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It’s not just a matter of “consequences,” as Mr. Tory puts it: Maybe people will stop parking illegally if they know they’ll get busted. It’s also a bit like the broken windows theory of policing: If people don’t see people parking like jerks, maybe they’ll be less likely to park like jerks. Maybe they will even start to expect not to be held up in traffic by some jerk in a car, by a courier who can’t be bothered to use the loading bay, or by a needless lane closure.

The latter was another of Mr. Tory’s campaign planks: Surely to heaven developers don’t need all the room they take up on the roads. (Have a look at the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor.) “If it can be done elsewhere, then why can’t it be done here?” he asked Wednesday — and he may soon find out. He conceded there will be pushback, and there will — not just from developers, but from that peculiar breed of Torontonian who loathes gridlock but also thinks he ought to be able to pull over to grab a coffee at 8:45 a.m.

But it can be done. It can be better. Toronto just needs a mayor who can convert impatience with the status quo into solutions people can support, rather than pointless anger. Take Toronto’s taxi regime (please).

Mr. Tory ruffled some feathers this week by declaring quite full-throated support for Uber on the same day the city’s licensing department announced it was seeking a court injunction to shut it down. “Uber is flouting the law,” Councillor Janet Davis huffed on Twitter. “Public attack on staff & City’s legal position is not right thing for Mayor-elect to do.”