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Neither blessed with flesh-pressing prowess nor cursed with dangerous addictions like his younger brother Rob, Doug Ford nonetheless has a similar gift for hyperbole. Last week, the newly ensconced Ontario premier slashed the size of Toronto’s city council nearly in half, to 25. He did so because Toronto was “the most dysfunctional political arena in the country.”

Ford’s commute to Queen’s Park from his spread in the suburban sticks is about 25 kilometres. He would do well to continue east for another 540 to see real dysfunction. In Montreal he would find 103 elected officials larding an array of offices: borough councillors, borough mayors, city councillors and city mayor. There are about as many elected municipal officials in Montreal as in New York City and Toronto combined.

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What’s more, these 103 elected officials don’t even represent the entirety of Montreal Island’s population. Fifteen de-merged on-island cities, representing roughly 250,000 people, each have their own councils. In total, it takes a whopping 216 elected officials to empty the trash, clear the roads and keep the parks in order for just under 1.95 million souls.