Quote:
Originally Posted by zen-kz
From my point of view B. Bowman has literally zero results as a mayor. He promised 6 transit corridors but we have just one and other even do not have a detailed design so we can ask feds for money to get them built. He promised to open P&M, but failed miserably with this vote. Neither Arlington or Louise bridges are replaced. Neither Kenanston, CPT or Marion projects are started. He could not get any penny from Pallister for public transit.
A lot of people mentioned money being spent on roads, but it is not Bowman’s win, but Pallister’s. In a way I like Pallister more than Bowman because although he does wrong things (like cuts on health care and public transit) at least he does what he promised.
Again may be it is not only his sole fault, but also because of NIMBY councillors we have, but still it is basically no results at all for at least last 5 years
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Your comparison of the two Brian's glosses over two major issues: debt capacity and political structure.
On debt capacity, the City must balance its budget each year (e.g. cannot run a deficit) and its total debt capacity is capped at around 90% of its total revenue as this is a policy set by council. At the provincial level, the province can run operating deficits indefinitely and can have outstanding debts in excess of 100% of total revenue. Provincial deficits are largely a function of political appetite and of course, credit rating agencies in New York. On this front, the province has a lot more fiscal capacity to get stuff done if they so choose. In contrast, the city's balanced budget grows by little more than 3% per year (barely above inflation), leaving very little funding to do anything other than maintain the status quo. The City is a lot more beholden to provincial and political winds, which dictate tri-lateral funding agreements, and has little capacity to do anything on its own.
As for political structure, City council is much different than the provincial legislature. There are no political parties at a civic level which leads to little cohesion. Many councilors are ward-focused, not city builders, leading to a "what's in it for me/my ward" attitude for most policies. Councilors don't vote "with the party", they vote based on personal conviction or ward preferences. For better or for worse, this leads to more road blocks and less cohesion at a civic level, making it hard for initiatives of one councilor or mayor to pass if they don't have agreement from their colleagues. At a provincial level, if we elect a majority government, they have enough political power to railroad through any policies they so chose that tend to match the flavor of the governing party. There isn't much any opposing MLA can do to stop the political process.
These two key differences really make it unfair to compare provincial political performance to the City's performance.
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