Mayor John Tory's Toronto

[King of Kensington]

Mike Colle wrote the following on his FB page:

With the latest poll showing Doug Ford in a dead heat with John Tory it begs a couple of questions.
1.How is this possible given Tory's non stop hard work?
2.Did all the "Province bashing for Billions" hurt Tory?
3.Did Tory start his "Province bashing" because he saw this popularity crash coming?
4. Given Ford and Tory are both Conservatives would a strong Liberal-NDP supported candidate have a chance?
5. With Tory turning off many Liberals with his attack on the Provincial Liberals; has this helped Ford?

 

[jje1000]

Could also be an outlying poll.

We need at least one more poll to figure out if Tory's support has truly shifted- this poll is a bit confusing considering Tory's generally Conservative policies, the lack of truly damaging headlines, and the general invisibility of Doug Ford.

 

[steveintoronto]

Could also be an outlying poll.

We need at least one more poll to figure out if Tory's support has truly shifted- this poll is a bit confusing considering Tory's generally Conservative policies, the lack of truly damaging headlines, and the general invisibility of Doug Ford.

Indeed, one poll doesn't a trend make. Even poll trends have proven highly inaccurate in the last number of years, a lot of that down to the demographic having land-lines as opposed to cell phones. I admit, I find the even match as bit of a stretch, but if this poll is a result of land-line responses, characterized by lower income, older more conservative voters, then the "other" 30% is even more profound.

Even though I disagree with some of her statements (and in all fairness, she was under duress as Head Planner) Jennifer Keesmaat has 'all the right stuff'. Including looks, and I'm not being sexist saying that, as much as I do find her...ummm...yes, looks are *very* important for electability. And she comports herself very well for the City demographic.

Plus it's always interesting to hear and read her views, again, even if I'm not in agreement on some specifics. I fully realize she has to say some things due to her position. It will be interesting to hear her views unencumbered by that.

It's a matter of time until she declares, then we'll see how the polls skew. I know there's some other councillors looking to run, but none that could hold centre and still be as progressive as she is. By their nature, most cnclrs will split the vote, whereas Keesmaat would be free from being tainted by political posture.

In fact, I see Toronto losing her eventually to provincial or federal politics, she's a rightly ambitious woman.

Edit to Add: Here's Keesmaat shining:

And yet when Jennifer Keesmaat, Toronto’s irrepressibly idealistic chief planner, announced that it’s time to tear down the (Gardiner) eastern tail, the city was stunned. She was speaking onstage in May at a conference at U of T’s Isabel Bader Theatre with the former chief planner Paul Bedford, himself a loudmouth Gardiner abolitionist. Keesmaat wore a black blazer, grey slacks and vertiginous nude pumps. She looked crisp and strategically hip, her wheaty bob defiantly kicking up at the ends, like the swoosh of a check mark. After more than two years of carefully couching the Gardiner question, she finally came out and said it. “We have an opportunity to create a brand new streetscape in our city by taking down this antiquated, dark, crumbling infrastructure and reinvesting in the public realm,” she told Bedford and a room of feverishly tweeting urban planners. “It’s clear removing is in the best interest of the long-term vision, as articulated in our official plan,” she later told the Toronto Star. [...]

http://torontolife.com/city/toronto-chief-planner-jennifer-keesmaat/

We need more of Jennifer, a lot more...she has the ability to pull these kinds of issues from the Left and make them Centre. And from the Right and make them Centre. She has the vision this city has been missing for some time.

 

[christiesplits]

No way Keesmaat would win. She appeals to the Annex and Riverdale chattering classes, and students in urban planning seminars, but her recognition north of Eglinton is next to non-existent. I also think she hasn't done anything that would appeal to places like Scarborough and Etobicoke. Her twitter account clearly shows her downtown tunnel vision. She hardly tweets or speaks about any issue not within the old city limits.

 

[steveintoronto]

She hardly tweets or speaks about any issue not within the old city limits.

Please don't mistake your ignorance for understanding.

Be sure to vote for one of the other two, and vote often. And you might actually wish to read something about Keesmaat. Here's a good start:
http://www.nationalobserver.com/2017/04/21/news/chief-city-planner-jennifer-keesmaat-how-fix-toronto

Edit to Add: And here's Keesmaat at her best...so good that she's actually managed to change my thinking *somewhat* on the sanity or not of the SSE. She's able to sketch a detailed plan and vision that Tory would mime, and Ford would fumble, let alone spell wrong.

