政治家 | Politician

政治家は独りよがりでないとやっていけないものだろうか。

地下鉄で年に何回か隣り合わせになるトロントの市議会議員がいる。
彼は市の交通局の代表でメディアへの露出が高いので、トロントでは有名な市議会議員の一人だ。

２期（１期４年）連続で市議会議員をしている彼が、２０１０年のトロント市長選に出馬するそうである。

トロントの交通局を改善し束ねてきた自負があるらしい。が、彼の任期中２度もストライキがあった。
諸問題があったとは言え、この８年間、トロント市の交通局とそのサービスが飛躍的に改善したと個人的に思わない。

１９９８年の夏に僕がトロントに来てから、必要とされていながら、開通した新規路線はSheppard Lineという、トロント市北部のたった数駅の地下鉄路線だけだ。

この１０年を振り返ると、トロントでは停滞し閉塞しているものの方が多いように感じる。

彼はそんな町を引っ張れる機関車のようなリーダーになれるのだろうか。
機関車トーマスのゴードンのような強い機関車が今この町には必要なんだと思う。


Should politicians always be self-righteous? Is it an only way to keep him/herself a politician?

There is a Toronto city councilor who has stood by me on the subway in the morning a couple of times before. He is one of the famous city councilors because he is a chair of Toronto's city transit bureau and he is exposed in the media a lot.

This city councilor, who has been working as a city councilor and a chair of the transit bureau, will run for 2010 Toronto mayoral election.

He is proud of himself regarding improving and managing the transit in Toronto. However, there has been 2 strikes of the transit workers in the last 8 years. Twice sounds a lot.

Even with understanding the difficult circumstances regarding the transit and the budget, I don't personally think that Toronto's transit and its service had been improved dramatically.

There has been only one short subway line built in the north part of the city since I moved in 1998 although there are always demands and needs to build a new transit line.

Retrospectively in the last 10 years, I feel that there are more things that are obstructed and backed up than anything that has been improved.

Can he have a strong leadership to lead such a city to somewhere else better, like a strong locomotive engine.

What we need now is a locomotive engine like Gordon in Thomas & Friends.