Nothing happens in Cana-dian politics that cannot be explained with a good hockey metaphor — an axiom that applies even in Toronto.

So, the story of Toronto Mayor David Miller’s messy struggle over the past five months to obtain “new sources of revenue” for his cash-strapped city goes like this, according to one observer: “The guy hates to go into the corners and can’t handle himself when he has to. He went in with his head down and got clobbered. Then he was all elbows and stick.”

The metaphor could be extended to note that the mayor failed to backcheck on his new tax rush this past summer, circling centre ice, waiting for a pass, while his defencemen — especially chief financial officer Joseph Pennachetti — struggled to free the puck amid a ruckus of public consultations the mayor’s busy schedule conveniently prevented him from attending.

That initial goal-sucking led to a humiliating one-vote loss for the mayor when city council first considered the new tax measures — one, a municipal levy on vehicle registrations; the other a more rewarding bite on property sales. In the aftermath, Mayor Miller was forced to endure a long, bitter debate focused intensely on perceptions of municipal inefficiency and his alleged reluctance to “get his own house in order” before asking for more taxes.

Even though none of the critics on council or in the media managed to proffer a credible alternative to the new taxes, which were intended to fill most of a $500-million gap in the city’s annual budget, they succeeded brilliantly in cutting Mayor Miller down.

His Worship only aided the critics’ cause with his spasmodic reaction to the initial loss, beginning with an order to slash popular services in response to the loss of potential revenue.

In addition to being a spendthrift socialist who only cared about his “union buddies,” Mayor Miller simultaneously became the second coming of former premier Mike Harris, the slash-and-burn conservative whose record continues to dominate Ontario politics more than five years after his retirement.

Among other things, the memory of Harris helped Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty win re-election this fall despite having notoriously broken his promise not to raise taxes when first elected.

McGuinty sailed high above the “promise breaker” allegations in the fall campaign, but Mayor Miller went down in flames when he attempted to implement the same strategy — socking it to ’em early in the mandate, leaving plenty of time for anger to dissipate and sense to congeal before re-election.

Council’s reluctance to follow along put the mayor in the penalty box for as long as it took McGuinty to finish off the Progressive Conservatives under John Tory, who helped the process by going seriously offside with his unpopular plan to fund religious schools. But when he returned to the ice in late October, Mayor Miller finally managed to secure his goal, with assists from major residential developers and the Toronto Board of Trade.

So, the first period ends with the flailing mayor up by one. But that’s less than half the fiscal hat trick he budgeted for — only $175 million in new annual revenue, instead of the $350 million he missed by one stray vote in July.

That means Mayor Miller will be right back in the corners next spring, all elbows and stick, trying to dig out the tax puck once again. IE