Tory promises olive branch to left-wingers after next election
Mayor says he is prepared to bring ‘constructive’ downtown progressives into his inner circle
If re-elected by Torontonians next year, Mayor John Tory says he will be more open to listening to, and working with, left-leaning downtown city councillors.
Tory acknowledged in a year-end interview that, despite promising to end polarizing politics at city hall, he has surrounded himself in his first term primarily with right-leaning suburban-based allies, and some of his positions reflect that.
“I will answer your question uncharacteristically directly in saying if I’m given a second term, it is likely I would adopt a slightly different approach . . . ” Tory said last Tuesday in his office overlooking Nathan Phillips Square.
The mayor said he was counselled early that, to get his way, he had to build a coalition of like-minded votes and “you’d better watch out for those people” representing wards in the central core.
He froze them out of committee chair positions, and they have fought him on the east Gardiner Expressway, Scarborough transit, budget spending and more.
Tory said, perhaps because he’s grown more “confident” as mayor, and realized it doesn’t matter if some of his executive committee members sometimes vote against him, he would not hesitate next term to bring one or more “constructive” inner-city progressives into his inner circle.
“I think you can have the latitude, in the best interests of the city as a whole, to have all the parts of the city represented, and for that matter different points of view represented, as long as you know you can get your agenda accomplished,” by winning votes with a majority at council, Tory said.
If re-elected, he might not have a choice. There will be three new council seats in the October 2018 election, thanks to a ward boundaries review triggered by booming downtown population. That will diminish, to some extent, suburban councillors’ ability to easily outvote their downtown colleagues.
As for the state of the city on the eve of an election year, with a campaign that starts in May, Tory said Toronto is “in a great place” with a critical mass of talent, an envied reputation as a place people can move to and “be who they want to be,” and a sense the city is “beginning to address transit and housing issues that hadn’t been addressed for a long time,” with infusions of federal and provincial dollars he helped secure.
Critics say the former Rogers chief executive and broadcaster has run an austerity government pandering to suburban votes, apparently afraid to alienate right-leaning voters who could swing to avowed rematch challenger Doug Ford who is already in full attack mode.
They point to Tory’s refusal to support property tax hikes above the rate of inflation, at a time the city manager says Toronto’s city-building ambitions outstrip revenues, homeless shelters are crowded, and the gap grows between rich and poor — inequality that Tory said “gnaws” at him. But the mayor won’t waver on property taxes, making the argument that “a lot of older and younger people counting on us to be disciplined will be forced from their homes, or find it unaffordable to live in the city, if we start taking 5-percent-a-year” tax hikes.
He took a big political risk proposing tolls on the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway to help raise cash for transit and housing, only to have Premier Kathleen Wynne refuse permission this year. She softened the blow with more municipal gas revenues — up to $170 million a year for Toronto.
The mayor has no plans to propose another so-called “revenue tool” before the election, arguing it’s best to renew that debate next term given expected fresh faces on council thanks, in part, to councillors seeking provincial office.
Next year should see Toronto get some cash from legal marijuana revenues, as well as the costs, but Tory said he is “apprehensive” that private, illegal pot shops will try to compete with provincial LCBO-style cannabis stores.
“I hope that people are going to be respectful of the law.”
The Star noted that Tory reminisced in a 1976 school column about floating with a friend on Lake Simcoe at 3 a.m. with “a half pound on board.” When a boat with searchlight followed, he told “my accomplice not to ditch the stuff so he stuffed it down his pants and we made it to the dock without incident.”
The 62-year-old mayor sees no conflict between his teenaged toking days and his support now for prosecutions that see pot vendors fined or even jailed.
His boat mate, he said, “wasn’t even selling it to his friends, he was giving
“I think you can have the latitude, in the best interests of the city as a whole, to have all the parts of the city represented.” JOHN TORY
it to his friends. He was a kid that had too much money on his hands . . . I’m simply saying that as we legalize, which I support, we have to be careful so kids, especially younger kids, but even of the age I was, remain safe.”
If everyone was free to “choose the laws to thumb their nose at, the place would be in chaos.”
The mayor also vowed to stick by the one-stop Scarborough subway extension if the projected price tag tops council’s $3.56-billion envelope. Former TTC chief executive Andy Byford said favouring subway over a light-rail surface line should be revisited if the subway price keeps soaring.
“I’m on the side that says, based on the information in front of me, that I’m very committed to building it and I expect to remain that way because I expect we’re going to find ways to . . . actually reduce the cost,” Tory said. “At the moment I’m not budging one inch from saying that is the best project as part of the Scarborough network transit plan.”