The Toronto Star from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 9

COVER STORY Voices Mr. Premier, you lied to me and you lied to the people of Toronto. To PmiiiiT Mike I hi iris tiller Ix-ing told tlmt tlx.1 province was planning tx download $lid million in unexet(Hl costs oil Ton into, IVecmlxT, 1IMT7 Mel is Mel and that's the way he sold refrigerators and furniture. MiKKIIaKKLS: Itciictiii); to Ijistnum'smiiipliiintx iilxmt provincial cuts in scrviixit. May, 1SHTK TORONTO STAR Rl PHOTO Continued from AS his main rival in the election a year ago, says he has shown that he is committed to social issues.

He has promoted the city well, which is what a lot of people expected of him, and his heart is in the right place on (social) issues, Hall says. He is genuinely concerned about homelessness and the growing poverty problem. The question to be answered is, will he be able to grasp the com- plexity of the solutions to these problems? she asks. Two things he did after the election were to strike a special task 1 1 force to come up with solutions to homelessness and appoint lor Olivia Chow (Downtown) as the citys advocate for child welfare issues. Hes got great gut instincts," says Liberal MPP Mike Colie (Oak-wood), a former colleague of Last-mans on Metro Council who also co-chaired the mayors election campaign last year.

Mels got a direct pipeline into ordinary people. Its an intangible, Colle says. He's like the Doug Flu-tie of Canadian politics. Everybody underestimates him. Hes not well-educated, hes short of stature and hes not sophisticated.

But he scrambles around and makes the play. People dont understand how dogged he is, how he can get to the heart of the matter, in his own way. Hes got a lot of warts, but eventually everybody likes him because he does the right thing. He connects, somehow. White, who now handles media relations for Ontario New Democratic Party Leader Howard Hampton, says Lastmans strength is this great knack of being able to see trends.

He really has a feel for how the public would want an issue to be dealt with, and he can communicate directly with them, White says. Most people know him from TV. Hes a celebrity, larger than life, and people like that guy. Godfrey, the president of Sun Media says: Nobody should underestimate Mel Last man. People have always done that with Mel, and a lot of them realized, sooner or later, that they made a mistake.

Hes building a team, and its called Toronto first. There is no doubt that he is motivated by doing what he thinks is right for the city. Colle and Godfrey are part of an informal breakfast club that acts as an advisory committee to Last-man and meets with him every few weeks to serve as a sounding board. The breakfast dub also indudes Phillips, Dale Lastman, John Tory, a well-known conservative who is any money. Harris told reporters that such comments were pretty much what hed expect from an appliance salesman like Lastman.

Those exchanges set the stage for relations between Toronto and Queens Park during the first months of amalgamation. A short time later, Lastman began to feud publicly with Municipal Affairs Minister A1 Leach over dramatic changes to property tax assessment methods. The new system meant that many Toronto homeowners, businesses and apartment buildings would be taxed at a much higher rate. Homeowners said they would lose their homes, while businesses would go broke. Lastman declared that the province had purposely targeted Toronto and that its ill-conceived tax plan would cripple the city, but his language was more colourful and pointed.

The province eventually backed away from its original tax plan and made changes that blunted the short-term impact. Lastman emerged as the winner. Along the way, the Tories who are not nearly as popular in Toronto as in the rest of Ontario began to figure out that its a bad strategy to openly fight Lastman on his own turf. At the height of his battles with the Tories last winter, Lastman stormed into the press gallery at Metro Hall to tear a strip off the government over the latest twist in the tax troubles. After blowing himself out, he hung around long enough for a reporter to suggest that the public could eventually grow weary of his tirades against the province.

I know, I know, he said with an impatient wave of his hand. But I cant help it! he bellowed, his face darkening like a cloud. They lied to me and I wont let them get away with it, he said, vowing to follow Harris around the province during the next election, to remind everybody that the Premier can be untruthful. Mels support cuts right across the Tories voters in Toronto, so they have to respect him, Phillips says. Hes like a pit bull.

Every time the province opens the Toronto door, theres this angry dog barking and snarling at them. Lastman says that he hated those first four months in office. It was a nightmare. People were fighting me every step of the way. I thought Id never stop running into roadblocks.

There were times when I wish I hadnt bothered (running for mayor). So I got really mad. I started hitting back, and hitting hard. Believe me, Id rather not fight, but I dont know how to walk away. TORONTO STAR FEE PHOTO political office) again, Godfrey says.

Im not interested. People ask me for advice; I give it to them. Its worth exactly what they pay for it: nothing. Almost from the day he was elected, Lastman was fighting with the Tories at Queens Park. Before he was even sworn in, the province announced that the city would have to come up with an additional $164 million to cover the costs of the exchange of services between the two levels of government.

