King of Kensington
Senior Member
This wasn't even in the Throne Speech. Apparently Toronto Sun columnists are now governing Ontario.
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2018 Municipal Election: Toronto Council Races
- Thread starter animatronic
- Start date
Rufus8
Active Member
you can bet little mikey ford won't have to worry about a council seat
Filip
Senior Member
Excellent move. Council is too big and disfunctional. Too many little fiefdoms with personal pet projects that prevent the city from moving forward in a coherent way.
Add a strong mayor and Toronto might actually turn into something...
Add a strong mayor and Toronto might actually turn into something...
narduch
Senior Member
They will probably gerrymander the boundaries so that the downtown wards have less power .
Filip
Senior Member
I’m pretty sure the plan is to just align the wards to the federal/provincial ridings.
This isn’t America.
This isn’t America.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Doubtful - if the intent is to have 25 wards aligned with Federal/provincial boundaries. What is potentially interesting is that it may create a system that eases movement of local politicians upward along party lines and lockdown the flow even more.
AoD
narduch
Senior Member
Good point.
I guess I'm too cynical
I guess I'm too cynical
Admiral Beez
Superstar
We're cutting the clowns down by half, all good by my book.
narduch
Senior Member
I'm not really sure where I stand on the number of councilors.
I just hate the way its being handled. Today is the deadline to sign up to run. Now everything is up in the air.
They should have planned this for 2022.
pw20
Active Member
Politics should be good policy outcomes framed by good + data-driven process. This actually may be an optimal number of councilors (I don't know and I do think we should remain open to it being a correct decision); however, what seems to mar this significantly has been the process...
Filip
Senior Member
Councillors should not be involved in day to day constituent activities - that's why you have a bureaucracy.
Councillors should be a next-to-final escalation point in this process. Hence, 47 not required, 25 - better.
Councillors should be a next-to-final escalation point in this process. Hence, 47 not required, 25 - better.
rbt
Senior Member
I kinda agree, although I think the total council budget should stay the same (as in each councillor receives double the office/staff funding).
I'm not really a fan of the huge priority swings you get with a single person in charge of policy; at any level of government.
I'd actually prefer to go to a swiss style very weak mayor system where the role of mayor is closer to that of the City General Manager; major policy decisions are made by quarterly referendum.
steveintoronto
Superstar
Partial cross-post from Transit Election Promises string:
steveintoronto, Yesterday at 11:44 PM
#2016
[...]
This just up at the Globe:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/can...all-municipal-elections/?intcmp=notifications
The entire article must be read, there's details not appearing elsewhere in the media that I've found, but pay close attention to this:
https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/8d62-Attachment-1-TWBR-Final-Report-FINAL.pdf Pg 14
A Ford supporter would jump to concussions (worry not, it makes no difference to them) and say: "Aha! But Dear Distinguished Leader is just copying existing provincial and federal ridings."
It's not as simple as a Ford supporter:
[...]
In the Canadian context, the Supreme Court of Canada has employed the term “effective representation” to set the standard for creating municipal ward boundaries and provincial and federal riding boundaries. Effective representation has evolved to include several components, all of which need to be considered in designing a ward structure. These components are:
[...]
Ward History
The history of some wards extends to well before amalgamation and those wards have developed a strong identity. Ward design should, where possible, attempt to consider the history of the ward. For example, Victoria Park Avenue has historically been the western boundary of five of the Scarborough wards. However, ward history, in and of itself, cannot override other major criteria such as voter parity, strong natural/physical boundaries and communities of interest.
Capacity to Represent
Capacity to represent is often equated with Councillors' workload. It encompasses ward size, types and breadth of concerns, ongoing growth and development, complexity of issues, etc. For example, wards with high employment, major infrastructure facilities, tourism attractions, or special areas such as the Entertainment District, generate a host of issues a Councillor has to deal with, in addition to the concerns of local residents. The courts have noted that Councillors perform two functions. The first is legislative and refers to passing by-laws and considering city-wide issues. All Councillors have this role in common. The courts have referred to the second function as the “ombudsman role”, which is interpreted as a constituency role. It speaks to a Councillor's responsibility to represent the interests of a ward’s residents to the city government and its administrative structure. This latter function, the constituency role, is captured by the concept of the “capacity to represent”. This role can vary greatly depending on the issues prevalent in any given ward. There is no specific information or data set to quantify this criterion. Some data on development pressures can be gleaned from development pipeline reports and areas that play a special role in the city's economic life are known. Wards with these types of issues can remain in the lower reaches of the voter parity range. Homogeneous, stable wards can rise to the upper end of the voter parity range.
[...]
-: Report above pg 11, 12
Dougie Doo-Doo been stepped in, big time...
Last edited: Today at 12:40 AM
Edit to Add: I don't know who wrote the above report, but it appears at least one lawyer or legal scholar was involved, if not a law firm who produced this report on the City's behalf.
