Every once and a while, the humble tax payer wins a victory.

In Cote St. Luc, they are heralding the panache of Anthony Housefather a local resident who fought city hall and won (sort of) for all his neighbours.

Housefather was outraged when the suburb of Montreal raised overnight parking permit fees from $120 to 420 a rather steep increase in cost, considering that neighbouring municipalities were charging significantly lower for the same privilege.

Housefather began a campaign to overturn the increases, with on line petitions, car to car flyer deliveries, and personal appearances at city council meetings all in the cause of restoring democracy to the civic process. In the end, Housefather's efforts forced the city to reduce their original fee plan to $240, still more than they pay now but not the outlandish amount that had been expected.

It’s a noble project, which could be a dangerous precedent for other municipalities across Canada with similar incidents of extreme taxation.

It could even make officials of lets say a municipality that charges more than double in utility taxes than its neighbours next door, just a little bit nervous.

To think that the voting class may actually pay attention to what goes on at City Hall in between election years as well, imagine the power they may actually have. Whoever would have thought of that!