David Miller (Canadian politician)
David Miller is the 70th mayor of the City of Toronto, 2nd of the merged megacity. He replaced former North York and Toronto mayor Mel Lastman.
A lawyer by profession, Miller is a graduate of the University of Toronto Law School and Harvard University where he graduated Magna Cum Laude in Economics.
Miller is well known as a social activist and for being left-wing. He supports the New Democratic Party and has a picture of Tommy Douglas upon the wall of his office. As an NDP candidate, he lost a federal election in Parkdale-High Park in 1993 and narrowly lost a provincial by-election in York South-Weston in 1996.
In the November 2000 issue of Toronto Life magazine, he was given an A+ in a list of Toronto city councillors, described as "the best of the bunch, hands down." Although a relative unknown in Toronto until his candidacy for mayor, Miller led the push to expose Toronto's MFP computer leasing scandal.
In the 2003 mayoral election, Miller's primary distinguishing campaign promise was to block a proposal to build a bridge to the Toronto City Centre Airport. He felt that the bridge was just one symptom of a political culture at City Hall which put the interests of developers ahead of the public interest, and many observers feel that it was this theme which gave his campaign the boost he needed to win.
As a councillor
Miller was first elected to the then Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto council in 1994. In 1997 he was elected to the new City of Toronto council. In 2000 he was re-elected, representing Ward 13 Parkdale-High Park.
Major city committees and agencies he served on included the Administration Committee, the Humber York Community Council, the Ethics Steering Committee, the Immigration and Refugee Issues Working Group, Labour Relations Advisory Panel, the Oak Ridges Moraine Steering Committee, and the Toronto Transit Commission.
As a mayor
Miller successfully led council to reverse its prior decision to endorse the Toronto City Centre Airport bridge. The vote, held on November 11, 2003, was 28-12 in favour of withdrawing Council's support for the bridge. The decision is supported by the Canadian federal government, but industry and the Toronto Port Authority are considering lawsuits against the city.
Mayor Miller portrays himself as a social activist willing to stand up to developers, but some Toronto activists dispute this. The militant Ontario Coalition Against Poverty in particular has condemned him for continuing a policy of launching police "sweeps" against the homeless and squatters. They allege that "The whole agenda of building a city that pushes out the poor and focuses on upscale residential and commercial development has not changed. All that has happened is that a new face has been put on the process to try and hide its ugliness." [1]
Police
Within months of assuming office, David Miller became heavily involved in the polarized issue of Toronto's police budget. With tight city budgets, a steadily decreasing overall crime rate (though a recent spike in homicides), and a more left leaning city council wanting money diverted to crime prevention, Miller and a sizable portion of other councillers wanted the police budget curtailed. Heated arguments over differences in opinions formed between left and right wing councillers and between Miller and Police Chief Julian Fantino.
The police department was eventually given a budget increase, though much smaller that originally requested. The relationship between Miller and Fantino remains cool at best, especially after a comment by Miller to the visiting Lord Mayor of London amidst a serious police corruption scandal, in which 14 officers were charged. "Is your police force in jail?" asked Miller. "Mine is."
Miller explained later that the comment was made out of embarrassment of the Toronto city media, questioning him on the police's charges at a press conference about the guest visit. "It was an embarrassing moment and you are in the middle of a press conference about good news and it gets diverted to the matter about the police."
Appearing that night on the Pulse24 program The Chief, Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino commented "I feel like someone has driven a stake through my heart."
On the morning of Friday, April 30, Miller apologised to Fantino.
Despite the extensive discussion of the comment in conservative media outlets such as the Toronto Sun and CFRB radio the controversy around it has not hurt Miller with a public opinion poll taken shortly after the comment showning the mayor's approval rating at over 80%.
Miller's early popular support and poll numbers remained very high, as he maintained a reputation as a politician who kept his promises.
See also: 2003 Ontario municipal elections and List of Toronto Mayors