But you might be right 08, she probably talks above the heads of many who don't walk tall. All the facts, context and reference, and frank honesty. Why can't she just make it up like the others?

This is all about the Scarborough Subway. How "Old City Limits" is that? I wonder what Sue-Ann Levy would have you think about that?

 

[adma]

Interestingly, her husband knew Rob Ford from high school football days...which may explain why Keesmaat became a Ford-era hire.

 

[steveintoronto]

No way Keesmaat would win. She appeals to the Annex and Riverdale chattering classes, and students in urban planning seminars, but her recognition north of Eglinton is next to non-existent.

Odd you should make that claim 08, as the TorSun ran a survey, not bad numbers by survey parameters, 5,000 polled, and here's the "Hottie" of City Hall. Is this sexist? Very, albeit they also ran it for male too, but it makes a point as to how Keesmaat has recognition with the ape brigade as well as the cohort you state.

[...] Chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat tops the female division by a similar margin, 42.09%. “I don’t know what to say,” Keesmaat tells me. “I’ve been so deep in the transit debate, I haven’t had time to enjoy the honour.”
[...]
Hotties of City Hall (Women):

1. Jennifer Keesmaat, chief planner: 42.09%

2. Michelle Berardinetti, councillor: 26.2%

3. Karen Stintz, TTC chair: 16.11%

4. Mary Fragedakis, councillor: 6.43%

5. Janet Leiper, integrity commissioner: 5.14%

6. Ana Bailao, councillor: 2.49%

7. Maria Augimeri, councillor: 1.54%

Hotties of City Hall (Men):

1. Rob Ford, mayor: 43.25%

2. Mike Toolaram, mayoral bodyguard: 13.69%

3. Adam Vaughan, councillor: 13.5%

4. Josh Colle, councillor: 13.13%

5. Andy Byford, TTC CEO: 10.01%

6. Joe Pennachetti, city manager: 3.4%

7. Giorgio Mammoliti, councillor: 3.02%
[...]

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/07/17/mayor-rob-ford-top-male-hottie-at-toronto-city-hall-survey-says

Interestingly, her husband knew Rob Ford from high school football days...which may explain why Keesmaat became a Ford-era hire.

It's an interesting story, and one that might have a warning to it for clumsy male leaders who think they know it all: Be aware of who might eat your lunch.

Keesmaat was chosen by cmte, and Ford would have had only one vote on the matter when it went before all of the council. Here's how the Globe described it, and it's highly prophetic (not quite the way they intended though)

Toronto goes outside city hall in picking chief planner
Elizabeth Church
The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jul. 31, 2012 5:00AM EDT

[...]
“I think this is a bit of a bold move for us,” said Peter Milczyn, an Etobicoke councillor who chairs the city’s Planning and Growth committee.

“It is excellent news. I am very excited. Jennifer is going to bring a lot to the city,” said Mr. Milczyn, an architect who has known Ms. Keesmaat and her work for about a decade. “I think it is going to be an appointment that will surprise some people and please most of them.”

Ms. Keesmaat is a partner at Dialog, and a founder of the Office for Urbanism, a planning and design firm that describes its work as specializing in “the integration of planning, design and consensus building processes.”

An award-winning planner, she is a frequent public commentator on urban issues and is a columnist for the CBC Radio’s Toronto drive-home show. She has done work on master planning initiatives in Toronto, Vancouver, Mississauga, Vaughan, Regina, Saskatoon, Lethbridge, Moncton, London and Halifax.

The search for a new chief planner for Toronto officially started in November and gained widespread attention as speculation mounted that the vacancy was going unfilled because of the reputation of Mayor Rob Ford and the high-profile firing of TTC boss Gary Webster. Mr. Webster was let go earlier this year after he told council he favoured a light rail system over the mayor’s push for a Sheppard subway.

Mr. Milczyn, who is a member of the mayor’s executive committee, said the length of the search is a reflection of the importance of the job, rather than the political climate at the city.

“We took our time,” he said. “We wanted to find the right person – somebody that would be able to offer a bigger, broader vision beyond the mere running of the department and the planning functions of the city.”

He also said pay scales at the city make it a challenge to attract candidates from outside the public sector.