Lastman responded by calling Ontario Premier Mike Harris a liar, noting that the province had assured him that the downloading exercise would be revenue neutral and wouldnt cost Toronto Lastman made North York hustle HAPPY DAYS: As Mayor of North York, Mel Last-man enthusiastically pushed redevelopment of Yonge St. north of Sheppard and lived the good life with wife, Marilyn (right). the acting commissioner of the Canadian Football League, and prominent Liberal Hershel Ezrin. Lastman takes some satisfaction in knowing that his many fights with the province since the election have helped dispel the idea that he would be a Tory stooge controlled by Godfrey. Yeah, I talk to Paul Godfrey, but I make up my own mind, Lastman says.

Paul Godfrey doesnt pull my strings. Godfrey laughs when asked whether he exercises influence over the mayor or directs Lastman. He is well aware that he is the alleged go-between of the mayor and the province. Believe me, if I wanted to go around pulling strings, Id. run (for first year: February 20 Lastman picks his first fight with his 905 area code colleagues.

He walks out of a Greater Toronto Area mayors meeting when he fails to win their support for his proposal to ease Toronto business taxes. March 5 City council votes 54-1 to try for the 2008 Olympic Games in Toronto. April 29 The mayor's Year One budget contained no tax increases, delivering on the first leg of a campaign promise that there would be no tax hikes for three years. May 13-24 Lastman attends G7 summit in Birmingham, England, and sings the praises of Toronto's ethnic diversity. The into North their glittering and and in In steered most part He North Yonge MELAND HAZEL 1988 1 think the citizens will see through his charade and elect somebody who can represent the Greater Toronto area internationally.

We dont need a jokester to represent us internationally. We need a sophisticated mayor, with some class a professional, honest mayor. IIazki.McCaujon On Mcl Eastman, during 11MI7 election citniNiign paid for by developers in exchange for concessions from the city. Mel Lastman Square, an outdoor meeting place adjacent to North York dty hall. Esther Shiner Stadium at Bathurst St and Finch a multi-use sports fa-dlity.

(Lastman says its one of his favourite projects because he got developers to pay for it by hosting a fundraising dinner. I charged $15,000 a plate, or two for $25,000. Everybody took two plates, they knew a good deal when they saw it) The $840 million Sheppard subway, which was needed to bring Lastmans vision for a North York downtown to fruition. The York Woods library theatre at Jane St. and Finch.

The Variety Village riding stables for the disabled, at Lord Ross Park. The big Xerox office tower at Yonge and Finch. City, Beijing and Hong Kong as part of my commitment to bring Toronto to the world and the world to Toronto. October 28 Mel leads a city council charge to declare homelessness a national disaster. November 6 Brokers deal to help prevent school closings with Premier Mike Harris, sary counterpoint to Bay St.

in downtown Toronto. Lastman wanted Yonge, north of Sheppard to be North Yorks main street, where people could work and congregate during the day and return for entertainment at night. For the most part, he succeeded. Critics say the North York downtown is sterile and lacking in soul, but it has a concentration of office towers yvhere thousands of people work, and one of the best theatres in the dty. It was a nice, quiet place before I came along, Lastman said.

A lot of people probably wish it was still that way, but we accomplished a lot, and we did by working closely with ratepayers groups. These developments include: The Ford Centre for the Performing Arts, which Lastman helped get built at no cost to taxpayers. The North York reference library, which cost $40 million to build, but was Turned small town a booming big city By Jack Lakey CITY HALL BUREAU Before Mel Lastman came along, York was a small town that drivers on Yonge St. zipped through on way to somewhere else. Today, the former borough is a community of 563,000 people, with a core of office towers, big industries neighbourhoods of public housing some of the most luxurious homes Toronto.

nearly 30 years as mayor, Lastman North York through one of the explosive periods of growth of any of the Greater Toronto Area. relentlessly pushed the vision of a York downtown core along insisting that it was a neces TORONTO STAR RLE PHOTOS MAKING IT WORK: Mel Iistumn looks over scale model of North York Civic Centre (left) in 1974, then presides at its ojx'ning four years later. The Mayors January 2 lastman is sworn in as mayor of Toronto at Toronto City Hall. He promises to work for the homeless and jobless especially young peple and to bring Toronto the 2008 Olympics. January 8 Lastmans picks for the plum positions on city councils committees and agencies sail through council with little opposition.

Inaugural Ball for the Arts, raising $500,000 for the Toronto Arts Council Foundation. June 28 Rode atop a fire truck in Toronto's Gay Pride Parade. July 7 Threw the first Celebrate Toronto Street Festival, which drew an estimated 400,000 people. September 27 Presented South African President Nelson Mandela with the key to the city. October 5 Leaves for a three-week trip that includes stops in Los Angeles, California's Silicon Valley, Mexico following week he flies to Lisbon to sell Torontos Olympics bid.

Junel Wrote to ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell imploring her to come to Toronto in July with the rest of the band. 'Thousands of your fans, especially the youngest ones, have had their hearts broken, he said. June 8 Mel and Marilyn Lastman throw their. BRIAJ. STAR.