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A New Deal, But not A Good Deal
As I was reading the terms of the deal between the Province of Ontario and City of Toronto announced by Premier Ford and Mayor Chow yesterday, Thucydides’ maxim came to mind: “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” The province is strong because its finances and credit rating are…
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Let’s Debate Billy’s Fate
As Samuel Johnson opined, deadlines “concentrate the mind wonderfully.” Not only does Billy Bishop Airport’s (BBA) lease expire in 2033, but – more urgently – the airport must meet a Transport Canada requirement to have in place runway end safety areas by 2027. RESA’s, as the term suggests, are flat obstacle-free zones at the end…
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Let’s Make War on the Car
Maybe it’s because of their surnames or more likely it’s because of their electoral base, but the Ford brothers have always been big supporters of drivers and driving. Rob Ford supplied the slogan – “the war on the car has got to stop” – and Doug Ford put it into practice, with policies such as…
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Orator or O(pe)rator?
I came of age politically in the late Fifties and early Sixties in a Liberal household. In my Manichean worldview, the good guys were JFK and Lester Pearson and the bad guys were Richard Nixon and John Diefenbaker. In eighth grade every day at recess, I debated the 1962 federal election with a young Conservative.…
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Interrogating Queen’s Park: A Walking Tour
A very entrepreneurial and public-spirited former student of mine, Alex Rascanu, has formed a Meetup group called ExperienceTO, and he leads walking tours of Toronto sites. I join him as a commentator for sites for which I have expertise. Recently he led a tour of Queen’s Park, focusing on its many statues. And it was…
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Three Troubling Maxims for Israel
As the Israel-Hamas war grinds on, several strategic maxims come to mind. But the application of a maxim to a given situation is never transparent or even clear. And maxims may be more applicable in one type of situation than another. With those caveats, I will say that these maxims have become earworms, in a…
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Applying Ben-Gurion’s Maxim
When he headed the Jewish Agency during World War II, David Ben-Gurion told Jews to “support the British as if there is no White Paper [limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine] and oppose the White Paper as if there is no war.” To generalize, an interest group can be in strong agreement with the government on…
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Existential Crises and Manageable Problems
The events in Israel provide a sobering perspective on the topics I choose for this blog. By and large, I have been working on manageable Canadian and Toronto problems. The Toronto problems have often involved the Greenbelt and waterfront, often exacerbated by the Ford Government’s policies. The existential challenge to my brethren in Israel is…
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Billy Bishop Goes to War – Again
With ten years remaining on its lease, privately-held Nieuport Aviation, the owner of the terminal at Billy Bishop Airport (BBA), has launched a major public relations campaign. The objective is to convince the City of Toronto, its primary landlord, to renew the lease. Nieuport’s consultant and advocate is the U. of T. urbanist Richard Florida.…
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Doug Ford’s Political Gymnastics
The flip-flop is a well-known move in political acrobatics, involving the reversal of a policy position, with the politician sometimes trying to claim that both the initial policy and its reversal are consistent with one another (which would illustrate Orwell’s concept of doublethink). In gymnastics, the similarly named flick-flack is a back handspring, a move…
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Doug Ford: The Worse, the Better
“The worse, the better” was an aphorism among Russian revolutionaries who meant that the worse conditions in Tsarist Russia became for workers and peasants, the more likely they would support the revolution. The aphorism can be considered somewhat cynical because the leaders of revolutionary movements were all in exile and not sharing the people’s misery.…
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Beverley Ludwig Borins: A Proper Eulogy
The death notice I posted was a first draft of my mother’s life story, set in the context of essential information about family relationships, funeral and shivah arrangements, and suggested charities for donations in her memory. I gave a eulogy at her funeral, which is a second and more complete draft of her life story.…
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Beverley Ludwig Borins z”l
My mother, Beverley Ludwig Borins, died yesterday at age 100. Here is a link to the posting on the funeral director’s website, which provides a short biography, discusses funeral and Shivah arrangements, discusses the care arrangements that enabled her to stay in her home to the end, and mentions three charities for those who want…
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Op-Ed in Toronto Star
I have just published an op-ed in the Toronto Star about taxing parking to pay for public transit. Here is a link to it.
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Greening Railroads in Toronto
Though my previous post was political and this one is personal, they share a common perspective about enhancing greenspace in the Toronto area. I support preserving the Greenbelt by preventing the construction of housing and highways in it. Railroads have long been a major part of the urban landscape – one not far from my…
- I am Professor of Public Management Emeritus at the University of Toronto, having retired in July 2020 after a 45-year academic career.
- I continue to be engaged in research, writing, and giving professional presentations. With my co-author and spouse Beth Herst, I am completing a book on narrative and politics.
- On this website I post blogs about politics, narrative, and my life experiences.
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