No doubt you have been reading many of these opinion pieces on how to fix this or that at Toronto city hall. We already know that those nincompoops at Queen’s Park think cutting city council in half will solve the problems. Others are lending their low view of things by suggesting that Toronto mayor John Tory have more powers. We know that is a non-starter. Tory got a strong mandate but it was certainly not for his brilliance. He got to keep his job because he has proved he cares.
It used to be that the liberals and new democrats fought it out for downtown wards and conservatives and liberals fought over the suburban wards. Very occasionally Toronto would end up with a progressive mayor and enough progressive councillors that the city could get a few things done.
But all Doug Ford saw the one term he was there was a dysfunctional council that only agreed on getting rid of an alcohol and drug addicted mayor.
But in my various travels around the world I met with many local politicians. It is the same all over. When you have political parties headed by the mayoralty candidates who are committed to a specific platform, you can often get things done. If you have a bunch of individuals with no common agenda, you have chaos. It is that simple.
Look at Canada. In Montreal, we have parties headed by strong mayors. In Vancouver we have political parties and you never know what will happen. Toronto had an experiment with political parties 50 years ago. It is time to see if the city can ever get it right?
And there is no need for the parties to be the three behind most of the present councillors. Civic parties might do a better job if they are not tied to provincial parties. (This might seem odd to the people who remember I criticized David Crombie’s Civic Action Party. I really did not see it as being representative of the changing face of Toronto at that time. I lampooned it for being too much Lawrence Park and too little Parkdale.)
But you have to start now talking with current members of council. As they become more frustrated with the multiplicity of views and the inability of the council to come to a consensus, you will find they will become more amenable to a party solution. And if you get someone identified with a particular party first, get the next one from a different party. Your strength will be in your candidates’ ability to communicate with their voters.
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Copyright 2018 © Peter Lowry
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