Star’s view:
Toronto is right to fight,
Toronto has spoken.
This city’s duly elected representatives made a difficult but necessary decision to fight Premier Doug Ford’s dictatorial move to slash council in half. On Monday, they voted to take the province to court.
They may not win. The city’s solicitor has advised them that while there are legal avenues to pursue, there’s no easy or obvious path to success.
And, win or lose, council’s decision to fight lengthens the uncertainty around whether October’s election will be contested across 25 or 47 wards and risks adding to the chaos, the city’s clerk has warned.
But Ford’s Progressive Conservatives left Toronto councillors who care about this city and basic democratic principles with no choice but to fight this assault on municipal government.
For try as Ford might to paint this as an acceptable action to save money and ensure good governance, it is anything but that.
Toronto is home to nearly 3 million people, and its economic importance to Canada tops many provinces. It has never received the respect, powers or revenue tools it needs.
The City of Toronto Act was supposed to help change that. But we now know the act isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Not after Ford simultaneously held it up as the latest absurd cover for why he singled out Toronto — “which is still governed by its own act” — and essentially ripped it up by ignoring its requirement for consultation.
“It’s going to be an uphill battle, but we’re doing the right thing,” said Councillor Josh Matlow, who moved the successful motion to take the province to court.
Mayor John Tory and the majority of council — the vote was 25 to 17 — who supported the motion are standing up for the right of Toronto citizens to have effective representation and not have their election, months underway, upended by the province.
And then there were the shameful seven, led by councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, who tried to do Ford’s bidding by having the meeting adjourned before they could even debate the issue.
Toronto is the city that many Canadians love to hate, so the specific details of what the premier has done won’t matter to everyone. Some are even cheering him on.
But if a premier feels he’s free to act in this arbitrary and vindictive way there may be a lot more than just Toronto’s future at stake in court later this month.
As Matlow says, “we’re seeking to set a new precedent to ensure that local democracy will prevail when a premier acts like a tin-pot dictator.”
That’s something that other cities may find themselves in need of before long.
As Toronto council was in the midst of its emergency meeting Monday, Ford was speaking to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. He set out to reassure other municipalities that they were safe from a similar gutting of their councils but didn’t quite manage that.
“No we do not — I repeat — we do not have plans for similar legislation in our near future,” Ford said.
By all accounts, the Ontario PCs had no plans for Bill 5 until Ford sprung it on them in a cabinet meeting. So how much solace can it be to hear there are no plans “in our near future” to target others who fall on the wrong side of Ford’s attentions?
In a democratic system there is plenty of room to have a conversation about the most effective way to govern. And a debate on changing how Canada’s largest city operates and is funded is something that would have appealed to many of the people now leading the fight against Ford.
But he didn’t have the courage to have that conversation with Torontonians. Instead, Ford — and his cabinet who have gone along with this — have tried hiding behind a general provincial election slogan about reducing the size and cost of government.
And so it is clear that Ford’s main goal isn’t a better run city. He just wants to have it his way, the consequences be damned.
That’s something the people of Toronto are right to fight against.