Ford’s Toronto city hall gambit not the end of democracy

Critics of premier’s choice to cut council in half may want to reconsider

Critics of Doug Ford’s decision to slash the number of Toronto councillors are in a tizzy. They should take a deep breath and hold their fire.

The Ontario premier’s unexpected strike against his former colleagues at Toronto City Council may be illadvised. But it does not signal the end of democracy.

If Ford gets his way (and since his Progressive Conservatives hold a majority of seats in the legislature, he almost certainly will), Torontonians will be casting ballots for 25 councillors this fall rather than 47.

For now at least, that’s it. The Better Local Government Act would leave Toronto council’s existing powers and prerogatives intact. This may change if Ford follows through on his campaign pledge to take over the Toronto subway system. But so far, he has limited himself to cutting councillors.

Yet the outcry has been apocalyptic.

In the legislature, Ontario New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath called Ford’s move an attempt “to steal power away from the voters.”

At city hall, Toronto councillor Joe Cressy called it “an attack on our institution, our proud city and three million residents we serve.”

Doomsayers have predicted, on the skimpiest of evidence, that the bill will make it harder for women and non-whites to get elected to council and that replacing 47 wards with 25 larger ones will disadvantage the poor.

Torontonians are said to be in the fight of their lives.

But are they? Do Torontonians care that much about their ward boundaries? I’m not sure they do.

In the last municipal election, which featured a high-profile race between Ford, Olivia Chow and John Tory for the mayor’s job, voter turnout was a record 60 per cent. Usually, however, most Torontonians don’t even bother to vote municipally.

Ford’s plan would have Toronto’s municipal ward boundaries mirror those of the city’s 25 existing provincial ridings. The city, which currently has 44 wards, had been planning to increase that number to 47 — largely to take into account the growth of condos downtown.

Which is better? The Ford option has the virtue of simplicity. Provincial riding boundaries are altered automatically after every decennial census to ensure that the principle of equal representation is observed.

The city option, which was tailored to Toronto’s specific population growth patterns, is probably more precise. Unlike Ford’s surprise bombshell, it was also discussed extensively beforehand.

By 2026, the city plan would have one councillor for roughly every 61,000 residents. The Ford plan would see one councillor for every 112,000 residents this year, with that number rising in the years ahead.

If the provincial government were acting rationally, it could have held hearings to determine which of the two plans made more sense.

But Ford decided instead to bulldoze his plan through with little scrutiny, in order to have it in place for this fall’s municipal election.

The city wants to challenge Ford in court. It also wants a referendum.

Good luck with both of these. The courts have long upheld the principle that provincial governments may exercise complete control over their cities. And the Ontario government has a history of ignoring municipal referendum results it doesn’t like — most notably Torontonians’ overwhelming rejection of the 1998 amalgamation that created their current city.

What does Ford have up his sleeve? He says he wants to end dysfunction at Toronto City Hall. He must know that merely cutting councillors won’t do that.

Toronto’s problems, which date back to the 1980s, are much more deep-seated. They have to do with the rivalries between the old city and suburbs like Scarborough and Etobicoke — rivalries that express themselves in everything from bike lanes to subway construction.

With that in mind, Torontonians suspicious of Ford might do better to roll with this particular punch and prepare for the next one. Saving politicians’ jobs is not always a popular cause.

Ford’s next foray against Toronto may be easier to fight.