Paul Ainslie resigns from mayor’s executive committee days after subway vote

TORONTO – Councillor Paul Ainslie has resigned his seat on Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee, citing the mayor’s alleged lack of “strategic planning.”

Ainslie added that he will be supporting someone else in the next mayoral election.

“I was very happy to be on his executive,” Ainslie said. “I started butting heads a lot with the mayor over fiscal priorities and where he wanted to take the city in terms of his fiscal strategies.”

His resignation comes just days after he voted against the mayor’s motion to extend the Bloor-Danforth subway line into Scarborough, opting instead to support light-rail transit. Ainslie said Friday that he couldn’t justify discarding a fully-funded LRT in favour of a partially funded subway.

“I think it’s irresponsible of me to go to taxpayers and say ‘here’s a basically free LRT being given to you’ or ‘you can spend a billion plus dollars on a subway that’s going to take 10 or 20 years to build,’” he said. “I don’t think there’s enough planning from the mayor’s office on how to ease gridlock in this city, or public transportation, or just getting people to work.”

But the mayor told CP24 Friday afternoon that he’s glad Ainslie resigned, saying he was going to remove him from the committee at the end of the day anyway.

Ainslie also complained that he felt “bullied” over the past year by the mayor and his staff if he chose to vote in opposition to the mayor.

“Over the past year? I felt bullied on a number of occasions. Even when I made it known I was voting for an LRT based on financial considerations, I pretty much felt bullied by the mayor’s staff,” he said.  “Anytime the mayor’s got an issue with somebody, it turns into a ‘we’re going to send somebody out to run against you in the next election.’“

After Ainslie announced he would be reversing his July vote in favour of a subway and voting in favour of an LRT on Tuesday, both the mayor and his brother Councillor Doug Ford said during the next election they would be telling residents in his ward he voted against a subway.

“If he wants to try and have a run at me, then you know, go ahead. I hope he gives it his best shot,” Ainslie said.