Ward 16, are you ready to rumble?
Two sitting city councillors Ana Bailao and Cesar Palacio face off in new ward
The Star has identified about a dozen “Wards to Watch” out of 47 ahead of the municipal election on Oct. 22 — areas where open seats guarantee new faces on council or where other interesting races will play out. This is the first in a series introducing you to those neighbourhoods and the people vying to represent them. A member of the new Ward 16 commu- nity recently described heading into this election season as “being in the starting blocks of a 100-metre race.”
Matt Park, president of the Davenport Village Community Association, relaying the anecdote, said he thinks it’s apt.
“We’re ready to go,” he said of the issues at stake and the work to be done in their part of the city. “Let’s go.” What it will take to represent a community that sits comfortably northwest of the busy downtown core — known for perfectly flakey pastéis de nata (custard tarts), rowdy Brazilian sports bars and, recently, as home to an increasing number of young families — is the energy to keep up and a vision to move forward together, Park and his neighbours across the newly-redrawn ward told the Star this week.
Vying to cross the finish line first on Oct. 22 are two sitting city councillors: Ana Bailao and Cesar Palacio.
So far, only one other person, fringe candidate Troy Young, has signed up for the race, making it a likely incumbent showdown rarely seen at any political level.
While Bailao promises to be a progressive advocate for the diverse and quickly-growing area, Palacio vows he will push for “centrist” policies and low taxes. An analysis of previous election results and the newly-configured boundaries suggests it will be a hard-fought faceoff.
Bailao immigrated to Canada from Portugal when she was 15 years old and she attended high school in the ward.
A second-term councillor, she was appointed Mayor John Tory’s affordable housing advocate.
“It was all about that sense of opportunity, and for me still is,” she said of being pulled into politics.
“How do I build a city that is able to provide opportunity to people? And that’s why I’m so passionate about things like housing, because I think those are the foundations for a good city.”
Changes coming to the neighbourhood by way of development now stretching into the northern part of the ward, the need for new transit and connections such as the West Toronto Railpath, and creating more connected park space, referred to as a “Green Line,” in the Dupont hydro corridor are of top concern, she said.
Palacio, born in Ecuador, has worked at city hall, first as a political staffer, for more than three decades. He was first elected in 2003.
His latest community newsletter boasts that “more than 30,000 residents” have his personal cellphone number and email address.
He says he would continue to focus on keeping property taxes and fees for city programs low while increasing services such as daycare and available green space. Palacio, like Bailao, is a member of Tory’s executive committee, also placing him in the mayor’s inner circle.
“I have a very strong track record at city hall and within the community,” Palacio said.
The community, he says, supports a “stable, centrist municipal government policy that’s fiscally and socially responsible. “And that’s what I stand for.” Both councillors won their seats in 2014 with just under 50 per cent of the vote with small margins between them and the second-place finishers.
The areas in their wards where they polled the best are part of the new Ward 16. They also both leave behind areas where they were vulnerable to challengers.
Palacio has an advantage in terms of ward makeup because more than half of it is part of his current ward. But it’s expected Ward 15 (Eglinton-Lawrence) Councillor Josh Colle will help Bailao at the door in the residential area near Eglinton Ave. W. and Dufferin St. that is now part of Ward 16.
It’s also believed Tory, who named Bailao as one of three ceremonial deputy mayors in October, will publicly back her during the campaign.
As a progressive, Bailao could have an edge. In the recent provincial election, the Davenport riding, which contains almost all of the new Ward 16 area, saw NDP MPP Marit Stiles overwhelmingly elected with over 60 per cent of the vote.
But much of the area backed Rob Ford for mayor in 2010 and Doug Ford, now premier, for mayor in 2014.
Palacio was also closely aligned with Rob Ford under his previous administration. Nearly half of the population in Ward 16 identify as immigrants in the largely blue collar area, many first-generation Canadians from Portugal, Brazil and Italy, who have long had roots in the area and raised their families there, according to the 2016 census data from Statistics Canada.
More people rely on public transit — 45 per cent — than cars or any other mode of transportation to get to work.
There are many issues that deserve immediate attention, resident and business leaders say.
That includes extending the West Toronto Railpath north to St. Clair Ave., with more and more residents making that request, said the Friends of West Toronto Railpath’s Scott Dobson.
“(Bailao) has been a very strong supporter of getting up to St. Clair,” he said, adding he’s not sure where Palacio currently stands.
Bailao, he said, pushed for a southern extension. “It’s made a really big difference in terms of getting stuff done.”
Though the future of Metrolinx’s planned GO rail expansion remains unclear under Premier Doug Ford’s provincial leadership, those who live nearby say a strong councillor is needed to support their vision for incorporating new infrastructure within the neigh- bourhood.
“We hope that person will be hard-working,” said Erin Pleet, vice-chair of the Options for Davenport group that originally formed to oppose the plans for a 1.5-kilometre overpass on the Barrie line and are now working to make the best of what they call the “Gardiner for GO trains” through their area.
“We hope that person will see that advocacy as something they will encourage.”
Kathy Mileski, a member of the South Corso Italia Residents Association representing the area of single-family homes in the block bounded by St. Clair Ave. W., Dufferin St., Davenport Rd. and Lansdowne Ave., said that over the past decade the community has struggled with issues such as accessing more green space, including a fight about the green field at Loretto College School on Rosemount Ave.
“A lot of it has been, even the last 10 years, kind of a lot of political rhetoric and empty promises by our city councillor. It’s been frustrating to say the least,” she said.
Enzo Torrone, who chairs the Fairbank Village BIA and runs a mortgage business in the ward where his father’s furniture store is, said construction for the Eglinton Crosstown lightrail line has been tough for shops like theirs.
“Anytime that we need his help on anything he’s always there for us,” Torrone said of Palacio.
“It’s usually less than two phone calls away.”
Longtime resident Margaret Smith, who raised her kids opposite Oakwood Collegiate Institute and now volunteers with several organizations, said it hurts to have two good councillors in a knockout election.
She likes Bailao, but on voting day she’ll be loyal to Palacio, she said, who she respects for hearing out the community opposition to the St. Clair streetcar right-of-way.