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2018 Municipal Election: Toronto Council Races

How many non-incumbent winners will there be on council?


  • Total voters
    22
  • Poll closed .
I think Al Carbone is your guy.

There is a good chance I would vote for him if I lived in the riding even though he seems to just be grandstanding.

I am curious about Han Dong. He seems a bit more moderate than these two but he may be one of those useless backbench politicians that do literally nothing.

At the end of the day I think this argument is irrelevant because i believe they are moving to 25 wards and these candidates will be boxed out of a job.
 
Why would you vote for Al Carbone? What is his platform other than a pissed off downtown restauranteur?

What are any of these above-mentioned peoples' platforms?

All I got is gobbledygook: "urban progressive", "moderate", "centrist".

A whole load of information that was.
 
http://www.birchcliffnews.com/crawford-and-holland-on-changes-at-city-hall/

Ford's behaviour is really playing into the hands of incumbents. I'll be glad to see one, if not both of these bounced. Meanwhile, Arbour had already made up business cards and a logo before Ford dropped the bomb, and doesn't know if he'll bother running at this point. It's a shame because he's really involved in making the Bluffs area a better place and has always promoted small businesses on Kingston Road.

Crawford's comment about the subway is a joke. He, Holland, Rob Ford and others from 2010-2014 are the reason why there is no LRT. They all wanted the subway and absolutely nothing has happened on that front. The one thing I agree on is that council meetings are no place to discuss things like fence building and tree removal.
 
Any news on Doucette/Perks running against each other? Doucette won by a larger plurality last time. Also can't picture Perks doing a good job representing the community in South Swansea which is full of suburban style high rise/town homes along the Queensway/Lake Shore.
 
Any news on Doucette/Perks running against each other? Doucette won by a larger plurality last time. Also can't picture Perks doing a good job representing the community in South Swansea which is full of suburban style high rise/town homes along the Queensway/Lake Shore.
I think Perks is on the way out he a lot more polarizing than Doucette, even though in reality Doucette shares the same views. She is smart enough not to appear as partisan.
 
Remember, too, that when it comes to municipal politics, size of plurality can sometimes reflect calibre of opposition more than calibre of incumbent--and it just happened that Perks had a particularly aggressive opponent in '14, while Doucette's opposition was more like a flurry of midgets.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if one or the other opted to run federally in '19 instead.
 
Like I've been saying, I think this would be the idea outcome. 47 Councillors is too unwieldy without party politics- delegating local issues may be better for the city in the long run.

How the Tories’ move to shrink Toronto council could be turned on its head
The province’s move to slash Toronto’s local representation could be turned on its head by city council, which experts say has the power to change how it governs without Queen’s Park’s approval.

That means council could adopt a two-tier system like the one in Los Angeles, with 97 neighbourhood councils, or in New York City, with 59 community boards.
“It’s not the end of democracy,” said Gabriel Eidelman, a University of Toronto urban policy professor. “Nothing in Bill 5 limits city council from rethinking and redesigning its own internal decision-making processes. On the contrary, it may actually wake council up to take action.”
If Toronto wants some version of what the U.S. cities have, the key is using the four community councils it already has as a jumping-off point to “institutionally have more opportunities for the public to have their voices heard in an official manner,” said Alexandra Flynn, a University of Toronto urban governance professor and lawyer.

Currently, Toronto is divided into four areas each represented by a community council — Etobicoke York, North York, Scarborough, and Toronto and East York. Councillors sit on the community council that their ward is in, hold public hearings and make decisions and recommendations on local planning matters. Most decisions made at community council end up going to city council for final approval.

The system was created after Toronto’s amalgamation to give the six former municipalities control of local issues, said Michael Prue, the last mayor of East York who went on to become a councillor in the amalgamated city and is now running for council in Amherstburg, Ont. The original plan, and one that Toronto should now consider, was for community councils to eventually do “a great deal more,” he said.
Prue said Toronto should have between eight and 12 community councils to preserve “in your face” local politics and allow residents to have their say and continue to participate.

The role of community councils should be expanded, Flynn agreed. “There’s nothing stopping staff from looking creatively at how to do it.”

Council has the power to establish as many community councils, or other subcommittees or advisory boards, as it sees fit and to approve compensation for members, said Eidelman. Last year, the province under Liberal rule changed the City of Toronto Act to include a section on community councils that states they can be composed of councillors, individuals appointed by council or a combination.

“The new section clearly spells out that community councils can be structured differently than council committees, thus opening up the possibility that council could establish an entirely new mechanism to delegate authority,”
Eidelman said. “They could end up even more robust than New York’s community boards or L.A.’s neighbourhood council.”
Council also has the power to expand the role of community councils so they can make final decisions on more items, such as removing trees, granting liquor licences or adding bike lanes, said Eidelman. City council meetings often get bogged down by these hyperlocal agenda items instead of sticking to more pressing citywide issues.

Eidelman was part of a team that put this and other recommendations to improve governance to councillors last year. Only one of the 14 recommendations was adopted.

One limitation is that council does not have the authority to hold elections to fill the spots, rather than appoint representatives, the city clerk’s office said. It would need the province to make that change.
To get the ball rolling on more local representation, council needs to ask staff for a governance review, but “councillors will come kicking and screaming,” Flynn said. Those councillors who are engaged in their communities already might not see the need for more consultation and meetings and think, “Why bother?” Others may not want to dilute their power by delegating to community councils.

The drive for change will have to come from the mayor, and should be an election issue, Flynn said. “This needs attention because we’re talking about equality of participation and who gets a voice.”

https://www.thestar.com/news/toront...onto-council-could-be-turned-on-its-head.html
 
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Good. City council should not be debating "hyperlocal" issues like leaf pickup, not should they be meddling in each others' wards (like holding project hostage).
 
Good. City council should not be debating "hyperlocal" issues like leaf pickup, not should they be meddling in each others' wards (like holding project hostage).

That was the good thing about Metro Toronto. You had the six cities in charge of their own affairs but things like Emergency Services, TTC and intergovernmental affairs were dealt with by Metro Council.

Worked well until someone had a brilliant idea....
 

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