Ward and inequities grow
Councillors Jon Burnside, Jaye Robinson battle for votes
The Star identified several “Wards to Watch” in a 47-ward race. Now that new legislation has made it a 25-ward race, we have determined all of the wards are worth watching. This is one in a series of articles. The election is Oct. 22. Advance voting begins Oct. 10.
The gym in the Jenner Jean-Marie Community Centre in Thorncliffe Park bustles with moms huddled in groups, kids whipping around on scooters and bouncing up and down concrete steps. On this night, they’ve gathered with councillor candidates vying for votes.
Jon Burnside, the first-term councillor who currently represents the area, shakes hands with community activists who stop him as he passes. When he speaks later, he focuses on a successful push for a nearby Costco on Overlea Blvd. and the need to create spaces for youth recreation.
“I’ve been showing you how much I care as your councillor,” he tells the crowd over a PA system when a struc- tured question-and-answer period begins.
Sitting two seats over is Jaye Robinson, who has represented the northern area in what is now the new and much larger Ward 15 Don Valley West since 2010.
“Thank you for being welcoming ... I can’t wait to be your councillor,” she told the crowd, as she tried to pitch why she is better suited to represent their interests in a now-sprawling ward that is home to stark inequities.
The ward now covers the many apart-
ment towers and their tenants on Thorncliffe Park Dr., a lowincome area where residents pack buses boasting languages from around the world. It is also home to communities of mansions in places like the Bridle Path, neighbouring the members-only Rosedale Golf Club, which has a strict dress code requiring the tucking in of all shirts and banning of Birkenstocks. Other communities include Leaside, Lawrence Park and a small, but very densely populated northeast part of Yonge-Eglinton.
Both candidates identified traffic safety, congestion, crime and development pressures as major issues.
Burnside, a former Toronto police officer, has long pushed for photo radar, asking the province to study the possibility in 2015 after he says he spoke to then police chief Bill Blair about the lack of officers available to do increased enforcement blitzes.
“I’ve been on about this whole enforcement because it’s a key plank of any Vision Zero (plan),” he said of the road safety plan the city adopted this term. “That’s really playing well at the door.”
Robinson, too, as the chair of the city’s public works committee, who has been tasked with rolling out the road safety plan that has received criticism for the speed and effectiveness of its implementation, believes the city must remain focused on that issue in Don Valley West and beyond.
“It is unnerving walking on some of the sidewalks on some of these streets,” said the former senior bureaucrat in the city’s economic development division. “We have to be more aggressive in dealing with this.”
ASeptember news conference to discuss photo radar being installed as part of a pilot in school zones saw both Robinson and Burnside flanking Mayor John Tory, who put them both on his executive committee, Burnside more recently.
Robinson said many people she’s meeting on doorsteps are confused about the boundaries and who is running in this election. Some, she said, don’t realize two incumbent councillors are facing off against one another. “I would say what’s happened has been a distraction to both citywide and local issues,” she said.
The two traded barbs at the Thorncliffe meet-and-greet, trying to distinguish themselves from one another. Burnside said he’d advocated for a local Costco to open when Robinson voted against the required city approvals in 2015. Robinson charged that the local job opportunities promised had not materialized.
Local business owner Tanweer Khan, who is also running for the seat and took part in the Thorncliffe Park discussion, said he’s disappointed in the lack of improvements he’s seen in the area and is concerned about community safety.
Nikola Streker, who ran in the northern part of the new ward in 2014, said the desire to keep a more “suburban feel” remains a local concern. “Residents should, I believe, have as much input as possible in how their ward is developed,” he said.
Minh Le, who emigrated to Canada from Vietnam and is a longtime Leaside resident, is also running in the ward. “I want to run for city councillor because I love my community and I want to contribute my part to the country I have chosen to make my forever home,” she said, noting residents need accessible housing, healthier communities, and better access to transit.
Don Valley West candidates: Jon Burnside (councillor), Tanweer Khan, Minh Le, Jaye Robinson (councillor) and Nikola Streker.