It was one of the more combative meetings of Toronto Council in recent memory this week - and also one of the best managed. David Miller and his left-of-centre team faced off against the emboldened right wing on three issues - a deal to let Astral Media construct new outdoor pads for their street furniture, a garbage hauling contract that some councillors were trying to re-open, and what to do with the savings from this summer's trike - and lost on two of the three.
And yet the meeting finished a half hour ahead of schedules, with bemused councillors voting their confirmatory bylaw just after 7:30 on Tuesday. Nothing hurries things along like a good brawl, I guess.