It was just another day at the office.
Toronto's city council voted Wednesday 25-18 on a (new/old/revised) transit plan, giving confirmation and direction to Metrolinx, the provincial government agency charged with delivery of transit expansion, on what council's vision is for our city's rapid transit future.We say another day at the office, however, in that at Toronto City Hall these are few and far between.The day was filled with enmity, rhetoric, rudeness, vows to fight on, and certainty that rifts will continue if not get deeper.Councillors were voted into office to represent the will of the people. It is unhelpful to call this vote irrelevant. It is unhelpful to talk about lefties and righties. It is unhelpful to use childish names to label any councillor with an opposite point of view. In this instance, as with many others, councillors voted as they felt necessary. They did their job. Perhaps, for the first time in this council tenure, there's been an honest vote, void of pressure from political forces and alliances, on where we're going with transit. Some may say that's a naïve view, but council essentially voted on a compromise between the previous council-endorsed Transit City plan and the revised proposal of Mayor Rob Ford shortly after his election. There was obvious confusion regarding the legality around which transit plan could legally move forward. It was a nightmare for progress, and a nightmare for identifying funding.The province had already pulled some $4 billion in funding out of an earlier Transit City plan in April of 2010. Mayor Ford went further when entering office, calling Transit City dead and building a case for a Sheppard subway. TTC chair Karen Stintz also promoted a change in transit plans, bucking the mayor's lead in releasing the compromise vision approved by council Wednesday.But you don't move to change existing plans unless you feel you have a legitimate reason. And you pay the political price for the decisions you make - good or bad.Like the new plan or not, this compromise vision has ultimately been given ratification from the voice of the people - the 44 council members and mayor who were elected to represent Toronto's voters. It gives Metrolinx a clear vision from council, and moves transit planning forward.There are certain issues that can be agreed upon throughout Toronto. Then there are those where regional interests dictate the interests of the population. Transit may be one of those. But as a collective, council must deal with the interests of the neighbourhood and place them into the bigger picture of building a city.And, in the next municipal election, if the sum total of a councillor's contribution doesn't meet the approval of the voter, then that individual will be off council. That's how democracy works.