Wanna see Alliance members squirm? Say anything that attacks Harris - or even seems to

I'm fascinated by the narrowness and meanness of the right wingers who worship at the feet of Harpoon and the Alliance.

Came across another blog by some airhead who styles herself as 'the crux of the matter'. She should wish. The latest thing to get the Harris butt worshippers in a snit is that the Toronto school board is considering splitting into two or more smaller boards.

The real reason she's alarmed? Has nothing to do with the Board or what might make sense for kids - it has to do with not letting anything touch the Harris legacy. Not that much can. The guy who's government is responsible for seven deaths in Walkerton, the death and disaster in Ipperwash, the decimation of the public school system across Ontario, the ruination of the Health system, the lack of funding for infrastructure so that roads and bridges and sewers and water lines are all accidents waiting to happen, the lack of any foresight in providing future electricity needs, the lack of any understanding of the environment - the legacy is clear and the worst premier in the history of Ontario by a country mile is Mike Harris. Mike the moron who's bedtime reading consists of Mr. Silly and who's daytime reading was confined to the sports pages of the Toronto Sun because they don't use words of more than 2 syllables.

So crux is flapping her gums because the school board might split. Hmmmm.

On second thought, she has a point. The creation of the Toronto board put a powerful and mouthy political opponent right in Harris' backyard and there's little question that the focused and constant criticism of that board lay down a withering fire that killed many an Alliance candidate. Harris created a killing field that effectively took 22 seats out of the running for any Alliance candidate. These seats, sitting in the most powerful media centre in North America (no other city on the continent has four dailies in constant competition) are closed to the Harrisites and even a progressive conservative guy like John Tory couldn't break through in Toronto. So maybe the Board should stay together for political reasons. It's not good for the kids, for the parents, for the staff who work there or for the trustees but it does serve the province well by being oppositional to the idiots who populate the right wing.

Anyone who knows anything about business (which lets crux out) knows there comes a tipping point where economy of scale becomes a negative when the scale reaches too large a point. That is what has happened to the Toronto board. Last year when the consultants did a report on their budget problems, they recommended the board be split in two. I called the chair and asked how big they were and to give me some context. Interesting answer - she posed a question and I'll put it here. Which is bigger, the Toronto board, the University of Toronto, York University, Ryerson University, the University of Western Ontario, McMaster University or the University of Ottawa? Think about it - interesting answer which is at the end of this blog.

Just because a consultant recommends something is no reason to do it but in this case the suggestion is worth considering and the Toronto board is doing so, to its credit.

Crux has other comments to make about education, which are just as dumb, including her comments about the Minister of Education. Having watched Wynne slaughter her leader in the election just concluded, crux thinks throwing cow pies at Wynne somehow tips the argument. The problem for crux is that Wynne won't get into flinging shit around, which leaves critics with two choices: fling shit at empty air or buckle down and make constructive arguments. Wynne has demonstrated throughout her career that she will stay firmly on the high road and won't get into the name calling, sneering brand of politics so loved by the Alliance. Smart woman. Today she's one of the most powerful women in the government and enjoys the respect of almost everyone in the education field. There's a reason for that - she's been the best minister in that portfolio for the last 45 years. She and Bill Davis have put every other education minister in the shade, with the sole exception to that being perhaps Bette Stevenson. So throwing crap at Wynne just exposes crux as a mean-minded air-head who feels right at home in the Harris party.

As for the comments about parent councils, crux shows how little she understands education or parents. Ask any parent involved in their kid's school - almost all are willing to spend some time helping out in the local school but they have no interest in getting into a wider arena. They don't want to join city-wide committees, nor are they at all interested in getting into board-wide or provincial activities. Gerard Kennedy, the eternal micromanager, bent himself into a pretzel trying to get parents to take on more power through committees and work groups. Well, Kennedy didn't get it either. Read their lips - that's what parents elect trustees for - to keep the political crap at arms length. Pity crux doesn't know something - anything - about education. It would kick the crap out of her current blog, but life's a bitch and then it gets harder.

Should the Toronto board split? I don't know. But the answer to the question I asked their chair is this: the Toronto board is bigger than all of those universities put together. When I heard that my first reaction was disbelief but I have checked and it is true. Harris' original move to amalgamate all the boards in Toronto always was stupid - this just proves how much stupidity there was behind it.