There are indications that Ms. Keesmaat may not always see eye-to-eye with the city’s car-loving mayor. A talk she gave this spring in Regina focused on the importance of children walking to school. Walking, she said during the address, “is an indicator of what we believe and what it is we value.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/new...hall-in-picking-chief-planner/article4450857/

That was July, 2013. Her recognition has increased geometrically since then.

 

[pman]

Keesmaat clearly has political ambitions. After first opposing the East Gardiner rebuild, she shut up when Tory very publicly told her to stand down. She followed up by delivering the lunatic one-stop SSE proposal to lock down support in Scarborough, as well as along the strategic Karygiannis-Pasternak axis. Not to be too hard on her - it's arguable that no planner with any professional integrity and honour could serve this Council. However, Keesmaat has demonstrated she doesn't have any scruples in that department. And if she's eye candy for the good folks who get their information from the Sun, that's just gravy on top of the steaming pile of crap that constitutes her record.

 

[jje1000]

I think Keesmaat would do well against Tory.

However, in a three-way race against Tory & Ford, any sort of political nuance will literally be sucked out for the "I support Ford" and the "Anyone but Ford" vote.

 

[christiesplits]

Apparently Keesmaat turned down an offer to run for the Liberals in Davenport last election.

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20150926/281771332997062

 

[steveintoronto]

Apparently Keesmaat turned down an offer to run for the Liberals in Davenport last election.

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20150926/281771332997062

[...]
Though Ms. Keesmaat has a husband who once ran for city council and spent time herself more than a decade ago working as an assistant to Councillor Joe Mihevc, the councillor said she has no political ambitions. A senior Liberal source said the party approached Ms. Keesmaat about six months ago about running for a federal nomination, but that she declined the offer.

“She has told me several times she has no interest in politics,” Mr. Mihevc said. “She loves being planner and feels that’s where her talents are best utilized.” [...]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/new...n-tory-and-the-chief-planner/article24949976/

[...]
Publicly, Tory handled Keesmaat’s statement with WASPy diplomacy. “I’ve set out my own position and she’s set out hers,” he commented. “She’s perfectly entitled to do that as the city’s chief planner.” Three days later, the pair plastered on smiles and shared pancake-flipping duties at a city hall breakfast. But Keesmaat kept picking at the scab, retweeting her supporters and reiterating her position on social media. “Creating a ‘grand boulevard’ and a pedestrian promenade unlocks 12 acres for redevelopment and costs half a billion less,” she tweeted. Eventually Tory had enough and pulled Keesmaat into a meeting where he basically told her to zip it. “The mayor has said it is perfectly appropriate for staff to make their opinions public, as Ms. Keesmaat has done,” wrote his communications chief, Amanda Galbraith, in a statement. “It is not appropriate for city staff to campaign against councillors or the mayor on social media or through other public platforms.” Keesmaat counters that she never campaigned. “I stated an opinion,” she says simply. Tory’s hybrid plan was victorious at council, but the Twitter contingent continued to rally behind Keesmaat—the week of the council vote, her fans even started a popular #ThankYouJen hashtag. “There’s a very good chance they’ll fire her for not toeing the party line,” one ex–city staffer told me. “But if they don’t, it will be a watershed moment that empowers city planning to speak openly about critical issues.” And, of course, they didn’t.

Before Jennifer Keesmaat was running the show, Toronto’s planning department tended to follow council’s lead. The office was understaffed and dispirited. City employees lacked the resources to undertake studies, which meant their approach was often ad hoc instead of prescient. Worse than that, they could be deferential and excessively nonpartisan, letting decisions about development and infrastructure fall to the whims of others. “City staff were rendered irrelevant by Lastman, professionalized into silence by Miller and scarred into silence by Ford,” says Adam Vaughan, the former Trinity-Spadina councillor and current Liberal MP. The result was sluggish transit and poor land use, pandering politicians and vulpine builders, glassy downtown growth and not enough infrastructure to support it. [...]

http://torontolife.com/city/toronto-chief-planner-jennifer-keesmaat/

It will be interesting to see what enticement manifests making Ms Keesmaat declare her running for mayor. To do what she hopes to, and what this city needs, she may have no choice. I wonder if they have write-in choices when voting for mayor in Ontario?

 

[jje1000]

Mayor Tory heading to Chicago
Toronto’s mayor will be a panelist at the Chicago Forum on Global Cities and meet with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Mayor John Tory lands Tuesday in Chicago to discuss proposed Trump administration cuts to Great Lakes funding, how cities can pay for new transit lines, and more.

