Just a little update on what’s happening with Toronto Transit Camp:
- TTC and city bigwigs have confirmed their attendance! We’ve got Toronto Transit Commission Chair Adam Giambrone attending and City Councillor Joe Mihevc. Also attending will be the TTC’s Chief Marketing Officer and several planners from TTC staff.
- We’re getting considerable attention, not just locally, but internationally. On the ‘net BoingBoing and WorldChanging are following what we’re doing, and we’re getting the mainstream press lined up, too.
- This may be a minor footnote to you, but I think it’s worth mentioning: the company for whom I am Technical Evangelist, Tucows, is a sponsor of this event.
13 replies on “Toronto Transit Camp Update”
Adam Giambrone represents what is wrong with politics today. He’s a 29 year old geology graduate (I think) who never had a real job in the business world & his bud, Comrade Miller, appoints him to head BILLION DOLLAR business enterprise employing thousands of people. No other responsible business in the world would allow for such inexperience to guide the helm of its operation which affects the lives and finances of so many.
As a Torontonian who pays a significant amount of property & business taxes, I am a disenchanted shareholder. There I said it.
Yeah Joey, it’s another sweet sentiment from yer old friend.
Actually, in the field in which I work, there are a number of people in their late 20s and early 30s who do a pretty good job of running businesses of all sizes, from one- and two-person consultancies to a couple of companies that deal with billions, such as Amazon and Google.
On the other hand, let’s consider the old men who ran Enron and Tyco, who would easily pass the simple criteria you’ve set up for people who can responsibly run a business.
Besides, didn’t you start your own law firm right out of school with no serious real world business experience?
Jeez, take 5 seconds to google him & then at least you would be accurate in your snark. In addition to his work as a City Councillor, Adam served as Federal President of the NDP from 2001 – 2006…
Fluent in French and Arabic, Adam Giambrone completed his B.A. in Anthropology and African Studies from McGill University, and continued on to graduate studies at the University of Toronto. As a young community activist and leader, Adam was vice-president of his OPSEU local at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Those wunderkids in your line of work, like you, generally have been in the IT field for many years (probably before their virginity was lost) & then were beatified with greater duties & kudos for them EARNING success at a young age.
For those like the ebay & Google guys, remember, it was THEIR OWN money & time that they risked, not yours nor mine. After all, you don’t give a kid a Ferrari when he just got his driver’s license? Right? You should give him a broken-down Volvo station wagon until he really learns how to drive like a certain unnamed blogger.
And don’t consider the “old men” who stole from their shareholders in the same breathe. Unfortunately, crime & greed do not discriminate on age.
And what about the “old guy” who ran his company into years of profit thus ensuring that my RRSPs (read: my retirement income) are well-funeded & growing to provide for my old age. Shall I start a list?
I’m bitching about a guy with ZERO ‘business’ experience in charge of a billion dollar business. And WE taxpayers (yeah, that’s you & me & everyone else) are on the hook if he screws up.
As for your last point, you may have forgotten that I had experience in working at a large national Bay St. law firm & the Ontario Securities Commission before we went out & started our own firm. I didn’t start my own practice right out of law school. I got that precious “working experience” thing in my bag before I thought I could responsibly do it on my own. Just like your parents busting their assess off at the hospitals before they opened their own respective successful practices. After all, I have to answer to my paying clients if I didn’t have the knowledge nor experience to assist their needs.
Which is my point. People should EARN their appointments & jobs and not have it handed to them because they share a common political menu with the blowhard Mayor. (And this comment is not restricted to just Comrade Miller. Unfortunately, this kind of crap & political nepotism is seen in every politcal party in every level, including the one that I have strongly supported my entire life.)
PS. Vote Rhino next time!!! (For those of you readers not old enough to remember the Rhino Party, you’ve lost out).
Thank you for your correction.
