He ignored the host of transit experts who called his vision nonsense. He refused to take his plans to city council, bypassing the city’s supreme democratic body. He spurned the TTC manager and TTC chair who dared to question him. But on Wednesday, council struck back, handing the mayor his worst defeat and rubbishing his transit blueprint.
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More than $8-billion in funding was at stake. The shape of Toronto transit for decades to come was on the line. It is one of the biggest files on any mayor’s desk, and Mr. Ford is no longer in control of it. He called the council vote “technically speaking … irrelevant,” a breath-taking statement for a mayor to make after a full day of sincere and passionate debate on an issue about which everyone cares. But it is his own leadership, not city council’s legitimacy, that is now in doubt.
