my opponents,
There is no question that Mr. Miller and Mr. Tory are lively debaters, and great campaigners.
They have seized on one or two issues apiece, and they have run them at full steam.
But their answers fall short.
The quick-fix answer may be good for a sound-bite, but it is no solution to the complex problems we face.
Miller’s approach, in particular, is disturbing.
He has run a one-issue campaign.
I have now participated in over 30 debates with Mr. Miller.
And I cannot tell you how many thousand times I have heard him talk about that damn bridge.
. . . . A 100-metre bridge.
It is his answer to everything.
Rip up a contract.
Reverse a decision that was strongly supported by Council on three separate occasions.
Open the city up to new ?and old - lawsuits.
And set back our waterfront revitalization for another decade in the process.
And now, he is determined get rid of that bridge -- no matter the cost.
This will add further to the financial woes of the city.
Mr. Miller has developed some nasty attack ads that have been very detrimental to my position, and those of us who support the bridge. His negative spin, has twisted our commit ments:
NO JETS
NO RUNWAY EXPANSION
NO INCREASE IN THE CAP ON AIRPORT ACTIVITY
I have gone further than others and promised a Citizens Trust to safeguard the future of the Island should the airport ever wind up operations.
The Toronto Star has called David Miller’s financial plan, “Hocus Pocus?
And when he is pressed on the financial difficulties of our city,
his first thought . . . is to implement tolls on the Don Valley and Gardiner.
Tolls that would cost commuters living in Scarborough or Etobicoke $1,500 a year.
Yes, I suppose that is another quick answer to a difficult problem, but, again, it is no solution.
Unfortunately, the problems that confront us do not easily give in to easy solutions.
Whether it’s burning garbage, or scrapping a bridge, or imposing toll roads,
The answers are much more complex.
For the last several weeks I have been making daily announcements on a number of important policy issues.
including crime, homelessness, the fiscal crisis and the municipal budget, as well as the over-arching issue of integrity at City Hall.
I have proposed plans to deal with all of these matters.
Means by which we can ensure the safety of our citizens and our neighbourhoods.
Plans to clean up our city streets and to make Toronto greener by planting a million trees.
Ways to find permanent homes for the homeless,
And not continue to warehouse the homeless in shelters,
I have proposed an ambitious, but realistic means of reducing our spending, while increasing our revenues substantially.
I have proposed better management of our assets:
through sale or lease of vacant and underused city properties,
And I have proposed stringent measures to curtail abuses at City Hall, with a view to restoring the faith of the public in their public servants.
But, today, I want to address an issue that has received considerable attention during this campaign.
One which will determine our success over the next three years.
One that will determine whether we have the means and the ability to move forward on so many of the important challenges and opportunities facing the city.
Today we are at a turning point.
We have a new government at Queen’s Park.
It is a new government that has committed itself to strengthening the city of Toronto.
No more Toronto bashing.
Every one of the major candidates in this election has spoken at length about the need for a New Deal with the province.
A New Deal IS absolutely necessary if we are to get out from under this pattern of annual fiscal emergencies.
It is not simply about the province handing more money to the City of Toronto.
It’s about us being at the table.
Indeed, why would the Province want to hand anything to a City that has racked up such debt and every year manages to spend far beyond its means.
The Province and the Federal government have come to see Toronto as a spoiled child ?pouting, shouting and stamping their feet. Name calling, but never taking action themselves.
I believe that first we must get our own house in order and establish that Toronto, the downtown of the GTA, Ontario and Canada, is a city that manages its own affairs well, and one which makes a reliable partner for the Federal and Provincial governments.
I can do that.
And then, we must work with the Province and the Federal government to get the new deal we need.
We must seek greater investment in the city, investment in infrastructure, transit and waterfront development and reverse the downloading.
This deal with the Province is vital to our future success.
I am totally confident that I am in the best position of any of the candidates for mayor to get such a deal.
I will not have to spend time getting to know the key players.
And I certainly won’t continue the combative approach that has marked the last six years ?or this campaign for that matter.
