WATCH: The circus that has been going on for so long at Toronto City Hall is finally packing up. Rob Ford’s run as mayor will come to an end and his brother won’t be replacing him. Toronto voters have elected longtime Conservative John Tory to run the city. Eric Sorensen reports.
The good news: You’re the new mayor of Toronto.
The bad news: You’re the new mayor of Toronto, a city that’s spent much of the past four years making its city hall an international punchline.
More trickily, you’re also mayor of a city that still has higher unemployment than the national average and, years after the recession, worrisome levels of under-employment; amid a condo boom you have a huge shortage of affordable housing and the public housing that makes you the country’s biggest landlord is in gross disrepair; police are under pressure to better address mental illness – within the force and without – even as they seek a new chief; significant sectors of your population still don’t see themselves in their political representatives.
READ MORE: Ontario now the worst place for educated immigrants looking for work
How divided does the city remain along pre-amalgamation lines?
Pretty divided:
Use the drop-down menu to explore riding-by-riding support for each of the three front-runners, or search your address in the box at the top.
When Tory takes the mayoral reins in December, he’ll have powers of conciliation on his side, said Wilfrid Laurier University politics professor Barry Kay – and a slate of councillors many of whom are either sympathetic to his priorities or have endorsed him outright.
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WATCH: We spoke to several Toronto residents Tuesday morning to get their thoughts on John Tory’s victory
That should make it easier when it comes to winning over 44 council colleagues – something that remained a challenge for Rob Ford who, while he successfully axed the vehicle registration tax and contracted out part of the city’s garbage pickup, also once voted against his own budget (and lost).
“Tory will be much more able to appeal to those moderates than Rob Ford ever was. … At least he’s a conciliatory person.”
But the issues United Way President Susan McIsaac saw stratifying the city years ago remain unaddressed.
“Gaps in neighbourhoods, youth unemployment … the quality of jobs – all of those issues existed four years ago, they still exist,” she said.
And some have worsened.
“I think if you spoke to some people across the city, they would say, ‘Yes, it’s worse.’ Because they are struggling more than ever before,” she said.
“And when you hear about families that are holding down many part-time jobs, piecing together employment, I think they would say, ‘Yes, it’s worse.’”
She’d like to see a new city council tackle Toronto’s paucity of affordable housing, its need for good jobs and the neighbourhood inequities that continue almost a decade after the city singled out “priority neighbourhoods” for targeted investment.
McIsaac cites initiatives such as the Regent Park revitalization and tower renewal as ones that have tackled, with some success, areas where poverty has become a blight, then a trap. (Better transportation to transit deserts would also be a huge help.)
READ MORE: Torontonians living far from transit, without a car
“There’s lots of will and resources that are available to us,” she said. “I think what we need is leadership at city hall that pulls it all together.”
McIsaac is a relentless optimist. But “am I getting impatient? You bet. I see lives in the balance,” she said.
“I think all of us feel at least some level of frustration, because we talk about these issues – we’ve been talking about some of them for years.”
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