Ford declares war on city
Doug Ford will have his revenge on Toronto. We did not vote for him for mayor, we did not — the majority of us — vote for him for premier, and so now he will mess us up. Because he can, and because many of his loudest supporters in other parts of the province like nothing more than to see us get the high hard one, and many more of his loudest supporters think the entire apparatus of government is useless and should be burned to the ground.
So he’s throwing a bomb. In a pure display of belligerent power, in the middle of an election campaign, just as nominations close, to throw the city government into chaos.
It’s a rash, autocratic gesture that shows contempt for local democracy, contempt for the local democratic process, contempt for us.
By design. And make no mistake about it, that’s what this is.
His surprise plan, revealed in the dead of night by my colleague Rob Benzie, to slash the number of wards from 47 to 25 instantly, before this fall’s election, isn’t a reasonable move to change the size of Toronto’s government, or the way governance here works. If it were, it would not be done in this way, on this timeline. This is war. There are many people who will think a smaller city council would be a good idea, more manageable, and so on. I’m skeptical.
I also think it is besides the point just now, but let’s discuss for one moment: If people find a councillor who represents 75,000 residents unresponsive, how is a councillor representing 150,000 going to do better?
Conservative commentator (and former Rob Ford chief of staff ) Mark Towhey tweeted Thursday night that London, England, has only 25 members for a population of more than eight million people.
But that city also has 32 elected borough councils, many with more than 50 or even 70 members, and each of those has its own mayor.
He also noted that Los Angeles has only 15 councillors and a mayor, but failed to mention the 97 neighbourhood councils that are part of its government structure. Chicago, about the size of Toronto, has 50 councillors, a mayor, and an elected clerk and treasurer — slightly larger than the body Toronto would have had after this election. New York City, between its city council, its community boards, and its borough presidents, has more than 3,000 politicians running it.
So, no, I don’t see a lot of examples of cities that run well — or at all — with less local government representation than we already had in Toronto.
Now, I think there’s a reasonable argument that restructuring Toronto government to have a smaller, streamlined council to make citywide decisions (as the old Metro did) and setting up neighbourhood or borough-style councils to deal with ward decisions and constituency concerns. But that’s not what’s being done here. And I even think there could be a credible argument to just cut the size of the council, period and reform how it works.
But if you wanted to do that, and you wanted it to work, you wouldn’t pull out what appears to be a crumpled up bar napkin full of illegible notes and pass it into law in a matter of weeks, changing the rules in the middle of an election campaign, without any electoral platform mandate to do it, without any discussion or debate.
Toronto was set to go from 44 councillors to 47 in order to make sure the wards represent roughly equal numbers of people. The process that produced that reform took years of discussion and study and consultation with residents, and the lines were redrawn multiple times and multiple options were considered.
As a result of that process, an election has been underway: potential candidates considered their wards and who was available, raised money, spent money, made decisions. Residents have been slowly learning the landscape of the election as the deadline for new nominations — Friday afternoon — came nearer.
The next two months or so were time to have a debate about who should run the city, and how.
Now, all of that is to be thrown in the trash.
The next two months are to be about figuring out what the hell is going on, and why.
That his surprise-attack overhaul would undo the main purpose of that recent reform, which would have addressed the underrepresentation of the residents in the city’s core, is likely part of the purpose.
A grand exploding firework of gerrymandering.
Ford has the power to do this, clearly. As I’ve pointed out before — in warning about Ford’s election and in warnings about dealing with Kathleen Wynne before him — the province can do what- ever it wants to the city.
The last time a conservative government was elected, Mike Harris forcibly amalgamated the six cities of Metropolitan Toronto. Queen’s Park could, if a premier with a majority government got the notion, abolish the entire municipal government and appoint a dancing dog as all-powerful czar of Toronto with a simple act of the legislature.
Ford can do this, barring some obscure unexpected legal decision based on procedural grounds. But he shouldn’t do this. And certainly not in this way. Toronto needs to fight it. Not because we have the technical firepower to win, but because our local government, our elections, our democracy, are worth fighting for.
The contours of the election have changed; it was shaping up as a bit of a snooze at the mayoral level and a likely entrance for many new faces at the councillor level. Now it’s set to pit incumbents against each other in a gladi- atorial cage match for the Premier’s viewing pleasure, and for the city it has become an existential fight over whether we get any say at all in our own democracy … that is, about whether we even have local democracy.
Doug Ford has been premier for a matter of weeks. If this is how he treats Toronto when something as fundamental as the election of our government is concerned, how is he going to treat the decisions of that government concerning anything else?
Whoever we elect, what faith can we put in their promises or plans when Premier Ford is up the road likely to pull a stunt like this whenever the mood strikes him? What is the purpose of having these fights and debates and processes if Ford will throw a bomb to destroy all our work on a whim? That’s the fight, right there. That’s what this election is suddenly about.
About us, and whether we get to run our own government at all.