By his resume you’ve provided, Mr. Giambrone will represent the complaints of disgruntled museum employees who need another 15 minute coffee break very well in a grievance hearing. He is also skilled (I would assume) to successfuly arbitrate which NDP candidate will be nominated to place 3rd in their next federal elections (unless of course they are fortunate enough to get appointed in Oshawa, Toronto-Danforth or a handful of Saskatchewan or BC ridings. And don’t get me started on Olivia Chow).
But tell me, how does that provide him with experience to run a billion-dollar business for which you & I are inevitably on the hook?
I know that it takes a certain amount of intelligence to earn under- & post-graduate letters after one’s name. But surely, in our little GTA, there must have been at least a handful or more-skilled & business-astute candidates to run our terribly-vital transport business?
Like millions of Canadians, I hold most of my accounts at a certain chartered bank. What would happen if say, a 29 yr. old inexperienced anthropology & African studies chap with zero business experience were to be named CEO? Or say, that same guy was appointed to head GM, Ford or Daimler-Chrysler which affects the lives of so many? I can’t predict the future, but let’s say that there wouldn’t be too many employees, suppliers, lenders and faimilies raising their hands in approval. Would you?
So why is that any different with the TTC?
Why is our transit business being used as on-the-job training for this guy to wet his precious feet in the business world?
Who have the prior Commission chairs been? Can’t seem to find that info in a reasonable length search. Anyone remember?
Wikipedia has a list of TTC chairs and Chief General Managers.
Point of information: Despite the Conservative/Reform Party sound of my friend Ignatz’ rhetoric, the party that he has strongly supported his entire life is the Liberal party.
(Ignatz and I went to high school together, and yes, he was a jackass then too.)
Thank you for your patience, Joey. I didn’t mean to hijack your thread. I’m just blowing off steam. I can’t stand Miller & his cronies. I couldn’t stand Lastman & his cronies either. I don’t know which group disgusts me more. Although Herr Harris & his Common Sense Revolution does bring up the bile in my system more than either of these chowderheads. I think that it’s the arrogance that each in this troika exhibit that pisses me off.
Your friendly, neigbourhood AKA member.
Worry not, Ignatz, I advocate spirited debate!
The TTC chair is always an elected city councillor who, along with the other commissioners, oversees on behalf of the citizens how the TTC is being run by its “business” head, the Chief General Manager. It’s not the chair who runs the TTC, and business experience is not required. Political experience is.
The real problem we’ve had lately is the “political interference” (to quote the most recent Chief General Manager, Rick Ducharme) from the last chair, Howard Moscoe, and recently Mayor Miller as well, which has caused the resignation of the last three Chief General Managers. I was sickened by Messrs. Moscoe and Miller’s ordering the TTC to buy subway cars from Bombardier, at Bombardier’s price, simply because that would guarantee some jobs in Sudbury. If jobs in Sudbury are to be subsidized, that is the responsibility of the governments of Sudbury, of Ontario, and of Canada. Toronto’s own government is supposed to look after its own citizens, something big-union-loving socialists like Messrs. Moscoe and Miller are unwilling to do because they’re more concerned with union jobs than they are with the citizens they promised to represent if elected.
Unfortunately, the only well organized city politicians are the NDP. (Oh, there isn’t supposed to be any party politics at City Hall, but socialists are good at ignoring things in the name of the public good — which strangely enough always seems to require their running everything.) The recently created Toronto Party might help the situation; we’ll see.
Unfortunately, you’re dead right. You gotta be elected to be the Chair. But surely, there must be at least one city councillor who has even the slightest bit more experience that Giambrone.
And the interference & arrogance of Miller & Moscoe in not putting out a public tender for those new subway cars is shameful. I like how they are so generous to the unionized people of Sudbury &/or Thunder Bay with our Toronto tax money. I wonder if I could go out and buy a new car (with all options) & have these two idiots pay for it. After all it’s the same thing.
Oops…thank you for pointing out my error, and for doing it so politely: the Bombardier plant is indeed in Thunder Bay, not Sudbury.