A primer on Toronto politics: The scandals, patterns, and personalities of municipal politics

By Ted Fraser

While you’re here, you'll be examining and debating international politics, but what about Toronto politics? What issues pit Torontonians against each other? Who controls the money and power here? And who are the key players?

David Rider, the Toronto Star’s city hall bureau chief, put it to The Emissary this way:

“Toronto city issues are a mix of policies and personalities. What services should the city fund in a booming city where the gap between rich and poor is growing? Where will the money come from? Those questions are decided by personalities - the mayor and 25 city councillors — each with their own politics.”

It’s possible you know the current mayor, John Tory, but it’s very likely you've heard of — or laid eyes on — one of our former mayors, Rob Ford.

Ford was mayor from 2010 to 2014. On May 16, 2013, word got out that Ford had been captured on video smoking what appeared to be crack cocaine. He initially didn’t respond to the accusations, but then admitted that he had smoked drugs in the past.

The charges weren’t actionable, and he didn’t step down, opting instead to run in the next mayoral election. He discontinued his candidacy after being diagnosed with cancer, and died in 2016 at the much-too-young age of 46.

Toronto politics has chilled out since Ford’s crack scandal, but there have been some controversies since then.

For instance, take when Doug Ford -Rob’s older brother —became premier of Ontario and decided to unilaterally cut Toronto city council by half (Mahoney). This type of policy had never been considered before, let alone implemented, and as a result, hell was raised.

Premier Ford made the decision in the middle of a municipal election back in 2018. His timing, as you could have guessed, was thus _ highly inconvenient for not only councillors, but prospective voters. Everyone had questions: who the hell can I vote for now? Will I be in the same district, or a different one? Who’s deciding how to carve out the new districts? And why do all this in the middle of the election race?

Trying its best to fight back, the city lawyered up and formally launched a challenge, but it was in vain - the challenge got shut down. An Ontario Court of Appeal ruled Ford’s cut did not, in fact, “interfere with candidates’ or voters’ ability to express themselves freely,” and that it was, indeed, constitutional (“Ford Government Cutting Council Size”).

As it stands, Toronto has 25 wards — down from 47 — and the city has formally appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn the decision. No one really knows if the Supreme Court will agree to hear Toronto’s case, but if they do (as some legal experts expect) the court’s verdict will set the precedent for an uncomfortable yet pressing debate (Rider and Kopun): should Canada’s growing cities be getting more power? Or should provinces, as per the Constitution Act, 1867, retain their power over municipalities?

The city continues to contest the province — and neither side will back down. Per The Globe and Mail, Mayor Tory continues to oppose the provincial government’s actions, calling them "unfair, unnecessary and unprecedented.”

But it’s not just mayors and premiers getting in on the action. City councillors occasionally drift into the spotlight, too.

Just last year, Jim Karygiannis, a federal-MP-turned-councillor, was kicked off of city council for spending violations, only to be reinstated a few weeks later (Pagliaro). It was dramatic, dumb and needlessly scandalous, but it’s worth explaining.

Essentially, Karygiannis was automatically bounced from office after a form he submitted to the city showed that he had overspent on parties and other “expressions of appreciation” by nearly $26,000 (Pagliaro).

But Karygiannis said he made a mistake. He wanted to put the $26,000 — which was spent on a big, post-election dinner for supporters at the chic Santorini Grill — in the fundraising category, which has no limits, but mistakenly put it in the “expressions of appreciation” category. The latter category has a maximum limit of around $6,000. A simple accounting error, he explained. It seemed believable enough and in the end, a judge ruled that Karygiannis acted in good faith, - with no malicious intent- and had simply messed up. Karygiannis now sits as councillor for Ward 22.

Finally, the bleakest part about Toronto politics: a lot of it revolves around guns and assaults, car-on-pedestrian collisions, related tragedies, and how to deal with it all. In 2019, for instance, there were around 292 people shot in Toronto alone, 56 more than in 2018. As a result, last year was registered as Toronto’s bloodiest year on record (Ignatenko). And due to the city’s speed and general business, collisions occur every day, a seemingly disproportionate number of them affecting Toronto’s elderly.

Looking ahead, these issues - municipal-provincial relations, misbehaving politicians, and crime — will continue to make up the bulk of ‘Toronto politics.” But there’s one more issue worth diving into Google’s sister company, Sidewalk Labs, and their proposed “smart city” near Toronto’s waterfront.

The sleek, high-tech ‘mini- city’ is slated to sit next to Lake Ontario and _ be outfitted with super cool snow-melting sidewalks, public sensors - to monitor traffic and related information — an anonymized trust containing all of the mini city’s data and other cool, futuristic gadgets. Of course, these proposals have — and will - trigger endless drama and debate due to the implications on privacy, the questions regarding government oversight, or lack thereof, and the costs of automation. But it will likely be the testing ground for similar ‘smart cities’ across the world — and it’s a mere 30- minute walk from your hotel for NAMUN.

As you can see, municipal politics is a mixed bag here in Toronto, one separated from the supreme drama and impact of global politics, but nonetheless important for the city’s residents.

References:

Mahoney, Jill. “Doug Ford Government Started Work on Cuts to Toronto City Council a Day after Election Win.” The Globe and Mail, 17 Oct. 2019, www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-doug-ford-government-started-work-on-cuts-to-toronto-city-council-a/.

The Canadian Press. “City of Toronto Takes Complaint over Ford Government Cutting Its Council Size to Supreme Court.” National Post, 16 Nov. 2019, nationalpost.com/news/toronto-asks-supreme-court-to-hear-case-over-ontario-cutting-its-council-size.

Rider, David, and Francine Kopun. “Ford Government's Cut to the Size of Toronto City Council Can Stand, Appeal Court Rules.” The Star, 19 Sept. 2019, www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2019/09/19/ford-governments-cut-to-the-size-of-toronto-city-council-can-stand-appeal-court-rules.html.

Pagliaro, Jennifer. “Judge Rules Jim Karygiannis Can Have Seat Back on Toronto City Council.” The Star, 25 Nov. 2019,www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2019/11/25/judge-rules-jim-karygiannis-can-have-seat-back-on-toronto-city-council.html.Ignatenko, Margaryta. “With 292 People Shot, 2019 Comes to a Close as Toronto's Bloodiest Year on Record for Overall Gun Violence.” The Star, 31 Dec. 2019, www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/12/31/with-291-people-shot-2019-is-closing-as-torontos-bloodiest-year-on-record-for-overall-gun-violence.html.