Toronto Mayor David Miller has ended all speculation by stating that he would not be running for the third term next year. His announcement was also attended by his son who was tearful. Mayor Miller was choked with emotion while making his decision known to  public, especially when he said that he was raised by a single mother.

He said he was giving up his position because of his family. He has two children: Simon, 12, and Julia, 14. Mayor Miller noted that if he succeeded in gaining another mayoral victory, his daughter would be in university and his son would be graduating from high school in 2014. 

In his statement, Mr. Miller said:

“After my re-election in 2006, I came to a difficult realization. Both of my children were born after I was first elected in 1994. When I was a councillor, the demands on me and my family were significant. After my election as mayor, the pressures on me as a father and a husband became immense.”

“And I realized then that were I to be re-elected in 2010 and serve until 2014, my daughter would be in university and my son would be about to graduate from high school. This would not allow me ever to have been there for them in the way they deserve.”

Mayor Miller had come to Canada as a young boy who was torn between ‘soccer’ and ‘hockey’. His mother was an English teacher in England, however here in Canada, she could not teach because of her lack of “Canadian experience.” He acknowledges that he was “equivalent to being a geek.” The sentiments, or must I say, ambition turned into being one of the leaders of the city. In 2003, he came and blew away the mayoral elections. In his second mayoral competition, he easily beat his opponent. However he had said that to bring the real change, there is a need for the Mayor, well, to be Mayor – thrice.

Perhaps his ambition was checked by the recent union strike that lingered a little too long and did little to help the city’s finances. Then there was a controversy that had to do with “green bins.”

Having said that, after meeting and greeting with Mayor Miller, one gets an impression that Mr. Miller is a deeply spiritual person who believes in the power of nature. He tried to make use of positive forces of nature to improve Toronto’s economy. Indeed, when my reporter friend showed me paper presentations of one of the press briefings she had attended at Mayor Miller’s office, it was all about green jobs, green economy or some other green thing; and how property taxes are lower in Toronto than neighbouring cities such as  Mississauga, Markham, Brampton, Caledon and so on.

This weekend’s papers were flooded with Mayor Miller’s success and failure stories, about the potential candidates for the next year’s Mayoral elections; what challenges would the next challengers be taking up, and his city councillors were saying about him especially when he did not entertain city councillor’s pay freeze idea very seriously.  Some stories talked about his left, right, centrist policies and so on. I wonder why a diverse city such as Toronto has to be looked upon as leftist, rightist or centrist. It felt like watching msnbc where you are in favour of President Obama or you are a Republican. Aren’t there moderates in biggest North American cities anymore, I wonder?

Almost every story cherished and chastised him at the same time. None could say whether he has accomplished what he had set out for in 2003, but all these stories implicated that the projects Mr. Miller had launched and initiated did not bear fruit – yet. They were long term projects with long term goals.

Perhaps that is why Mr. Miller said:

“I have accomplished what I set out to do. And so if I ran again, it would be about me and my electoral success and not about the Toronto I love.

In 2006, I ran with an ambitious agenda to transform Toronto for the 21st century. It was called Toronto 2010. Today every major policy that was at the foundation of my campaign has been accomplished or is well under way.”

And how does our Mayor think about the second largest visible minority in GTA. This is an excerpt of his interview with Generation Next almost a year ago:

“South Asians are very much involved in the political process. They think very politically. Like every newcomer community, South Asians face similar challenges and it takes time to build networks where you can find out about how to put your children in sports club or in music classes. I find South Asians to be very energetic, passionate and the ones who are willing to take risks. It brings incredible energy to Toronto and South Asians have tremendously added to it.”

  Author: Rahul Mehta