This column from The Toronto Star bashes the city's plan to spur economic activity by developing a city-owned casino.
"For a metropolis desperate to be world-class and cutting edge, what a pity the leading answer to our financial woes reportedly being batted around this week by council's executive committee is so derivative of the second-rate and so very last century."
"A city-owned casino! Let them toss dice! Build it and riches will come!"
"It's hard to think of a surer indicator of both the fiscal desperation and intellectual bankruptcy of our leadership than the fact this is the best we can come up with as an answer to these times of trial and a legacy to future generations."
"The problem attached to government-backed gaming is not just the resort to such a regressive means of taxation, or the thousands of lives and families ruined by addiction. (Though you would think that latter matter would give proponents a bit more pause that it usually does.)"
"It's that they so seldom provide the promised panacea – windfalls of cash for the cost of some down-and-out burgh throwing up a building and setting out some tables."