Unlike other candidates who challenged the premier in the press, I wrote to Dalton McGuinty and he has written to me expressing his commitment to work with me to achieve these common goals.
Over the years, I have worked closely with almost all of the MPP’s from Toronto, including those newly elected.
In fact, 13 of the MPP’s from the Toronto area have endorsed me in this race for mayor and share my vision for the future of Toronto.
I have the backing of six members of the new provincial cabinet, including the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Health, the Minister of Education, the Attorney General, the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities and the Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal.
These are people with whom I have worked before.
People who endorse me in this race for mayor.
People whom I can work with when I am elected mayor.
And not to be too blunt, this is why I am the candidate who can get the best new deal for Toronto.
I want to make the city financially sound, proud of its present and confident of its future.
City Hall will include people who are currently left out,
People whose valuable talents we have not been used to their fullest.
I want every child in this city, regardless of race, creed or gender to grow up confident that someday he or she could be mayor.
Mr. Miller’s ads say that HE, looks like a mayor.
I wonder what he means by that.
At the outset of my remarks, I mentioned that there are those who say I talk to slow,
But, frankly, I believe that there has been far too much fast-talking,
Too many quick-fixes and stunts designed to get headlines,
And far too little serious discussion of the complex challenges that we face.
I started my career as a community worker, a probation officer and then a lawyer.
I have spent my life fighting for communities and neighbourhoods.
For issues that affect the daily lives of Torontonians.
I have never seen an important issue that was not a challenge.
The things that matter, are never simple,
They never fit into sound bites or news clips.
The important questions can never be answered with
Fast-talk or quick-fixes.
These matters require determined, selfless, hard work.
They require us to work together
And yet, as great as the challenge before us may be, the price of not accepting it . . . is greater.
The communities and neighbourhoods that I have worked with over the years,
And the children playing and learning in our parks and in our schools,
And new Canadians , working to make a new life for themselves, and longing to contribute,
The great city we can become and the community that we are:
All of these are the price of not accepting this challenge.
And that is why I am running for mayor.
We must not pay this price.
We must not sacrifice the future of this great community
Only because we were not willing to see beyond the easy answer
Or do the hard work that lies ahead.
I am ready to face these challenges.
I am ready to be your mayor.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
I stand before you ?a woman who means what she says. What you see is what you get.
I will never be a fast-talking politician.
I will never be the queen of the 15 second sound bite.
I will never be a sultan of spin.
I will return this City to a solid financial position.
I will make a new deal with Queen’s Park and Ottawa.
I will restore integrity and pride to City Hall.
And I will ensure that our citizens enjoy safety and prosperity while living in the most diverse city in the world.
It is a pleasure to be here again at the Canadian Club.
I have had the honour of addressing you three times before:
In 1995 and 1997 as Mayor of Toronto.
And again in 1999, as the Chair of the National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention.
I was Mayor of the old City of Toronto for 1000 days
from 1994 to 1997 and I am very proud of what we achieved together.
We were moving from Toronto the good to Toronto the Great.
We brought a divided council together, instilled a culture of integrity and opened up city hall to make it more accessible to all citizens.
We streamlined whole departments of city government,
made tough decisions, downsized and cut red tape.
We maintained delivery of vital public services and programs.
We promoted the arts and culture.
We streamlined the zoning process and changed by-laws to spark the revitalization of dying neighbourhoods at King Spadina and King Parliament, turning parking lots into vibrant downtown communities.
We worked together, we took action, and we got results.
During those years,
building permits went up,
office occupancy went up,
tourism went up,
and crime went down.
That’s the record.
We did it all while balancing the budget ?
we did not increase taxes when I was Mayor ?
and we paid down the debt.
Our success as a city gained international recognition.
Fortune Magazine called Toronto the best city in the world in which to live, work and do business.
That’s the record.
Even the renowned architect Jane Jacobs, who has criticized me over the issue of the bridge to the airport, was glowing in her praise of our progress.
