News   Mar 28, 2024
 107     0 
News   Mar 27, 2024
 1.5K     1 
News   Mar 27, 2024
 1.2K     2 

Political Landscape of Toronto (including Ward Boundary Review)

WislaHD

Superstar
Member Bio
Joined
Sep 21, 2013
Messages
10,036
Reaction score
9,614
Location
Midtown Toronto
I've created this thread to continue discussion that stemmed from another thread here.

This thread is to discuss the way the Toronto council and other municipal institutions are governed/operated, the wards, councilor issues not worth their own threads as well as general meta questions and discussions about the electoral processes or changing political/social/economic trends in Toronto and the GTA.
 
Last edited:
That sounds a lot like a two-tiered government system. I've floated it in the past, but what I'd like to see is Toronto de-amalgamated into Toronto, Scarborough, North York, and Etobicoke. Then, I would like to see all upper-tier governments in the 905 abolished (York Region, Peel Region, Halton Region, Durham Region), as well as Hamilton de-amalgamated, and everyone put under a single upper-tier government. This would allow municipal governments to deal with the smaller things, but would have things like Long Range growth Planning, Transportation Planning, road ownership and repair, transit operations, EMS, utilities, and other things under the control of the regional government.

Why the de-amalgamation of Hamilton?


Also I agree with dunkalunk that the time for de-amalgamation to pre-amalgamation Toronto has passed and North York, York and East York are too integrated into Toronto proper. Maybe Scarborough and Etobicoke though.
 
Why the de-amalgamation of Hamilton?

Hamilton is really a connection of semi-independent smaller cities that were forcefully amalgamated around the same time as Toronto (Ottawa was in that group as well, although there I'd like to see Carleton County formed out of the rural area of Ottawa). When you talk to people from "Hamilton", most people will say they're from Dundas, or Waterdown, or Ancaster, if they're not from Hamilton proper.

If Hamilton is going to be thrown under the GTHA government anyway, might as well return those areas to their former state of semi-autonomy.

Also I agree with dunkalunk that the time for de-amalgamation to pre-amalgamation Toronto has passed and North York, York and East York are too integrated into Toronto proper. Maybe Scarborough and Etobicoke though.

What I proposed was to keep York and East York as part of Toronto, but de-amalgamate Scarborough, North York, and Etobicoke. Those are the areas that still identify themselves as separate entities. York and East York have more in common with Toronto than they do with the other 3.
 
Overall, here are the municipalities that I would include in the new GTHA government:

New Metro Toronto Municipalities.jpg


Basically, the council would be set up in such a way that for every 75,000 residents a municipality has, they would get 1 seat on council. There would be 85 seats total.
 

Attachments

  • New Metro Toronto Municipalities.jpg
    New Metro Toronto Municipalities.jpg
    69.6 KB · Views: 3,084
Overall, here are the municipalities that I would include in the new GTHA government:

View attachment 19794

Basically, the council would be set up in such a way that for every 75,000 residents a municipality has, they would get 1 seat on council. There would be 85 seats total.
What happened to Dundas?
 
I've created this thread to continue discussion that stemmed from another thread here.

This thread is to discuss the way the Toronto council and other municipal institutions are governed/operated, the wards, councilor issues not worth their own threads as well as general meta questions and discussions about the electoral processes or changing political/social/economic trends in Toronto and the GTA.

- Keep Toronto's boundaries as they are.
- Change councilor representation to an at-large (no geographical representation) system.
- Create non-provincial/federally-aligned political parties (i.e. no 'Liberal', 'PC', 'NDP' municipal parties, have something else entirely like "Toronto First", "Coalition of Progressive Torontonians", etc. - I dunno, the names aren't important). Councilors and mayors belong to these parties.
- Run mayoral primaries.
- Two term limits for mayors. No more Hazel McCallions.
- Create a non-elected technical advisory board to serve under the City Manager. These would be a board of professional experts in various fields: transportation and planning, policing, public health, education, parks and recreation, etc. They would be appointed by the City Manager, Mayor and Council.
- The technical advisory board and City Manager get veto rights over council decisions. This is to prevent projects that are basically just political pet projects from going through without any technical merit.
 
I would like to see all upper-tier governments in the 905 abolished (York Region, Peel Region, Halton Region, Durham Region), as well as Hamilton de-amalgamated, and everyone put under a single upper-tier government. This would allow municipal governments to deal with the smaller things, but would have things like Long Range growth Planning, Transportation Planning, road ownership and repair, transit operations, EMS, utilities, and other things under the control of the regional government.

Why in the world would we want to have the TTC hitch its horses to any other wagons other than Toronto's ? It would be suicide. Having to look after the former boroughs is bad enough. Having one big diluted GH Transit commission would kill service in the 416.


What I proposed was to keep York and East York as part of Toronto, but de-amalgamate Scarborough, North York, and Etobicoke. Those are the areas that still identify themselves as separate entities.

Not sure what you guys are talking about. The only "de-amalgamated" Toronto was prior to 1953. Everything between 1953-1998 was already involved in an amalgamation process. Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke were never separate entities to begin with.

And keep in mind that the Upper Tier of Metro was a different animal than the Upper Tiers of the current 905 Regions.
 
We could just re-instate mayors for community councils and turn them (and community councils) into very powerful figures/institutions with more influence over the territory they represent. We then abolish the current position of the mayor, and voilá.

Let's just recognise within the system that different parts of the city have different and often conflicting interests. Perhaps that wouldn't work perfectly, but it would be better than the broken mess we have now.
 
This is a tough topic because it seems clear to me on the ground that the City of Toronto is too large and too small at the same time. I really think we are still seeing the system adapt to amalgamation. I think the rise of BIA's (business improvement areas), park and neighbourhood associations etc. is occuring as the society is trying to adapt to voids as the city essentially vacates responsibility for many aspects of the physical and organizational public realm.

I'm not even against the rise of independent and quasi-independent citizen and business groups filling in the voids left by the city. It is an expression of civic engagement. The trouble though is that this will amplify the geographic inequality of the city. It also raises certain issues like say with BIA's that a bunch of people, many or if not most of whom do not live in a neighbourhood, decide how that neighbourhood looks like and are unaccountable to the people of said neighbourhood.
 
Last edited:
Overall, here are the municipalities that I would include in the new GTHA government:

View attachment 19794

Basically, the council would be set up in such a way that for every 75,000 residents a municipality has, they would get 1 seat on council. There would be 85 seats total.

While I agree with the concept, I do wonder if the influence of the downtown core would dwindle even more in this setup than currently.

What do you see the new Greater Toronto government's authority being?
 
Everyone: With de-amalgamation can the six borough Metro government be brought back?
This may be a way to de-centralize Toronto's current government...

I like this proposed set up with four boroughs leaving out York and East York - or would it
be better for the original City of Toronto to regain its original boundary as a stand-alone City?

Is Hamilton better off going back also to its original boundaries?

At least in Ontario you can change government and boundaries which is next to impossible in
most if not all US states...

LI MIKE
 

Back
Top