Tory’s visit until Thursday will include panelist duties at the Chicago Forum on Global Cities plus a meeting with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

It marks globetrotting Tory’s first official trip as mayor to Chicago, which has close ties to Toronto. The late Rob Ford led a trade mission there and met with Emanuel, on one of his few foreign outings five years ago.

On Tuesday evening Tory is having a “dinner briefing” with David Jacobson, the Obama-era U.S. ambassador to Canada, who started as a Chicago corporate lawyer and is now vice-chair of BMO Financial Group.

On Wednesday Tory will meet Emanuel to “discuss what to do about the U.S. federal budget cuts that are threatening the Great Lakes,” according to a news release.

Budget proposals drafted by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump include slashing funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by 25 per cent. The potential cuts would see the $300-million budget for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative decimated by 97 per cent.

“Waterfront cities, like Chicago, Toronto and Montreal, that rely on the lakes for their thriving tourism, navigation, industry and drinking water are especially concerned about the cuts,” the release states.

Emanuel will also show Tory and his four-member entourage Millennium Park, the spectacularly successful 10-hectare redevelopment of Chicago’s waterfront that could be a model for the proposed 21-acre park over Toronto’s downtown rail corridor.

On Wednesday Tory will speak at a Global Cities roundtable about “financing transit in Toronto.”

Tory’s biography for the event states: “He has responded to Toronto’s transit crisis by getting on with the Scarborough subway and beginning work on the SmartTrack line: a surface subway that would provide all day, two-way service across the city and help relieve the congested Yonge subway.”

Both those transit projects, however, have been scaled back and neither have yet passed planning stages.

Tory will take part in another panel titled “Open Cities, Closed Borders: A Response to Globalization” about “the role of cities as national governments become parochial.”

Tory will also on Wednesday visit the Remix Project, the most successful initiative from a Toronto-Chicago “partner cities” agreement. It aims to “level the playing field for young people from disadvantaged, marginalized and under-served communities in the areas of art, music and graphic design.”

The mayor will cap the trip Thursday with a visit to the “innovation centre” of radio-telecommunications giant Motorola.

Accompanying Tory will be his chief of staff Chris Eby; Amara Nwogu, a Tory aide and policy adviser on entertainment industries; Toronto Region Board of Trade chief executive Jan De Silva; and Mark Cohon, chair of Toronto Global, a new agency tasked with attracting global investment to Toronto and the GTA. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs is paying Tory’s costs. The city is not paying costs for De Silva and Cohon.

Tory has, since taking office in 2014, led delegations to India and Sri Lanka; Austin, Texas; London; Paris; Los Angeles (twice) and San Francisco; China and Japan; and Israel and the West Bank.

https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2017/06/05/mayor-tory-heading-to-chicago.html

An amusing little quip on Tory:

Hey @JohnTory, I saw the little bio you're using at the Chicago Forum for Global Cities. I thought I'd amend it a bit for accuracy. #TOpoli

https://twitter.com/MikeBeauvais/status/872118515817484292

 

[steveintoronto]

https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2017/06/05/mayor-tory-heading-to-chicago.html

An amusing little quip on Tory:


https://twitter.com/MikeBeauvais/status/872118515817484292

Ouch!

It's not just business! It's the Provincial and Federal governments too. If he can't make a business case, and the taxpayer is a shareholder in the nation, then why should they be forced to blow a limited budget on something that has no proven case?

Tory, in his "no tax increase" mindset, if he's so concerned about right-of-centre leanings, should approach private investors with his great schemes, and see how far he gets.

Make no mistake, I favour forms of P3, but a business case must be there to get funding. And so it should be in almost every case of infrastructure spending, save for hospitals and other societal needs, but even there, good management of resources is necessary.

 

[salsa]

Tory’s biography for the event states: “He has responded to Toronto’s transit crisis by getting on with the Scarborough subway and beginning work on the SmartTrack line: a surface subway that would provide all day, two-way service across the city and help relieve the congested Yonge subway.”

This is how Tory is pitching himself at global cities forum in Chicago.

 

[pman]

There's not a lot to change in Tory's bio. If we delete "responded toToronto's transit crisis" and replace it with "fucked up Toronto's transit crisis even more" it's accurate. Though nit-pickers may want to insert "mythical" in front of SmartTrack. And maybe tack on "no matter what planning studies say" at the end. Then it'll be perfect.