She told Jim Kunstler of Metropolis Magazine in New York:
“Our downtown keeps getting better all the time. Even the sidewalks are being widened here and there. . . . Buildings have been put in, and often very nice buildings. And there’s lots of people living downtown now. That was a distinct policy of the city. We had a remarkable mayor, whose name was Barbara Hall, She went to work to get the zoning and get the whole vision of this changed and believe me, it was very hard for her to educate her planning department.
The various visions she had were excellent.
She just talked endlessly to anybody that might be involved and she educated them and got them around to this view.
It took a lot of work and a lot of talking and a lot of belief in what she was doing.?
In my opinion, we were seized of a bold confidence, a belief that only greater and better days lay ahead.
That was then.
Since that time, I would argue that our new city has not made the progress we hoped for.
In fact, we have stalled.
This year we have a projected deficit of $338 Million.
In each of the last six years, the City has found itself on the brink of a major crisis at budget time, and we see Budget Chiefs and Mayors and all the city politicians pleading with the provincial government for more resources.
And we see the now perennial headlines in the papers heralding a city close to bankruptcy, cuts to city programs, tax increases and fare hikes at the TTC.
This has continued, year after year.
Six lost years.
We cannot balance the books, and the city now has a debt of $1.3 Billion.
Amid all of this financial difficulty, we have been entirely unable to tackle serious social problems like, homelessness, child poverty, youth violence and gun-crime.
Some years ago, we were on the verge of a breathtaking revitalization of our waterfront.
Where did all of that optimism go?
Somehow the waterfront and the homeless and children seem to have been lost amid the back-room deals and the scandals and financial crises.
We have to get the city’s finances in order and then get back on the road of turning our Toronto into the place we are proud to call home.
Finding the funds we need to provide new services for our most pressing problems.
Getting a new deal with Ottawa and Queen’s Park.
We need to build the kind of city that we want to live in.
A city that people want to visit again.
We want to be back at the top of the Forbes magazine list.
Not on the W-H-O health watch list.
As for my opponents,
There is no question that Mr. Miller and Mr. Tory are lively debaters, and great campaigners.
They have seized on one or two issues apiece, and they have run them at full steam.
But their answers fall short.
The quick-fix answer may be good for a sound-bite, but it is no solution to the complex problems we face.
Miller’s approach, in particular, is disturbing.
He has run a one-issue campaign.
I have now participated in over 30 debates with Mr. Miller.
And I cannot tell you how many thousand times I have heard him talk about that damn bridge.
. . . . A 100-metre bridge.
It is his answer to everything.
Rip up a contract.
Reverse a decision that was strongly supported by Council on three separate occasions.
Open the city up to new ?and old - lawsuits.
And set back our waterfront revitalization for another decade in the process.
And now, he is determined get rid of that bridge -- no matter the cost.
This will add further to the financial woes of the city.
Mr. Miller has developed some nasty attack ads that have been very detrimental to my position, and those of us who support the bridge. His negative spin, has twisted our commit ments:
NO JETS
NO RUNWAY EXPANSION
NO INCREASE IN THE CAP ON AIRPORT ACTIVITY
I have gone further than others and promised a Citizens Trust to safeguard the future of the Island should the airport ever wind up operations.
The Toronto Star has called David Miller’s financial plan, “Hocus Pocus?
And when he is pressed on the financial difficulties of our city,
his first thought . . . is to implement tolls on the Don Valley and Gardiner.
Tolls that would cost commuters living in Scarborough or Etobicoke $1,500 a year.
Yes, I suppose that is another quick answer to a difficult problem, but, again, it is no solution.
Unfortunately, the problems that confront us do not easily give in to easy solutions.
Whether it’s burning garbage, or scrapping a bridge, or imposing toll roads,
The answers are much more complex.
For the last several weeks I have been making daily announcements on a number of important policy issues.
including crime, homelessness, the fiscal crisis and the municipal budget, as well as the over-arching issue of integrity at City Hall.
I have proposed plans to deal with all of these matters.
Means by which we can ensure the safety of our citizens and our neighbourhoods.
Plans to clean up our city streets and to make Toronto greener by planting a million trees.
