THE JESTER Anthony Perruzza

Ward 7 Humber River-Black Creek First elected 2006

“Let’s pretend this cookie is the councillor (office) budget,” said Anthony Perruzza in the final council meeting before Christmas, pulling out a chocolate cookie.

It was a classic exchange between him and his long-time council “frenemy,” Speaker Frances Nunziata. “The cookie isn’t getting any bigger … I don’t think she gets the cookie.”

Nunziata fired back that he needn’t vote for her motion, “and you can eat your cookie.”

There was laughter in the council chamber.

Sometimes there are groans. Lat- er that day, Coun. Paul Ainslie ac- cused Perruzza of making an obscene gesture at him. Perruzza de- nied doing so but apologized. In another session, Nunziata briefly ejected Perruzza from council be- cause he didn’t have his webcam on.

“On the floor of council, often the issues are complex,” Perruzza said in an interview. “I find that if you bring a real life language and per- spective to them, it makes them a little clearer.”

And if his flair for the dramatic sometimes goes too far, well, “it’s like hockey,” he said. “You’re kind of in a corner and your stick inad- vertently gets caught in someone else’s skates and they fall over and you get sent to the penalty box.”

When it comes to the issues he is most passionate about, like the af- fordability crisis, he’s not going to stand by and let people get hurt (one of the reasons he voted against a proposal to increase parking fines).

But it’s never personal, he said, and in fact in his view the current council gets along swimmingly.

“I, some of the others in the past … we were a group of people to be tolerated,” he said, a reference to the more my-way-or-the-highway style of Tory.

Now, “people are getting along far better than I’ve seen them get on in a long time,” he said, crediting Chow for reaching out and engag- ing with all councillors and the is- sues they care about.

What to watch The long-time councillor is on his fourth mayor. After defeating bombastic rival Giorgio Mammoliti when their wards merged in 2018, Perruzza has helped maintain some of council’s quirkiness, but can he keep the bal- ance on the side of civility?