Keesmaat pitches transit, housing in first campaign rally
Taking repeated swipes at incumbent John Tory, mayoral candidate Jennifer Keesmaat laid out a road map for the city she wants to build at the first rally of her Toronto mayoral campaign Thursday night.
The city’s former chief planner said she would construct new affordable housing, build new transit faster, tackle climate change, make streets safer for all road users and combat gun violence.
“I do confess, I was planning a slightly different summer,” said Keesmaat, who jumped into the race just before the deadline to sign up.
“It became clear, in recent weeks, that what we need and what you need, and what Toronto needs, is a big change at city hall,” she said. “Toronto needs a new mayor.” That Toronto is no longer a laughing stock on late-night talk shows around the world following the previous administration is to Tory’s credit, Keesmaat told the crowd of enthusiastic supporters.
“But I just don’t think that’s good enough anymore. And I don’t think the kind of government we’ve been getting under John Tory is good enough either,” she told a crowd, squeezed into a section of the Paintbox Bistro in the heart of the revitalized Regent Park.
Keesmaat, now running in one of the most uncertain elections in the city’s history, characterized Tory as a “timid follower” and as “dithering,” “low energy” and having a “lack of bold ideas.”
“John Tory is just not very good at his job,” she said.
“I know this because I worked with him.”
Keesmaat attributed her sudden decision to run to Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s move last month to cut the size of Toronto council without consulting the electorate and what she says was a lacklustre response to the move from Tory.
Almost a month into the campaign, she has made one major policy announcement: she’s set an ambitious target of building 100,000 affordable rental units within a decade, trumping the 40,000-unit target set by Tory.
She’s expected to roll out more proposals ahead of Labour Day when the municipal campaign kicks into high gear.
On Thursday, she hinted at future planks to her platform. In the midst of a summer of increased violence in the city, she spoke of the need for programs that create more opportunities for vulnerable youth. These include community benefit agreements, as part of every infrastructure project, to ensure local jobs are created.
She said she supports a ban on handguns in the city earlier pushed by council, and a “re- newed” partnership with police and “grassroots organizations.”
On transit, Keesmaat said solutions must acknowledge how people actually get around in the city and how “everyone in this city needs access to excellent transit.”
She criticized Tory for seeing no new transit plans started un- der his watch and said his “SmartTrack” plan was “developed on the back of a napkin.”
The plan was initiated during his term with Keesmaat’s support, but has been reduced from the original campaign promise of a 22-stop “surface rail subway” to just six new GO stations funded by the city. The speech saw Keesmaat sharing pointed personal details, as she referred to her husband Tom and children, Alexandra and Luis.
Her daughter, she said, is not sure if she can afford to live and work in Toronto as she heads off to her first year of university. And when Keesmaat heard about the Toronto woman who was hit and killed recently on her bicycle at Bloor and St. George Sts, she said she called her husband and told him to put their son’s bike away.
“I did that because I was scared,” she said of a city more “dangerous” than it was before. “And it’s by design, my friends; it’s a series of choices that got us here. And we can make different choices …. These things do not need to happen by default. But those changes require leadership.”
She pitched herself as a businesswoman, who for years worked in the private sector before becoming the city’s chief planner. She said she developed a deep concern for local issues, taking cues from planning activist Jane Jacobs.
Following the speech, a statement from Tory’s campaign accused Keesmaat of “empty talk.
“Ms. Keesmaat continued to make pronouncements and hollow promises tonight that demonstrate a lack of understanding of what Toronto really needs,” the statement continued, adding that Tory is “working to keep the city affordable” and that “need to know” Keesmaat’s plan on taxes.
“What we need and what you need, and what Toronto needs, is a big change at city hall.”
JENNIFER KEESMAAT MAYORAL CANDIDATE