Ways to find permanent homes for the homeless,
And not continue to warehouse the homeless in shelters,
I have proposed an ambitious, but realistic means of reducing our spending, while increasing our revenues substantially.
I have proposed better management of our assets:
through sale or lease of vacant and underused city properties,
And I have proposed stringent measures to curtail abuses at City Hall, with a view to restoring the faith of the public in their public servants.
But, today, I want to address an issue that has received considerable attention during this campaign.
One which will determine our success over the next three years.
One that will determine whether we have the means and the ability to move forward on so many of the important challenges and opportunities facing the city.
Today we are at a turning point.
We have a new government at Queen’s Park.
It is a new government that has committed itself to strengthening the city of Toronto.
No more Toronto bashing.
Every one of the major candidates in this election has spoken at length about the need for a New Deal with the province.
A New Deal IS absolutely necessary if we are to get out from under this pattern of annual fiscal emergencies.
It is not simply about the province handing more money to the City of Toronto.
It’s about us being at the table.
Indeed, why would the Province want to hand anything to a City that has racked up such debt and every year manages to spend far beyond its means.
The Province and the Federal government have come to see Toronto as a spoiled child ?pouting, shouting and stamping their feet. Name calling, but never taking action themselves.
I believe that first we must get our own house in order and establish that Toronto, the downtown of the GTA, Ontario and Canada, is a city that manages its own affairs well, and one which makes a reliable partner for the Federal and Provincial governments.
I can do that.
And then, we must work with the Province and the Federal government to get the new deal we need.
We must seek greater investment in the city, investment in infrastructure, transit and waterfront development and reverse the downloading.
This deal with the Province is vital to our future success.
I am totally confident that I am in the best position of any of the candidates for mayor to get such a deal.
I will not have to spend time getting to know the key players.
And I certainly won’t continue the combative approach that has marked the last six years ?or this campaign for that matter.
Unlike other candidates who challenged the premier in the press, I wrote to Dalton McGuinty and he has written to me expressing his commitment to work with me to achieve these common goals.
Over the years, I have worked closely with almost all of the MPP’s from Toronto, including those newly elected.
In fact, 13 of the MPP’s from the Toronto area have endorsed me in this race for mayor and share my vision for the future of Toronto.
I have the backing of six members of the new provincial cabinet, including the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Health, the Minister of Education, the Attorney General, the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities and the Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal.
These are people with whom I have worked before.
People who endorse me in this race for mayor.
People whom I can work with when I am elected mayor.
And not to be too blunt, this is why I am the candidate who can get the best new deal for Toronto.
I want to make the city financially sound, proud of its present and confident of its future.
City Hall will include people who are currently left out,
People whose valuable talents we have not been used to their fullest.
I want every child in this city, regardless of race, creed or gender to grow up confident that someday he or she could be mayor.
Mr. Miller’s ads say that HE, looks like a mayor.
I wonder what he means by that.
At the outset of my remarks, I mentioned that there are those who say I talk to slow,
But, frankly, I believe that there has been far too much fast-talking,
Too many quick-fixes and stunts designed to get headlines,
And far too little serious discussion of the complex challenges that we face.
I started my career as a community worker, a probation officer and then a lawyer.
I have spent my life fighting for communities and neighbourhoods.
For issues that affect the daily lives of Torontonians.
I have never seen an important issue that was not a challenge.
The things that matter, are never simple,
They never fit into sound bites or news clips.
The important questions can never be answered with
Fast-talk or quick-fixes.
These matters require determined, selfless, hard work.
They require us to work together
And yet, as great as the challenge before us may be, the price of not accepting it . . . is greater.
The communities and neighbourhoods that I have worked with over the years,
And the children playing and learning in our parks and in our schools,
And new Canadians , working to make a new life for themselves, and longing to contribute,
The great city we can become and the community that we are:
All of these are the price of not accepting this challenge.
And that is why I am running for mayor.
We must not pay this price.
We must not sacrifice the future of this great community
Only because we were not willing to see beyond the easy answer
Or do the hard work that lies ahead.
I am ready to face these challenges.
I am ready to be your mayor.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net