John Tory signs on as Pan Am youth mentor

Mayor steps up to challenge after being prodded by young would-be protégé

As a teenager, Mayor John Tory started reaching out to former premier Bill Davis for career advice, something he still does to this day.

“Not everybody can have somebody of that stature,” Tory conceded, admitting he grew up “in a very fortunate set of circumstances.”

But a young person will have a chance to be mentored by someone with similar stature: Tory. The mayor surprised Pan Am Games organizers on Tuesday by offering himself as a mentor for their youth employment program.

“I hadn’t been asked to be in this program, but I will volunteer myself now,” Tory told the crowd of mentors and mentees gathered at the organizing committee headquarters for the program’s official launch.

The mayor said he was prodded to join by a mentee before the event.

“One of them looked at me and said, ‘Have you signed up yet? Are you a mentor?’ And sort of got mad at me that I hadn’t,” Tory said at a news conference following the launch.

He admitted he has a “really busy job,” but guaranteed to make time.

The organizing committee, along with some major Games sponsors, is setting up young people 18 to 29 years old with mentors and shortterm jobs as part of its SEEDS program.

Organizers are “delighted” to have Tory aboard as mentor No. 152, Toronto2015 spokesperson Dayo Kefentse said in an email.

There are only 10 spots left for young people hoping to get work through the program.

The city’s Partnership and Advance Youth Employment program and the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities helped recruit candidates for work in transportation, press operations and logistics.

Tory touted the benefits of mentorship, especially for newcomers and people without access to a large social network.

“These people are world leaders. We know that. They know that,” he said.

“They need a little bit of help finding that opportunity to prove what they can do.”