Tomorrow, after one day in office, Toronto's new mayor, David Miller, will convene an emergency meeting to kill plans for a proposal to build a bridge and expand Toronto's island airport. This proposal flies directly in the face of the kind of waterfront that Torontonians have worked for, invested in and dreamed of for a very long time. Make no mistake about it: If the expansion is allowed to proceed, it will be a blunder of historic proportion and a giant step backward for Toronto.

Torontonians are quite clear about their vision of the waterfront. The voters told us they want a waterfront that is clean and green, and connected to the rest of the city. They want a waterfront that will provide open vistas, parks, recreational facilities, cultural encounters, liveable neighbourhoods, strong communities and new compatible employment opportunities. And they want this diversity of uses to be designed and developed with such balance that the domination of one use will not diminish the quality of the others. These values and goals were recently enshrined in a new waterfront plan and a new Official Plan. In none of these documents will you find a recommendation to build a bridge and expand the island airport. Indeed, even the possibility of it was opposed by the chief planner for the city and it was neither recommended nor supported by the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation, which is charged by all three levels of government with the responsibility of implementing our waterfront plans. To proceed now with such a development would be a betrayal of all those who took seriously and in good faith the commitments of all governments to this vision.

This explains why the issue became so powerful during Toronto's recent municipal election. It was the first opportunity for members of the public to have a direct say since the expansion scheme was foisted on them. They utterly and decisively rejected it. As voters discovered what had transpired, the issue became not only the future of the waterfront but also public trust and the credibility of the democratic process in Toronto.

The more they were told there was nothing they could do about it -- that it was a "done deal" -- the angrier and more frustrated people became. They began to see the bridge and the expansion proposal as yet another example of the shadowy, backdoor-serving-of-private-interests way of doing business, and they became even more determined to change the existing order of things at city hall.

People also know a truth about the proposal itself. Building a bridge with a mandate to expand the airport is an open invitation to expand the airport even further in the future -- using the same reasons for continued expansion that are being employed today. With no bridge and no mandate to expand, the activities of the island airport are circumscribed and generally kept in balance with other waterfront uses. Obliterating the natural barrier between the mainland and the airport removes entirely this crucial hand of restraint and makes even further expansion of the airport much, much easier.

In commenting on this concern, the city planners have warned that the expansion "could have a much broader impact on the central waterfront as a whole. The expansion could impact the quality of peoples' enjoyment in the proposed network of new waterfront parks and public spaces. The higher level of environmental standards envisioned for the central waterfront could be undermined, as could the balance of compatible waterfront uses." Lovers of the Yo-Yo Ma-inspired Music Garden and other cultural pleasures on the waterfront understand the point.

Ironically, this push to expand the island airport comes at a time when the historic expansion of the Lester B. Pearson International Airport has already begun! Moreover, to ensure that the new facilities will efficiently serve the needs of downtown Toronto, the federal government has already given the green light to a fast-rail link from Union Station. That is why Minister of Transport David Collenette said a year ago, "If we get the rail link built to Pearson then it really undermines the case for the island airport. I guess the question is, do the citizens of Toronto want to have jets at the island? Do they want to have 7,000-foot runways with all of the environmental impacts?"

But perhaps we should not blame the private interests involved here. While we may be offended by their bullying tactics and hollow scaremongering about lawsuits in an attempt the rewrite the election results, they are nonetheless business people pursuing what they consider to be their legitimate interests. Nor should we blame union people who have an obligation to look after the welfare of their members.

But we do need to attach direct responsibility to governments and agencies, particularly in this case, the federal government, Toronto City Hall and the Toronto Port Authority.

The shameful lack of respect for the democratic process and the institutional arrogance of the Toronto Port Authority has been truly breathtaking. Their strident lobbying activities and reckless pronouncements following the recent municipal elections have forfeited even any pretence that they see themselves as standing for the public interest.

It was left to incoming prime minister Paul Martin to set the matter straight. To his great credit, he advised the authority, publicly, to adopt a more conciliatory manner and advised that he would take his own cue from Toronto City Council.

The responsibility now rests with our elected representatives. We need them to defend the public interest. The municipal election registered a very strong rejection of the old politics and the old way of doing things at City Hall. People are looking forward to a new politics of openness and accountability. Supporting Mayor David Miller with his new mandate is a good place to start. Stopping the expansion of the island airport is not merely about the building of a bridge, it is about the future of the waterfront and the future of this city in a new century.

David Crombie, a former mayor of Toronto, is president of the Canadian Urban Institute. Urban theorist Jane Jacobs's most recent book is The Nature Of Economies.