‘Rob Ford’s not leading, David Miller is’ outgoing mayor says

Almost 16 years after the fresh-faced politician walked nervously into his first council meeting, and as the greyer, weathered David Miller prepares to stride out of his last, the mayor is confident of one thing.
Most Torontonians, Miller said, stand firmly behind him and his legacy of “massive” investment in city-building projects — in spite of the rise of Rob Ford, an anti-Miller leading the pack to replace him.
“I think the public knows people say all kinds of ridiculous things in campaigns,” Miller said during an interview Wednesday in his City Hall office.
“There's broad support in Toronto for environmental initiatives. There's broad support for initiatives that make sure the people who have the least have a chance, particularly young people. There's broad support for building transit, for Ottawa and Queen's Park investing in this city.”
Miller brings up an Ipsos Reid poll conducted last weekend that found, were he running for a third term, he would win handily.
The poll shows him stealing support from former deputy premier George Smitherman and even, in some suburban areas, from the right-wing penny-pincher Ford.
“If you want to analyze the polls, Rob Ford's not leading, David Miller is. I'm not winning because of angry people,” Miller said.
He quickly adds that he's not analyzing polls and absolutely will not run, despite bubbling rumours that he is reconsidering his December decision to retire from politics.
Nor is Miller endorsing a candidate, although he talks most fondly about Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone — just as he did Dec. 8, 1994, as he rose to speak at his first council meeting, to nominate Pantalone for Metro chair.
“This council, over the next three years, will face some of the most difficult questions in its history,” the Bay Street lawyer turned representative for Toronto-High Park said in his maiden speech. “We cannot be complacent. We cannot adopt the stance of too many politicians — simply protecting their parochial interests.”
Today, Miller calls it a “proud moment I look back on fondly.” But on that cold, sunny afternoon, he didn't have beginner's luck — Pantalone lost to Alan Tonks.
And his warm words for Pantalone now don't seem to be having much effect. The same poll, done for the National Post, Global Television and Newstalk 1010, has Miller's deputy lagging in fourth place as the Oct. 25 election looms into view.
Looking back at his first meeting, Miller recalls a mixture of nerves and pride as he was sworn into office.
“I almost felt like the boy whose team won the soccer game and got a quart of ice-cream,” he said. “I was very excited, very proud and very uncertain. When you run for office you know what you're running for — at least I did — but I wasn't familiar with the institution.”
In fact, he said, it was four months before he realized councillors had their own elevator to get them to the chamber at Metro Hall.
Council meetings back then, he said, were more collegial than today's factional verbal slugfests.
He recalls the late Brian Harrison, a “very conservative” councillor, asking Miller, then a staunch NDPer, for a favour.
“He and I didn't vote together, I think, on any issue except maybe the zoo, and he was very sick and one day in the budget debate he took me aside and said, ‘Can you stick up for the zoo?' And I did.
“There was that kind of collegiality. There was a dinner break and people would have dinner together. At the moment, some members of this council have chosen to be an opposition, and that's not the tradition municipally.”
The issues back then weren't so different. In his first months in office, Miller fought for a bike lane on Colborne Lodge Rd. connecting the Martin Goodman Trail to High Park.
He also recalls his disappointment at being in the minority voting in favour of building an Eglinton subway line, and cites that as one of the reasons he got so angry in March when Premier Dalton McGuinty delayed billions of dollars in Transit City funding.
“It was like living through history all over again,” Miller said. “That's one of the reasons I fought so hard at the time — I knew the premier was letting a historic opportunity slip through his fingers. I'd already seen it 16 years ago and felt it essential to fight to stop it from happening again.”
Miller says his program of spending — on transit, troubled neighbourhoods, social programs and more — has “turned Toronto around.”
When this council meeting ends Thursday, or possibly Friday, Miller says he'll walk out of the chamber with some nostalgia but no regret.
“You run for office to accomplish things and once you have, you move on. I'm quite ready.”(The Star)