Edit: See http://drawthelines.ca/ > About > Consultant Team
Doug should consider that sometime...consulting a lawyer before shooting his mouth off.
steveintoronto, Yesterday at 11:44 PM
#2016
[...]
This just up at the Globe:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/can...all-municipal-elections/?intcmp=notifications
The entire article must be read, there's details not appearing elsewhere in the media that I've found, but pay close attention to this:
https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/8d62-Attachment-1-TWBR-Final-Report-FINAL.pdf Pg 14
A Ford supporter would jump to concussions (worry not, it makes no difference to them) and say: "Aha! But Dear Distinguished Leader is just copying existing provincial and federal ridings."
It's not as simple as a Ford supporter:
[...]
In the Canadian context, the Supreme Court of Canada has employed the term “effective representation” to set the standard for creating municipal ward boundaries and provincial and federal riding boundaries. Effective representation has evolved to include several components, all of which need to be considered in designing a ward structure. These components are:
[...]
Ward History
The history of some wards extends to well before amalgamation and those wards have developed a strong identity. Ward design should, where possible, attempt to consider the history of the ward. For example, Victoria Park Avenue has historically been the western boundary of five of the Scarborough wards. However, ward history, in and of itself, cannot override other major criteria such as voter parity, strong natural/physical boundaries and communities of interest.
Capacity to Represent
Capacity to represent is often equated with Councillors' workload. It encompasses ward size, types and breadth of concerns, ongoing growth and development, complexity of issues, etc. For example, wards with high employment, major infrastructure facilities, tourism attractions, or special areas such as the Entertainment District, generate a host of issues a Councillor has to deal with, in addition to the concerns of local residents. The courts have noted that Councillors perform two functions. The first is legislative and refers to passing by-laws and considering city-wide issues. All Councillors have this role in common. The courts have referred to the second function as the “ombudsman role”, which is interpreted as a constituency role. It speaks to a Councillor's responsibility to represent the interests of a ward’s residents to the city government and its administrative structure. This latter function, the constituency role, is captured by the concept of the “capacity to represent”. This role can vary greatly depending on the issues prevalent in any given ward. There is no specific information or data set to quantify this criterion. Some data on development pressures can be gleaned from development pipeline reports and areas that play a special role in the city's economic life are known. Wards with these types of issues can remain in the lower reaches of the voter parity range. Homogeneous, stable wards can rise to the upper end of the voter parity range.
[...]
-: Report above pg 11, 12
Dougie Doo-Doo been stepped in, big time...
Last edited: Today at 12:40 AM
Edit to Add: I don't know who wrote the above report, but it appears at least one lawyer or legal scholar was involved, if not a law firm who produced this report on the City's behalf.
Edit: See http://drawthelines.ca/ > About > Consultant Team
Doug should consider that sometime...consulting a lawyer before shooting his mouth off.
Last edited:
bilked
Senior Member
Strongly disagree that this doesn’t smack of gerrymandering. It appears to me as pretty blunt attempt to turn back the clock on the recent ward realignment (litigated up to Divisional Court by suburban councillors) which added more downtown representation proportionally.
Take an example. Under the new plan, Toronto would have 53% of the wards it used to. However, Scarborough (the wards east of Victoria Park) would have 60% the number of wards that they used to. The suburbs are being asked to give up less wards than the inner city.
Given the rather thin balance of power between the inner city and suburban voting blocs in many issues, this could certainly tip the scale. That’s obviously the intent. Ford wouldn’t think about doing this if it provided downtown with stronger representation.
christiesplits
Senior Member
This is going to make for some fascinating local races.
I expect some of the older councillors, who looked like they had a cake walk for a re-election, resign rather than compete in a tight race, and bank the pension and severance. I'm thinking Joe Mihevc (64 yo, who would run against Matlow) and Paula Fletcher (67 yo, who would run against ally Mary Fragedakis).
I expect KWT to run in Toronto Centre (possibly forcing friend Jennifer Hollett out), Joe Cressy running in Spadina-Fort York (possibly forcing friend Ausma Malik out) and Mike Layton running in University-Rosedale (possibly forcing Chris Moise out).
A lot of close friendships will be tested.
In good news, at least one of Norm Kelly and Jimmy K will be gone.
I expect some of the older councillors, who looked like they had a cake walk for a re-election, resign rather than compete in a tight race, and bank the pension and severance. I'm thinking Joe Mihevc (64 yo, who would run against Matlow) and Paula Fletcher (67 yo, who would run against ally Mary Fragedakis).
I expect KWT to run in Toronto Centre (possibly forcing friend Jennifer Hollett out), Joe Cressy running in Spadina-Fort York (possibly forcing friend Ausma Malik out) and Mike Layton running in University-Rosedale (possibly forcing Chris Moise out).
A lot of close friendships will be tested.
In good news, at least one of Norm Kelly and Jimmy K will be gone.
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