Mayor has slim majority on new-look council as incumbents fall
Mayor John Tory will have a slim majority on a new council — now broken into 25 wards — with a majority of conservative voices elected in mostly suburban wards.
He will be forced to carry out another four-year mandate — one with an agenda that was not clearly defined by this campaign — with a balance of power that hinges on less than a handful of votes.
Fourteen votes are now needed on the total 26-seat council to win a vote (all votes lose on a tie). Tory and right-leaning councillors appear to have enough votes in a bloc that includes several wild cards.
They includes Brad Bradford, the city hall bureaucrat who just sneaked past former New Democrat MP Matthew Kellway to win by just 288 votes. His victory came after a strong endorsement from Tory that may have made the difference in that race.
Bradford has said he doesn’t have any clear political stripes.
The election follows one of the most tumultuous campaigns in the city’s history as a result of the interference from Premier Doug Ford on the final day of nominations in July, when the province cut the size of council nearly in half.
In the end, the race wasn’t close for Josh Matlow, who, like 21other council hopefuls across the city, battled a fellow incumbent — in his case for the Toronto—St. Paul’s seat in the heart of the city. “We have a common foe and that is a dishonest populist who is the premier of Ontario, who disregarded our local democracy (and) was willing to ignore our charter rights to settle scores,” an elated Matlow told a crowd of supporters at a midtown gastro-pub after a heated race that saw Tory unsuccessfully back Matlow’s challenger Joe Mihevc late in the campaign.
“Neither Joe or I would have wanted to find ourselves in this situation,” Matlow said.
Now that Tory is headed back to the mayor’s chair after railing against left-wing, “radical” candidates and their ideas, his earlier promise to work closer with those representatives largely in downtown areas will be put to the test.
The election with fewer wards has left Tory with just half of the councillors he previously appointed to his 13-member executive committee. Those reelected include deputy mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong (Don Valley East) and Michael Thompson (Scarborough Centre).
“This was a nastier campaign than I had expected, but our campaign took the high road and I think at the end we had … quite a convincing victory,” Minnan-Wong said. He beat out former Liberal MPP David Caplan, who was backed by expremier Kathleen Wynne and what Minnan-Wong called the “Liberal machine.” Executive member James Pasternak won out over longtime progressive Maria Augimeri in York Centre, securing another safe vote for Tory on most issues.
“This was not the election that the people wanted,” Augimeri said, referring to the council cuts. “I’ve done this job as a sort of religion. For me it’s been a calling.”
On the progressive bench, veterans such as Gord Perks (Parkdale—High Park) and Kristyn Wong-Tam (Toronto Centre) were easily returned to their seats, as was Joe Cressy (Spadina—Fort York).
As in Toronto—St.Paul’s, two like-minded councillors went head to head in Toronto-Danforth, with Paula Fletcher besting Mary Fragedakis for the seat.
The election also spelled the end to Giorgio Mammoliti’s long city hall career, with Anthony Perruzza taking over in Humber River—Black Creek. Over, too, was Norm Kelly’s decades-long stint as a Scarborough councillor, as he was beat by rookie Jim Karygiannis, previously the MP for the Scarborough-Agincourt area. Neethan Shan, who had won a byelection in February 2017, was toppled by newcomer Jennifer McKelvie in Scarbor- ough—Rouge Park by a difference of just154 votes — the closest margin of any race. Christin Carmichael Greb, also a firstterm councillor and supporter of the mayor, lost in EglintonLawrence to former Liberal MPP Mike Colle — also a former city councillor, and the father of outgoing councillor Josh Colle.
Cynthia Lai will be another new face on council in Scarborough North. She was endorsed by Progressive Conservative MPP and former councillor Raymond Cho. She served on the Toronto Real Estate Board and the city’s committee of adjustment, but has yet to put her politics on display.
Though Ana Bailao (Davenport) is considered a progressive voice, she is a go-to member of Tory’s team, and her support for the initiatives of her downtown colleagues is uncertain after her re-election. Scarborough- Guildwoo d winner Paul Ainslie, who was named to Tory’s executive at the beginning of the last term, has differed with the mayor on several big issues, including the Scarborough subway and the rebuilding of the eastern Gardiner Expressway. The Scarborough subway will be back up for debate early in the new term.
There are few on council now who supported the premier’s last-minute election interference.
Yet they will all be forced to grapple with a significant restructuring of council and how it does business, including the community councils that deal with daily constituent issues like parking pads and tree removals.