Scott's right, democracy sucks

A fellow blogger and correspondent recently opined that "Democracy is a crock". Yesterday that was borne out in spades here. Toronto's next mayor is Rob Ford, a man I find loud, overly emotional, and akin to former Ontario premier Mike Harris in his uni-dimensional philosophy that cutting taxes, public transit, and services somehow improves a community. Sadly, the city itself has bought into the idea. "Tax fatigue", we're told, gave Ford nearly half the vote. Ford's talking about killing off streetcar lines and apparently half the city, having their heads so far up their pampered asses that they can gaze longingly at their own navels from the inside, think voting for anyone espousing this warmed-over canned wisdom from 1958 is a good idea.

My street was torn up last summer for storm sewer work. To say that it was repaved is to claim that Luxembourg is vast. I'm not joking in the least when I say I've driven smoother gravel roads fifty miles out of town. One's tempted to speculate that the contract went to the mob or something, and wonder if the work on the surface is this poor, what are we in for below the surface during the next heavy rain? I'm not one to harass the bureaucracy but politely raised the issue with the councilor for my ward. I heard nothing back from her, not even the copperplated "Like you, I am very concerned about [your issue here]..." Nothing. So I voted against her and for a candidate who actually mentioned that issue as part of his platform. The sheep in my ward returned the incumbent anyway, by a huge margin. What's the point of voting if the people around you don't even notice the condition of the streets they drive on; if they're just voting for a name the way they vote for a comfortable pullover?

I'm increasingly fed up with the City of Toronto proper. More and more, it's principally peopled by lefties who don't give a shit about anybody outside of a three-block radius and right-wingers who don't give a shit about anybody outside of a  three-block radius; all of them pompously demanding to know why so many businesses these days would dare to locate themselves outside our glorious (and utterly arbitrary) municipal boundaries. Nobody wants anything built in their neighbourhood. Nobody wants to bear any onus for the greater good anymore. Yeah, it's not much better in the outer colonies... but at least you don't have to pay to park there. :/