Toronto City Council sometimes seems more like a schoolyard sandbox than a place where city business is conducted.
That fractious fragmentation emerged again on Friday, after a dispute erupted between two councillors.
The latest combatants are Ward 17's Cesar Palacio and his next door neighbour, Ward 18's Adam Giambrone.
Like many neighbours, their tiff began with a turf dispute when Palacio helped a Portuguese group get a liquor license for an upcoming event.
The problem? The party was being held in Giambrone's riding and he was upset that Palacio was intruding on his domain.
So he fired off an email that appeared to threaten his colleague. "Stop messing in my ward or there will be problems," the letter reads. "I generally ignore your actions, but I am going to start looking for ways to cause trouble for you, and when I start you're not going to appreciate it."
Palacio was aghast. "I was shocked, I was flabbergasted. This is totally unacceptable and totally humiliating," he fumes. "This is morally wrong and politically incorrect."
Giambrone agrees and quickly issued a mea culpa for the note he sent from his BlackBerry. "It's not appropriate and it's for that reason I issued an apology to Councillor Palacio," he explains.