He controlled procedural questions strictly, which challenged dissident members to appeal his decisions, which no-one was able to do throughout his term. Members were scolded for talking inaudibly. Meetings went through agenda items quickly. Often, he would not pause to ask for dissenting votes. Leslie Frost commended his performance in 1956 by that stating that the success of Metro to date "has been very largely dependent upon your own personality." Nathan Phillips described his style: "When he really wanted something, he just came and beat it out of you." Philip Givens, who was on several occasions brought to tears, described Gardiner's temper; "He scared the hell out of you. If he cut you up, he did it thoroughly. He eviscerated you, he left your entrails all over the floor." Gardiner was a voting member of all four policy committees. The committees would do the early work of working through proposals preparing them for council. Gardiner prided himself on his work ethic, the same style that he had used since his days at high school.:"I was not going to change my way of proceeding. It was more necessary than ever. My diagnosis was that if I was going to get anywhere I had to know more about any given subject than any individual councillor, and more about metropolitan business as than all the members of council combined." Gardiner would wait to speak on important resolutions after others had spoken. When a close vote was anticipated, Gardiner went around the council table and rebutted objections one by one. Gardiner was also known for controlling consideration of issues until the political time was right. The Bloor-Danforth subway was proposed by the city in 1956, but Gardiner stalled it until 1958 by starting three successive studies. When it reached the council, Gardiner gave it his full support, and he used tactics to build council support by the use of preliminary and tentative council commitments: "Once you get those bulldozers in the ground, it is pretty hard to get them out." One area of capital projects that was especially keen to Gardiner's interest was Metro's expressway program. Gardiner won executive approval for the drawing up of plans for the Lakeshore Expressway in July 1953. The route through the central section was controversial, especially around Fort York, which he proposed moving, but Gardiner was successful in convincing Council to approve the less-controversial east and west sections