Here was Caroline Mulroney, Ontario’s Attorney General, on why her government is rushing through revised legislation about the Toronto election, overriding a court ruling: “Because time is of the essence,” the National Post quoted her. “There is an election in the city of Toronto in a few short weeks ….”

We can’t delay, you see, there’s not time for debate; we need to get this law in place because the election is upon us! A provincial government press release noted it was rushing to clear up the “uncertainty” for voters in time for the election.

Now here’s the thing about the “uncertainty” — you could say chaos — that hangs over Toronto’s election today, fewer than six weeks before the vote: it is caused entirely by the actions of Doug Ford’s provincial government.

The city election was characterized by near absolute certainty until the premier decided to launch legislation changing the rules in the middle of the campaign.

Doug Ford is the cause of all the uncertainty.

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It’s almost banal to note the obvious, but it is a recurring fact of Doug Ford’s politics: he causes a crisis, then holds himself up as the solution to it.

With that in mind, let’s look for a moment at the talking point often used by Ford and his caucus and defenders: that Toronto city council (somehow because of its size) has been unable to build any transit in the city.

Leave aside a moment that the proposed remedy makes no sense.

The premise, itself, is wrong.

Toronto built lots of transit until the Conservative government of Mike Harris in the 1990s cancelled subway lines that were already under construction (even filling in a tunnel on Eglinton) and simultaneously withdrew all provincial funding for Toronto transit.

Fast forward to the mayoralty of David Miller, when the city council approved, got funding for, and began building the subway extension to York University and Vaughan (which is now open) and the Eglinton Crosstown subway/LRT line (which is still under construction and should open in a few years). He also had approval and funding to build the Sheppard LRT and the Finch LRT and a replacement for the Scarborough RT, all of which would already be open right now ….

Except for one thing.

The premier’s late brother Rob Ford was elected mayor and declared those projects dead.

They proposed a ridiculous transit plan, instead.

The city council they were supposed to lead overruled them. A new plan — a Bloor-Danforth subway extension in Scarborough and some LRT lines — was approved.

Since the Ford brothers left, a bunch of transit projects have been approved in principle or affirmed (including a subway extension and a new subway line), some of them at least partly funded, and work has progressed on them.

No delays.

No back-and-forths.

No gridlock at all.

The process of building it is long, and perhaps could be sped up. But political dysfunction has played little part in the story outside of a Conservative provincial decision two decades ago and then the intervention of the Ford brothers, themselves.

This transit folklore, of course, is meant as an illustration of the general paralyzing political dysfunction and gridlock that Ford and his party say characterize Toronto city council.

But the only time that characterization has been remotely true during the post-amalgamation era has been when Rob Ford was mayor.

Mel Lastman’s city hall functioned. It was eventually characterized by the confusion of amalgamation and the corruption scandal detailed in the MFP inquiry, but there was no paralysis.

David Miller, as mayor, never lost a single significant vote (although his new revenue tools were delayed a few months at one point).

Under John Tory, there has been lots of vigorous debate, but no gridlock.

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I’m trying and failing to think of a single major proposal Tory has put forward that he has failed to implement.

Now, in the middle there, we have the Ford years, during which council began overruling the mayor on major items such as the budget or his transit plan.

This is sometimes council’s role.

This became more pronounced when the mayor’s personal scandals overwhelmed city hall business.

Perhaps you could call that dysfunction and gridlock.

But that was not a function of city hall or its setup — and certainly not of the size of council.

It was a result of the mayor, and the reaction to his agenda, his governing style and his personal behaviour.

Whatever obvious dysfunction and gridlock Doug Ford witnessed in his years on Toronto council, he and his brother were the cause of it.

Yet today, his government points to that infamous dysfunction and lack of progress as a problem to which — Ta Da! — Doug Ford is the solution.

The emergency solution.

Which, of course, causes chaos where there was none.

And which has to be implemented immediately.

To resolve the chaos, you understand.

It becomes, quite quickly, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The government is broken, he says.

Then he smashes it.

Then, having evidence it is broken, he raises his hammer again as a proposed repair.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

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